What is the best drone for hiking and backpacking? The DJI Mini series of drones, and specifically the DJI Mini 3 Pro, are the best drones for hiking and backpacking. Below I’ll share some of the reasons the Mini 3 Pro is a solid choice for getting that wildlife and natural landscape footage we all crave, when showing off our hiking and backpacking adventures on YouTube or with friends.
DJI Mini 3 Pro Drone
- compact and light enough to carry in a backpack
- light enough that it doesn’t require registration with the US government
- GPS stabilized for professional video footage
- 3-way gimbal for high quality footage
- high resolution footage needed for modern TV’s and computers monitors
- Lower priced RC that uses your phone uses the standard 5G Wifi protocol
- Higher priced RC does not need a phone and has onboard screen
- Can do professional cinematic maneuvers like ‘follow me’ or ‘circle me’
- obstacle avoidance and wind stabilization for professional footage and safety in the wild
- flies quiet to avoid disturbing wildlife and other hikers
- long battery life and flight times
- can cover long distances away from the RC
What makes a drone good for hiking?
Here are 13 characteristics that I think makes a drone best for hiking, and grabbing wilderness footage.
The drone is compact and light enough to carry in a hiking or backpacking pack
Either day hiking with my Gregory Zulu 30, holding 10 pounds of water, food, layers, and emergency gear, or backpacking with my Gregory Paragon 58, holding 25 pounds worth of camping equipment and such, I don’t want to add another 3 pounds of weight, or lug around what amounts to a small suitcase with a large drone, batteries, and remote control in it.
I need something under a pound, that folds up compactly enough, that it fits in a zip-lock bag, in the lid pockets of my packs, or at least near the top of their main compartments. Yes, it has to fit into my way of doing things, instead of me having to buy a dedicated backpack, to conform to it.
Up until recently, when utilizing lower weight drones, you would have to deal with the wind sometimes confounding your video footage. And a drone small enough to fit in a pack lid was likely not going to have any obstacle avoidance systems. But the latest DJI Mini series drones are able to handle the wind and do have obstacle avoidance.
Just be careful if you buy an older DJI Mini or Maverick drone, as those don’t have obstacle avoidance, other than safety features, like setting a high altitude return flight to avoid hitting tree canopies or mountains.
The drone should also be light and small enough that it doesn’t require any US government registration
The cutoff for the US government seems to be 249g, regarding mandatory registration of your drone.
Further, it does look like you have to take a free, online pilot test, called the TRUST test, regardless of how small your drone is. Without this certification, the FAA could issue you a fine in the future.
The drone has to be a GPS drone
GPS drones offer a level of stability to your video footage, that your not going to find with toy drones. If you’re new to drones, a GPS drone uses satellite signals to keep it stable in the air. Meaning it can hover in one tight spot, when your hands are off the remote control.
A toy drone, on the other hand relies on you to constantly make quick adjustments on the remote control, based on whatever the drone is doing in the air at the moment, in terms of forward momentum, to keep it stable.
Further, a GPS drone, if there are communication problems with it, or it finds itself running low on battery, will just return to the spot on the ground from which it originally took off. Or at any point in its flight, you can press the return button, and have it just come back to that spot.
Any type of non-GPS stabilization, as an adjunct to the GPS system, is welcome as well, when it comes to certain trails with canopy or deep rocky ravines.
The hiking drone has to have a 3-way gimbal
If you’re interested in having stable video footage, that’s smooth enough to keep folks on Youtube entertained, your drone is going to have to have a 3-way gimbal. This is especially true, since your going to need a lightweight drone that can more easily be affected by the wind.
If you’re not familiar with a gimbal, it’s just a device a video camera can attach to, that keeps the footage from being shaky, when the camera/gimbal assembly is moved around.
The drone’s software should also have a ‘slow’ or cinematic mode
This slow mode would slow the drone’s aerial motion down even more, to get some great cinematic shots.
The drone should have 2.7k video resolution or better
I do see some relatively inexpensive options out there, that allow for up to 2.7k video resolution.
I tend to use my iPhone SE in HD mode, but do have the 4k option there too, if I want to deal with getting less footage per outing. But I might start doing my videos at higher resolution, the larger my Youtube audience gets.
To give me that leeway, I’d rather have a drone with that latest video technology. Trying to capture video 300 feet off the ground too likely necessitates the higher resolution.
The hiking drone should have the 5G Wifi protocol
My phone happens to use the Wifi 802.11ac protocol, otherwise known as the 5G Wifi protocol. So with a 5G drone, I can use the drone’s iPhone app, to see what’s happening in real time on the phone screen as I fly it.
I do see at the higher price points, the remote controls have their own screens, so you don’t have to worry about your phone.
Drone app should feature some professional cinematic maneuvers
The app also would let me do all the neat, ‘follow me’, and ‘circle me’ type features modern drones can do.
Obstacle avoidance and stability in the wind
I know these functions are mostly at the higher price points for small drones. But when your on the trail, a drone for hiking should be able to avoid trees, large rock outcrops, and not get blown into rivers, streams, or lakes.
But at the very least, a lower price point drone should have some safety features, like being able to set the return to home altitude higher than the highest landmarks in the area.
Quiet flying
A good hiking drone would also be relatively quiet, so as not to disturb other hikers and campers in the area. This might be especially important when pulling off some quick, risky shots in questionable areas.
This means brushless motors are a must.
Related: Check out my article on how to avoid disturbing wildlife when capturing drone footage in the backcountry. You’d be surprised how a drone can disrupt animal behaviors related to foraging for food, mating, raising offspring, etc.
On board SD card
The drone should have its own SD card so I don’t have to worry about interrupted footage, or memory issues, from my phone.
Long battery life and long flight times
When it comes to backpacking, it would be nice to grab at least 20 minutes of footage per day. I rarely do any more than three days of backpacking in a row, so three batteries that give at least 20 minutes of flight each would be optimal.
Drone can cover large distances away from the trail
The drone should be able to capture wilderness that I’d never be able to hike to, in a day’s time. It should be able to reach areas, unreachable by the human foot. Such would provide original content for my hiking videos, that is hard to replicate.
So which is the best drone for hiking and backpacking?
Right now, I’m leaning pretty heavy on the DJI Mini series of drones for hiking and backpacking.
The DJI Mini 3 Pro looks like it satisfies everything on my wish list. I’m aiming for a summer 2023 purchase of that one. DJI’s competitor, EXOS, doesn’t provide as smooth of footage as it does, according to this cinematographer’s experience.
Affiliate link: Check out the DJI Mini 3 Pro’s latest price on Amazon. There’s some price variation there, depending on which remote control and package you pick. The remotes where you don’t have to use your phone look intriguing to me, because I could use my phone to film myself, flying the drone.
The cheaper DJI Minis would fit the bill as well, other than they are more susceptible to the wind, and have less, or no obstacle avoidance. But I’ll get into that in a separate article.
Further Reading
Thanks for checking out my article on the best drone for hiking and backpacking.
I recently did a little research on how far a retail, DJI type drone, and a few commercial drones, can fly away from their remote controls. If you want to see my conclusions on that, take a look here.
Otherwise check out my landscape & wildlife videography & photography page for more drone articles.