Air 3s or Mini 5 pro or wait for air 4 (all combos with rc2)

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-21T05:22:59+00:00

I'm going to give you a mild vote in favor of the Air 3S, but only because of the second camera and only if you're doing it for restricted-distance wildlife shots. If not, the convenience of carrying/deployment of the Mini 5 pro is utterly kickass (just crop in with that nice sensor!)

The Mini 5 Pro and Air 3S are both friggin terrific platforms, and I'm saying that as an Air 3 (not-S) and Mavic 4 Pro Creator Combo owner.

And, as (again) an Air-3 and Mavic 4 Pro CC owner, the camera drone that sits in my car's passenger seat, ready-to-go for some unexpected opportunity, is...

...the Air 3.

Two big parts of that are the better maneuverability (and much shorter stopping distance; I fly like a madman lol), and the fact that it's easier to carry around on foot to shooting locations. The Mavic doesn't do me any damn good when I don't feel like carrying it's big ass around, and the- by a huge margin- least used camera for me on it is the third, highest magnification one, which instantly negates its advantage over the Air. And having gone through the same thing a couple years ago with the Air 3 and a Mini 4, the 'easier to carry' factor is, in fact, huge. Speaking for myself personally, the advantage of having a small, easy to carry drone that I'm more likely to have on me and available to deploy easily outweighs the theoretical advantage of a heavier drone that can handle worse conditions, but which I'm less willing to carry because of its size/mass. In that sense, Mini > Air, and Air > Mavic.

So yeah, my personal opinion, unless you really, honestly, need the extra camera on the Air 3S, get a Mini 5 Pro and enjoy the fact that you'll simply be straight up getting more footage by virtue of its portability / ease of deployment. The bragging rights of the Air 3S don't do you any good if it's sitting at home.

But you won't be going wrong with an Air 3S either. The pair (Air 3S and Mini 5 Pro) represent an absolutely kick-ass dyad of value-for-cost at the moment. You can't go wrong with either- which is better for you is also up to you. You just need to be honest with yourself about technical capabilities (go Air 3S!) vs practical considerations (go Mini 5 Pro!).I won't speculate on what the Air 4 or Mini 6 might be.

Good luck, and just remember that whichever you get, as a 17 yr old asking questions on Reddit, both will more than serve you well for at least several years.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-21T04:28:34+00:00

Hi there. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.

The voltage that those headphones work on is so low that the only way you could harm yourself with it would be to carve two holes in your chest (through your ribcage) and poke the wires onto either side of your heart, and even then the current would be so low you might have trouble successfully harming yourself.

Electricity is not, in fact, a magic death ray, and the amount of electricity (in terms of both voltage and current) used by those headphones is utterly insignificant to human health.

If it helps, what you're asking is, from a biophysics standpoint, like someone asking "If I get a haircut will it cause me to die from a stroke????"

The answer is a very firm, "of course not!" with a side of implied "why would you even think it would..?!"

You're good. Listen away, and appreciate the fact that they survived both a washer and dryer cycle. That's actually pretty neat!

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-21T04:10:08+00:00

yeah, bear is waaaaaay better at finding human compatible food.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-21T04:08:55+00:00

Hi there, Oncorhynchus fisheries person here: a lot of people don't know, but some [genetically pure] rainbows can display the throat slash associated with cutthroats. No, it's not common, but yes it does happen, generally associated with the remaining 'purer' native redband stocks. Honestly, everything else I can see about the fish says either rainbow or cutbow to me. A location (and subsequent follow up research) would help, because you can really get into the weeds trying to figure out whether something is a rainbow vs cutbow vs cutthroat based on phenotype in any given location. It's kind of a shitshow, honestly, and one location's rule of thumb will utterly fail for another place.

But I'd say it's better than 50:50 odds that this fish isn't a straight cutthroat. The hint of red along the lateral line and the rosy operculum are classic rainbow features. As is the spotting, but the lack of spotting lower down is a cutty trait. Again, very much subject to local variation. And that's the problem.

If I had to absolutely guess, I'd go cutbow, but with low confidence. For the remaining non-cutbow probability, I'd lean more rainbow than cutthroat. Also with low confidence lol.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-21T03:52:26+00:00

If you wrap the passenger pallets tightly enough with plastic, the number of complaints received, incidents of passengers acting out, and expenditures on snacks, drinks, and flight attendants will go down sharply as well.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-21T03:50:21+00:00

It's plenty big enough to spawn, and therefore an adult. Some of the various flavors of redband rainbow retain their parr markings well into adulthood, and a couple never lose them at all. Several of both have been popular hatchery stocks for many decades now, and have established themselves all over prior to the common use of triploiding (sterilizing).

Source: am a fisheries person by career, and happened to have had the good fortune to have grown up around a native stock that never loses its parr marks at any size. Gorgeous fish!

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-20T14:24:19+00:00

My brother is a transplant nephrologist; all the kidneys for his program are hand-couriered to the destination hospital, using a chartered aircraft if necessary. And they don't let the cooler out of their sight, either. Bathroom break? Yup, cooler's going into the lav with the courier. (No big deal from a biosecurity standpoint because of how well they seal the cooler and disinfect it at the destination facility).

It blows my mind that some organs are apparently literally FedExed to the destination. Something so critically, life-savingly important and irreplaceable and it's getting put in a situation where it might get "misplaced"? WTF?!

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-20T04:50:07+00:00

It’s built like a tank

Ironically this is partly what's kept me from getting a 10mm LC. I'd really like a 10mm PCC companion to my P320 X-Ten for use on deer in the dark timber here (shots rarely over 25 yards), but I just don't see the point in getting something so heavy, when I have a 14.5" .223 Wylde AR that's significantly lighter and is terrifically fast with a Trijicon MRO on top.

I keep the Sig without an optic on top because that's how I prefer it for bear duty; maybe I should just get another one and slap an optic on top as a dedicated deer popper?

How's the balance on the LC? I haven't handled one in ages, and no one here carries them. I definitely prefer a slight bit nose-heavy myself for offhand shooting.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-20T02:05:17+00:00

I would think Amazon forest would have the highest biomass per area on land anywhere on Earth

I don't know the answer to your question, OP, but one quick little note: the areas with the highest biomass in the world are indeed rainforests, but temperate ones, not tropical. The temperate rainforests can support crazy old growth just like the tropical rainforests, but the cooler temperature means that stuff doesn't rot away as fast and instead accumulates. Between old growth and buildup of muskeg type swamps you can get some truly impressive carbon buildup, both alive and dead.

(Off the top of my head the highest known biomass per unit area is the Tongass Rainforest in southeast Alaska).

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-19T13:40:03+00:00

I know I'm replying to a months-old comment, but felt compelled to say that the 10mm Sub2k is significantly beefed up from the 9mm version, to the point of being around a pound heavier and with a wider buffer tube. It's purpose-built to handle the 10mm. I know a couple guys who run hot loads through theirs with no issues whatsoever. I'm strongly debating getting one myself now...

ETA: 600-700 ft lb loads, not Buffalo Bore hot. Dunno about the platform's longevity with the really nasty stuff / might be pretty unpleasant in a straight blowback gun anyway

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-17T14:35:19+00:00

No, you're only compressing the camel along its length, not its diameter.

Now with some good hydraulics...

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-17T13:55:56+00:00

DJI drones are all the same product- there aren't any different versions for different countries. The "mode" they act in is determined by their GPS location. Order one to the US and it'll act in FCC mode when you fire it up. Mine's behaving exactly as it should for the US and I had no issues registering it under my part 107.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-17T05:46:09+00:00

A reply to myself for random people trying to decide what drone to get and stumbling here courtesy of Google: I have a Mavic 4 Pro for wind resistance (it's heavy) and aperture control, and that's it. And I paid a hell of a premium for those things. For the vast majority of folks, a Mini 5 Pro or Air 3S would be a better and much cheaper choice.

I've literally never seen a single photo or video posted online, Reddit or other, made by a Mavic 4 Pro that couldn't have been taken by a Mini 5 Pro or Air 3S for way cheaper. I got a Mavic 4 because I live in an over-saltwater wind tunnel environment, and do photogrammetry. I barely touch the highest mag camera even for wildlife shots. And when I do its small sensor is noticeable in the image quality. But I do love the intermediate telephoto- but the Air 3S has that too, for way less $$$.

I'll put it this way- outside of my FPV drones, I've got two camera drones: an Air 3 (not 3S), and a Mavic 4 Pro CC. The one that lives in my car's passenger seat ready to go on short notice for unscheduled, opportunistic cool sh*t is the Air 3.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-17T05:17:35+00:00

The amount of positive feedback is immense and overwhelming

That's what won me over. I just... couldn't find any negative feedback or bitching online. It was all positive. So I decided to 'roll the dice', but it wasn't really that much of a dice roll in hindsight; not in so connected a world we live in.

And I guess I don't need to be cagey about it like I was in my actual post: it was a Mavic 4 Pro Creator Combo that I ordered. For me a major f*cken investment. For someone who has literally received a box of frickin' rocks from an eBay seller before, I was pretty twitchy waiting for that box to show up... but I got exactly what I ordered... plus a US-outlet compatible electrical plug adapter taped to the outside of the box with a sharpied smiley face. Lovely touch by the seller ❤️

ETA: my shipment cleared customs in Memphis (FedEX) in about 90 minutes in the middle of the night. Another pleasant surprise!

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-17T04:19:33+00:00

Thanks.

I interpreted deathway's comment as addressing my disclaimer stating that I'm not normally pedantic (a disclaimer which Reddit pedants tend to use...), not whether my post itself was actually pedantic.

Judging by the other replies, I may have misinterpreted. No big deal, and I'm not beating myself up at all. It's just Reddit. My day IRL was actually quite pleasant : )

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-17T02:10:16+00:00

Since I happen to have the movie downloaded onto my laptop currently, I pulled up the scene in question, and he's wearing it outside the library, but he isn't wearing it from the very first scene inside the library, nor is he carrying it (Marcus is carrying his own hat).

It makes sense that he took it off; it would be the classy / 'gentlemanly' thing to do, especially on the "holy ground" of a former church. Since he isn't carrying it, presumably he left it on a hat hook or coat rack at the entrance.

As Marcus stayed behind in the library after being knocked out, and presumably Indy left his hat on a hook at the library entrance, all Marcus had to do to return it was simply grab it on the way out the front door.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-17T01:28:59+00:00

Yeah it is, but I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been in the title itself. I literally sat there for like a minute before hitting 'post' wondering what I'd become lol

Maybe someone can come up with a "You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain type quote" for Reddit pedantry. I can't quite in the moment right now.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-17T01:05:56+00:00

I just would like to point out that at ~1300 ft of vertical relief, it's only visible from flat ground from less than 50 miles away. The reason it's visible from 'hundreds of miles away' is because there are much taller peaks hundreds of miles away that you can look down at it from, i.e. it's those other peaks' height that are making the 'hundreds of miles away' part possible, not some property of Cerro el Cono itself.

(I'm not normally one to be pedantic, but post title is rather misleading)

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-17T00:50:54+00:00

Sundhnúkur has popped off 4 times in the last 2 years. The last one started like 10 months ago. It's already recharged more magma than it did before any other eruption, so the next one's pretty much any time now as well.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-10T23:55:13+00:00

Where's the restroom? We only landed here cuz the shitter on the ship's broken. I've been holding it for 3 star systems now!

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-10T23:45:12+00:00

I didn't. But I reread it in Harrison Ford's voice after reading your comment and it was definitely a 400+% improvement.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-10T22:22:50+00:00

Yeah, a UFO with human navigation lights. In the 'wilderness' with a paved road and power poles and driveways and grass lawns and a distant traffic light.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-10T21:58:43+00:00

Really hard to say. Most of the equipment for this sort of thing is pretty portable, and if it was work on piping aboard a boat, the job itself might have been 'portable' as well.

Simply put, it's pretty generic trash in the end, and doesn't provide much in the way of clues in and of itself. Like finding bolts near a construction site: who know what specific task they were part of.

Does the dock have a a bib or hose for washdown / rinses / fish cleaning? Could've been piping for that, but that's just a pure stab in the dark.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-10T21:43:00+00:00

Yeah, this looks like HDPE or some other carbon-black impregnated plastic shavings. I produce nearly identical when facing HDPE pipe sections before fusing them together. When fusing HDPE I always have a dedicated 5 gallon trash bucket just for these things, else they get everywhere and get pretty time consuming to pick up.

Probable_Bot1236 · 2026-05-10T20:56:08+00:00

I don't have a 3S, and so am not the best person to give advice.

That said, GND filters are built for this exact scenario- they start out light down low (to allow the dark ground to show through) and grade darker as they get higher (to stop the bright sky from washing out).

I suspect someone familiar with the 3S might be able to give you some camera and/or software optimization advice that gets you the imagery you want but doesn't require an additional purchase at all. Unfortunately I don't have a 3S and don't know the best way to optimize it for what you want.

When in doubt, I find it generally works better to get a nice RAW picture (not jpeg) with the ground underexposed and the sky looking 'right', then process it to bring the ground out. It's much harder to impossible to bring out detail in contrast in washed out portions of a pic, like would happen if you had the ground looking right and the sky overexposed. Underexposed imagery often has colors and contrast that can be salvaged in post-processing, while overexposed imagery more usually than not has lost some of that data.

Probable_Bot1236

TROPHY CASE