As the mercury begins to drop, and the white stuff falls on the northern half of our planet, we all start to plan our escape to warmer climes.
If you’re heading off on an adventure of a lifetime or maybe just a sunny family vacation in the south, our list of the Best DJI Mavic Pro travel accessories has the top Mavic Pro accessories to get the most out of your travel.
Extra Mavic Pro Intelligent Flight Battery
This goes without saying, but it’s always a great idea to have an extra battery or two (or three!). The Mavic Pro Fly More Combo comes with 3 batteries in the combo, as well as the 4 battery Mavic Pro Charging Hub. So it just makes sense to maximize your charging ability by filling all four slots with a battery.
Many drone owners are unaware that the Lithium Polymer batteries that power their drones are considered hazardous materials by airlines. LiPo batteries should never be put into your checked bags. Ever. And some airlines have restrictions on how many LiPo’s each passenger may carry with them in the cabin.
Related: What You Need To Know When Taking Your Drone On Airplanes
But aside from that, you also want to transport your batteries in the safest way possible, which means LiPo safes. These ones are sized specifically for your drone and they’re super inexpensive, with FREE Prime Shipping.
Best Portable Hard Drive for Travel
You can buy any portable hard drive to back up your PC or videos, but we think the Western Digital My Passport Wireless PRO is the only portable drive for travelling drone pilots and photographers. It only costs a few dollars more than your basic hard drive, but it comes with some really necessary features for travel.
First it has it’s own built-in 6400 mAh power bank that you can use to charge other devices or backup an SD card without needing to tether it to a laptop or PC. Second the Wireless PRO lets you insert an SD card into it and transfer your files to the hard drive without a PC. Thirdly, the Wireless PRO is also a wireless access point, which means you can access the devices control panel using your smartphone, tablet or computer wirelessly to manage file transfers.
The Western Digital My Passport Wireless PRO comes in 1 to 4 TB sizes, all of which are priced under $200 with FREE Prime Shipping.
Sandisk Extreme microSD Card 64GB
DJI Recommends the SanDisk Extreme 64GB microSD card in the specs for the Mavic Pro. We’ve seen enough chatter in the forums to know that some pilots are using 128GB and 256GB as well. But considering that a 256GB microSD card holds almost 10 hours of 4K footage we think sticking with a medium sized storage card is best for a couple of reasons: First if the card is damaged or corrupted the lost images and video is limited to about 2.4 hours of video. Second, for almost the same reason, we think you’ll be overwhelmed dealing with almost 10 hours of footage in post-processing. And this card is a steal, less than $35 with PRIME free shipping.
Dell 4K XPS Ultra Thin & Light Touchscreen Laptop – 7th Gen i7
This laptop has the some of the best guts for processing 4K video and high resolution images. With a 7th Gen Core i7 Intel processor, you’ll be hard pressed to find something more powerful at this price point. The 4K screen allows you to truly see what you’re rendering with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX1050 video processor.
It’s 3.9lbs light and super thin for portability while travelling. Don’t let a salesperson at a tech store tell you a tablet can process 4K video…it can try, but it can’t execute with the speed and power of this Dell XPS 15.
LowePro ProTactic 450 AW Camera Backpack
If the photo above doesn’t completely sell you on this backpack, then how about the fact that every compartment is changeable and customizable into new shapes and combinations. Having that “one bag” that can safely hold all of the gear you would never put in a checked suitcase is amazing. But the fact that everything is still easily accessible is the icing on the cake. As a carry-on bag for great adventures the Lowepro Protactic 450 AW is unbeatable. Literally.
If you’re looking for a shoulder bag that’s a little more compact (think “personal item” stowed under the seat in front of you) then you gotta check out the Lowepro Slingshot Edge. Available in 150 and 250 models (both under $80!) you can clearly see how well integrated a folded Mavic Pro is with the the Lowepro system.
And the great thing for travel is the AW in the names above means both bags have an integrated All Weather AW Cover that protects your bag and contents from storms.
DJI Mavic Pro Neutral Density Filters
One of the main reasons people pick the Mavic Pro is for the 4K video recording capability. And there’s no point in filming in 4K if you’re not going to get the framerate and the exposure perfect. We won’t go into what ND filters do (you can read about that and here) but if you’re serious about video quality then ND filters are a must. And considering that this is an article for travel, there’s a high probability you’re heading somewhere bright and sunny.
The filters above are from PolarPro with ND8/16/32 ND filters designed specifically for the Mavic. At less thatn $80 they’re fairly priced and do exactly what they’re designed to do: slow your framerate to capture buttery smooth cinematic video.
Mavic Battery to Power Bank Adapter
This is one of those inexpensive, stealthy little devices that are a travel hack all to themselves. By connecting your Mavic Intelligent Flight Battery to the Power Bank Adapter you’ve just created a USB charging station for your other devices.
Many drone pilots use the Power Bank Adapter to drain the battery prior to storage, which is useful too, but being able to tap an alternative power source in a pinch is one of those features that can make or break a moment during an adventure abroad. Super cheap, it’s under $20.
Okay, so the Osmo Mobile isn’t really a Mavic Pro accessory. But it’s so inexpensive, and so practical for travel and capturing all of your ground based photos and videos that we had to include it.
The Osmo Mobile is a 3-axis smartphone gimbal designed (along with the DJI GO app) to help you
take your smartphone cinematography to the next level. And as an added bonus, you don’t even have to use your smartphone.
With battery life up to 4 hours on a single charge, and built-in image modes like motion time lapse and slow motion video, you’ll be blown away at what you can capture with the Osmo Mobile.
Inexpensive adapters (right) are also available on Amazon that let you use your GoPro HERO 3/4/5/6 camera (because we all have a couple of those lying around) for capturing video that may be even better quality than your smartphone. Note: there is no app for capturing the GoPro video via the Osmo Mobile so you’re just using it as a gimbal.
This is by no means a complete list of all the travel accessories you buy that would streamline or enhance your travel experience. New products seem to come out every day.
If you have a Mavic Pro accessory that is ideal for travel, let us know in the comments!