Drone News Roundup: DJI Mini 5 Pro Cinematic Reel, DJI Scams on the Rise, and More!
BY Zacc Dukowitz
2 October 2025This week we’re covering a cinematic drone reel shot entirely on the new DJI Mini 5 Pro by Denis Barbas.
We’re also covering the rise of DJI scammers, record highs for drone photography searches, Uber’s drone delivery partnership with Flytrex, and DJI’s ongoing legal battles with the Pentagon.
Now on to the links!
New Cinematic DJI Mini 5 Pro Reel
Denis Barbas just dropped this cinematic reel shot entirely on the newly released DJI Mini 5 Pro, and it’s one of the best videos we’ve seen to showcase what DJI’s new Mini can do. The sequence, filmed across misty forests and winding mountain roads, shows off the Mini 5 Pro’s improved dynamic range, stabilization, and low-light performance in rugged conditions. According to Barbas, “This video is a compilation of my most stunning shots captured with the new Mini 5, filmed in some of the planet’s harshest and most extreme environments, reaching all the way up near the North Pole.”
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Beware: Scams Grow as DJI Supply Shrinks
A DJI scam website (dji-us.com) that has since been taken down | Credit: The Verge
With DJI drone supplies dwindling, scammers are increasingly targeting desperate buyers. Fraudsters have set up convincing fake online shops and social media listings, often advertising popular DJI models at below-retail prices to lure in unsuspecting customers.
If you’re looking for a hard-to-find DJI drone right now, keep these steps in mind:
- Buy from trusted sellers. Always buy from established, authorized retailers, making sure to avoid unfamiliar sites, especially those with deals that seem too good to be true.
- Verify. Double-check web addresses and look for security certificates (https:// and a padlock icon) before entering payment details to make sure you’re buying from a legitimate website. Also, Google the website’s name and/or URL along with the word “scam” or similar keywords to see if any negative results come up.
- Use credit cards. Be cautious with payment methods, sticking to credit cards and avoiding wire transfers, gift cards, crypto payments, or other non-reversible methods.
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“Drone Photography” Searches Hit Record Highs This Summer
Searches for “drone photography” soared in August 2025, achieving a 122% jump from August of 2024. This data comes from Popsa, a photo curation site, which reported 180,000 global searches for the term across multiple platforms, including—but not limited to—Google. The surge can be explained by the availability of affordable, user-friendly drones like the DJI Neo and Flip, which are helping more people try aerial shooting, combined with increased interest from industries like real estate (up 129% in searches), weddings (up 30%), and others, which are all embracing drone photos.
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Uber Launches Drone Delivery with Flytrex
Uber is jumping into drone delivery via a new partnership with Flytrex. This marks Uber’s first investment in drone delivery technology, integrating Flytrex’s FAA-authorized Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drones with Uber Eats’ vast logistics platform. Flytrex brings serious experience to the table, having completed over 200,000 autonomous deliveries in suburban America. The partnership shows that Flytrex is a serious player in the competitive drone delivery space. As part of the partnership, Uber has invested an undisclosed amount in Flytrex that could be as much as 7 or even 8 figures.
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DJI Loses Lawsuit with the Pentagon
Credit: DJI
A federal judge has ruled against DJI’s lawsuit aiming to remove the company from the Pentagon’s blacklist of military-linked Chinese firms. The listing, first applied in 2022, brands DJI as part of China’s defense industrial base. Despite the court rejecting many of the Pentagon’s claims, it sided with the DOD’s authority to keep DJI on the list, citing the potential military applications of its drones.
Here are the claims the court accepted and rejected:
- Accepted. DJI is recognized by the Chinese government as a leading technology innovator. Called a National Enterprise Technology Center (NETC), this official status shows DJI receives government support and subsidies but does not automatically mean military control or ownership.
- Accepted. DJI’s drones have dual-use potential. This means their commercial drone technology could be adapted for military purposes, which the court saw as a legitimate basis for concern.
- Rejected. The claim that DJI is owned or controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The court found no evidence of direct government or party ownership or control over DJI.
- Rejected. Allegations that DJI has formal affiliations with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The court dismissed this as unsupported by facts.
- Rejected. The assertion that DJI is located in or tied to a military-civil fusion industrial zone, a claim that relied on confused or incorrect information about regional industrial areas.
- Rejected. The idea that DJI is indirectly owned by a state-owned company called Chengtong. The court found no proof of this indirect ownership.
What does the ruling mean? The ruling keeps DJI’s access to U.S. government contracts and partnerships heavily restricted and continues to cloud its standing in the American market. DJI insists it is not controlled by the Chinese government or military—and this is also what the court found, as you can see in the list above—and plans to explore legal options to challenge the decision.
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