Hi everyone. I just bought my first drone a DJI mini 3 pro, because I wanted to film a video of some mountains that are 1000 meters high, and just learned that the mini 3 has a cap of 500m. Does anyone know if there are ways around it? Again I’m new to drones and been trying to read/video watch and there’s a lot of mixed info out there. Thanks in advance

To my best knowledge (I live in NL, which is a very flat country), they start counting from takeoff position.
But

You might be better off posting in the products section of this forum. That is way more active!
https://forum.dji.com/forum-129-1.html

Take off from half way up the mountain.

Hi, y1ifan. Thank you for reaching out. The flying height is limited to 500m but the max service ceiling above sea level of Mini 3 Pro is 4000m with Intelligent Flight Battery and 3000m with Intelligent Flight Battery Plus. We hope this helps. Thank you for your support.

Has anyone flown their drone on Saint Thomas? Just wondering if there are many areas that are not too crowded to fly and what your experience was like?

I had dji mini se, dji mini 2 and now dji mini 3 pro. flight height is limited to 500 meters from your location (tested on mini2). maximum flight height is 4000 meters above sea level. this means that if you are in the mountains at  3990 meters, your drone will only fly up to a height of 10 meters. There, the 500 meters will no longer apply!!!

djiuser_6kfKm3AGRrGh Posted at 2-19 06:53
Has anyone flown their drone on Saint Thomas? Just wondering if there are many areas that are not too crowded to fly and what your experience was like?

Just went on a Cruise that included St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands (I think that's the one you are talking about).  We had to go a ways off the beaten path on an excursion to be away from the crowds.  It may have just been a busy day, it may have been less busy than normal.

Here is a quick link to some info

https://uavsystemsinternational.com/pages/virgin-islands-drone-laws