Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “DJI Mavic 2 Pro & Zoom Review: elevating drone photography”.
About two weeks ago I was a few thousand miles away from the office., So I’m currently on vacation in Iceland, and I decided to do a little bit of work. A day before I left for my trip, I was able to get my hands on the new Dji Mavic 2. (, electric music ). The unit I had with me was the Mavic 2 Pro, but we’ll cover both the Pro and the Zoom in this article.. I attempted to film this in Iceland, but the audio — ( wind blows ) Yeah.
It wasn’t great., But now we’re doing this in the studio which works out better, since I have more time to test out all of the new and or upgraded features, too. Now, with over eight hours of flight time with two Mavic 2s, I’m ready to tell you Why these drones are changing aerial photography., The new Mavic 2 Pro and Zoom are slightly bigger than the old Mavic Pro Platinum. You really won’t notice the difference at first, but what you will notice is that it is heavier than what you expect. Otherwise you’re. Looking at the same portable design with the original Mavic, which makes it a good portable drone., It also has the same props found in the Mavic Pro Platinum, meaning this drone is a relatively quiet, one., (, drone, humming ). The difference between these two is A sensor size and B. The zoom has well zoom. Real optical zoom that lets you get twice as close without losing quality..
Lastly, the Gimbal and Bow seem to be really robust., So you might get away with crashing this thing.. That’S something I really don’t have an interest in testing, but there are plenty of other YouTubers who love destroying gadgets for your pleasure. Filming with the Pro has been great.
From connectivity, various modes and, most importantly, superb image. Quality., The 1” CMOS Sensor with optics doesn’t make a big difference when it comes to video and photo quality. A built issued.
10-Bit 4K video and D-log truly helps to maximize what you get out of it.. The zoom, on the other hand, has a smaller sensor and it doesn’t have a true flat profile.. It does have a Cinelike, which is what we saw in the Mavic Air, but it just doesn’t retain the same amount of data.. You should be aware that, however, the only way to shoot D-log on the PRO is, if you are shooting in H265, which in theory is a better compression system but in practice isn’t widely adopted. Yet. Reviewing footage with Premiere on my relatively fast MacBook Pro has been a real struggle and I had to create proxies for all of my files..
The Mavic 2 PRO is the first DJI drone with HDR, and it does make some difference in exposure for certain scenes. But truthfully D-log just looks better to me.. Also quick note: I tend to leave my white balance to auto just to see what the camera chooses. And to me it seems to be a bit on the warmer side.
Although the colors do look very accurate.. Second note: I didn’t have neutral density filters for this drone, so some shots didn’t come out as good as they could’ve. DJI says. The units are coming for both units., But it’ll be a lot easier if these were just built in from the start..
All right lets. Dissect D-log footage a bit more. When you are shooting in very low lights, ISO100-200 you’ll get really clean, footage. No noticeable noise..
Even when you zoom-in, you are still getting very good results when bumping up the ISO. Obviously, more noise introduce especially in the shadows. It’s more noise than you would expect from this drone, but it’s still not as bad as what you get from the smaller sensor, that is in the Mavic 2 Zoom..
Nevertheless, footage that you get on the Mavic 2 Pro is the best you can get from a drone of this size. One more quick note, Unlike the Phantom 4 PRO v2, which can shoot 4k at 60fps, the Mavic 2 Pro can shoot 4k up to 30fps., Not A deal breaker for me since I tend to shoot at 24 frames and both can shoot slow mo at 120 frames at 1080p., And I only mention this so I can have an excuse to put this clip in the video. Another new mode you get is hyperlapse.. I do love how is implemented into this southbreak. You choose your interval and the total runtime of the clip.
Mavic. Does the rest. Video is out in your phone and its ready to use … Or close to it.? Unfortunately, the hyperlapse footage isn’t stabilized, So its too shaken and basically unusable.
On a few occasions. It even randomly changed my exposure setting. Either way there is an option to save photos individually, so more often than not I’ll just process, those myself in AfterEffects.. And lastly, there is the Dolly Zoom, which you obviously get in the Zoom model.. It lets you make cool shots like this., But only in 1080p, not in 4K … sorry.. The PRO’s new sensor can shoot 20 MP photos.
And, as someone who shoots photos with this drone more often than video., It is a joy to use. And they are a big step up from what we had before., Not only by pixel size but color just seems Very accurate to what you see in real life.. This isn’t the case with the Zoom. Photos look great, even though they are 20MP, but once they start editing the raw files, the colors just didn’t. Look as true.
On both drones. You’Ll find all the same shootings you had before Pano vertical Pano, 360 spherical photos. And on the Zoom you get this mode called “. Super resolution” Takes 9 separate photos which then sitches together into one massive 48 Mega pixel image. And the differences are evident.. Last thing when it comes to photos, is the new Hyperlight mode which supposedly helps with noise reduction in lower light. Situations. Here are three photos shot in JPG, Hyperlight and HDR..
To me, there is a slight improvement, but all three samples examples tried at 1600. Iso look pretty noise if anything, Hyperlight mode added a bit of chromatic aberration, although that is an easy fix.. When it comes to photos deciding between these two can be tough. It might seem like the PRO is better on paper because it has a bigger sensor., But the Zoom has a number of features that you just don’t get with the PRO.
The zoom and Super Resolution.. At the end of the day, it might come down to price. All right. That was a lot., But we still have a few things left to cover. I’M just gon na go through this real quickly.. First one OcuSync 2., Absolutely loved.
It can comfortably say this. Is the first time I haven’t had a single interference with signal., Even when I maybe flew it further than it was allowed. No issues there whatsoever., It even gives me 1080p previews and caching right on the phone, so I can edit there., But I really don’t see Myself ever doing that. Second one Battery life. Advertised 31-minutes of flight. Seems possible under perfect conditions, but most I got out of it.
Comfortably was 24 minutes. Just because I didn’t want to find myself in a situation where I lose battery mid flight., Which actually happened once with a different drone. I’Ll tell you the story in the encore.
Third, one Remote control., Same old design. You will find in the original Mavic and Mavic Air plus the screen., Although there is a switch in the side which lets you toggle between Sport Program and Tripod mode. And I’m happy to report their greatest invention ever is back .