The very first DJI Mavic Pro was announced in September of 2016 and was released in the latter half of 2016. Its small size and design that folds made me enjoy it. I had Mavic Pro for two years. Mavic Pro for 2 years and was impressed by its capabilities. I also took home an award for architectural photography in Hungary by capturing an image by using the drone.
In the time that it was announced that the Mavic 2 Pro was released it was such an impressive upgrade that I could not resist. I purchased it immediately! The addition of more sensors, longer flight time and one” CMOS sensor was the perfect fit to my kit bag. I flew with it for more than 100 hours and took some of my top aerial photos. I never heard any complaints from my customers. If the lighting is great, you can make stunning images and video clips with this device, which is what a lot of you are.
Mavic 3. Specifications and initial impressions
There are three main improvements that got me thinking about DJI’s newest drone designed for photography, Mavic 3. Mavic 3:
1. larger sensor
2. 2. Secondary lens, telephoto
3. bigger battery, with greater time to fly
1. A bigger sensor should offer greater ISO capabilities. When using Mavic 2 Pro for photography, Mavic 2 Pro for photos I’d recommend using ISO100 nearly all the time. I would use ISO400 only during the late blue hour.
The DJI Mavic 3, I am capable of increasing the ISO to ISO800 with extremely useful results.
There’s a downside that I observed during my initial nighttime photoshoot using Mavic 3 Mavic 3: the larger sensor creates blurry images earlier when exposed for longer durations. It’s true that the Mavic 2 Pro had no problems with exposures of 2 seconds but it’s Mavic 3 has to stay within a single second for sharp images. However, I was at ease using Mavic 3. Mavic 3 about 10-15 minutes later into the night than using my Mavic 2 Pro.
2. I noticed that the telephoto lens in the initial couple of flights to be unusable. It simply wasn’t sharp enough. With the DJI software update that came out in the beginning of in the season (FIRMWARE v01.00.0500) the Mavic 3’s telephoto lens got dramatically sharper. This lens was among the main reasons I was ecstatic about the brand new drone. The perspective that 162mm lenses can provide when flying is something we would have done with higher-priced setups prior to. I absolutely love the photos when I see the images on a smaller screen. And in my opinion , if you add three images to the series of a structure. If you examine them in a single row on a huge screen , they appear like phone pictures. Why? It’s because the Mavic 3 only shoots images created using the telephoto lens JPEG. This is something I’d like to see DJI will alter in the near future.
3. This battery update is amazing! I’d like to purchase the drone in order to upgrade mine Mavic 2 for the battery only. The time to fly has increased, however it allows you to enjoy much more flexibility in the air than you thought initially. Imagine you require three minutes to get to the ideal position for taking the first photos and then return the drone in the final. It’s possible that the Mavic 2 can spend about 20 minutes in the air, however I typically fly with the battery for about 18 minutes, so you can calculate using that figure, and then subtracting when we subtract six minutes for positioning and the return time, we’ll have 12 minutes to do the actual task. When using the Mavic 3, I’ve spent between 27-30 hours in air without an uncharged battery to date (it could last longer but I’ve had the Mavic 2’s batteries empty, and they get bigger after 70-80 times which is why I’m trying to avoid this when I get the latest drone). That means that even though we’re only getting 1.5 times the amount of time to fly, we can get about 2x the time for creative tasks and this is evident. In terms of recreational use, I prefer top-down panoramic photos (Mavic 2 images below) and in this instance, it usually takes about five minutes for me to find a good location, and I usually do that time before I can bring the drone back home. The time spent shooting to between 8 and 10 minutes. In this 30 minute flight time you get 20 minutes of creativity which I haven’t had the chance to test yet however I’m looking forward to the experience.
In addition to the battery upgrade, we now have more sensors as well as the sensors on sides remain active during the normal flight mode, and not just when in tripod mode, as they did with Mavic 2. Mavic 2. The drone is more secure in the air, is more able to handle wind and ascends quicker.
Mavic 3 video
The team I work with has been working on numerous short films recently and that the capabilities for video on Mavic 3 are just as important to me as its photography capabilities. I’m convinced that Mavic 2 Pro was a great camera. Mavic 2 Pro made amazing quality videos, with the exception of the late-blue hour footage in the majority of cases. However, with Mavic 3, this is not a problem anymore. It can be used for as long as it’s absolutely necessary. If it’s dark, then we won’t even create video.
One of the most significant changes to the video specifications is the framerates. When I was flying at a slow speed before the upgrade, I was too fast for the smoothest final result. Now , I can shoot at 50fps and post, we can reduce it by 50% and still get the 25fps we require. It’s not a game changer however it is a helpful tool to possess. It is also possible to take slow-motion photos, however I would say that’s not that important for us.
The only thing I noticed is that it was the Mavic 3 only has digital zoom. Its Mavic 2 Pro had an option that was called “HQ” that allowed us to capture 4K video simply by scanning the middle of the sensor 1:1. This produced a 38-40mm focal length. We have used it numerous times. By using this method we were able to get a much better and higher quality images over the wide-angle images. When using the Mavic 3, if we require a more narrow viewing angle we have only digital zoom until we change cameras. The telephoto lens can be equivalent to a 7x zoom, and allows us to make use of the parallel effect with great success. The video on this camera is only utilized in 4k at 30fps and in a fully automated mode, which limits its use, however the view angle is exceptional that even this sacrifice is worth it with the correct lighting and for the appropriate “task”.
Conclusion
In this test, I’m not looking to convince anyone to go out and purchase a brand Mavic 3. Mavic 3. My aim was to provide a piece of information that can aid you in deciding if you really need the drone or not. There are many distinct advantages we enjoy with this brand new drone, however there are problems. I’m hoping it is possible that Mavic 3’s shortcomings will be fixed with updates to the software in the future similar to what they have so to date.
As the Mavic 2 Pro had been up in the air for more than 120 hours, I decided it was the right time to get a new one. For me I felt that choosing the DJI Mavic 3 was a easy purchase. After I included it in my collection, it’s now the Mavic 2 Pro has retired from my cabinet. However it is important to understand your own preferences. If you own an Mavic 2 Pro or the new DJI Air 2S and you utilize it for general overviews then you don’t need to upgrade. For me I think Mavic 3 was worth the price! Mavic 3 was worth the cost!
