Has DJI completely abandoned Mavic pro owners?

[Thomas B]

Yes, just like Apple abandons phones.

I don’t follow. Clarification please. TIA

 

[Kilrah]

I hope the mavic is intended for a life cycle longer than 2 to 3 years. I have other RC equipment that is over 10 years old.

I'm not saying that's how long a Mavic will last, but what the product life cycle is from a support point of view. After 2-3 years the manufacturer moves on and stops caring about it, reduces support, stops suppliyng parts/repairs etc just like phone manufacturers stop supplying both feature and security updates for a given model after around that amount of time as they assign their employees on to work on newer products.

I don’t follow. Clarification please. TIA

The above. If you have an iPhone older than an iPhone 6, no more updates and support for you.
Apple are actually better than many at that since there's a lot of commonality between their devices.

 

[MAJ]

Yep, the MP1 totally sucks...

Yeah, see what you mean, terrible photo.

 

[dekip]

Man touched a nerve..... interesting as always. My two cents - DJI....China... does anybody think they are looking out for you first (In any way)?..... and.... The rapid advance of Operating systems runs at a snail's pace compared to applied tech in things like drones, they are constantly going to be improved/replaced/retired. Hopefully OS will continue to last a bit longer...

 

[dekip]

and I love my MP1 and it's functionality since MP2 shipped. When I hear that the 1" sensor is fully utilized I will be among the first to upgrade.

 

[wa1pgb]

Also, they have all but written out the Mavic Pro from the new edition of the enterprise flight simulator program, and the use of the Mavic Pro controller with that program.

 

[wa1pgb]

It might be an interesting idea for Dji to create a generous “upgrade your Mavic Pro to the Mavic 2” at a price you can’t refuse.

 

[sparkorc]

I would not worry about the latest and greatest and no further support from DJI because of newer models are coming out all the time,, I still have one of the very first phantom 1 that still flys very well it has been converted to a so called 1.5 so it can fly with the original 2.2mAh battery or phantom 2 smart battery, I also have a Yuneec typhoon H which I fly occasionally, and more recently a Mavic pro platinum since purchasing the mavic I tend to favour that over the others I mentioned, because of the ease to carry about and very unobtrusive in flight.

 

[mfc]

I would not worry about the latest and greatest and no further support from DJI

Apologies, but I do worry. I simply want (and expect) obvious (reported) bugs to be fixed. I'd be very happy in theory to move to a later version of the hardware -- but that requires throwing away my current drone, all the batteries for it, all the other add-ons (propeller and gimbal guards, etc.).

What is galling is that the Mavic Pro is excellent hardware; it does everything I want -- it is just the software that is shoddy. Why can they not just fix it .. it is probably just a few lines of code needed, plus fixing the culture that allows shipping code that was clearly never tested.

 

[Former Member]

It might be an interesting idea for Dji to create a generous “upgrade your Mavic Pro to the Mavic 2” at a price you can’t refuse.

DJI might give you $300 for your Mavic.

 

[Meta4]

What is galling is that the Mavic Pro is excellent hardware; it does everything I want -- it is just the software that is shoddy. Why can they not just fix it ..

What aspect of the software is giving you problems?

 

[mfc]

What aspect of the software is giving you problems?

Posted above, but worth repeating:

The most annoying problems are:

• Exposure bracketing (3 exposure) takes 3 photos but two have the same exposure
• Similarly, 5-exposure bracketing takes 5 photos but two have the same exposure
• The EXIF information (shutter speeds) recorded while exposure bracketing are nonsense
• Automatic exposure for spherical panoramas (which I use almost every flight) is badly broken; it over-exposes by 2 stops. Using manual involves several steps and then undoing the setting after taking the panorama.

All of these were reported a year ago by me and others.

 

[Meta4]

Posted above, but worth repeating:

Are you shooting raw images?
If you don't need raw, bracketing works just fine for jpg images.
I find it's faster, easier and more flexible to shoot panoramas freehand rather than using the app and that works well.

 

[mfc]

Are you shooting raw images?
If you don't need raw, bracketing works just fine for jpg images.
I find it's faster, easier and more flexible to shoot panoramas freehand rather than using the app and that works well.

Yes, I shoot JPEG+RAW .. I'm taking pictures of cave entrances, often, with a high dynamic range.

The 5-exposure bracketing (giving 4 images, 2 under and 1 over auto) are actually OK, but it does waste some time later having to delete the duplicates.

The Exif data being nonsense means that later you cannot tell from the Exif data which are the bright and which are the dark images-- it all has to be done manually/by eye.

The panorama problem is the worst, however .. I am shooting spherical panoramas (not really practical freehand) for three purposes: one is to get a general overview of the surroundings so I can tie in with mapping; the second is get a close-up all-round view of the place of interest; and the third is to extract geo-located (with compass-direction and tilt angle) 'flat' images from the spherical (using PanGazer - introduction ).

Having to constantly switch between manual and auto exposure modes in most of these cases wastes flight time and is very error-prone. I use an audio checklist but still make mistakes, and if you don't notice them at the time it can be hours of hiking wasted -- all because of untested software in the drone. :-(

 

[Charles Keen]

Its Business, just one way of making more money. That's the Mavic Pro issues, not windows.
Would you turn down the chance to make an extra million if you owed the firm?

 

[mfc]

Its Business, just one way of making more money. That's the Mavic Pro issues, not windows.
Would you turn down the chance to make an extra million if you owed the firm?

How do you make a million by making your customers angry?

 

[Meta4]

The panorama problem is the worst, however .. I am shooting spherical panoramas (not really practical freehand)
...
Having to constantly switch between manual and auto exposure modes in most of these cases wastes flight time and is very error-prone.

Shooting brackets of 3 freehand works for me.
That way I have 3 exposure choices and it's faster than using automated apps.

Brisbane City

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[dewster]

You’ll know for sure when they stop manufacturing the batteries.

 

[BossBob]

How do you make a million by making your customers angry?

They’ve already made most of their multi millions out of the MP1, only accessory sales now. Why would they spend money on updating software for a platform that has been superceded? You might want to upgrade and go through the whole fairly dismal customer experience for the thrill of flying what are still experimental aircraft.

 

[Kilrah]

How do you make a million by making your customers angry?

Ask Apple, they make billions and are one of the most successful companies in the world with the same approach, they manage to get people to keep buying their stuff even when they always tell you whatever issue you have is just your fault and they can't do anything about it. DJI get most of their "inspiration" from them.