Photo Quality - so so

[Melvoid]

After a Phantom 1 with a GoPro 3, and then a Phantom 3 with ultimately a "pro" camera, I bought a Mavic Air 2. I got it from the catalog internet place B&H. I've purchased other equipment from them and have been fine with it. Admittedly not really well-versed in drone cameras, I asked the salesman if the photo and video quality would be as good as my previous Phantom, and he said it would be better. It is definitely NOT. It's not even quite equal.

I love the way it flies, handles, the RTH capabilities, and lots of the other aspects of the Air 2, but the main reason I have it is for photography and I'm anything but thrilled. I've had it for awhile now, but today thought I'd let them know that I wasn't happy with the salesman telling me what I wanted to hear, just so he could make a sale. Ironically, if he'd taken a minute to find out, I would probably have gone up a notch or two and he'd have gotten a larger commission. But no, he just decided to make the sale and be done with it.

B&H's reply was mostly, "Uh, sorry." I'm not sure what I expected them to say, but I'd think they'd be more concerned about their salespeople's techniques.

True, I could have done more homework, but he could have also asked me to hold for a moment while HE looked into it... better yet, he could have been knowledgeable about the products he was selling and not made up the answers.

OK, I'm vented. Thank you.

 

[Meta4]

I asked the salesman if the photo and video quality would be as good as my previous Phantom, and he said it would be better. It is definitely NOT. It's not even quite equal.
... the main reason I have it is for photography and I'm anything but thrilled ..... thought I'd let them know that I wasn't happy with the salesman telling me what I wanted to hear

B&H's reply was mostly, "Uh, sorry." I'm not sure what I expected them to say, but I'd think they'd be more concerned about their salespeople's techniques.

Reading your venting, my response too is Uh ??
All you've done here is to vent without anything at all to say what it is about the drone that fails to meet your expectations.
Did give B&H any information to explain your dissatisfaction?

Looking at the specs for both cameras, I'd expect their performance to be almost the same, with the Air 2 being similar or marginally better.

What is it about the Air 2's photographic ability that you find to be lacking?
How about some examples to show what you mean?

 

[AlanL]

After a Phantom 1 with a GoPro 3, and then a Phantom 3 with ultimately a "pro" camera, I bought a Mavic Air 2. I got it from the catalog internet place B&H. I've purchased other equipment from them and have been fine with it. Admittedly not really well-versed in drone cameras, I asked the salesman if the photo and video quality would be as good as my previous Phantom, and he said it would be better. It is definitely NOT. It's not even quite equal.

I love the way it flies, handles, the RTH capabilities, and lots of the other aspects of the Air 2, but the main reason I have it is for photography and I'm anything but thrilled. I've had it for awhile now, but today thought I'd let them know that I wasn't happy with the salesman telling me what I wanted to hear, just so he could make a sale. Ironically, if he'd taken a minute to find out, I would probably have gone up a notch or two and he'd have gotten a larger commission. But no, he just decided to make the sale and be done with it.

B&H's reply was mostly, "Uh, sorry." I'm not sure what I expected them to say, but I'd think they'd be more concerned about their salespeople's techniques.

True, I could have done more homework, but he could have also asked me to hold for a moment while HE looked into it... better yet, he could have been knowledgeable about the products he was selling and not made up the answers.

OK, I'm vented. Thank you.

My first drone was an Air 2 so I do have some experience with that camera. I shot still images almost exclusively in 48MP mode which can be workable in good light. That said in low light the noise in the pixel data can be quite extreme but can be tamed with a good denoise application. The lifesaver for me was DxO PureRAW which can almost perform miracles with the output of the Air 2 when you shoot with RAW as the output option.

I read a lot of nonsense about whether it could actually shoot 48MP images and only 12MP mode would work but almost all of that was from armchair web "experts" declaring that they of course knew far more than the engineers who built the sensors. On the other hand I have over a thousand 48MP images I got from mine that worked quite well. I sold mine after about 5 months and moved up to the Mavic 3 family for better image quality yet. I still shoot entirely using RAW DNG output and use DxO PureRAW on all of the images I wish to publish.

 

[Melvoid]

Basically, the photos and videos aren't as clean or sharp as the Phantom. They don't look as good. I'm actually surprised to hear that the Air 2 might be better. Maybe it's all the settings. I have used auto and set the ISO and shutter speed manually, and still never really as good as my old one. I will look up some similar shots and see if I can't post them for a comparison.

An on the other hand, it is way more fun to fly and I trust it more than the Phantom. And the size is great. I can actually travel with it because it's small enough to carry on. I'd never have checked the Phantom, even in the hard case.

 

[rickmurray1989]

Basically, the photos and videos aren't as clean or sharp as the Phantom. They don't look as good. I'm actually surprised to hear that the Air 2 might be better. Maybe it's all the settings. I have used auto and set the ISO and shutter speed manually, and still never really as good as my old one. I will look up some similar shots and see if I can't post them for a comparison.

An on the other hand, it is way more fun to fly and I trust it more than the Phantom. And the size is great. I can actually travel with it because it's small enough to carry on. I'd never have checked the Phantom, even in the hard case.

I have an Air 2 and the image quality blows the Phantom 3 Pro's quality out of the water.

 

[Melvoid]

Then I must be doing something wrong with the settings? Any suggestions?

I already capture as .JPG and RAW

 

[Meta4]

Then I must be doing something wrong with the settings? Any suggestions?

Perhaps if you post some examples, someone might be able to give some suggestions, or at least see what you are talking about.
At the moment, all anyone knows is that you aren't satisfied.

 

[Fizzbang]

Post a couple of files and lets see what you got!

 

[Dale D]

After a Phantom 1 with a GoPro 3, and then a Phantom 3 with ultimately a "pro" camera, I bought a Mavic Air 2. I got it from the catalog internet place B&H. I've purchased other equipment from them and have been fine with it. Admittedly not really well-versed in drone cameras, I asked the salesman if the photo and video quality would be as good as my previous Phantom, and he said it would be better. It is definitely NOT. It's not even quite equal.

I love the way it flies, handles, the RTH capabilities, and lots of the other aspects of the Air 2, but the main reason I have it is for photography and I'm anything but thrilled. I've had it for awhile now, but today thought I'd let them know that I wasn't happy with the salesman telling me what I wanted to hear, just so he could make a sale. Ironically, if he'd taken a minute to find out, I would probably have gone up a notch or two and he'd have gotten a larger commission. But no, he just decided to make the sale and be done with it.

B&H's reply was mostly, "Uh, sorry." I'm not sure what I expected them to say, but I'd think they'd be more concerned about their salespeople's techniques.

True, I could have done more homework, but he could have also asked me to hold for a moment while HE looked into it... better yet, he could have been knowledgeable about the products he was selling and not made up the answers.

OK, I'm vented. Thank you.

Far be it from me to defend B and H but they have a sterling reputation . I have used them for years. I think you went to the wrong place for your advice. You Tube is filled with tons of films, as is this forum, for descriptions of camera capabilities. You needed to do more homework and then come to this forum for search of the archives and more dispassionate advise. Google this. Vic Video Pic for great drone camera comparisons.

Dale
Miami

 

[CaseyK]

Are you retrieving the pictures from the drone's memory card?

 

[Ralph thompson]

If your priority was photo quality then the m3 séries have a better 4/3 sensor (with the wide angle lens). I went from the Inspire 2Pro to M3 & definitely not as good for stills, the M3 is still good & better for video(higher bitrate). Compared to a full frame DSLR or mirrorless, the m3 is inferior but for the price & convenience, nothing can touch the M3 series

 

[PHZ]

It is interesting you made the comparison of The M2 Pro and the M 3, with the M2P producing better stills.
NOT any kind of a scientific pixel peeping comparison, but a casual observation of a few random stills I have shot with the M3E and an M2 P, comparing identical shots and enlarging small sections of the “same” .jpg photo. The M2P is very slightly, but noticeably and consistently slightly sharper with a warmer color temp. These are shots in good daylight.
Has anyone else seen these results? I anticipated the opposite circumstance.

 

[Meta4]

It is interesting you made the comparison of The M2 Pro and the M 3,

He never mentioned the Mavic 2 pro

 

[PHZ]

You are correct. I misread it. Saw it was the I-2, but he didn’t mention the camera or the lens.
However, my observation remains the same.

 

[Melvoid]

I'm looking for some good comparison examples. Meanwhile, I'm retrieving the files from the memory card, copying direct to the hard drive.

 

[Melvoid]

The power pole is from the Mavic and the stone building is from the Phantom. I wanted to attach .DNG files but it only showed the .JPGs when I hit the Attach button.

 

[Melvoid]

Maybe it's me. Now, after all this, I'm going through tons of stills and videos and thinking they're not so bad. I usually use the HDR option on video, which helps the color. There was a "vivid" setting on the stills with the Phantom, but not on the Mavic.

Also, I noticed some jerkiness when rotating (in video), but searching posts I found someone saying it might be limitations of the computer and not the 'copter. So, I played the same rotating clip several times and it was different each time until, the third or fourth time, it was smooth. So that pretty much tells me it's the computer (which I thought was faster than that). I'm still shooting video at 1080p because I was pretty sure the computer wasn't going to like anything higher...

Never a dull moment.

 

[Zeprider]

AVID stations have a great deal of processing power for the very complex software, and incredible file sizes of video as you've already stated. If you need a more rounded machine that will serve you in other areas, I recommend a gaming computer. I've been running an Alienware laptop for quite some time and it does video, software, and gaming extremely well. I'm not a gamer. I might play about three times a year. I just bought a new AW x17 R2 for a little over 2k from Dell. It doesn't care what you feed it. $$$ = results. My 2¢.

 

[Melvoid]

AVID stations have a great deal of processing power for the very complex software, and incredible file sizes of video as you've already stated. If you need a more rounded machine that will serve you in other areas, I recommend a gaming computer. I've been running an Alienware laptop for quite some time and it does video, software, and gaming extremely well. I'm not a gamer. I might play about three times a year. I just bought a new AW x17 R2 for a little over 2k from Dell. It doesn't care what you feed it. $$$ = results. My 2¢.

AVID stations have a great deal of processing power for the very complex software, and incredible file sizes of video as you've already stated. If you need a more rounded machine that will serve you in other areas, I recommend a gaming computer. I've been running an Alienware laptop for quite some time and it does video, software, and gaming extremely well. I'm not a gamer. I might play about three times a year. I just bought a new AW x17 R2 for a little over 2k from Dell. It doesn't care what you feed it. $$$ = results. My 2¢.

I have an MSI gaming computer, bought it for that reason. Overall it's been good. I particularly like the fact that the render time (I use Vegas Pro) is pretty quick. That said, it's 3 years old, so I'm sure they've improved since then.

 

[Parkerjh]

There's something wrong with the settings or the drone if you aren't getting great quality better than the Phantom.

I recently hired someone to do some photos for me. He had a nice website and seemed to know what he was doing. BUT he sent me dog **** quality. I asked him to reshoot and second round was just as bad. I hadn't realized how small the file sizes were initially. But realized he was taking the low resolution previews from the SD card on his controller. I was shocked when he told me that's the way he'd been doing it for years.