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THE CYBORG

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My son is a keen photographer and is thinking of getting a drone.

The Mini is out as it doesn't RAW. And he wants RAW & HDR capability.
The 3 he is thinking of is the Air for portability with the rest of his photo gear, either the Pro 2 or Zoom.

For a photograph my opinion is the Pro 2 over Zoom, would you agree ?

The question is out of the 3 what do you photographers recommend and why ?

I can’t take him out to play with my stuff as I am still housebound after my accidented.

THIS should be a link to his albums so you get the idea of his style.
 
Well out of the 3, the mavic 2 pro has the best camera with a 1 inch sensor. It's overall the best one with best photographic quality.

The mavic 2 zoom can... zoom. That's the only real advantage of the mavic 2 zoom. If a 2x opitical zoom is important for him, get the zoom. If not, get the pro.

Looking at his portfolio, he is mostly landscape photographer. Mostly for that type of photography we are using wide angle lenses and not worried about zoom. So I'd say get the pro. There are circumstances in landscape photography where zooming could be useful, but you could also just fly lower and closer to your subject.

The mavic air, is a watered down and older version of both. I wouldn't get it unless cost is a factor for you. Though depending on the age of your son, it might not be a bad idea to get him the cheaper one to learn and practice on (cheaper to replace if he loses it or wrecks it)
 
Well out of the 3, the mavic 2 pro has the best camera with a 1 inch sensor. It's overall the best one with best photographic quality.

The mavic 2 zoom can... zoom. That's the only real advantage of the mavic 2 zoom. If a 2x opitical zoom is important for him, get the zoom. If not, get the pro.

Looking at his portfolio, he is mostly landscape photographer. Mostly for that type of photography we are using wide angle lenses and not worried about zoom. So I'd say get the pro. There are circumstances in landscape photography where zooming could be useful, but you could also just fly lower and closer to your subject.

The mavic air, is a watered down and older version of both. I wouldn't get it unless cost is a factor for you. Though depending on the age of your son, it might not be a bad idea to get him the cheaper one to learn and practice on (cheaper to replace if he loses it or wrecks it)
He was looking at the air purely for portability as he has a backpack full of equipment as it is.
 
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Looks like when your son isn’t shooting pics of musicians, he does a lot of low light landscape shots. I’d recommend the Mavic 2 Pro for its low light performance. He’ll also appreciate the true adjustable aperture on the 2 Pro. That’ll give him full control of the exposure triangle and it’s not included on the Air or 2 Zoom. An Air would be more portable but I feel like he’d tire quickly of the smaller sensor and the fixed aperture. Good luck with the decision. We’re spoiled for choice these days.
 
He was looking at the air purely for portability as he has a backpack full of equipment as it is.
I feel you. Trust me I'm no stranger to having too much gear. For my wedding photography business we bring about $40,000 of photo gear with us in 4 large bags. We actually have hired an assistant just to haul the bags for us throughout the day and guard them from theives ?.

The air is definitely more portable. But like above poster said, I think he will tire quickly from it's lack of options and photo quality.

Look into the Manfrotto Aviator 25 backpack. It has a dedicated space for the M2P on the side, and can also fit a LOT of standard photo equipment in it's main pouch.
 
From what I've read, the zoom is better placed for folks who want to do video, not photography. The things you can do with it -- the overhyped dolly zoom among them -- have greater effect with video. For example, you can run parallel with a moving object and zoom in or out as you go without having to try to fly forward and away at the same time.

I haven't read anyone suggesting the Zoom over the Pro for still photography, for what it's worth.
 
Looks like when your son isn’t shooting pics of musicians, he does a lot of low light landscape shots. I’d recommend the Mavic 2 Pro for its low light performance. He’ll also appreciate the true adjustable aperture on the 2 Pro. That’ll give him full control of the exposure triangle and it’s not included on the Air or 2 Zoom. An Air would be more portable but I feel like he’d tire quickly of the smaller sensor and the fixed aperture. Good luck with the decision. We’re spoiled for choice these days.
Yes he likes taking long exposure low light photo’s & lots of HDR.
 
I have been primarily flying my M2P for the last year. I have used the Zoom, but it is only the optical zoom that it offers as a functional difference for me. The variable aperture, among other things, is my primary reason for recommending the M2P over the Zoom. Golden hour photography and videos are much improved by this feature alone. Have used shutter speeds in low light up to 8 seconds.
Best of luck in your decision.
 
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I feel you. Trust me I'm no stranger to having too much gear. For my wedding photography business we bring about $40,000 of photo gear with us in 4 large bags. We actually have hired an assistant just to haul the bags for us throughout the day and guard them from theives ?.

The air is definitely more portable. But like above poster said, I think he will tire quickly from it's lack of options and photo quality.

Look into the Manfrotto Aviator 25 backpack. It has a dedicated space for the M2P on the side, and can also fit a LOT of standard photo equipment in it's main pouch.
I know it can hard knowing what to take on a shoot / job, you can guarantee you want the only thing you didn’t bring.
 
Another vote for the M2P from another photographer that does a lot of landscapes. The extra resolution, low-light performance, and HDR capability are vastly more useful to me than the a zoom and, while it does change the perspective, you can always adjust the composition by flying the drone closer, right?

One thing I would note is that ALL the current drones (DJI and otherwise) are not fully compliant with the new CAA/EASA regulations so will be limited in what you can legally do with them once the transition period ends in 2022, particularly regarding distances from people and structures. Maybe not so limiting for landscape as for other genres for which drones are useful, but unless you are planning on replacing the drone by then or definitely don't care about the limitations, then you may want to wait a little for the next gen of drones. DJI has already stated that all their new drones from 2020 will comply, so hopefully not too much longer!
 
For me it's the Mavic 2 Pro no question due to the much larger 1in sensor which has much more latitude in its raw files to bring back detail in bright and dark areas of the image. While I liked the Mavic 1 Pro I found the 1/2.3in sensor could be frustrating because it's often the case in landscape shots that you have a bright sky and dark ground which you couldn't do much work with afterwards. This is a screenshot from Lightroom so the quality isn't great but it gives you an idea the amount of detail you can recover and this was from a 21 shot panorama so stacking wouldn't really be an option:

i-rMRgN74-X3.png


Size wise the M2P isn't the smallest drone but it's still small taking up not much space folded up and I find it quite feasible to carry the M2P and a DSLR or mirrorless camera plus couple of lenses while out walking or even the M2P, a pair of mirrorless cameras, Ronin-SC and tripod. Before the M2P was released I spent a long time thinking about the P4P for its 1in sensor but I just knew ultimately it was far too large for my use.
 
Thanks for the reply’s people, I will show him this thread next time he calls round.
When I get mobile again he can have a go with my M2 Pro & see what h thinks of it.
 
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I am sure you've seen tons of size comparison pictures of the different DJI Mavics. Here's mine from my Mavics. The Mavic 2 is substantially bigger and heavier than the Mavic Air. My recommendation is, if he's serious about photography and interested in learning about drones, get started with the Mavic Air. Let him cut his teeth and make his mistakes on that and by the time he's ready, the M2 will likely have come down in price or perhaps a newer model is available.
 

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I've had both the Mavic Air, and Mavic 2 Pro.

In all honesty, even with the extra megapixels, and larger sensor, you are hard pushed, to tell the difference between the outputs, even using RAW images. Maybe if you print your pictures on large canvasses, but if your loading them to social media, theres almost zero difference.

The Mavic 2 pro is like 500 quid more than the air - You can argue that extra money could be spent on the on the flymore combo with the Air, rather than the pro 2 with 1 battery.

On the flipside - The wifi signal on the Air is really poor, in built up areas. (Looks like he takes landscape pictures anyway).

If money is no issue - get the pro 2 for sure (Not the zoom). Saving some cash and getting the Air, will have less of a detrimental effect on picture quality than you;d think.
 
Hands down the M2P outshines the other 2 when in comes to photo quality. I have all 3 and when quality is required the M2P is my top choice.
The Air is nice but he will out-grow the Air quickly. It's much louder than the MP2, less autonomous features, shorter range, no match in low light settings.
Trust me, its better to dish out the extra cash, if you have it, and have a photographic tool that satisfies as your skills grow.

I honestly believe this is why the M3 as not appeared yet. Currently, there's no other drone out there that's better in the prosumer category.
Sales are too strong to push out something else in that same group or class.
Yeah, If you go up to the next tier, say the Inspire 2, then we're talking about a whole different beast.
 
I've had both the Mavic Air, and Mavic 2 Pro.

In all honesty, even with the extra megapixels, and larger sensor, you are hard pushed, to tell the difference between the outputs, even using RAW images. Maybe if you print your pictures on large canvasses, but if your loading them to social media, theres almost zero difference.

The Mavic 2 pro is like 500 quid more than the air - You can argue that extra money could be spent on the on the flymore combo with the Air, rather than the pro 2 with 1 battery.

On the flipside - The wifi signal on the Air is really poor, in built up areas. (Looks like he takes landscape pictures anyway).

If money is no issue - get the pro 2 for sure (Not the zoom). Saving some cash and getting the Air, will have less of a detrimental effect on picture quality than you;d think.

I keep seeing this type of comment and just isn't even remotely true and it's wrong to be making such claims. Perhaps if you compare straight out of camera jpegs between the drones it's true but it effectively cripples the Mavic 2 Pro as it loses out on its huge dynamic range advantage, something the OP specifically mentions as a requirement. You do not need to be printing on a large canvas to see the difference, even on the small screenshot I've posted above you can see a massive difference between the out of shot picture and the one with the shadows recovered. The large 1in sensor is what allows that level of recovery and it wouldn't be possible with the small 1/2.3in sensors, while you could use stacking to push the dynamic range that can be problematic on its own (especially with any movement) it's not viable at all on a multi-shot panorama.

Even then the 1in sensor is considered small for photography as it's the smallest of the 'large' sensors so for most photographers even that is a big step down but at least unlike the 1/2.3in sensors it does have a decent amount of latitude for dynamic range and strong high iso.
 
Both mavic 2’s are great.. I have the zoom because I was shooting a lot of people roofs for inspections and I shoot a lot of wildlife (deer) and livestock... but I also have the pro for low light and picture quality.. good luck he will love either
 
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I’d go with the M2 Pro but then again I don’t have your sons talent. Which, after looking at his pictures, I thought was really great! He has a good camera eye! I enjoyed looking at them so thank you for posting a link.
Best of luck on your decision.
 
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