Any idea what the camera is for?

[SkyPath Studios]

I have wondered since I watched Matt Haapojas’s review video, what is the mavic 3s telephoto lens used for? The idea is great and it works for inspections and such, but is it meant for filmmaking? The quality is just horrible if you are zoomed in really at all.

 

[Heindrich1988]

The marketing says you can use it "explore" whilst up in the air. i.e. check out something from distance and determine if it's worth flying over for a closer look.

Honestly seems gimmicky and pointless on a drone that is well capable of just flying over there, and isn't technically allowed to "explore" far from where you are if you comply with most national regulations.

 

[eEridani]

You use the physical aspect of the lens; it has a long focal length compared to the good lens. Anyone who even thinks of using "digital" zoom is, well, naïve.

 

[SkywalkerFeng]

The fact you can only get JPG, instead of RAW file from that telephoto camera, tells all the story.

Picking a 12MP sensor is another terrible, terrible decision. Once you start to zoom in or crop, the image quality quickly downgrades from "barely usable" to "trash". DJI could have at least picked a 48 MP sensor of the same size, like the one used in Xiaomi 11 Ultra phone.

 

[eEridani]

48 MP with glass that can't even support 10 MP. Great idea.

 

[SkyPath Studios]

Thanks that makes sense but I agree it isn’t really useful, especially when you could just fly over there in the short distance if vlos.

 

[Starz]

I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever seen the word “quality” used in the same sentence with “zoom”.

no

 

[jonatious]

I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever seen the word “quality” used in the same sentence with “zoom”.

no

I agree, but the problem here is the word “unusable” is on the same sentence as “Mavic 3 telephoto lens”

 

[Starz]

I’m thinking that DJI felt like they needed to add in this special little camera to help people dig into their wallet. The professional abilities of the Hassleblad and the zoom combined is like the M2 pro and the M2 zoom in one box, and just as expensive!

 

[Johnmcl7]

The fact you can only get JPG, instead of RAW file from that telephoto camera, tells all the story.

Picking a 12MP sensor is another terrible, terrible decision. Once you start to zoom in or crop, the image quality quickly downgrades from "barely usable" to "trash". DJI could have at least picked a 48 MP sensor of the same size, like the one used in Xiaomi 11 Ultra phone.

It's not the resolution that's the issue, it's the small size and the 48MP sensor you refer to is quad bayer, the intention is it functions as 12MP sensor (since each pixel is quadrupled) but with some potential improvement but the real advantage in practice is the marketing of being able to claim a 48MP resolution over 12.

Mobile phones have become extremely good at processing images which can make smaller sensors look very good but I don't find DJI is anywhere near as good with their processing on the same sensors.

 

[jonatious]

I’m thinking that DJI felt like they needed to add in this special little camera to help people dig into their wallet. The professional abilities of the Hassleblad and the zoom combined is like the M2 pro and the M2 zoom in one box, and just as expensive!

Thats the perspective they want to give, but it not even half the way close to M2 Zoom. They should start by adding manual control and RAW capabilities