Ordered on the 23rd, arrived today so took a long time. Half the delay was DJI not shipping then UK customs.
Knew i'd need to do a firmware update. This refused to work with Go4 Android (the No Network error most people seem to get). Assistant 2 installed but wouldnt load (nothing happened, never appeared). Turns out you may need to disable an AV - it tries to phone home and if it cant (no firewall prompt) it just never loads.
Either way, firmware then updated OK.
Thought i'd calibrate vision sensors but DJI still haven't got signed drivers so i didnt bother for now.
Calibrated the IMU (beware the bug about the orientation in step 3 on Go4, its wrong).
Calibrated the RC (different to the old method, much easier).
Calibrated compass - my compass initially was in the yellow out of the box so it definitely needed it even though it didn't prompt.
Went to find a big empty field for a first flight and failed, turns out every single one seems to be Rugby training this evening so plan B was a very careful flight from the garden.
Random impressions in no real order:-
All in all im impressed. Not good lighting conditions and one quick flight due to all the places i WAS going to test fly being full of kids throwing balls around. Hopefully tomorrow i'll test the modes, videos and functions a lot more (ive got a list).
We've got the usual thing that DJI can do hardware well but not software (Go4 bugs with firmware, auto sync, unsigned drivers etc) but thats not going to shock anyone.
Very quick messy 5 shot AEB merged to HDR.
Standard DNG photo. Mavic 1 would have failed dismally here in the top right
Again not that i'd ever use it an auto HDR jpg done on drone. Tricky lighting, a little burnt out still but not too bad if you do that sort of thing.
Finally,not that i ever use it but a JPG, full auto camera 180 degree pano. A little bit burnt out in the right hand side but i'd never normally do this on auto exposure or JPG so im not concerned.
Knew i'd need to do a firmware update. This refused to work with Go4 Android (the No Network error most people seem to get). Assistant 2 installed but wouldnt load (nothing happened, never appeared). Turns out you may need to disable an AV - it tries to phone home and if it cant (no firewall prompt) it just never loads.
Either way, firmware then updated OK.
Thought i'd calibrate vision sensors but DJI still haven't got signed drivers so i didnt bother for now.
Calibrated the IMU (beware the bug about the orientation in step 3 on Go4, its wrong).
Calibrated the RC (different to the old method, much easier).
Calibrated compass - my compass initially was in the yellow out of the box so it definitely needed it even though it didn't prompt.
Went to find a big empty field for a first flight and failed, turns out every single one seems to be Rugby training this evening so plan B was a very careful flight from the garden.
Random impressions in no real order:-
- The charging hub is better designed and foldable
- The chargers built in USB for the RC is nice. Its also got a normal USB plug
- Batteries take a lot longer to charge and are physically much thicker.
- The RC antennas have a little plastic clip to lock together when folded. This is great as the old ones flopped all over when stored. Small things...!
- Gimbal lock is one piece and much easier to fit and remove than the old thing
- Being able to access the SD card without unfolding is nice. You'll still need to unfold for the USB port though
- Drone startup is a lot faster
- First flight - took off and noticed no obvious difference in noise to older versions. Still buzzes, still audible 300m+ away
- Out of the box the yaw is far less sensitive. It'll need a bit more backup off but nothing as severe. Gimbal still needs customisation
- Front and back sensors means its likely to beep at you every time you take off and land!
- Precision landing has definitely gone - if it can find the correct house and garden now it's lucky!
- The camera itself is *SIGNIFICANTLY* better than the M1:-
- Colours are far better reproduced both on screen and on images
- Its far snappier taking photos and operations and returning control to you
- Dynamic range is so much better its unbelievable. It was tricky lighting (end of day, cloud, low sun angle) and even bog standard auto its not burning stuff out
- Highlights dont appear "white by default" any more
- It does 16:9 and 3:2 aspect ratios apparently.. HOWEVER im not seeing that. The images i took switching between were 5472 x 3078 and 5464 x 3070 which obviously isn't correct..... Bug???
- Spherical now takes 26 images and more slowly giving exposure time to adjust. I'll see if the AE lock bug has gone next time
- Having aperture and shutter priority is great
- Very little noise (admittedly ISO100)
- Image profile correction IS baked into the DNG by default so you dont need to wait for Adobe to produce it
- Sharpness is generally good throughout the frame. A little bit of corner softness but really nothing to get worried about
- Its far snappier taking photos and operations and returning control to you
- Dynamic range is so much better its unbelievable. It was tricky lighting (end of day, cloud, low sun angle) and even bog standard auto its not burning stuff out
- Highlights dont appear "white by default" any more
- It does 16:9 and 3:2 aspect ratios apparently.. HOWEVER im not seeing that. The images i took switching between were 5472 x 3078 and 5464 x 3070 which obviously isn't correct..... Bug???
- Spherical now takes 26 images and more slowly giving exposure time to adjust. I'll see if the AE lock bug has gone next time
- Having aperture and shutter priority is great
- Very little noise (admittedly ISO100)
- Image profile correction IS baked into the DNG by default so you dont need to wait for Adobe to produce it
- Sharpness is generally good throughout the frame. A little bit of corner softness but really nothing to get worried about
- Video:-
- No more pulsing on the 8th frame. !!!
- No more mushiness noise reduction with sharpening 0
- "None" colour profile looks pretty good
- Dlog has really obvious barrel distortion (which we already knew). Really obvious!
- Having Shutter priority is a fantastic addon for video!
- Lightroom wont import H265s (says unknown video and audio stream). It also wont see the new file structure for Panos etc which arent in DCIM so if you use LR to import you may need to reconsider. It'll only do single shot DNGs and AEB, the rest it wont see.
- Says my Sandisk Class10 MicroSD is too slow for 4k recording. Its been fine in my DSLR and Mavic 1. I'll test a different card
- Formatting a card creates a GIS and some other new directories on the SD that older drones didn't
- Auto Sync HD photos still doesn't work on Android. This is a Go4 bug going back to around January. They broke it, they never fixed it. It still wont downlink JPGs or anything during flight automatically.
- The half-press to focus is going to take a bit of getting used to. Initially i focussed a lot and took few pictures. Then wondered why it was constantly trying to focus. You really do have to press and HOLD now to take an image on the RC.
All in all im impressed. Not good lighting conditions and one quick flight due to all the places i WAS going to test fly being full of kids throwing balls around. Hopefully tomorrow i'll test the modes, videos and functions a lot more (ive got a list).
We've got the usual thing that DJI can do hardware well but not software (Go4 bugs with firmware, auto sync, unsigned drivers etc) but thats not going to shock anyone.
Very quick messy 5 shot AEB merged to HDR.
Standard DNG photo. Mavic 1 would have failed dismally here in the top right
Again not that i'd ever use it an auto HDR jpg done on drone. Tricky lighting, a little burnt out still but not too bad if you do that sort of thing.
Finally,not that i ever use it but a JPG, full auto camera 180 degree pano. A little bit burnt out in the right hand side but i'd never normally do this on auto exposure or JPG so im not concerned.
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