Fixed aperture

[fivesense]

I haven't purchased a drone or actively followed new releases since I purchased my Mavic 2 Pro back in 2019. It's been a reliable workhorse and I'll keep it in my "tool bag" but I'm taking a strong look at the Mini Pro 5.

However one thing that flags for me is the fixed f/1.8 aperture on the Mini 5. I change the aperture on my Mavic 2 Pro frequently as needed. How has DJI built the Mini 5 so that shooting wide open all the time works so well? I assume it does otherwise they wouldn't have done it. But I'd appreciate any explanation as to how the software/hardware integration makes the fixed aperture acceptable.

I know I can shoot with faster SS and utilize the ND filters.

Any guidance or explanations will be appreciated.

 

[fivesense]

I just did some research on this. I think I now understand a little bit better. Shooting with a drone at distance is different than shooting with my other ground-bound cameras where I'm closer to a specific subject, and depth of field is different.

 

[Dale D]

I haven't purchased a drone or actively followed new releases since I purchased my Mavic 2 Pro back in 2019. It's been a reliable workhorse and I'll keep it in my "tool bag" but I'm taking a strong look at the Mini Pro 5.

However one thing that flags for me is the fixed f/1.8 aperture on the Mini 5. I change the aperture on my Mavic 2 Pro frequently as needed. How has DJI built the Mini 5 so that shooting wide open all the time works so well? I assume it does otherwise they wouldn't have done it. But I'd appreciate any explanation as to how the software/hardware integration makes the fixed aperture acceptable.

I know I can shoot with faster SS and utilize the ND filters.

Any guidance or explanations will be appreciated.

Lots of You Tube videos on ND filters as the solution. The drone comes with 3 filter, and I am going to buy the recommended Freewell all day kit.
Dale

 

[fivesense]

Lots of You Tube videos on ND filters as the solution. The drone comes with 3 filter, and I am going to buy the recommended Freewell all day kit.
Dale

If you were to compare the Mavic 2 Pro to the Mini Pro 5, what would your expectation be for stills and video? My research indicates to me that the video on the Mini 5 should be "better." I'm not sure about the stills. But I'd guess the newer software wizardry in the Mini Pro 5 should make the still images pretty good.

 

[BossBob]

Depends if you are using JPEG or raw. To me the mini 4 and 5 JPEG’s look over processed, almost painted. Raw, well they are what you make of them.

 

[PHZ]

I recently did identical missions with a Mavic 2 Pro and a Mini 5 Pro. Not a controlled test but a casual comparison of the photos showed me the Mini 5 Pro was ever so slightly sharper. A small, small difference, but it certainly was the equal of my beloved Mavic 2 Pro.
However, since I was shooting panos the Mini 5 was the Rock Star. Free form pano mode is amazing and the resulting panos coming straight out of the drone were better than the M2 Pro using ICE to stitch.

 

[fivesense]

Depends if you are using JPEG or raw. To me the mini 4 and 5 JPEG’s look over processed, almost painted. Raw, well they are what you make of them.

Yes, I shoot exclusively in RAW.

 

[MS Coast]

Depends if you are using JPEG or raw. To me the mini 4 and 5 JPEG’s look over processed, almost painted. Raw, well they are what you make of them.

Have you tinkered with the sharpening and noise reduction settings to improve the jpg files? With the default settings, the jpgs look a bit over-processed to me. Dialing them both back a bit seems to help.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I recently did identical missions with a Mavic 2 Pro and a Mini 5 Pro. Not a controlled test but a casual comparison of the photos showed me the Mini 5 Pro was ever so slightly sharper. A small, small difference, but it certainly was the equal of my beloved Mavic 2 Pro.
However, since I was shooting panos the Mini 5 was the Rock Star. Free form pano mode is amazing and the resulting panos coming straight out of the drone were better than the M2 Pro using ICE to stitch.

The native 20MP images from the Mavic 2 Pro should produce more detail in Panos than the native 12.5MP images do from the Mini 5 Pro, but computational photography has vastly improved over the last 4 years.