(Follow up) Is Mavic Air’s Camera as bad as Mavic Pro.

[3JISolvic]

(This is going to be long. I thought I should warn you) I posted on this topic a couple months ago. Since then, I found out the answer first hand. This is how it happened and I thought the info might be useful to others that would like to know. This is strictly my opinion. It’s been made clear that many of you don’t agree. I’m glad I didn’t listen though.
Is Mavic Air camera as bad as Mavic Pro?

My Mavic Pro decided to auto land on top of a house in a real estate (complete neighborhood) video and slid down the pitch onto the driveway. In short . The Gimbal was destroyed. I have DJI refresh, but I had a deadline to meet and didn’t want to use my 3dr solo in some of these close up spaces. After I submitted my claim with DJI I decided that this was a situation that I needed immediate replacement. Even my wife agreed. (Weird.. I know) I bought a Mavic Air the next day and after 48 hours of a few test flights and Nd filters I put it to work. I can unequivocally answer my own question now.


In my opinion.. If i had fed my Mavic Pro to a Killer Whale on day 1; I would have saved myself a ton of agony, time, and money. So many hours spent pondering conflictIng advice. All the reading and watching suspiciously positive Mavic Pro videos. I had to buy Neat video to even have a chance of using it for clients. Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty I’m Free at last!! The Mavic Air absolutely fixes all of this.

To be clear. Even though I completely disagree with several of you regarding the Mavic Pro, I respect your opinion. I am not trying to put you down. They are both great drones air craft wise. Not Camera wise. The Pro certainly wins air craft wise. The only thing being rear sensors.

I am in the game 100 percent for quality images. At a certain price point stability and speed become a given. The Camera is my number 1 concern. Due to the Mavic’s Air Camera, Id recommend a non flying Air over a fully operating Mavic Pro .

By the Way....Is anyone interested in a freshly Refurbished Mavic Pro? I will have reasonably priced bundle for sale in a few weeks. When my replacement is shipped.

 

[Mr. Salty]

I am in the game 100 percent for quality images.

Then why did you buy an even cheaper quad with a small sensor? If you're using this professionally and you care so much about image quality you should have bought at least a P4P.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Your reasoning is why I even question if they will ever come out with a Mavic II.

Combine a top rate camera with the performance and convenience of the Mavic platform, and who’s gonna be buying the phantom line anymore?

 

[swooshdave]

I'm not surprised they have a Phantom, what surprises me is they have kept that bulky form factor. That is ridiculous these days.

 

[3JISolvic]

I didn’t buy a Phantom 4 Pro because of the size. I can effectively shoot a property with a Mavic and not disturb any neighbors. Perhaps more importantly they are far less likely to disturb me. When I shot with the Phantom 3 Pro. I had concerned neighbors approach me or just stop and watch which really ruins the shoot for me. Same with the 3dr solo. Maybe I’m just weird but Aerial videography is not an audience friendly task for me. The most important thing is being able to smoothly and safely capture your shots. The camera is equally important but if you don’t have 1 then 2 won’t do you much good. It’s true that the P4 Pro has a much better camera. That’s only useful if you get it where it needs to be. Some of you seem to think that more money always equates to better. That’s not always true. Case in point. The 3dr solo replaced my P3 pro and was a far better kit in my opinion. $299 with 2 gimbals + $200 for a used gopro. (Can’t be any good right ?? WRONG!) If not for the size and noise I’d still use the solo primarily. I’m just glad to have a less intrusive drone that takes some finagling but not much to look great.

 

[Paul2660]

One reason, the size of the sensor. I will be pleasantly surprised if DJI ever gets a 1" sensor into a Mavic platform/gimbal.

As for Air/Pro and camera. There is no doubt that DJI seems to have reworked the algorithms for noise on the Air vs Pro, and the bit rate for 4K is better. Shadow areas are cleaner, with more details.

However as a stills photographer more than video, the Pro is a great camera/lens for the price point considering it's a fix aperture a 2.2. You have the ability to check focus, and rotate the sensor from a landscape to portrait orientation. Ability to be able to focus is also a plus for me. I believe the Air is like the Spark? Locked at infinity?

I would be very surprised also, if it ever is determined that the actual sensor, (that is what is taking the image), is any different between the Pro/MPP/Air. (Maybe even Spark). There are not that many 1 2/3 Sony sensors on the market. And for DJI to use 3 different sensors would mean more development time and research. So its more an issue of the processor and software that are processing the raw data after capture.

The MPP camera can produce wonder 12MP stills, with consistent sharp focus. Even at ISO100, shadows can contain noise, and thus you need to use the AEB mode, 3 or 5 and make sure you are shooting raw for stills. More work in post, but the raw from the MPP work up very well in Adobe products or Capture One.

Paul Caldwell

 

[3JISolvic]

One reason, the size of the sensor. I will be pleasantly surprised if DJI ever gets a 1" sensor into a Mavic platform/gimbal.

As for Air/Pro and camera. There is no doubt that DJI seems to have reworked the algorithms for noise on the Air vs Pro, and the bit rate for 4K is better. Shadow areas are cleaner, with more details.

However as a stills photographer more than video, the Pro is a great camera/lens for the price point considering it's a fix aperture a 2.2. You have the ability to check focus, and rotate the sensor from a landscape to portrait orientation. Ability to be able to focus is also a plus for me. I believe the Air is like the Spark? Locked at infinity?

I would be very surprised also, if it ever is determined that the actual sensor, (that is what is taking the image), is any different between the Pro/MPP/Air. (Maybe even Spark). There are not that many 1 2/3 Sony sensors on the market. And for DJI to use 3 different sensors would mean more development time and research. So its more an issue of the processor and software that are processing the raw data after capture.

The MPP camera can produce wonder 12MP stills, with consistent sharp focus. Even at ISO100, shadows can contain noise, and thus you need to use the AEB mode, 3 or 5 and make sure you are shooting raw for stills. More work in post, but the raw from the MPP work up very well in Adobe products or Capture One.

Paul Caldwell

I agree that the Stills are solid on the MPP. Unfortunately, stills are rarely my deliverable.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Not going to try to quantify/defend just where the Mavic camera is on the scale. But, I will say it is much better than we were using just a couple of years ago. I will also say, that with a little attention to detail, the footage can be quite impressive for just about any outlet.

If we look carefully at the structure of the footage, yes it has some shortfalls when compared to larger sensors, but my expectations simply don't require that comparison.
When plotted on the convenience/ performance graph it lands pretty high.

Granted, a Mavic II with a larger sensor would knock it out of the park, but I'm not holding my breath. I suspect DJI knows it would kill their Phantom line.

I hope I am wrong.

 

[KDog]

Granted, a Mavic II with a larger sensor would knock it out of the park, but I'm not holding my breath. I suspect DJI knows it would kill their Phantom line.

I hope I am wrong.

Haha! And I’d love a Mavic Pro with a Zenmuse mount...