Initial observations on M2P from a photographer

[miemo]

Got my M2P late yesterday, spent the evening charging batteries, doing FW updates and configuring settings. First quick test flight today. And **** the camera is GREAT!

Some initial discoveries:

- Exposure latitude in DNGs is amazing: I can easily pull down the exposure 1,3 stops and recover ALL details in highlights. 2 stops recovery possible with minor clipping in topmost shades – meaning it looks like a correctly exposed shot from Mavic 1

- Center sharpness is great already at f2.8, corners are a bit soft but improve already in major way when stopped down to f4 and f5.6 seems to be the sweet spot for the quality overall. Diffraction kicks in already at f8 softening everything again and f11 makes it a bit worse. (Btw, corner sharpness is still great already at f2.8 if you compare it to Mavic 1!!)

- JPG quality is really nice, no overprocessed look in any regards and color tones feel really natural. Actually matches surprisingly closely the default settings on DNG when opened in Lightroom. Also the panorama processing for JPGs is surprisingly good. (Naturally the DNGs have way more latitude in post, and will continue to shoot those exclusively. But nice to know that if need be, you can pull the JPG out for quick sharing without needing to worry about quality)

- DNGs look nice & natural out of the card, I don't feel the need to manipulate them heavily to make them look somewhat nice which was often the case with Mavic 1. And if there's a need for tweaking the look more, the DNGs seem to respond to it very well, without breaking down even under more extreme mods. So in these regards they do feel like RAW files from any "proper" camera.

All and all the camera feels like A MAJOR step up from Mavic 1. This is a real photographic tool with very little compromises and constraints. Huge respect for DJI & Hasselblad for pulling this off!

 

[miemo]

The controls take some getting used to now that there's also aperture to handle. Coming from "real" cameras, not having two wheels feels like a huge limitation here. I did find the settings for using the joystick for exposure control, but that just feels somehow wrong – and I hate the beep it apparently forcefully always makes. I do wish the right wheel was clickable for switching which parameter it controls, like on Panasonic bodies with just 1 wheel.

 

[miemo]

On the exposure latitude: here's two develops of the same DNG, which was exposed for the buildings, badly blowing out the sky.

The one on the left is the default as Lightroom shows it, the one on the right has EV -1,3 applied in Lightroom, resulting in a completely clean sky where nothing clips. Pretty amazing really.

 

[Talley]

It's ok.

 

[mreloc]

Got my M2P late yesterday, spent the evening charging batteries, doing FW updates and configuring settings. First quick test flight today. And **** the camera is GREAT!

Some initial discoveries:

- Exposure latitude in DNGs is amazing: I can easily pull down the exposure 1,3 stops and recover ALL details in highlights. 2 stops recovery possible with minor clipping in topmost shades – meaning it looks like a correctly exposed shot from Mavic 1

- Center sharpness is great already at f2.8, corners are a bit soft but improve already in major way when stopped down to f4 and f5.6 seems to be the sweet spot for the quality overall. Diffraction kicks in already at f8 softening everything again and f11 makes it a bit worse. (Btw, corner sharpness is still great already at f2.8 if you compare it to Mavic 1!!)

- JPG quality is really nice, no overprocessed look in any regards and color tones feel really natural. Actually matches surprisingly closely the default settings on DNG when opened in Lightroom. Also the panorama processing for JPGs is surprisingly good. (Naturally the DNGs have way more latitude in post, and will continue to shoot those exclusively. But nice to know that if need be, you can pull the JPG out for quick sharing without needing to worry about quality)

- DNGs look nice & natural out of the card, I don't feel the need to manipulate them heavily to make them look somewhat nice which was often the case with Mavic 1. And if there's a need for tweaking the look more, the DNGs seem to respond to it very well, without breaking down even under more extreme mods. So in these regards they do feel like RAW files from any "proper" camera.

All and all the camera feels like A MAJOR step up from Mavic 1. This is a real photographic tool with very little compromises and constraints. Huge respect for DJI & Hasselblad for pulling this off!

Thanks for this good analysis! I'm not a pro photographer but my wife is - coming from the Leica user perspective, she thinks the quality (color and detail) coming off the M2 is impressive.

 

[gnirtS]

A few things i noticed immediately there the colours were far better rendered and the dynamic range far better. The Mavic 1 butchered pretty much all highlights no matter how careful you were. This doesnt.

The increase in sharpness is noticeable, being able to read road signs from height. Corners a little soft but much better than the mavic. Even lenses costing 3x what a mavic does have soft corners.
There is a drastically lower amount of noise at ISO100 than the old drone. Its a very "clean" image.

I have't yet tested sharpness at different apertures or noise at different ISOs - that was on todays to-do list but horizontal rain and strong winds meant nothing flew.

Not having 2 wheels is an issue for me on manual focus, i'll get used to it but not yet.

Having aperture and shutter priority modes are nice too.

No idea about the JPGs - i never shoot them.

For a relatively small sensor and camera im impressed by it - its no DSLR but its more than adequate for commercial use. Its incomparable to the mavic 1 camera which is basically, awful.

 

[mreloc]

A few things i noticed immediately there the colours were far better rendered and the dynamic range far better. The Mavic 1 butchered pretty much all highlights no matter how careful you were. This doesnt.

The increase in sharpness is noticeable, being able to read road signs from height. Corners a little soft but much better than the mavic. Even lenses costing 3x what a mavic does have soft corners.
There is a drastically lower amount of noise at ISO100 than the old drone. Its a very "clean" image.

I have't yet tested sharpness at different apertures or noise at different ISOs - that was on todays to-do list but horizontal rain and strong winds meant nothing flew.

Not having 2 wheels is an issue for me on manual focus, i'll get used to it but not yet.

Having aperture and shutter priority modes are nice too.

No idea about the JPGs - i never shoot them.

For a relatively small sensor and camera im impressed by it - its no DSLR but its more than adequate for commercial use. Its incomparable to the mavic 1 camera which is basically, awful.

I find enabling the continuous auto focus in combination with light peaking pretty good and keeps me from messing with manual focus

 

[gnirtS]

Ive got to using half press focus like on a real camera. Took a few flight to get used to it but feels natural now.

 

[miemo]

It's ok.

Not easily impressed, eh

 

[MadScientist]

I have a Sony RS100v as well as my new M2P (which probably share the same sensor) and I've been doing a number of controlled A vs B comparisons of image quality. Using the same settings, JPGS on the whole are superior from the Sony with less grain and more detail. RAW images on the other hand give virtually indistinguishable results with the appropriate manipulation. Neither are very far behind my Canon 7D - very impressed.

 

[JoostGT3]

Wow, I must say I ave been waiting for reviews like these. I used to do quite some photography with my entry-level DSLRs (D90, D610) before I got aroud to buying my Mavic Pro (1). As cool as the 1 is, I have huge trouble getting acceptable shots with it... I'm by no means a pro photographer or even a good amateur, but I do have been spoilt by the image quality from my D610. Stepping back then to the (then impressive) Mavic Pro always hurts a bit.
It is reassuring to read reviews like these, indicating that it will be worth to step up from a Mavic Pro 1 to a Mavic 2 Pro... even though it will probably cost me more than a €1000,- (Hoping to be able to sell my fly more package for €800,-)

 

[KONY]

Mavic 2 PRO is impressing me every single day...coming from a MAVIC 1 i was expecting a clear improvement on the image quality and also videos..

it does not disapoint and really shines in low light : you may get some noise especially on videos at night, but overall the result will be much more usable than with MAVIC 1

And i manage, with the right settings, to get exceptionnal results from JPEG in plain darkness...that pix below would require a tripod with a normal camera..thinking that you now get such sharp picture from a moving drone 500 meters high altitude...INSANE !!

 

[miemo]

And i manage, with the right settings, to get exceptionnal results from JPEG in plain darkness...that pix below would require a tripod with a normal camera..thinking that you now get such sharp picture from a moving drone 500 meters high altitude...INSANE !!
View attachment 45514

Man that looks great! Really looking forward to doing some night-time / low-light shooting. (And as we're heading towards the fall here in Finland, there's gonna be plenty of darkness around soon… ) That really wasn't something you'd do with Mavic 1, anything above ISO 100 was all mushy.

 

[KONY]

Yes that drone opened a whole lot of new possibilities in term of photos and videos... Great purchase

 

[gnirtS]

Not tried ISOs above 100 - thats the plan for today if wind drops. I wont ever need really high ISOs as night flying is illegal here and in most countries i visit but 200-400 might be needed at dusk.
The mavic 1 was unusable above iso100 due to noise.

 

[4wd]

I did some video and stills after sunset yesterday and was frankly amazed how good it looks.
I'd suggest manual focus as it seemed to struggle slightly with that.
I only went to ISO 400 and 200 would have been OK most of the time at least for stills.

 

[gnirtS]

If manual focus works it'd be nice. My M1 wouldnt manually focus to an accurate infinity at all at night.

 

[JoostGT3]

Mavic 2 PRO is impressing me every single day...coming from a MAVIC 1 i was expecting a clear improvement on the image quality and also videos..

it does not disapoint and really shines in low light : you may get some noise especially on videos at night, but overall the result will be much more usable than with MAVIC 1

And i manage, with the right settings, to get exceptionnal results from JPEG in plain darkness...that pix below would require a tripod with a normal camera..thinking that you now get such sharp picture from a moving drone 500 meters high altitude...INSANE !!

View attachment 45514

Wow, that is a really impressive picture! Thanks for sharing your experience and photo, mate!

 

[BlueBay]

Got my M2P late yesterday, spent the evening charging batteries, doing FW updates and configuring settings. First quick test flight today. And **** the camera is GREAT!

Some initial discoveries:

- Exposure latitude in DNGs is amazing: I can easily pull down the exposure 1,3 stops and recover ALL details in highlights. 2 stops recovery possible with minor clipping in topmost shades – meaning it looks like a correctly exposed shot from Mavic 1

- Center sharpness is great already at f2.8, corners are a bit soft but improve already in major way when stopped down to f4 and f5.6 seems to be the sweet spot for the quality overall. Diffraction kicks in already at f8 softening everything again and f11 makes it a bit worse. (Btw, corner sharpness is still great already at f2.8 if you compare it to Mavic 1!!)

- JPG quality is really nice, no overprocessed look in any regards and color tones feel really natural. Actually matches surprisingly closely the default settings on DNG when opened in Lightroom. Also the panorama processing for JPGs is surprisingly good. (Naturally the DNGs have way more latitude in post, and will continue to shoot those exclusively. But nice to know that if need be, you can pull the JPG out for quick sharing without needing to worry about quality)

- DNGs look nice & natural out of the card, I don't feel the need to manipulate them heavily to make them look somewhat nice which was often the case with Mavic 1. And if there's a need for tweaking the look more, the DNGs seem to respond to it very well, without breaking down even under more extreme mods. So in these regards they do feel like RAW files from any "proper" camera.

All and all the camera feels like A MAJOR step up from Mavic 1. This is a real photographic tool with very little compromises and constraints. Huge respect for DJI & Hasselblad for pulling this off!

Plus huge respect to you for sharing this detailed information. Brilliant! Thank you.

 

[KONY]

Thanx Joos

Gnirst: Manual focus do work at night