Got my first chance to fly today approaching sunset. I took a few flights with both the M3 and MA2, and my initial reaction is pretty positive. I'll have a full review going up in a few days, but here's a few quick impressions:
Anybody have MA3 questions they're looking to get answered?
- It's a big boy. Compared to the MA2, it's significantly bigger in all dimensions. It's easier to retain visual on in the air, but also feels like it can draw a little more attention while walking around.
- The "bra" that functions as a gimbal/propeller cover is a much nicer solution than the MA2's hard plastic cap. It's less finnicky, while protecting both more sensors and the props.
- In flight sound is inoffensive, but you can definitely feel more of a draft coming off it at liftoff. Ground clearance is good enough, and I really like moving more of the cooling vents topside.
- Dynamic range improvements are instantly noticeable on even my phone screen. Towards sunset, you really had a binary choice between blown out sky and black foreground. Now, one exposure can retain much more of the sky, and the foreground can still be recovered quite naturally.
- A 3 shot AEB bracket merged to HDR in Lightroom has very natural tonality, with excellent recovery of the full range. Even in very difficult lighting, these shots came out looking fantastic,
- Flight time estimates of 40+ minutes are totally reasonable. Drone had plenty of battery, even while hovering, testing sport mode, launching and recovering, etc. I came down because my LAANC window was ending, not because I was low on juice. A second battery pack is going to be plenty. I'm glad I didn't get the fly more, even more now.
- Telephoto lens, as currently implemented, is pretty meh. Accessing it via "explore mode" is clunky, as is having to manually cycle through the digital zoom options. No raw here isn't a deal breaker, but it could be way easier to use than it currently is.
- Aperture settings, for photographers, is pretty useless. I shot through the aperture range and can't tell the difference between f/2.8 and f/8 apart. Don't bother stopping down thinking it'll confer sharpness improvements.
- Color science is good. Resolution isn't significantly up compared to MA2, but every other aspect of the image is.
- While I wasn't flying the drone hard, it handled perfectly smoothly. The only surprise was APAS toggling off as light levels fell triggered a "jerking" motion in the drone that took me by surprise - I'd like to see this feature degrade more gracefully.
Anybody have MA3 questions they're looking to get answered?
