Is M2 Pro IQ Really That Much Better?

Hiflyer808 · May 2, 2020

The conventional wisdom is that the M2P is better for both photography and video than the A2. Especially for photography, mostly because of the big advantages of the 1" sensor and iris control only slightly offset by newer-tech things in the A2 like the 48mp photo option. Not as much for video, because the log profile and 10-bit advantages of the M2P are more strongly offset by A2 advantages such as 4k60fps.

So it was interesting to see two recent videos arguing that the A2 is actually as good or better than the M2P for photography, with video being the main strength of the M2P. The second video, shown below, makes a better case because the guy knows more about hings like noise, dr, and grading. He gives the two drones a tie in photography, because of the A2's newer sensor and raw 48mp pics. I wouldn't go that far, but yes, raw 48mp does count for a lot. And for drones, iris control isn't much of an advantage at all for PHOTOGRAPHY, because you don't have depth of focus issues at far distances. I still give the edge to the M2P mostly because you can use higher isos for night photography, but again, as he says the A2 surprised him with how well the newer sensor performed at higher isos.

Regarding video, I'd have to disagree more with both if these guys. Neither discusses the advantages of 4k60p, and the larger sensor of the M2P is in some ways a disadvantage for video. Its wider fov mode is less detailed than on the A2 because of the way it shrinks down the image to 4k size, while the sharper hq mode is noisier because it is a crop. Also, the reviewer was surprised at how well he could grade the A2's 8-bit image. Again, newer sensor.

Bottom line is that the A2 is not far behind the M2P in either photo or video, while having other advantages and being half the price.

sar104 · May 2, 2020

Reasonable assessment on the video comparison, bizarre on the photography. He even notes the same problem that I saw as soon as I started looking at 48 MP raw - even at ISO 100 the sensor noise is horrible.

AroundTheWorld · May 2, 2020

I arrived to the same conclusion as you. The Mavic 2 Pro doesn't worth the huge difference in terms of price unless you are a professional photographer or videographer.

Hiflyer808 · May 2, 2020

sar104 said:
Reasonable assessment on the video comparison, bizarre on the photography. He even notes the same problem that I saw as soon as I started looking at 48 MP raw - even at ISO 100 the sensor noise is horrible.

I guess that depends on your definition of "horrible." With flat lighting at iso 100 and what you can do with noise and dr in raw, the 48mp pics are very useful for the cropping options. And no, he gives way too much of an advantage to the Pro in video. The wide fov option is worse for detail than the A2 in good light, the lack of 4k60fps is important, video HDR mode is better in the A2, and with the new sensor you can do a decent amount of grading of cinelike without it falling apart. So the M2P is better than the A2 in video because of 10 bit and the log profile, but not far better.

ChipDjipro · May 2, 2020

All comes down to what you’re using a drone for. Is The pro better yes is it worth the price difference well that all depends on the individual. I personally would take the pro or the zoom. They all have impressive cameras. Technology that is wrapped up into these little drones is just amazing.

Martin_D · May 2, 2020

Hiflyer808 said:
I guess that depends on your definition of "horrible." With flat lighting at iso 100 and what you can do with noise and dr in raw, the 48mp pics are very useful for the cropping options. And no, he gives way too much of an advantage to the Pro in video. The wide fov option is worse for detail than the A2 in good light, the lack of 4k60fps is important, video HDR mode is better in the A2, and with the new sensor you can do a decent amount of grading of cinelike without it falling apart. So the M2P is better than the A2 in video because of 10 bit and the log profile, but not far better.

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that the 48 mega pixel images produced by the A2 were in jpg format.

Hiflyer808 · May 2, 2020

Martin_D said:
I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that the 48 mega pixel images produced by the A2 were in jpg format.

No, there is a raw option. Would be much less useful to a pro photographer if jpg only.

Martin_D · May 2, 2020

Mmm, a raw image on a 1/2” sensor with no manual control compared to an image on 1” sensor with full control over the camera settings while the bird is airborne. Are you wanting to take photos or snaps? At the end of the day it’s all down to the pilot/photographer, I achieve some excellent images with my m2p and apart from finding the scene it’s all down to camera setting at the location.

lensimages · May 3, 2020

I believe the raw images are only 12mp and jpegs 48

sar104 · May 3, 2020

lensimages said:
I believe the raw images are only 12mp and jpegs 48

No - 12 and 48 MP can be recorded as JPEG and/or raw.

Martin_D · May 3, 2020

Hiflyer808 said:
No, there is a raw option. Would be much less useful to a pro photographer if jpg only.

I don’t really think a point and shoot camera on a drone would be of any interest to a professional photographer, this is why the m2p has been and will still be the favourite bird for professional photographers. That’s why it’s much dearer than the ma2 and will be until the m3p is announced… but even then it will still be a good bird.
I really don’t understand why people are getting excited about a large lossy file format (jpg).

sar104 · May 3, 2020

Martin_D said:
I don’t really think a point and shoot camera on a drone would be of any interest to a professional photographer, this is why the m2p has been and will still be the favourite bird for professional photographers. That’s why it’s much dearer than the ma2 and will be until the m3p is announced… but even then it will still be a good bird.
I really don’t understand why people are getting excited about a large lossy file format (jpg).

But.... it's so big.

Johnmcl7 · May 3, 2020

Martin_D said:
Mmm, a raw image on a 1/2” sensor with no manual control compared to an image on 1” sensor with full control over the camera settings while the bird is airborne. Are you wanting to take photos or snaps? At the end of the day it’s all down to the pilot/photographer, I achieve some excellent images with my m2p and apart from finding the scene it’s all down to camera setting at the location.

Agreed, the 1in sensor is still on the small side compared to the main sensor formats but it has a noticeable advantage over 1/2in sensors because it still has a reasonable amount of detail that can be pulled back in shadow and highlight areas (useful in landscape photos) and reasonably clean high iso. This is around a couple of stops pulled back from the shadows:

Computational photography can get tremendous results from a small sensor but it still has limitations, the shot above is made from a 21 shot panorama so while you could get better dynamic range through stacking on a small sensor it wouldn't be practical for cases like above.

The flip side is if you're not processing the raw files and using the jpeg straight from the camera then you're not likely to see the benefits of the Pro and clearly small sensors are still capable of great image quality. My main cameras are full frame which had pushed me into getting used to processing raw files but I still take plenty photos from my phone camera as it's capable of great results.