Is Mavic Air camera as bad as Mavic Pro?

[AerialExplorerNJ]

Is the Mavic Air Camera as much of a Struggle as the Mavic Pro? Lets face it. Even the lowly GoPro that you guys always tend to downplay doesn’t suffer some of the frustrating issues that the Mavic pro camera does. I’m not talking about stills, size, loudness, portability or how many drones DJI must be giving away to have any positive reviews for the Mavic Pro. It’s a great air craft (not camera) that is so close, but so far away. We seem to have all accepted the fact that you literally have to perform intensive surgery on all Mavic Pro footage to get rid of the noise and flickering. The sharpness debate is an absolute joke. You lose no matter which way you go. It’s all just varying degrees of not good enough. Please tell me that the Mavic Air doesn’t suffer from the Noise, Flicker, and Sharpness problems. I understand the limitations of H.264, but the Mavic Pro struggles beyond that excuse. Too all of you getting free DJI products... Congrats and good for you! I don’t need your advice so please go spread your lies in other posts like normal. It’s probably a lost cause but I would like some insight I can trust.

New DJI drone owner here. I picked up the Mavic Air recently and am amazed at the quality you can get from the Air.

It’s definitely not going to be good out of the box but I was able to get this footage on my 4th outing after tweaking.

Hardly did anything to the footage in post, and edited the raw footage on my IPad Pro:

 

[cwil193]

Is the Mavic Air Camera as much of a Struggle as the Mavic Pro? Lets face it. Even the lowly GoPro that you guys always tend to downplay doesn’t suffer some of the frustrating issues that the Mavic pro camera does. I’m not talking about stills, size, loudness, portability or how many drones DJI must be giving away to have any positive reviews for the Mavic Pro. It’s a great air craft (not camera) that is so close, but so far away. We seem to have all accepted the fact that you literally have to perform intensive surgery on all Mavic Pro footage to get rid of the noise and flickering. The sharpness debate is an absolute joke. You lose no matter which way you go. It’s all just varying degrees of not good enough. Please tell me that the Mavic Air doesn’t suffer from the Noise, Flicker, and Sharpness problems. I understand the limitations of H.264, but the Mavic Pro struggles beyond that excuse. Too all of you getting free DJI products... Congrats and good for you! I don’t need your advice so please go spread your lies in other posts like normal. It’s probably a lost cause but I would like some insight I can trust.

Look at comparisons, but from what I have seen the Air is like a great point and shoot/starter dslr and the pro is like a phone camera

 

[nuclearheli]

New DJI drone owner here. I picked up the Mavic Air recently and am amazed at the quality you can get from the Air.

It’s definitely not going to be good out of the box but I was able to get this footage on my 4th outing after tweaking.

Hardly did anything to the footage in post, and edited the raw footage on my IPad Pro:

very nice. I do a ton of Jersey Shore footage, some as contract work some for fun. Where are you? Beautiful, don’t recognize the area

 

[AerialExplorerNJ]

very nice. I do a ton of Jersey Shore footage, some as contract work some for fun. Where are you? Beautiful, don’t recognize the area

I’m in Spring Lake, NJ. One of my favorite places in the whole world.

I’m going to shoot Ocean Grove next.

 

[nuclearheli]

I’m in Spring Lake, NJ. One of my favorite places in the whole world.

I’m going to shoot Ocean Grove next.

My wife thought that's where you were. I have not been in that area since before Sandy. I work more to the south. Have a few contracts down in the LBI area, AC and areas south. Have to get up there and see everything, looks great. That hotel is beautiful, that wouldn't be the breakers would it? I stayed there a few times with my wife but it never looked like that.

 

[tcope]

As bad as what? A $1000 camera that does not fly? The GoPro cost as much as the entire Mavic Pro and it just sits on someone's hand. If you want a very good camera drone you should not have bought the Mavic Pro and certainly should not be looking at the Mavic Air, that is your mistake. You shold be looking at the Pahntom 4 Pro.

 

[AerialExplorerNJ]

My wife thought that's where you were. I have not been in that area since before Sandy. I work more to the south. Have a few contracts down in the LBI area, AC and areas south. Have to get up there and see everything, looks great. That hotel is beautiful, that wouldn't be the breakers would it? I stayed there a few times with my wife but it never looked like that.

That’s actually a 55 plus condo community. I believe at one time it may have been a hotel.

The Breakers is a bit farther down the road.

It was a good subject for a fly over though.

Lots of good places to shoot.

 

[nuclearheli]

As bad as what? A $1000 camera that does not fly? The GoPro cost as much as the entire Mavic Pro and it just sits on someone's hand. If you want a very good camera drone you should not have bought the Mavic Pro and certainly should not be looking at the Mavic Air, that is your mistake. You shold be looking at the Pahntom 4 Pro.

I think the MA's camera does quite a nice job and have seen some really high quality videos shot with it. But I don't disagree with everything you said. When I do production work for hire I fly Inspire 2's with the X5s and X7s camera systems and lenses depending on the shoot. But my little MA is great for fast personal fun videos. And actually I have taken video with my MP and MA with as close as possible parameters, same shot and target and the MA's video is slightly but noticeably better then my MP.

BTW, I do want to know where you shop for your GoPro stuff, I need to avoid that place. You can get a GoPro Hero 5 on Amazon for $399 and probably cheaper if you shop around.

 

[Mike_in_Letcombe]

Is the Mavic Air Camera as much of a Struggle as the Mavic Pro? Lets face it. Even the lowly GoPro that you guys always tend to downplay doesn’t suffer some of the frustrating issues that the Mavic pro camera does. I’m not talking about stills, size, loudness, portability or how many drones DJI must be giving away to have any positive reviews for the Mavic Pro. It’s a great air craft (not camera) that is so close, but so far away. We seem to have all accepted the fact that you literally have to perform intensive surgery on all Mavic Pro footage to get rid of the noise and flickering. The sharpness debate is an absolute joke. You lose no matter which way you go. It’s all just varying degrees of not good enough. Please tell me that the Mavic Air doesn’t suffer from the Noise, Flicker, and Sharpness problems. I understand the limitations of H.264, but the Mavic Pro struggles beyond that excuse. Too all of you getting free DJI products... Congrats and good for you! I don’t need your advice so please go spread your lies in other posts like normal. It’s probably a lost cause but I would like some insight I can trust.

The pictures and video I’ve taken with my Pro have been flawless. If you are having so many issues, I wonder if you’ve read the manual or watched YouTube videos of ‘best settings’? I have no flicker, no noise (I manually set ISO) and I purposely de-sharpen a bit as I find it can give harsh results if not. A bad tradesman blames his tools?

 

[Endeavor]

I have a mavic, P4 and P4A and for me it's all setup and pilot control. The cameras are fine as long as you configure correctly for light and motion. I find youtube ruins most video so I used Vimeo for commercial grade display.

 

[wsalopek]

I filmed this a about a week ago with the air, far from perfect but I feel like its a step up from the Mavic Pros capabilities

Joshua,

Nice video...the increased Mavic Air bitrates are certainly contribution to the detail/noise issues. Nice job.

--

Bill

 

[John_W_PNS]

Actually I'm confused. The video I get out of my Mavic Pro is very sharp, with no flicker or noise whatsoever. Frankly, you're just doing something wrong.

Maybe if you tell us what kind of lighting conditions you are filming, and what is your ISO settings, shutter speed, video mode, and whether you are using a ND filter - may be useful to help you.

 

[cwil193]

Actually I'm confused. The video I get out of my Mavic Pro is very sharp, with no flicker or noise whatsoever. Frankly, you're just doing something wrong.

Maybe if you tell us what kind of lighting conditions you are filming, and what is your ISO settings, shutter speed, video mode, and whether you are using a ND filter - may be useful to help you.

It’s as simple as a better bitrate camera on the air, the pro is just not as good

 

[Mike4884]

It’s as simple as a better bitrate camera on the air, the pro is just not as good

Yep i own the pro the air and a bunch of other DJI products ....the air just takes a better image/video then my pro... video very noticeable

 

[swoermck]

Yep i own the pro the air and a bunch of other DJI products ....the air just takes a better image/video then my pro... video very noticeable

So far all videos I have seen on YouTube I totally agree with John_W_PNS: Mavic Pro videos are VERY SHARP, lot's of details, and Mavic Air videos seems to be 2/3 sharp, but most of the time in the far distance a bit blurry.

Ok this is only my own opinion, but meanwhile I found a very detailed review between the Mavic Air and the Mavic Pro (unfortunately in German) which supported my observation. The conclusion was:

- Photos: RAW absolute identical, but the Mavic Air does a better job when creating JPEGs, the Pro does too much noise reduction (personally I never compared Mavic Air to Mavic Pro photos)

- Video: it is vice versa, the Mavic Pro is definitely better, to quote his statement (trying to translate for you from German): "the air makes mega soup out of the video"

(have a look from 14:50 onwards)

In 15:17 he is zooming into the video, which makes the difference even more obvious.

Finally, it is everybody's own opinion, but for me this was a really "show stopper": I have a Mavic Pro, and already sold my old Parrot Bebop2 to buy me a Mavic Air. I still would like to go for the Air as my 2nd drone, but as long as it won't deliver the same sharp videos from near to far I love so much from my Mavic Pro, for me the Air is a clear "no go".

.. but I still hope with future firmware upgrade(s) from DJI the air will finally also produce those crystal clear videos ..

Stefan

 

[LivinLarge]

I think the MA's camera does quite a nice job and have seen some really high quality videos shot with it. But I don't disagree with everything you said. When I do production work for hire I fly Inspire 2's with the X5s and X7s camera systems and lenses depending on the shoot. But my little MA is great for fast personal fun videos. And actually I have taken video with my MP and MA with as close as possible parameters, same shot and target and the MA's video is slightly but noticeably better then my MP.

BTW, I do want to know where you shop for your GoPro stuff, I need to avoid that place. You can get a GoPro Hero 5 on Amazon for $399 and probably cheaper if you shop around.

Hero 5 is $249 at Dicks Sporting goods. Session 5 is $75.
https://m.dickssportinggoods.com/p/...t_PageElement_oosproduct_rr_1_3300_&rrec=true

 

[Mossiback]

... Mavic Pro footage to get rid of the noise and flickering...

Perhaps you got a lemon? I noticed in video some what I will call "stuttering" that was fixed by slowing down the shutter rate with ND filters. You stated that you have filters so that is probably not your problem/fix.

I guess it depends on your intended use. I think my MP video is great but a professional videographer might think otherwise.

 

[Mike4884]

So far all videos I have seen on YouTube I totally agree with John_W_PNS: Mavic Pro videos are VERY SHARP, lot's of details, and Mavic Air videos seems to be 2/3 sharp, but most of the time in the far distance a bit blurry.

Ok this is only my own opinion, but meanwhile I found a very detailed review between the Mavic Air and the Mavic Pro (unfortunately in German) which supported my observation. The conclusion was:

- Photos: RAW absolute identical, but the Mavic Air does a better job when creating JPEGs, the Pro does too much noise reduction (personally I never compared Mavic Air to Mavic Pro photos)

- Video: it is vice versa, the Mavic Pro is definitely better, to quote his statement (trying to translate for you from German): "the air makes mega soup out of the video"

(have a look from 14:50 onwards)

In 15:17 he is zooming into the video, which makes the difference even more obvious.

Finally, it is everybody's own opinion, but for me this was a really "show stopper": I have a Mavic Pro, and already sold my old Parrot Bebop2 to buy me a Mavic Air. I still would like to go for the Air as my 2nd drone, but as long as it won't deliver the same sharp videos from near to far I love so much from my Mavic Pro, for me the Air is a clear "no go".

.. but I still hope with future firmware upgrade(s) from DJI the air will finally also produce those crystal clear videos ..

Stefan

Pretty much on point. I can say that the mavic air produces better footage then my mavic pro.... I hate the whole noise thing with my mavic Pro and +1 still is weird like overcompensates.... also that guy is a dummy the mavic pro is 2.2 and the air is 2.8 of course the pro will do a little better in low light! And who does a review in low light

 

[cwil193]

So far all videos I have seen on YouTube I totally agree with John_W_PNS: Mavic Pro videos are VERY SHARP, lot's of details, and Mavic Air videos seems to be 2/3 sharp, but most of the time in the far distance a bit blurry.

Ok this is only my own opinion, but meanwhile I found a very detailed review between the Mavic Air and the Mavic Pro (unfortunately in German) which supported my observation. The conclusion was:

- Photos: RAW absolute identical, but the Mavic Air does a better job when creating JPEGs, the Pro does too much noise reduction (personally I never compared Mavic Air to Mavic Pro photos)

- Video: it is vice versa, the Mavic Pro is definitely better, to quote his statement (trying to translate for you from German): "the air makes mega soup out of the video"

(have a look from 14:50 onwards)

In 15:17 he is zooming into the video, which makes the difference even more obvious.

Finally, it is everybody's own opinion, but for me this was a really "show stopper": I have a Mavic Pro, and already sold my old Parrot Bebop2 to buy me a Mavic Air. I still would like to go for the Air as my 2nd drone, but as long as it won't deliver the same sharp videos from near to far I love so much from my Mavic Pro, for me the Air is a clear "no go".

.. but I still hope with future firmware upgrade(s) from DJI the air will finally also produce those crystal clear videos ..

Stefan

Must be his Mavic Air, or his SD card is real slow, but the video on mine is MUCH better than pro due to 40mbs for bitrate. It’s like MP= iPhone 4 and MA= iPhone X

 

[Mossiback]

...or his SD card is real slow..

Good point. The OP has not mentioned what type of SD card is being used or if it has been swapped out for another.