I've been talked out of the Mavic 2 for now

[STKNRUD]

Except for those pro photographers that are getting a drone fore the first time and need portability, I agree with your I2 recommendation. The arguement for upgrading from M1 to M2 for a pro photography at $1,4000+ new accessories and batteries is virtually without objective value. Not every pro photographer who owns a Nikon D5 or 750 is upgrading to a D850 even though can use the same lenses and gear. Like virtually everything else, this is about justifying what you want and not about how much more you can do, money you can make or impressing a client who can not see the difference in the end result. So for those that got an M2, great! For those that want to upgrade...go for it! A “must have” on the photo benefits are a little weak.

 

[Kingram]

I almost answered and then thought nah... I have the Samsung 27" in 4k 144mhz but ended up just hooking up my 75" Samsung Q9FN and being happy with that. I get good resolution and it allows me to show others a "high rez" version of my drone videos without YouTube compression.

Good idea I think I will just use my 70 ' 4K Vizio TV.

 

[Portaler]

I almost answered and then thought nah... I have the Samsung 27" in 4k 144mhz but ended up just hooking up my 75" Samsung Q9FN and being happy with that. I get good resolution and it allows me to show others a "high rez" version of my drone videos without YouTube compression.

That must look AMAZING !! How do you put the videos on screen ? Straight from the Mavic ? Or edit and save as .mkv or something onto a stick ?

 

[RobH2]

@melmartin

This thread has gotten crazy long but I will say, this image ( http://www.azdeepskies.com/_Media/pano000y-pano.jpeg ) is one of the most beautiful I've seen from a Mavic, truly!

 

[melmartin]

Thanks very much!! And taken with the lowly, crummy, badly equipped Mavic Pro Platinum. Thanks again. Means a lot.

 

[jag32266]

These from a photographer perspective that might help your view-

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[RobH2]

Thanks very much!! And taken with the lowly, crummy, badly equipped Mavic Pro Platinum. Thanks again. Means a lot.

I love my Platinum Pro. I too have been drooling for an M2 but I'm cautiously watching the posts. For now, I'm completely satisfied with my capabilities. Your shot emphasizes why...

 

[Samphotom]

I didn't say auto land was a deal killer. Try reading my post more carefully. I do feel useful features should not be thrown away. Apparently, DJI agrees with me, as after the uproar they announced they are putting it back in. I land manually about 95% of the time, but it can be a helpful feature. What is worthless to you may not be worthless to thousands of other customers.

I doubt you read the whole thread. What I was complaining about was the apparent loss of the ability to shoot panos in RAW. Several people mentioned it who owned the drone. Had you read the thread, as I did, you wold have learned that DJI changed the method of deleting that option but the feature is there. I'm quite aware of what a RAW file is, and how to assemble a PANO. I do it all the time in Lightroom and ON1.

As it stands now, there are quite a few reports of various failures of the new Mavics that give me pause. As I said in my original post, I may get one when things settle down. New drones often have issues.

Same with the original Mavic, and I waited until December 2017 to buy one. I was rewarded with an extremely reliable drone that has worked perfectly.

I'm happy with the photos I get, and posted an example. Yes, the new camera (not the zoom) should have much better specs. But I still believe it's the photographer that makes the pix, not the camera.

I don't think you made a bad decision to get the 2. I don't think I made a bad decision to hold off and see what is fixed, how the reliability is, and what features are reinstated.

I had read your post all the way through and just did again just to be sure, you used the term "Non-starter" to describe the precision landing function being missing. I miss-quoted you but I interpreted your comment as a reason you weren't going to buy one, hence "Deal killer". I would challenge you to run a test. Take off and fly 1500 ft away and come back and land using Precision landing and time it, see how much battery life you lose compared to taking off and flying it all yourself. You sound like you know what you are doing if you land manually 95% of the time, I'm betting you can land exactly as close as the autopilot can but you will have a good percentage more battery left because you didn't waste all that time watching it fly straight down slowly. I really don't see how the precision landing feature would be of any value to someone who has been flying for more than a few months but maybe I'm missing something? I can tell you that our P4Ps and I2s don't have it and I haven't seen anyone complaining that it is a non-starter because they don't. DJi probably just figured, rightly so IMO that it is a pretty useless/redundant feature and took it out to simplify the user interface/menu system and remove a few hundred lines of code that could create issues later on. I think it was a very smart move on their part.

You also complained that the pano wasn't in raw and I simply explained that of course it isn't, that is the nature of raw files. The separate raw files are still there, they just aren't stitched together as a raw pany, instead they give you a jpg which is perfectly logical considering how raw files work. So since you say you are a professional photographer who uses raw files I guess I didn't on the first read of your post, and still don't understand your issue with the pano feature in the M2. I will never use it as it isn't a pro level feature, because as you have rightly pointed out, the result is a jpg so again, it is a non-issue for me and shouldn't be for you or anyone who uses raw images in their workflow.

As for the reports of failures, name a drone or for that matter a camera from Sony, Nikon, Canon, Panasonic etc that doesn't have forums full of people complaining about this issue and that issue and how the product sucks. The bottom line is for every person complaining, 25%-50% of the issues are user error and the rest are probably legit but also only represent about 1% of the total failure rate of the 1000s of drones that are shipped that don't have any issues. People who have issues, take to the forums and scream and cry and complain like they have been wronged. People who are happy with their product, which is the vast majority, just go about their day and use the gear without posting anything so a dis-proportionate number of posts are negative. My guess is, if you add up all the separate posts you have read, probably only 10-20 actual negative reports from people who actually own the drone and didn't create the issue themselves. Compare this to the of 1000s of drones shipped and you get my point. Again, not a reason to not buy something that you really want. If it doesn't work, that is why DJI pays for free shipping back to them.

Again, I get that you are happy with your MPP, that is totally fine. I was not at all happy with the camera. It is fine for good light stills, but once the light drops off and you have to shoot in golden hour the noise really overwhelms the image. The video pretty much looks like a water color painting in the shadows in all lighting unless you set the sharpening to +1 and then it looks way over sharpened. Fine for basic YouTube videos but in no way acceptable for professional use.

As a professional photographer and videographer who make a full time living and owns a production company with 12 photographers 7 of which have their 107 and shoot daily, the MP or MPP was simply unusable for anything more than FB/IG/web sized images and I couldn't use the video at all. We have 2 MP (relegated to low level stills work only and soon to be phased out completely), 5 P4Ps, I2-X5s and a Mavic air (which is way better than the MPP in video but is only used when extreme portablity is required and two MP2P on the way. We will probably phase out some of the older P4P units and replace them with the MP2P because the camera is as good but the form factor is way better when we need to get out to a remote location.

I was not trying to be insulting, I agree with your comment about the M2zoom, no way we buy that as the sensor is 7 years old and will have all the same issues as every other camera that uses that sensor has, it only works in really good light. I'm just saying, your post seemed to be making a point about why the M2 was a "non-starter" and I felt like you were not seeing the full picture. I would suggest you sell your MPP ASAP as there is about to be a glut of them on the market when people start to seriously upgrade. As a professional, I'm betting you will love the M2 and really see where all the value is, the camera.

 

[melmartin]

I had read your post all the way through and just did again just to be sure, you used the term "Non-starter" to describe the precision landing function being missing. I miss-quoted you but I interpreted your comment as a reason you weren't going to buy one, hence "Deal killer". I would challenge you to run a test. Take off and fly 1500 ft away and come back and land using Precision landing and time it, see how much battery life you lose compared to taking off and flying it all yourself. You sound like you know what you are doing if you land manually 95% of the time, I'm betting you can land exactly as close as the autopilot can but you will have a good percentage more battery left because you didn't waste all that time watching it fly straight down slowly. I really don't see how the precision landing feature would be of any value to someone who has been flying for more than a few months but maybe I'm missing something? I can tell you that our P4Ps and I2s don't have it and I haven't seen anyone complaining that it is a non-starter because they don't. DJi probably just figured, rightly so IMO that it is a pretty useless/redundant feature and took it out to simplify the user interface/menu system and remove a few hundred lines of code that could create issues later on. I think it was a very smart move on their part.

You also complained that the pano wasn't in raw and I simply explained that of course it isn't, that is the nature of raw files. The separate raw files are still there, they just aren't stitched together as a raw pany, instead they give you a jpg which is perfectly logical considering how raw files work. So since you say you are a professional photographer who uses raw files I guess I didn't on the first read of your post, and still don't understand your issue with the pano feature in the M2. I will never use it as it isn't a pro level feature, because as you have rightly pointed out, the result is a jpg so again, it is a non-issue for me and shouldn't be for you or anyone who uses raw images in their workflow.

As for the reports of failures, name a drone or for that matter a camera from Sony, Nikon, Canon, Panasonic etc that doesn't have forums full of people complaining about this issue and that issue and how the product sucks. The bottom line is for every person complaining, 25%-50% of the issues are user error and the rest are probably legit but also only represent about 1% of the total failure rate of the 1000s of drones that are shipped that don't have any issues. People who have issues, take to the forums and scream and cry and complain like they have been wronged. People who are happy with their product, which is the vast majority, just go about their day and use the gear without posting anything so a dis-proportionate number of posts are negative. My guess is, if you add up all the separate posts you have read, probably only 10-20 actual negative reports from people who actually own the drone and didn't create the issue themselves. Compare this to the of 1000s of drones shipped and you get my point. Again, not a reason to not buy something that you really want. If it doesn't work, that is why DJI pays for free shipping back to them.

Again, I get that you are happy with your MPP, that is totally fine. I was not at all happy with the camera. It is fine for good light stills, but once the light drops off and you have to shoot in golden hour the noise really overwhelms the image. The video pretty much looks like a water color painting in the shadows in all lighting unless you set the sharpening to +1 and then it looks way over sharpened. Fine for basic YouTube videos but in no way acceptable for professional use.

As a professional photographer and videographer who make a full time living and owns a production company with 12 photographers 7 of which have their 107 and shoot daily, the MP or MPP was simply unusable for anything more than FB/IG/web sized images and I couldn't use the video at all. We have 2 MP (relegated to low level stills work only and soon to be phased out completely), 5 P4Ps, I2-X5s and a Mavic air (which is way better than the MPP in video but is only used when extreme portablity is required and two MP2P on the way. We will probably phase out some of the older P4P units and replace them with the MP2P because the camera is as good but the form factor is way better when we need to get out to a remote location.

I was not trying to be insulting, I agree with your comment about the M2zoom, no way we buy that as the sensor is 7 years old and will have all the same issues as every other camera that uses that sensor has, it only works in really good light. I'm just saying, your post seemed to be making a point about why the M2 was a "non-starter" and I felt like you were not seeing the full picture. I would suggest you sell your MPP ASAP as there is about to be a glut of them on the market when people start to seriously upgrade. As a professional, I'm betting you will love the M2 and really see where all the value is, the camera.

As I have repeatedly said, I'll be interested when more of the bugs and kinks are worked out. Now DJI is admitting to barrel distortion in the camera... I do most of my work at Golden Time.. I'm not seeing all the horrible noise.

 

[texasgrape]

I haven't seen one that is at all clear on that, but YouTube is a bottomless pit of speculation and bad experimentation, so there are undoubtedly many that I have not seen.

And these forums aren't? (a bottomless pit of speculation) As far as dB tests on two drones: It's not rocket science--use your ears and ask: Is this one louder than this one? Funny

 

[ac0j]

And these forums aren't? (a bottomless pit of speculation) As far as dB tests on two drones: It's not rocket science--use your ears and ask: Is this one louder than this one? Funny

With out proper equipment, it is better to ask which one sounds more pleasant.
Some peoples hearing is better than others, or more sensitive to certain frequencies.
But the difference between the MP and the MPP is more about frequency than volume. AND it is so close it isnt even a thing to argue which is actually quieter.

 

[texasgrape]

I had read your post all the way through and just did again just to be sure, you used the term "Non-starter" to describe the precision landing function being missing. I miss-quoted you but I interpreted your comment as a reason you weren't going to buy one, hence "Deal killer". I would challenge you to run a test. Take off and fly 1500 ft away and come back and land using Precision landing and time it, see how much battery life you lose compared to taking off and flying it all yourself. You sound like you know what you are doing if you land manually 95% of the time, I'm betting you can land exactly as close as the autopilot can but you will have a good percentage more battery left because you didn't waste all that time watching it fly straight down slowly. I really don't see how the precision landing feature would be of any value to someone who has been flying for more than a few months but maybe I'm missing something? I can tell you that our P4Ps and I2s don't have it and I haven't seen anyone complaining that it is a non-starter because they don't. DJi probably just figured, rightly so IMO that it is a pretty useless/redundant feature and took it out to simplify the user interface/menu system and remove a few hundred lines of code that could create issues later on. I think it was a very smart move on their part.

You also complained that the pano wasn't in raw and I simply explained that of course it isn't, that is the nature of raw files. The separate raw files are still there, they just aren't stitched together as a raw pany, instead they give you a jpg which is perfectly logical considering how raw files work. So since you say you are a professional photographer who uses raw files I guess I didn't on the first read of your post, and still don't understand your issue with the pano feature in the M2. I will never use it as it isn't a pro level feature, because as you have rightly pointed out, the result is a jpg so again, it is a non-issue for me and shouldn't be for you or anyone who uses raw images in their workflow.

As for the reports of failures, name a drone or for that matter a camera from Sony, Nikon, Canon, Panasonic etc that doesn't have forums full of people complaining about this issue and that issue and how the product sucks. The bottom line is for every person complaining, 25%-50% of the issues are user error and the rest are probably legit but also only represent about 1% of the total failure rate of the 1000s of drones that are shipped that don't have any issues. People who have issues, take to the forums and scream and cry and complain like they have been wronged. People who are happy with their product, which is the vast majority, just go about their day and use the gear without posting anything so a dis-proportionate number of posts are negative. My guess is, if you add up all the separate posts you have read, probably only 10-20 actual negative reports from people who actually own the drone and didn't create the issue themselves. Compare this to the of 1000s of drones shipped and you get my point. Again, not a reason to not buy something that you really want. If it doesn't work, that is why DJI pays for free shipping back to them.

Again, I get that you are happy with your MPP, that is totally fine. I was not at all happy with the camera. It is fine for good light stills, but once the light drops off and you have to shoot in golden hour the noise really overwhelms the image. The video pretty much looks like a water color painting in the shadows in all lighting unless you set the sharpening to +1 and then it looks way over sharpened. Fine for basic YouTube videos but in no way acceptable for professional use.

As a professional photographer and videographer who make a full time living and owns a production company with 12 photographers 7 of which have their 107 and shoot daily, the MP or MPP was simply unusable for anything more than FB/IG/web sized images and I couldn't use the video at all. We have 2 MP (relegated to low level stills work only and soon to be phased out completely), 5 P4Ps, I2-X5s and a Mavic air (which is way better than the MPP in video but is only used when extreme portablity is required and two MP2P on the way. We will probably phase out some of the older P4P units and replace them with the MP2P because the camera is as good but the form factor is way better when we need to get out to a remote location.

I was not trying to be insulting, I agree with your comment about the M2zoom, no way we buy that as the sensor is 7 years old and will have all the same issues as every other camera that uses that sensor has, it only works in really good light. I'm just saying, your post seemed to be making a point about why the M2 was a "non-starter" and I felt like you were not seeing the full picture. I would suggest you sell your MPP ASAP as there is about to be a glut of them on the market when people start to seriously upgrade. As a professional, I'm betting you will love the M2 and really see where all the value is, the camera.

Why do you and others belittle people for wanting precision landing? We don't belittle you when you want a certain feature; yet you try to justify to us why we don't need it--that is funny but very irritating; now listen up so you and others can understand something about DJI's precision landing SNAFU: On the mavic 2 there is RTH but there is NO precision landing--and IT IS NOT ACCURATE so don't tell us it is--it was indeed accurate on it's predecessor!

DJI took that feature away and didn't say anything about it to us in their big long awaited presentation; However they did say the 2 had precision landing! So people are rightly upset because they plopped down a grand + only to find out the 2 doesn't have it like DJI said it did! It's not your place to tell us we don't need it; And all you pro-DJI people say is "I'm sure there will be a firmware update" or we "don't really need it"--or my favorite from Drone Valley: You should have read the manual before you bought it! Again funny!

 

[texasgrape]

There's a definite tonal difference but from a db standpoint I'd say the M2P is slightly louder. I will say this, in my opinion it's like a 98db violin vs a 97db chainsaw.

Now that's how you do a test! LOL

 

[msavic6]

The most recent update posted by DJI Support to a complaint regarding the loss of precision landing is that it is being added back in an upcoming firmware update.

Regarding the lack of RAW photos in PANO mode, there is now a setting called “Save Original” which lets you choose whether you want to save the original RAW or JPEG files for Hyper-lapses and Panoramas. It now works the same way as the original Mavic in which you end up with a folder of DNGs corresponding to that panorama.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

I need to get a 4K monitor which one do you recommend ?

I got the Dell 2715q. Excellent calibrated monitor and reasonably priced.

 

[bluesgeek]

It's an amazing drone but my gimbal burned out after 2 days (no crashes)...

I haven't seen the reports of the burned out gimbals, and I'm sorry that happened to you. Could you please explain a bit about that?

Oh, and for those for whom lack of precision landing is missing, on the "other" forum, the word on the spill is that it is coming.

I believe, picture profiles and more flight modes are expected.

 

[BJR981S]

Fllow my mavic 2 yesterday in the evening and i guarantee you the auto return home landing was very precise! it has a very powerufl led under it and scans the area under it before it lands.
It landed exactly where it started from in the middle of the night... how more precise do you want it to be!!
Pano raw probably need a software upgrade no bigy i think.
About the noise we are talking a couple of DBs difference! come on !! you dont hear it when it flies a couple of feet away in the firist case .. when its near you it does not make much difference.
Did you read all the hasselblad 1" features the mavic 2 has ? the bitrates, the d-logs, the variable f range, you cannot compare it to the mavic pro.
And in any case mine works perfectly well so far!

You are correct but are using the wrong words for some of the members here. Let me help explain. "Precision landing" is a "Named Feature" where the model takes a photograph of the area when you stop ascending. It needs to happen at between 10 and 25 metres to be effective.

But at the same time it locks its GPS home position. So if you allow sufficient warmup on the ground ascend to 25 Metres without any pitch changes and get a "The Home point has been updated" you will get a "Precise" landing within 6 inches of the takeoff location.
Why would you need anything more. I never use precision landing mode. But I do get Precise landings. Its just a fancy tech people use to demonstrate how clever their drone is.

And besides DJI have already said that this will be fixed in FW.

This is what has gone wrong here.

DJI have added so many cool features and HW to the Mavic II that it basically was not ready in time for launch. The feedback they got from testers was identifying too many issues so they delayed the launch date.

Then leaks started to appear and ended up forcing them to launch before the issues had been addressed with the first release FW. We forced the launch on them.

They will be fixing all these FW issues as quickly as they can.

Now a warning for all you deferring your purchase for want of a feature that is meaningless.

I just received an update from Graupner USA that they are now increase the pricing of all their equipment due to the new trade tariffs being imposed by the US government on goods from China.

So wait and most likely you will end up with a new import duty to pay.

Cheers Brian

 

[Rah]

This is simple Dji breaks you up so it can build you back again.
They took out allot of features so they can add them later and call it upgrades.
They probable do not have anymore enavation or they do not have it ready now,so they release version 2 and take away allot of the old stuff we liked and now slowly every other month they give them back to you and they look golden for it.
I am waiting for 6 months to get mine by then all the kinks will be worked out software and hardware. At the very least by then they might release a version 2.5 with quiter props etc...

 

[Owen Manderfield]

A lot of good comments on this thread. A couple if points I would like to pick up on.

As other members have pointed out, the precision landing is more usefull as a saftky feature rather than a lazy option. Often the only viable take off/landing sites may be on narrow footpaths, pontoons or between parked cars in a parking lot. In the event of an RC disconnect or some other forced RTH situation - or precision landing provided a safe solution. GPS is not accurate enough to stop your bird potentially landing in the drink or talk grass in these situations. Without it, these take-off options are too risky to use.

Another poster stated that the (paraphrasing) that the quality of a photograph is all about the photographer and not the equipment used.

I agree with this in general - but only up to a point. With the Mps camera we all have taken great shots all be it with lots of post production to bring out the best. But, on many occasions ( particularly with video) when we get the files up on a big screen we find the noise or compression makes the images unusable. If the video compression can't support the level if detail in a shot (e.g. winter trees) then no matter how good a photographer you are - you won't get a sharp picture (if that's what you are after)

 

[melmartin]

I don't shoot much video, but the new Mavic Pro may greatly excel at that. I agree about the 'real men don't use RTH' silliness. I land manually more than 90% of the time, but it is worthwhile in an emergency or situation when a 8 meter error can take your Main over a cliff or in the water. I consider Precision Landing like seat belts. You may need them only once in your life, but you'll be glad you have the. Obviously, DJI agrees, because after the uproar the feature is coming back. Who knows why they left it out. Why add bottom LED lighting, if the drone is going to land 5 meters away from the takeoff point? I would have thought the lighting would help make sure the landing location looked like the takeoff point when there may have been more light. I'm seeing a lot of disturbing issues around the drone, like camera distortion (admitted by DJI), some have abruptly fallen out of the sky, etc. Yes, these could well be early teething problems and all drones have them. I didn't get my MPP until last December, purposely waiting awhile until the software settled down, and it's been great. When I started the thread I said I may get one later, but too many issues remain for an early buy. That's just my evaluation. Yours may be different.

People get way too defensive over their purchases. Any many have jumped in and are quite happy.

I'm waiting and watching. DJI fixing the RTH issue is a good start.