Lakes, Tides, and Ocean Waves - Mavic 2 Zoom

IlluminationsfromtheAttic · Sep 6, 2018

I started filming this video a month ago with the DJI Spark, but wasn't happy with the result. Once I got my hands on the Mavic 2 Zoom I headed back to the coast to grab the footage I was missing, and boy am I glad I waited to publish! The Mavic 2 let me do things that just werent possible with the Spark, and it quite literally took the video to new heights! I really had to steel my nerves in order to fly out over the open water, the thought of dropping my drone in the drink is terrifying! However, it was definitely worth the risk for the hyperlapses of the constantly changing inter-tidal zone and canoeing in the bay. Active track worked well, but the water sometimes confused it, and it had a hard time maintaining smooth footage while tracking people on bicycles at slow speeds. When they were travelling faster it didn't have a problem. I really appreciated the zoom lens when filming pelicans flying at the docks it allowed me to get a decent tracking shot of a pelican in flight while maintainging more than adequate space between me and the birds.

Here's a link to skip directly to the Mavic 2 footage (though I'd recommend watching the beginning too!): Lakes, Tides, and Ocean Waves

sfsouthbay · Oct 20, 2018

This is stunning. I would love to take footage such as this. Thanks for sharing.

Did you have any issues navigating your Mavic 2 over water?

IlluminationsfromtheAttic · Oct 22, 2018

sfsouthbay said:
This is stunning. I would love to take footage such as this. Thanks for sharing.

Did you have any issues navigating your Mavic 2 over water?

Thank you!

No, I don't have any issues over water, though since I'm nervous of flying over water it's not something I do much lol!

sfsouthbay · Oct 23, 2018

IlluminationsfromtheAttic said:
Thank you!

No, I don't have any issues over water, though since I'm nervous of flying over water it's not something I do much lol!

That is so awesome. I want to fly over the water while on vacation - can you tell me how high you were flying to capture this?

Meta4 · Oct 23, 2018

sfsouthbay said:
Did you have any issues navigating your Mavic 2 over water?

The mavic doesn't know it's over water and flies there just as it does over land.

sfsouthbay · Oct 23, 2018

Meta4 said:
The mavic doesn't know it's over water and flies there just as it does over land.

Thank you that is good to know!

DanMan32 · Oct 23, 2018

Actually water can be a problem at low altitudes, due to VPS. Says so in the manual.
You can turn off VPS and is recommended over water at 30ft or lower. Even higher altitudes can affect it.

I was flying over water at around 30 or so ft, a few hundred ft out. M2 started wandering in a very strange pattern which had me worried it might end up out of control and crash.
Then a few days later it dawns on me it was tracking waves and ripples as stationary patterns, possibly correcting itself when it realized the expected GPS location was out of tolerance.

IlluminationsfromtheAttic · Oct 24, 2018

sfsouthbay said:
That is so awesome. I want to fly over the water while on vacation - can you tell me how high you were flying to capture this?

400 feet - one thing to be careful of while flying on the coast is high winds and strong gusts. On one of my recent coastal flights I had to fight my way back - kind of scary!