Looking to buy a Mavic 2 soon

[Ataribravo]

I used to be a member of PhantomPilots back in the day. I'm looking to get back into the hobby. I would like to buy the M2P but have read about soft image issues. Most information was from back at initial release. So, have there been firmware updates to address this issue and/or good user provided settings/work-arounds to solve/minimize the issue? Thanks in advance!!

 

[NXPRSS]

Buy it! You wont be disappointed!!

 

[msinger]

You should be fine since it's not a common issue.

 

[Ataribravo]

Thanks, msinger. I guess I got the impression is was a design issue that all M2P's had. Good to know!

 

[globetrotterdrone]

I had one with a shifted plane of focus somehow, when I bought it some months back.
I returned it easily to Amazon and got supplied by a new one fast.

That said, it's still a possibility, but if you buy at a renown retailer, you can rely that such problems will be served without too much hassle.
Happy buying and flying!

 

[brettbrandon]

I have a M2P that had to be sent in for repair and they sent me a new M2P. The camera on the new one not only had bad soft spots but the lower left corner was all distorted. I was then sent another new replacement drone which has a good camera on it. The problem can not be fixed with a firmware update and is not in the software. It is a manufacturing defect in the camera and is not real common but is still hapening as of a couple of months ago.
As @globetrotterdrone mentioned, if you purchase frome a legitimate DJI seller (I purchased through Amazon), you can get the problem rectified through DJI if you get a bad one.

EDIT:
I think you will be amazed at the difference a few years can make. When working properly, it is an incredible piece of kit!

 

[griffinhart]

I just got my M2P w/ smart controller a week and a half ago. Loving it so far. I love the controller. I'm not sure it's worth $700 purchased separately, but with a new drone, definitely.

I have been flying a mavic air with my galaxy 9 s+, but not having to use my phone is great, and the screen is much brighter. I have had no problems seeing the screen in bright, direct sunlight.

If you buy a mavic 2, consider that package.

 

[Ataribravo]

@griffinhart Yes, the smart controller package is my goal! Thank you for the feedback...

 

[Fruxen]

My first M2P had a defective lens with large fuzzy areas and it was impossible to get good focus across the whole frame. About 30-40% of the image was slightly out of focus.
The second unit had the exact same focus problems! Just in different areas of the frame.
The third unit was finally much better. It too has a small focus issue at the right edge of the frame but it's probably less than 10% of the image, the rest is ok. Compared to the other units I can live with it.

So I think the discussion about M2P sharpness is a bit more complex than many people realize...

- Less digital sharpness applied than in previous models (not much of an actual problem).
- Relatively heavy lens correction softens the image, especially at the edges of photos. Even in RAW photos, if you use popular programs like PS/Lightroom that applies lens correction automatically in the background.
- Full FOV video uses a subpar sensor readout and is not as sharp as it could/should be.
- Diffraction softens the image more than people expect at "normal" higher aperture numbers.
- Crude autofocus is often not 100% spot on.
- A lot of M2Ps with defective lenses floating around.

 

[bktodd80]

@griffinhart Yes, the smart controller package is my goal! Thank you for the feedback...

I thought so too, but I have multiple Mavic 2's, and I use a single iPad for all of them since it's quicker to interchange the iPad on the controllers for me, email myself RTMP settings and copy them into the Go app, etc. Also, be aware that some 3rd party vendors don't support the smart controller..i.e. DroneDeploy.

I spent many hours going through this and also trying to predict the future on system integration issues I may have with certain components. The only issue that I have now with the M2DE and the iPad is that DJI hasn't released the waypoint mechanism yet. Not exactly a project killer since I use other ways to get around it, but it just adds to the task saturation while flying.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

- Crude autofocus is often not 100% spot on.

I do have to say, that's what I've experienced too.
As I am just coming back from a trip, I clicked through some photos and saw, that pictures, less than 5 secs in between show different qualities of sharpness. I often took many photos of one subject with minimal variation of viewpoint or exposure values.

I guess, the AF is not always that accurated, even if it displays the green rectangle. Slight deviations seem to occur.

 

[CanadaDrone]

You never really want to be using AF on a drone, especially one like the M2P that only has contrast detect AF (a guess and check algorithm that, by design, hunts back and forth for highest contrast to achieve focus). Maybe if you're flying really close to something and the distance is changing you would use it, but in the majority of scenarios you do not want to be using any kind of AF, especially for videos where even a tiny bit of AF hunting can ruin once in a lifetime footage.

Generally what you want to do is manually set focus using focus peaking to confirm perfect focus - after that if you still are having problems, then there might be an issue with the drone. Once you're about 60 feet in the air, if focused properly, everything from about 3 feet to infinity will be in focus, so virtually everything. I am guessing at least some of the folks with sharpness issues were really just experiencing how bad CDAF is. Another factor is diffraction - beyond F4, the image starts to get soft pretty fast, and by F8-11 they are unacceptably soft. It's also possible that is being interpreted as a bad lens when really it's just the physics of a small sensor with a high MP count.