Mavic 2 Pro IQ for Landscape Photography vs Phantom 4P, inspire 2 X7

DanBallardphoto · Sep 17, 2018

Hey all, I couldn't find anyone comparing the IQ of the Mavic 2 Pro to the Phantom 4 Pro for still photography (I'm a pro landscape photographer so not to concerned about video) so I decided to do some simple real world testing. Crazy surprised but the P4P is quite a bit better when you push the files hard in post...the M2P gets noisy fast and has a very thin look.

I really, really love the M2P overall and I will be using it a ton when weight and size matters (I2/X7 is tough to hike with), but I am disappointed the IQ isn't at least as good as the P4P considering. Anyway, if anyone is curious...

Everyone keeps saying hopefully a firmware update could improve the IQ. I am only into the creative photography aspect and I have no clue about that. Anyone understand if a major change in IQ, (basically DR in this case) could be improved with a firmware update?

Dan

spence · Sep 17, 2018

Thanks Dan. Certainly a surprising and disappointing result for the MP2 in stills.

MP2 "4k" video so far seems well short of P4P quality, but I thought that stills would be at least as good. That's a real bummer.

You mainly addressed how cleanly the shadows could be pushed in post. In good light, though, how was the MP2 vs P4P in terms of resolvable detail?

Red 5 · Sep 17, 2018

How is this possible, don't they have the same Sony 1" sensor?

Paul2660 · Sep 17, 2018

After a few flights, I feel that the results from a P4 Pro camera and MP2 camera are pretty close, for stills, shot in raw.

Both cameras suffer in ISO ranges really past 400, if shadow push is required and I feel both still can show considerable shadow noise even at 100 ISO, thus the need to AEB. The current range of -1.34 to +1.34 is about enough, but I would have liked to get 1.50.

The highlights seem easier to recover on the MP2, over the P4 Pro, maybe 1/2 a stop or so. The mechanic shutter with the P4 to me really doesn't seem to add any degree of detail over the e shutter used in the Mavic. For a fast moving subject I can see the advantage for the P4, but I don't tend to shoot those.

Both lenses are pretty taxed by diffraction by F 5.0 to F 5.6 and anything past this really shows softness especially towards the edges. Focus is key and the inability to really dial in manual focus is an issue as with an iOS device, you just can't get the retina screen to show good sharpness, (at least for me). So I trust the AF system but do re focus often. Both my P4 camera and MP2 camera are not as sharp towards the edges as center, but most times, that can be corrected.

With Lightroom there are areas where DJI could and should work with Adobe:

Color profile (none is assigned)
Lens profile (LR is reading the profile info off the dng, but improvement is possible)

Can't speak to video as I am mainly stills.

Comparing the 1" sensor to the Inspire is IMO not a fair test, as here you have even with the Inspire 1 a much larger sensor than the 1" and I believe lens options. The size/mass/cost and loss factor not to mention noise of the Inspire series has kept me away from them. But the stills should be much better, even with a 16MP sensor micro 4/3's.

I don't think a firmware update can correct DR, but anything may be possible.

Paul C

Fireblade · Sep 17, 2018

Red 5 said:
How is this possible, don't they have the same Sony 1" sensor?

See current discussion on m2p pixel binning and line skipping.

yysc · Sep 17, 2018

I had the P4P since December 2016 and recently sidegraded to M2P and honestly to me stills are comparable. Video (4K FOV) is where M2P falls short -with current firmware- but we all know this.

sar104 · Sep 17, 2018

Fireblade said:
See current discussion on m2p pixel binning and line skipping.

But that's a bitrate issue and only relevant to video, isn't it?

Red 5 · Sep 17, 2018

sar104 said:
But that's a bitrate issue and only relevant to video, isn't it?

Yeah I would think so. I'm only really interested in still image quality.

Red 5 · Sep 17, 2018

yysc said:
I had the P4P since December 2016 and recently sidegraded to M2P and honestly to me stills are comparable

You majorly upgraded your portability! Glad to hear you are finding the stills comparable.

sar104 · Sep 17, 2018

Red 5 said:
Yeah I would think so. I'm only really interested in still image quality.

Me too - and I still find it very impressive that I can effectively send my RX100 up to do aerial photography in an aircraft that doesn't even take up much space in a day pack.

Larry Gibson · Sep 19, 2018

DanBallardphoto said:
Hey all, I couldn't find anyone comparing the IQ of the Mavic 2 Pro to the Phantom 4 Pro for still photography (I'm a pro landscape photographer so not to concerned about video) so I decided to do some simple real world testing. Crazy surprised but the P4P is quite a bit better when you push the files hard in post...the M2P gets noisy fast and has a very thin look.

I really, really love the M2P overall and I will be using it a ton when weight and size matters (I2/X7 is tough to hike with), but I am disappointed the IQ isn't at least as good as the P4P considering. Anyway, if anyone is curious...

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Everyone keeps saying hopefully a firmware update could improve the IQ. I am only into the creative photography aspect and I have no clue about that. Anyone understand if a major change in IQ, (basically DR in this case) could be improved with a firmware update?

Dan

Excellent video Dan. I Was afraid of that.
I sold my phantom 4pro Because of the size.
I’m hoping that’s a Mavic 2 pro will cut it.

Stephcout · Sep 19, 2018

I only use drone for stills and to me they are very close to the quality of the P4P as the files have been very clean so far.

From Above

DanBallardphoto · Sep 19, 2018

spence said:
Thanks Dan. Certainly a surprising and disappointing result for the MP2 in stills.

MP2 "4k" video so far seems well short of P4P quality, but I thought that stills would be at least as good. That's a real bummer.

You mainly addressed how cleanly the shadows could be pushed in post. In good light, though, how was the MP2 vs P4P in terms of resolvable detail?

I found them to be pretty comparable in good light. In some ways the M2P may even beat the P4P. I was really happy after my first test which was in even light. It was only when the conditions where tough (lol, aka really great) and I had to bring the shadows way back up that the differences became so clear.

DanBallardphoto · Sep 19, 2018

yysc said:
I had the P4P since December 2016 and recently sidegraded to M2P and honestly to me stills are comparable. Video (4K FOV) is where M2P falls short -with current firmware- but we all know this.

It's really only when you are shooting in high key conditions. In many cases it's just fine and comparable. I am really loving it overall and usable images most of the time for sure.

DanBallardphoto · Sep 19, 2018

Paul2660 said:
After a few flights, I feel that the results from a P4 Pro camera and MP2 camera are pretty close, for stills, shot in raw.

Both cameras suffer in ISO ranges really past 400, if shadow push is required and I feel both still can show considerable shadow noise even at 100 ISO, thus the need to AEB. The current range of -1.34 to +1.34 is about enough, but I would have liked to get 1.50.

The highlights seem easier to recover on the MP2, over the P4 Pro, maybe 1/2 a stop or so. The mechanic shutter with the P4 to me really doesn't seem to add any degree of detail over the e shutter used in the Mavic. For a fast moving subject I can see the advantage for the P4, but I don't tend to shoot those.

Both lenses are pretty taxed by diffraction by F 5.0 to F 5.6 and anything past this really shows softness especially towards the edges. Focus is key and the inability to really dial in manual focus is an issue as with an iOS device, you just can't get the retina screen to show good sharpness, (at least for me). So I trust the AF system but do re focus often. Both my P4 camera and MP2 camera are not as sharp towards the edges as center, but most times, that can be corrected.

With Lightroom there are areas where DJI could and should work with Adobe:

Color profile (none is assigned)
Lens profile (LR is reading the profile info off the dng, but improvement is possible)

Can't speak to video as I am mainly stills.

Comparing the 1" sensor to the Inspire is IMO not a fair test, as here you have even with the Inspire 1 a much larger sensor than the 1" and I believe lens options. The size/mass/cost and loss factor not to mention noise of the Inspire series has kept me away from them. But the stills should be much better, even with a 16MP sensor micro 4/3's.

I don't think a firmware update can correct DR, but anything may be possible.

Paul C

Interesting, it's very noticeable for me when you really push the shadows. The P4P was a fine grain, the M2P just fell apart. I had both my photographer friend and my girlfriend look without knowing which was which and they both picked the P4P as better in seconds on multiple images. Of course when the light was even (but still at sunset) it went both ways and was pretty close.

I really only shoot at base ISO so I didn't compare at higher ISOs. I'm sure that would even them out.

Yeah, I know it's not really fair to compare against the X7, but originally I thought that the M2P would be a decent amount better then the P4P. So I thought possibly not a Massive difference to the X7 considering all you mentioned. Size, noise etc. If the M2P would have been better then P4P I would have planned on using it a ton. So just wanted to see.