Mavic 2 Pro Pics not Sharp ?

Photo Beaty · Nov 10, 2018

I use a Nikon D850, so I know what excellent quality photos look like. Because I am so pleased with my Mavic 2 Pro photos I am selling my Inspire 2.

MaruSkipper · Nov 10, 2018

The old adage is: "Cameras don't take pictures, photographers take pictures"

Having said that, I must admit that our cellphones prove what can be done even with tiny sensors and crappy little lenses. The reason is that the images from those devices are heavily retouched by the internal software. My Samsung Note 8 is so good, I seldom use my Nikon DSLR anymore. My message here is that you can bet on DJI and Hasselblad to continue refining the software. Future updates may bring huge improvements. In the meantime, learn about all the drone's controls and settings, start shooting in RAW and do post processing with Lightroom. Remember, photographers take pictures.

SkySight · Nov 10, 2018

harleymhs said:
I think DJI def screwed us with the Mavic 2 Pro.. 1" sensor? I dont think so... I own a few cameras with 1" sensors and they are tack sharp , great in low light and colors are amazing.. This Mavic 2 Pro photos are worse than my Mavic Pro.. ( which I just sold ) with much regret! Just ranting sorry guys.. But I spent 1600 on the fly more package and basically tossed my money in the garbage. I see a lot of you tube videos saying the same thing.. My mistake thats for sure.. Anyone want this Mavic 2 Pro with the Fly More package send me a PM..

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SkySight · Nov 10, 2018

Strap a Hasselblad H5D-200C to a Matrice 600 and you'll be all set. Just joking, sir... Really, the truth of the matter is if you're not satisfied with the M2P sell it. I'm sure many of us who don't own one would like to have one in their respective arsenals.

HoozierDroneDaddy · Nov 10, 2018

My initial photos were sharp, then one day I completed over 100 shots on a commercial job. They were ALL sightly blurry but still usable. Did not understand why, the only change I had made was the aperture raising it from 4.0 to 5.6. I checked several groups and internet searches and found numerous tests related to this issue. The results were that the aperture settings were the culprit. Sharp photos up to 4.0. Once you go above that the quality drops. On the above job I had raised my aperture to 5.6, so I took it back down to 4.0 where I normally shot, re-took the shots and ALL were sharp again. You can research this yourself, or you can change your aperture to 4.0 and take some test shots. Please let this group know your results.

And Yes I agree, with the expense and quality of this camera, you should still have a good sharp photo above 4.0, but it is what it is, until DJI fixes it.

Johnmcl7 · Nov 11, 2018

I've just picked up my Mavic Pro 2 and tried a few shots but also really surprised at the poor quality of the photos, I've used quite a few of the Sony cameras with the 1in sensors (RX100mk1, RX100mk4 and RX10mk2) and I've been impressed with how sharp and detailed the images from the sensor were as well as some latitude to push the dynamic range and well contained noise at high iso.

My photos from the Mavic Pro 2 so far look typical of a 1/2.3in sensor with a lack of fine detail that seems to have been lost to aggressive noise reduction. This is a crop (not a 100% one either) which is typical of those I've taken:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Drone-Photos/i-vr9qPGz/0/bff67f61/O/DJI_0474-2.jpg

At first I thought this must be high iso but it's pretty much optimal settings, it's iso 100, F3.2 and 1/50 shutter speed and it's a raw file processed with default settings (the OOC jpeg looks similar) to avoid any issue of Mavic settings.

I'm wondering whether this is a fault with my unit or this is typical of Mavic Pro 2 quality? The drone seems to be behaving fine otherwise,

sar104 · Nov 11, 2018

Johnmcl7 said:
I've just picked up my Mavic Pro 2 and tried a few shots but also really surprised at the poor quality of the photos, I've used quite a few of the Sony cameras with the 1in sensors (RX100mk1, RX100mk4 and RX10mk2) and I've been impressed with how sharp and detailed the images from the sensor were as well as some latitude to push the dynamic range and well contained noise at high iso.

My photos from the Mavic Pro 2 so far look typical of a 1/2.3in sensor with a lack of fine detail that seems to have been lost to aggressive noise reduction. This is a crop (not a 100% one either) which is typical of those I've taken:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Drone-Photos/i-vr9qPGz/0/bff67f61/O/DJI_0474-2.jpg

At first I thought this must be high iso but it's pretty much optimal settings, it's iso 100, F3.2 and 1/50 shutter speed and it's a raw file processed with default settings (the OOC jpeg looks similar) to avoid any issue of Mavic settings.

I'm wondering whether this is a fault with my unit or this is typical of Mavic Pro 2 quality? The drone seems to be behaving fine otherwise,

RAW images are not going to have aggressive noise reduction - you have to do that yourself. Your sample photo is either not focussed or you have a faulty camera.

Johnmcl7 · Nov 11, 2018

sar104 said:
RAW images are not going to have aggressive noise reduction - you have to do that yourself. Your sample photo is either not focussed or you have a faulty camera.

What specifically do you think could be faulty? The drone appears to be focusing, the image looks focused to me and video looks fine:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Drone-Photos/i-WNQvBKs/0/9e3ed068/X3/DJI_0474-X3.jpg

Meta4 · Nov 11, 2018

Johnmcl7 said:
What specifically do you think could be faulty?

Get down close to a well lit subject that isn't so "soft" and see how it goes.
Something with hard, flat surfaces and sharp angles like this:

Johnmcl7 · Nov 11, 2018

Meta4 said:
Get down close to a well lit subject that isn't so "soft" and see how it goes.
Something with hard, flat surfaces and sharp angles like this:

I was thinking the same that I need to do more testing and in better lighting to more specifically test the drone.

That looks like a P4P shot, do you have a Mavic Pro 2 as well and if so how do you find they compare for photo quality?

Edit - Removed due to sarcastic response below

sar104 · Nov 11, 2018

Johnmcl7 said:
What specifically do you think could be faulty? The drone appears to be focusing, the image looks focused to me and video looks fine:

https://photos.smugmug.com/Drone-Photos/i-WNQvBKs/0/9e3ed068/X3/DJI_0474-X3.jpg

I've no idea - but that image is very soft compared to anything I've captured with my M2P. Was that really a RAW image and, if so, what kind of processing did you apply?

sar104 · Nov 11, 2018

Johnmcl7 said:
I was thinking the same that I need to do more testing and in better lighting to more specifically test the drone.

Edit - I should add the exposure latitude in the raw files is impressive, better than I was expecting for a 1in sensor. This is a screen grab from Lightroom hence the detail is very soft but it's just to show how much can be pulled back out of the shadows and the sky:

You mentioned that you have used these sensors in several other cameras. Have you never noticed their dynamic range before?

Johnmcl7 · Nov 12, 2018

sar104 said:
You mentioned that you have used these sensors in several other cameras. Have you never noticed their dynamic range before?

I dislike being completely negative so I thought I should add something positive, as I mentioned in that post it's better than I expected as neither the Mavic 1 or 2 tend to perform as well as other devices using similar sensors and the Mavic 2 is a good bit worse in most other areas for a 1in device. Yes it was a raw image (thanks for the constant insults, great help!), I've worked with raw files for many years so I can tell what one is like and as I already mentioned it was processed with default settings although nothing is going to recover that type of detail loss.

kilomikebravo · Nov 12, 2018

Photo Beaty said:
Because I am so pleased with my Mavic 2 Pro photos I am selling my Inspire 2.

Now THAT is SAYING something about the M2P! (hope you get a good price for the I2.)

KB

kilomikebravo · Nov 12, 2018

Johnmcl7 said:
..it was processed with default settings

John: I'm curious what you meant by "default settings?" To my knowledge, unless you have presets in your editing software, I am unaware of any "default settings" for RAW files. I presume you're using Lightroom or Camera Raw/Photoshop for editing stills?

KB

breid · Nov 12, 2018

If you are serious, I will trade you for your Mavic 2 Pro Fly More Combo with my Mavic Pro Fly More Combo straight up. Just PM me.

sar104 · Nov 12, 2018

kilomikebravo said:
John: I'm curious what you meant by "default settings?" To my knowledge, unless you have presets in your editing software, I am unaware of any "default settings" for RAW files. I presume you're using Lightroom or Camera Raw/Photoshop for editing stills?

KB

Yes - but it seems pointless trying to get any useful information out of him. He's an expert apparently, yet everything he writes shouts novice, and on questioning he just throws the victim card.

kilomikebravo · Nov 12, 2018

sar104 said:
..but it seems pointless

That appears to be the case, SAR...

It's just a darn shame that many people are having difficulty with the camera when the answers are all over this Forum. Some just like to complain, I suppose but I'd like to believe that most visitors benefit from the knowledge of folks like yourself. I certainly know that I have.

KB

Johnmcl7 · Nov 12, 2018

kilomikebravo said:
John: I'm curious what you meant by "default settings?" To my knowledge, unless you have presets in your editing software, I am unaware of any "default settings" for RAW files. I presume you're using Lightroom or Camera Raw/Photoshop for editing stills?

KB

The default settings of the editing software to make it clear this wasn't the result of overdone post processing settings. Technically I realise that means processing has been applied to the raw file but there's no other way to show the raw file and it shows it's not the jpeg or in drone settings that are the cause.

sar104 said:
Yes - but it seems pointless trying to get any useful information out of him. He's an expert apparently, yet everything he writes shouts novice, and on questioning he just throws the victim card.

That's a little rich coming from you, I've answered every question you've asked and in some cases when you ignored it the first time, I posted the information a second time. So far you've repeatedly insulted my ability and haven't provided a single useful answer, I asked specifically what you thought the fault was and posted another sample photo but you failed to reply to that.

kilomikebravo said:
That appears to be the case, SAR...

It's just a darn shame that many people are having difficulty with the camera when the answers are all over this Forum. Some just like to complain, I suppose but I'd like to believe that most visitors benefit from the knowledge of folks like yourself. I certainly know that I have.

KB

Ok, I'll bite - what's the answer then? I did spend considerable time researching this first and the results are inconsistent, one of the downsides of forums is that people are more likely to complain so therefore you get an unbalanced view. There are some Mavic 2's which are clearly faulty but those defects are more obvious than mine then there's the middle ground of Mavic 2's that are not so clearcut. I've not seen any answers on this forum or even this thread so I take great offence being told I'm complaining for the sake of it. Particularly when above I thought I should make a positive point to balance my posts so I didn't come across as too negative and I was torn down with a negative sarcastic reply to that. Now you're saying I'm complaining for the sake of it, I just can't win.

Before posting I took time to check the jpeg processing, the raw processing and the detail in different shots and even posted samples but then I get questioned whether I even know what a raw file is. Or how to process it then I'm supposed to be grateful for that type of 'help' then told I'm complaining for the sake of it. None of that is any use to me nor anyone else I can think of really.

sar104 · Nov 12, 2018

Johnmcl7 said:
The default settings of the editing software to make it clear this wasn't the result of overdone post processing settings. Technically I realise that means processing has been applied to the raw file but there's no other way to show the raw file and it shows it's not the jpeg or in drone settings that are the cause.

That's a little rich coming from you, I've answered every question you've asked and in some cases when you ignored it the first time, I posted the information a second time. So far you've repeatedly insulted my ability and haven't provided a single useful answer, I asked specifically what you thought the fault was and posted another sample photo but you failed to reply to that.

Ok, I'll bite - what's the answer then?

No - you haven't provided any answers at all. You haven't said how you processed the file and keep referring to default settings. There are no default settings to process RAW. You could have posted the RAW image. You could, at least, have posted a full-resolution image. As I said - it looks out of focus but since it's just a low-resolution screen grab, how do you expect anyone to help you?