Mavic 2 pro vs air 2s vs mini 3 pro for professional photography

[Chapperz]

Hi

Sorry if this has been asked before but. Here's a question for professional photographers/videographers who have/still use any or all of the following for professional work.

Mavic 2 pro, air 2s and mini 3 pro.

In the context of professional quality photos and videos. Which is better? I want to get into drone photography/videography but don't want to break the bank but want something to be able to cut my teeth bit still end up with results that would be saleable.

I've decided that 20mp is a bare minimum. AEB is a must. HDR HLG is a must. I know the mini 3 pro has AEB bit only in 12mp and apparently the 48mp setting on the mini 3 pro introduces a load of noise so, I guess my real question is.... If you pros had only two options (M2P and A2S) what one would you choose and why? PS I'm not bothered about legislation in the UK because I'm prepared to get the CofC cert.

 

[Meta4]

If you pros had only two options (M2P and A2S) what one would you choose and why?

Don't be confused by megapixels, they are not an indication of image quality.
The Mavic 2 pro will give better results with its larger sensor and controllable aperture.
It's app (DJI Go 4) gives more control options too, and it has a higher top speed so is more capable of dealing with windy conditions..

 

[Chapperz]

Don't be confused by megapixels, they are not an indication of image quality.
The Mavic 2 pro will give better results with its larger sensor and controllable aperture.
It's app (DJI Go 4) gives more control options too, and it has a higher top speed so is more capable of dealing with windy conditions..

I realise there's more to it than pixels count but the M2P and A2S both have a 1" 20mp sensor. I read a comment (think it may have been in this forum) that stated 20mp in a professional context is a bare minimum.

I'm no expert but, what I have read is that if I can control the aperture I won't have to land the drone to keep changing ND filters. Ok so that's a plus but, if the higher video resolution on the A2S is really that much better than I don't mind the trade off.

One of the reasons I won't bother with the mini 2 pro is that it's not actually a 48mp camera and, it doesn't support AEB in 48mp. For me, spec wise in terms of photo and video quality, the A2S trounces the mini. Also, I saw a test done on the mini between the 12 and 48mp settings and tje 48mp just introduced a load of noise.

Apparently the mini is great in low light but, when turning up the ISO the mini falls apart a lot earlier than the other two so, I'm thinking higher ISO setting and AEB negates that no?

So, the mini is a no for me. I'm happy to use a phone and get the relevant certs and have a little bit more of a restricted flight for better photos and videos. Besides I'm not a tiktoker, and most it not all of the stuff I shoot will be countryside when me and the better half are camping. We won't be doing any tiktok dancing so our phones will be good enough for selfies in towns and cities.

I think it's probably apt to note that the images etc will be used in a blog and a YouTube channel and, be uploaded for sale on stock photo/video sites. I know that most if not all the images etc will be used for web and that even 12mp far exceeds the minimum requirements (around 3-4 times in some cases) but I'd like to give myself a bit of a competitive edge in terms of quality, just incase... Ya know? Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Again, 20mp AEB with a 1" sensor has got to be better than a 1/1.3 at 12mp right?

And what with all the massive screens in 4k being very accessible/affordable these days, would it not be better to go with the A2S over the mini or M2P in terms of video quality?

I think I'm kinda of answering my own question/s really. But can any experienced/professionals here tell me if my logic/reasoning is correct and does it bare out in practice?

To be honest, I'm pretty much sold on the A2S but alas... The Air 3 is rumoured to be coming soon and at not much more than the A2S.

DJI Really do know how to keep people guessing and buying. Planned obsolescence?

 

[Meta4]

I realise there's more to it than pixels count but the M2P and A2S both have a 1" 20mp sensor.

Sorry .. you mentioned the Mini 3 pro so much that I mistakenly thought that was your alternative option.

 

[Chapperz]

Sorry .. you mentioned the Mini 3 pro so much that I mistakenly thought that was your alternative option.

Sorry my bad... But no, I want an device that can take (or as close to possible) photos and videos that can actually be used professionally.

I'm no expert but from what I can see, that's not the mini 3 pro. The virtical camera, fake 48mp camera, sub 250g weight and nice controller don't swing it for me.

My other half has a degree in fine art and photography, and after speaking to her the M2P is very tempting because of the hassleblad thing.

But anyway, as it stands.
The A2S beats the mini and the M2P for video quality and it beats it beats the mini for video quality and image quality. 20mp AEB vs 12mp AEB plus, the bigger lens on the A2S can use higher ISO settings before noise becomes a issue means for the the better low light on the mini is irrelevant. But I'm no expert, I'm going by what I have learned from the interweb so there's a good chance I'm wrong.

Oh and there's filters available for the A2S that are supposedly the muts nuts that aren't available for the mini. So for me, the A2S, in the context of professional quality photos and videos is the no brainer, regardless of the 250g thing and having to land to change filters.

Again, that's why I'm asking for a professional to kindly tell me if my logic is on the money or not and if the footage and videos from the A2S are indeed saleable.

I'm thinking I'm just going to up my budget a bit and wait for the A3

 

[yankfanp]

Hi

Sorry if this has been asked before but. Here's a question for professional photographers/videographers who have/still use any or all of the following for professional work.

Mavic 2 pro, air 2s and mini 3 pro.

In the context of professional quality photos and videos. Which is better? I want to get into drone photography/videography but don't want to break the bank but want something to be able to cut my teeth bit still end up with results that would be saleable.

I've decided that 20mp is a bare minimum. AEB is a must. HDR HLG is a must. I know the mini 3 pro has AEB bit only in 12mp and apparently the 48mp setting on the mini 3 pro introduces a load of noise so, I guess my real question is.... If you pros had only two options (M2P and A2S) what one would you choose and why? PS I'm not bothered about legislation in the UK because I'm prepared to get the CofC cert.

You can't go wrong with the M2P for sure!

 

[Dbez1]

Retired photographer here and now I just dabble. Are they saleable??? It will depend on the size of the print and your clients requirements. I have an Air2S and it should do 11x14 without losing detail. I did one very large print of a church’s addition that they were happy with. I can’t remember the size but it was at least 20x24. The viewing distance was not close so we got away with it. I hope this helps and I also hope you get feedback from some more active professionals experienced in current demands.

 

[Chapperz]

You can't go wrong with the M2P for sure!

Yeah I'm thinking that but is the A2S video better as the stats would suggest?

 

[Chapperz]

Retired photographer here and now I just dabble. Are they saleable??? It will depend on the size of the print and your clients requirements. I have an Air2S and it should do 11x14 without losing detail. I did one very large print of a church’s addition that they were happy with. I can’t remember the size but it was at least 20x24. The viewing distance was not close so we got away with it. I hope this helps and I also hope you get feedback from some more active professionals experienced in current demands.

Thanks great to know... Appreciate it. I'm not looking to print anything myself personally, but I'd like people to be able to if they buy them.

Obviously, 20x24 is in inches. Do you think the images from a A2S could be used for printing posters?

And in your professional opinion, what do you think of the video from the A2S?

All that said, the fact that a professional photographer like yourself has used one for professional use is very encouraging.

Thanks again

 

[Chapperz]

Thanks great to know... Appreciate it. I'm not looking to print anything myself personally, but I'd like people to be able to if they buy them.

Obviously, 20x24 is in inches. Do you think the images from a A2S could be used for printing posters?

Edit. Stills resolution for the A2S:

• 20 MP
  5472×3648 (3:2)
  5472×3078 (16:9)

I can figure out print sizes from that.

And in your professional opinion, what do you think of the video from the A2S?

All that said, the fact that a professional photographer like yourself has used one for professional use is very encouraging.

Thanks again

 

[Felix le Chat]

Sorry my bad... But no, I want an device that can take (or as close to possible) photos and videos that can actually be used professionally.

I'm no expert but from what I can see, that's not the mini 3 pro. The virtical camera, fake 48mp camera, sub 250g weight and nice controller don't swing it for me.

My other half has a degree in fine art and photography, and after speaking to her the M2P is very tempting because of the hassleblad thing.

But anyway, as it stands.
The A2S beats the mini and the M2P for video quality and it beats it beats the mini for video quality and image quality. 20mp AEB vs 12mp AEB plus, the bigger lens on the A2S can use higher ISO settings before noise becomes a issue means for the the better low light on the mini is irrelevant. But I'm no expert, I'm going by what I have learned from the interweb so there's a good chance I'm wrong.

Oh and there's filters available for the A2S that are supposedly the muts nuts that aren't available for the mini. So for me, the A2S, in the context of professional quality photos and videos is the no brainer, regardless of the 250g thing and having to land to change filters.

Again, that's why I'm asking for a professional to kindly tell me if my logic is on the money or not and if the footage and videos from the A2S are indeed saleable.

I'm thinking I'm just going to up my budget a bit and wait for the A3

A professional photographer can use one of the old Kodak disposable cameras and get a 'saleable' shot, in fact some of the most iconic photographic images of the 20th century were shot with box brownies or pocket sized Leica's and not massive SLR's. I use DSLR land cameras with 16-20mp sensors and there are still problems with vignetting and unacceptable digital noise. On the other hand, a lot of the aerial shots that I've been satisfied enough with to hand-off to clients have come from a 12mp 1/2.3" sensor shoehorned into a Mavic 2 zoom. I've learned that it's not the size that matters - it's what you do with it that counts. The quality of hard print from any camera is determined by the dpi of the output image. Between 300 and 600dpi is full page or double-spread glossy magazine quality. I output mine to archive as 32bit floating point TIF's at 900dpi and I'd hate to have to pay the printing bill.

Don't be led down the garden path with the 'Hasselblad' brand printed on the UV filter of the Mavic 2 Pro - the L1D 20c is still a DJI camera with a plastic lens. The only good thing about the '20mp' camera is the fact that it has a marginally variable aperture - f/2.8-f/11 which is nowhere near the variability of a professional camera and means that the "f/16 sunny day" rule is a distant speck on the horizon that you will never be able to reach. The Air2S may have a 1" sensor packed into the housing... but it still gets hamstrung with an f/2.8 fixed aperture. The same with the mini 3 pro: fixed aperture at f/1.7, meaning you will have to pay attention to taming a tendency to ETTR with all of the drones you've mentioned... some more than others. On top of that - every single one of them has a scan sensor - not one has a true global sensor behind a global shutter, so now the Mavic 2 'pro' changes from PROfessional to PRO-sumer.

I'm really pissy about image quality and before I bought one: I took the mickey out of the mini 3 pro's '48mp mode'. After I'd used it once and discovered that it kicked out a DNG that is just as much of a joy to run through post processing as any other 'serious' cameras RAW file: I changed my tune. I have no idea what black magic voodoo DJI have jammed into the camera firmware... but it is seven-league-boot leaps and bounds better than any other rival manufacturers best effort. The 48mp option also presents a JPG image file that is double the real-estate of the 12mp shot (instead of 4032x3024: 8064x6048) and the digital noise astonished me. Astonished me by being absolutely minimal compared to both the Mavic 2 zoom and the Mavic 2 pro.

The only time you'll get a proper professional quality camera slung under a drone is if you fork out the big bucks for one of the Inspires with their Zenmuse X7 or X9 units - or an M30. So far the best on offer to the 'pro-sumer' is the Mavic 3 Pro and you'll wave goodbye to slightly over £3,000 for the standard model with enough batteries to make a day shoot worthwhile.

The cheaper, older drones you mention are still more than capable workhorses as long as you learn how to make the most of what they offer - I still use mine every week. The Mini 3 Pro is well worth a serious look, despite it's diminutive stature and fly-speck imaging device it is an excellent drone that carries an excellent camera.

 

[@Rip]

Mavic 2 pro

Short Answer.

 

[Felix le Chat]

Short Answer.

Compared to the longer answer with plenty of information.

 

[Chapperz]

A professional photographer can use one of the old Kodak disposable cameras and get a 'saleable' shot, in fact some of the most iconic photographic images of the 20th century were shot with box brownies or pocket sized Leica's and not massive SLR's. I use DSLR land cameras with 16-20mp sensors and there are still problems with vignetting and unacceptable digital noise. On the other hand, a lot of the aerial shots that I've been satisfied enough with to hand-off to clients have come from a 12mp 1/2.3" sensor shoehorned into a Mavic 2 zoom. I've learned that it's not the size that matters - it's what you do with it that counts. The quality of hard print from any camera is determined by the dpi of the output image. Between 300 and 600dpi is full page or double-spread glossy magazine quality. I output mine to archive as 32bit floating point TIF's at 900dpi and I'd hate to have to pay the printing bill.

Don't be led down the garden path with the 'Hasselblad' brand printed on the UV filter of the Mavic 2 Pro - the L1D 20c is still a DJI camera with a plastic lens. The only good thing about the '20mp' camera is the fact that it has a marginally variable aperture - f/2.8-f/11 which is nowhere near the variability of a professional camera and means that the "f/16 sunny day" rule is a distant speck on the horizon that you will never be able to reach. The Air2S may have a 1" sensor packed into the housing... but it still gets hamstrung with an f/2.8 fixed aperture. The same with the mini 3 pro: fixed aperture at f/1.7, meaning you will have to pay attention to taming a tendency to ETTR with all of the drones you've mentioned... some more than others. On top of that - every single one of them has a scan sensor - not one has a true global sensor behind a global shutter, so now the Mavic 2 'pro' changes from PROfessional to PRO-sumer.

I'm really pissy about image quality and before I bought one: I took the mickey out of the mini 3 pro's '48mp mode'. After I'd used it once and discovered that it kicked out a DNG that is just as much of a joy to run through post processing as any other 'serious' cameras RAW file: I changed my tune. I have no idea what black magic voodoo DJI have jammed into the camera firmware... but it is seven-league-boot leaps and bounds better than any other rival manufacturers best effort. The 48mp option also presents a JPG image file that is double the real-estate of the 12mp shot (instead of 4032x3024: 8064x6048) and the digital noise astonished me. Astonished me by being absolutely minimal compared to both the Mavic 2 zoom and the Mavic 2 pro.

The only time you'll get a proper professional quality camera slung under a drone is if you fork out the big bucks for one of the Inspires with their Zenmuse X7 or X9 units - or an M30. So far the best on offer to the 'pro-sumer' is the Mavic 3 Pro and you'll wave goodbye to slightly over £3,000 for the standard model with enough batteries to make a day shoot worthwhile.

The cheaper, older drones you mention are still more than capable workhorses as long as you learn how to make the most of what they offer - I still use mine every week. The Mini 3 Pro is well worth a serious look, despite it's diminutive stature and fly-speck imaging device it is an excellent drone that carries an excellent camera.

Ok... There's a few things in there that I will now have a nose into. ETTR being one of them and dot per inch in printing. Thank you so much for that it's appreciated.

Over all, what I take away from that is that the mini 3 pro has a better camera than both of the others for both quality of shots and post abilities?

Are the 48mp shots better than the 20mp AEB shots too?

How about video quality?

Thanks again

 

[Felix le Chat]

Ok... There's a few things in there that I will now have a nose into. ETTR being one of them and dot per inch in printing. Thank you so much for that it's appreciated.

Over all, what I take away from that is that the mini 3 pro has a better camera than both of the others for both quality of shots and post abilities?

Are the 48mp shots better than the 20mp AEB shots too?

How about video quality?

Thanks again

The pleasure is mine.

You can do a manual AEB with any DJI drone, just alter the EV slider between static shots, stack the result and a lot of the digital noise in each separate shot gets cancelled out in the resulting HDR. I've tried this in 48mp mode and as long as the drone isn't buffeted, the results are pretty impressive. Also do manual planar pano's which result in massive very high definition images.

'Better than' is subjective, but all I can say with honesty is that my mini 3 pro continues to impress me and my mavics still kick out images that I'm more than happy to put my moniker to.

I really have no idea about video quality, I only shoot stills. You'd be better served talking to another forum member who does shoot and edit footage.

 

[Chapperz]

The pleasure is mine.

You can do a manual AEB with any DJI drone, just alter the EV slider between static shots, stack the result and a lot of the digital noise in each separate shot gets cancelled out in the resulting HDR. I've tried this in 48mp mode and as long as the drone isn't buffeted, the results are pretty impressive. Also do manual planar pano's which result in massive very high definition images.

'Better than' is subjective, but all I can say with honesty is that my mini 3 pro continues to impress me and my mavics still kick out images that I'm more than happy to put my moniker to.

I really have no idea about video quality, I only shoot stills. You'd be better served talking to another forum member who does shoot and edit footage.

Thanks again... I'm now reconsidering the mini lol

 

[Capt KO]

Once you see, feel, and hear the difference between MP2 and A2S , i think you’ll end up with the A2S. Easier to travel with and quiet enough to not scare the wildlife. Takes great pics and vids too. Only wish it used GO4 but I’ve gotten used to FLY. Enjoy your new career, sounds fun

 

[Joethedrone]

Hi

Sorry if this has been asked before but. Here's a question for professional photographers/videographers who have/still use any or all of the following for professional work.

Mavic 2 pro, air 2s and mini 3 pro.

In the context of professional quality photos and videos. Which is better? I want to get into drone photography/videography but don't want to break the bank but want something to be able to cut my teeth bit still end up with results that would be saleable.

I've decided that 20mp is a bare minimum. AEB is a must. HDR HLG is a must. I know the mini 3 pro has AEB bit only in 12mp and apparently the 48mp setting on the mini 3 pro introduces a load of noise so, I guess my real question is.... If you pros had only two options (M2P and A2S) what one would you choose and why? PS I'm not bothered about legislation in the UK because I'm prepared to get the CofC cert.

I have both the Mavic 2 Pro and the Air 2s, and to be honest, unless I’m looking to shoot and print really big, the Air 2s is my go to drone. Ill always use the Mavic 2 Pro if the wind gets up a bit, because it’s steady as a rock and still has a great camera. I’ve never flown a Mini 3 Pro. (YET lol)

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

If your interested in the A2s this one is for sale.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/5764046230278160/user/100000145227403

Second one down on the right.

 

[Chapperz]

Once you see, feel, and hear the difference between MP2 and A2S , i think you’ll end up with the A2S. Easier to travel with and quiet enough to not scare the wildlife. Takes great pics and vids too. Only wish it used GO4 but I’ve gotten used to FLY. Enjoy your new career, sounds fun

I'm leaning that way but apparently the air 3 is on the way now...