Mavic 3 now available (more details inside)

[CanadaDrone]

Well here is your proof that you are correct, UGH Co Developed got me . So the Mavic 3 is the same than ?

Correct. DJI bought a stake in Hasselblad to use their branding. Hasselblad does provide the color science, but that is nothing special or unique. The sensor in the M3 is made by Sony. The M2P was the same in this regard.

Hasselblad is a specialty camera manufacturer of medium format (larger than full frame) digital cameras designed primarily for studio/still image/fashion/product type photography. They are hand made in Sweden. You are mostly buying the sensor, which is made by Sony anyway. Some of their cameras cost more than a car (around $48,000 USD at the high end) and their cheapest lens is around $3,000.

If you see an $800 smartphone with Hasselblad/Zeiss/Leica branding on it (the actual camera module probably cost less than $50 to manufacture), rest assured they had little or nothing to do with it haha.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Correct. DJI bought a stake in Hasselblad to use their branding. Hasselblad does provide the color science, but that is nothing special or unique. The sensor in the M3 is made by Sony. The M2P was the same in this regard.

Hasselblad is a specialty camera manufacturer of medium format (larger than full frame) digital cameras designed primarily for studio/still image/fashion/product type photography. They are hand made in Sweden. You are mostly buying the sensor, which is made by Sony anyway. Some of their cameras cost more than a car (around $48,000 USD at the high end) and their cheapest lens is around $3,000.

If you see an $800 smartphone with Hasselblad/Zeiss/Leica branding on it, rest assured they had little or nothing to do with it haha.

Exactly this and it's something I find irritating especially given how blatantly nonsense it is, I remember a Nokia phone in particular that had a Zeiss branded lens that reviewers praised...it was a little bit of plastic and that was it. I guess to be fair to the camera companies the branding/marketing is incredibly effective.

 

[eEridani]

I'm waiting for the shoe to drop that the 13EV dynamic range includes the 5 stops the aperture provides; that the camera only provides 8 stops of DR.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Exactly this and it's something I find irritating especially given how blatantly nonsense it is, I remember a Nokia phone in particular that had a Zeiss branded lens that reviewers praised...it was a little bit of plastic and that was it. I guess to be fair to the camera companies the branding/marketing is incredibly effective.

I agree - it's very misleading, but highly effective from a marketing standpoint so it's at least understandably why they do it. I also find it frustrating when otherwise reputable YouTubers and reviewers refer to it as "the Hasselblad camera" which does nothing other than perpetuate the myth. It was the same when the M2P was released.

 

[CanadaDrone]

I'm waiting for the shoe to drop that the 13EV dynamic range includes the 5 stops the aperture provides; that the camera only provides 8 stops of DR.

Shouldn't be any DR surprises. Reviewers have already confirmed this as well. Sony's 20MP 4/3 sensors have ~13 stops of usable dynamic range. DLog from the M3 also looks extremely flat, far more so than the M2P, so there is no reason to believe the DR isn't all there.

8 stops of DR would be far less than any modern image sensor in this size category, so you don't have to worry about that.

It looks like they really got the (main) camera right this time around. 4K also look like it's oversampled from 5.1K which is what you want to see. The telephoto camera on the other hand looks terrible.

 

[Sripey]

Is Amazon only offering the Fly More bundle?

 

[wco81]

Hassleblad is known for its medium format cameras. Very little to do with small sensors or mobile devices or other devices where weight is at a premium.

So it's all marketing fluff.

Honestly, the second camera may end up being an albatross.

People will wonder if they couldn't have just had the one camera for a lower price.

But it appears DJI was looking for reasons to maximize the price.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Shouldn't be any DR surprises. Reviewers have already confirmed this as well. Sony's 20MP 4/3 sensors have ~13 stops of usable dynamic range. DLog from the M3 also looks extremely flat, far more so than the M2P, so there is no reason to believe the DR isn't all there.

8 stops of DR would be far less than any modern image sensor in this size category, so you don't have to worry about that.

It looks like they really got the (main) camera right this time around. 4K also look like it's oversampled from 5.1K which is what you want to see. The telephoto camera on the other hand looks terrible.

I'm assuming that comment mixing aperture stops and dynamic range was a joke?

13 stops dynamic range is pretty much bang on for a 4/3 sensor.

John

 

[hiflyer201]

46 Minutes of Flight Time

With LOS rules being what they are that means you're just going to be making a heck of a lot of noise in a very small space for a longer period of time. Something has got to give.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Is Amazon only offering the Fly More bundle?

There's a thread saying Amazon US do have both but are promoting the fly more bundle:

BEWARE Standard M3 Amazon buyers

DJI on Amazon is heavily pushing you for the Fly more combo. They changed the home page to only promote Fly more combo. https://www.amazon.com/stores/DJI/page/A2F1C74C-8865-4820-AD23-3C56F28F254C There is currently no way to find the standard drone package now. Even the search is only bringing...

mavicpilots.com

In the UK both appear normal in search results but the fly more package appears first, both are marked as sponsored.

 

[CanadaDrone]

With LOS rules being what they are that means you're just going to be making a heck of a lot of noise in a very small space for a longer period of time. Something has got to give.

Agreed on the VLOS, however uses such as law enforcement, S&R, inspections, mapping, etc. will be the main beneficiaries of the flight time increase. Or for filming things like surfing, where you are basically hovering or flying in a small area for as long as possible.

Best practice for battery health and safety is to RTH around 20-30% anyway, so that 46min maximum flight time in ideal conditions will translate to around 30 minutes for the average user, and that's a good place to be IMO.

 

[Smooth Rhythm]

My thoughts from what I have seen so far:

The Good:
- Flight time & rear mount batteries, but we already knew that
- Video seems to be oversampled from 5.1K which is really excellent - hopefully no surprises there. The M2P used subsampling to create a pretty average 4K in FOV mode, which is not the way you want to go about it.
- 10bit DLog looks incredibly flat, way more so than the M2P, there is a ton of useful DR there
- Everything to do with the drone's chassis seems to be a significant upgrade over the M2P, especially the vision system and ability to fly around signal-blocking obstacles with 4G for certain applications (good for S&R, law enforcement, etc.) RTH looks like it got a nice improvement as well.
- New smart controller looks like more of an upgrade than simply adding O3 to the old one

The Bad:
- The telephoto camera looks like garbage and is limited to 4K 30P as well as auto exposure. No Dlog either. Seems like a gimmick at least on current firmware. Still has some use for surveillance, etc. but nothing I would ever use personally.
- The bag really hurts the fly more combo's value with an individual price of $319 USD
- The included charger does not have a discharge function or a storage charge function

What I am trying to figure out:
- Is distortion correction done in the drone when using 10bit DLog (it was not in the M2P). This is critical for anyone who likes to edit with LumaFusion.



It's pretty clear to me this drone is aimed at serious hobbyists and professionals. People who have spent time with it already have described it as closer to the Inspire line than the Mavic line in terms of image quality and overall refinement. If that's all true, that makes it quite a bargain in my opinion. This drone definitely isn't for everyone and the Air 2S is ready and waiting at a very good price.

When I buy one in the Spring (pointless to buy with our Winter coming up haha), I'm going to build my own "fly more" combo with extra batteries, the RC Pro, extra props, possibly third party filters, third party bag and third party charger (with discharge/storage charge functions). Not a big fan of DJI's accessories this time around and it's low hanging fruit to save ~$500.

Thanks for that review; thanks for sharing!

 

[projectarjun]

I agree. But if they do that will kill the Pro sales. Anyway, if somebody asks recommendation at this point for the money the MA2S is the way to go.

Too True

 

[AVLJMA]

The Mavic 3 is now available here in the DJI Store. See more details here.

New features:

• 4/3 CMOS Hasselblad Camera
• 46 Minutes of Flight Time
• Omnidirectional Obstacle Sensing
• 15km Max Transmission Range
• Advanced Return to Home

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Stewart just did a review of it. He got an early edition and took it out flying and showed off the camera. This is one good looking drone. Here is Stewart's YouTube link.

 

[offtheback]

The adjustable aperture just allows you to get away with fewer ND filters. With a 20MP 4/3 sensor, diffraction will start to degrade the image after about F6.7, so you aren't going to want to go beyond that if your priority is image quality. Sharpest aperture is probably F4 or F5.6, so if you plan to leave it there for maximum image quality, you will need to rely even more on NDs.

Also, an aperture range of F2.8 - 11 is only 4 stops, and that isn't nearly enough avoid NDs for video work.

The dynamic range is not something you want to rely on to recover poorly exposed video, that isn't really the point of having it. You still want to try get your exposure spot-on, and then when you shoot in 10bit DLog you will have maximum flexibility in post.

Another consideration that puts the Air 2S at a bit of a disadvantage is that the shar[est aperture is usually 1.5-2 stops down.Usually helps corner + edge sharpness and vignetting.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Another consideration that puts the Air 2S at a bit of a disadvantage is that the shar[est aperture is usually 1.5-2 stops down.Usually helps corner + edge sharpness and vignetting.

I would hope that the Air 2S' lens was specifically optimized for performance at F2.8, but there is no alternate version for us to find out haha. I certainly agree that its better to have a variable aperture, all else equal. Dealing with NDs is much more annoying when you have to land the drone to make a simple 1-stop change.

 

[offtheback]

I would hope that the Air 2S' lens was specifically optimized for performance at F2.8, but there is no alternate version for us to find out haha. I certainly agree that its better to have a variable aperture, all else equal. Dealing with NDs is much more annoying when you have to land the drone to make a simple 1-stop change.

Yes,impossible to tell.in the 60's and seventies+2-3 stops down for best performance was almost a given.I use a M4/3 system and their lenses are for the most part are best wide open or a stop down.

 

[Jeff A]

I have been saving money for a long time to buy the Mavic 3 when it was released. It looks trally great but at those prices, I'll keep flying my Mavic 2 Pro.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Agreed on the VLOS, however uses such as law enforcement, S&R, inspections, mapping, etc. will be the main beneficiaries of the flight time increase. Or for filming things like surfing, where you are basically hovering or flying in a small area for as long as possible.

Best practice for battery health and safety is to RTH around 20-30% anyway, so that 46min maximum flight time in ideal conditions will translate to around 30 minutes for the average user, and that's a good place to be IMO.

I would certainly find longer batterylife useful and had that worry when I have the drone in the air waiting for something then have to get it down, swap batteries and back up again.

 

[offtheback]

I have been saving money for a long time to buy the Mavic 3 when it was released. It looks trally great but at those prices, I'll keep flying my Mavic 2 Pro.

I am tempted by the 4/3 sensor but agree for now my M2P is very good.might even buy a spare only aircraft as it would be easy to sell in a year or 2.