Mavic 3 Tele Lens

[basyok]

What I wouldn't give for a telephoto lens on my Air 2...

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

The earlier photos were on my first flight and I had an ND32 filter on. Took some today without a filter to see the difference. Here are some photos at 1x, 2x, 4, 7x, and up to 28x. Distance from drone to buildings downtown are 3.5 miles.
Also, I have a recent model with the Oval lens.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[KS-6]

I see some members dismissing the tele lens that's incorporated into the Mavic 3 and confess that I was initially skeptical about it.
With a fixed aperture and dinky 1/2 inch sensor, I didn't think it would be capable of producing the quality I wanted.
It definitely has limitations and can't match the quality of the 4/3 sensor on the main camera.
But after using the Mavic 3 for a month, I've found that it's not as useless as I first imagined and I'm using it more than I thought I would.

It has a lot more reach than the wideangle main camera and gives a completely different perspective to the very wide angle shots that have become characteristic of drone photography.
Here are three pairs of images, each shot from the same position to demonstrate how different the Mavic 3's cameras are:

And here are a few examples that show what the tele lens is capable of.

The side by side images really help me get my head around it in a production situation, thanks.

That is one heck of a big difference in field of view, it might be too much for what I am wanting. It also has me thinking that making a secondary or even a primary fixed lens with an FOV more in the 35-50mm range at anything faster than F4 might be too large for this platform.

Has anyone used it to stitch a slight wider FOV? With DNG files it tends to be a heck of lot easier than just jpeg or tiff files.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Has anyone used it to stitch a slight wider FOV? With DNG files it tends to be a heck of lot easier than just jpeg or tiff files.

I've used it to create 360° panos with multiple rows. It works quite well, using the 9 box grid overlay to make the lateral and vertical movement changes necessary. A 7x 360 x 180 pano could potentially even be completed in a single flight. My ardent hope is that DJI eventually automates that tedious process, or that Litchi does, after the SDK release. However, in the interim, we can easily smaller stitch 3x3 panos from 9 adjacent 7x images of static subjects for greater detail than is possible with the main lens from a great distance in good visibility.

 

[PAW]

@Meta4 and others have been touting the photo benefits of the 7x. To add to the positives delivered by this lens are some great parallax effect style videos. I believe the below video was posted on some other thread in this forum:

MAVIC 3 IS BETTER THAN YOU THINK

 

[KS-6]

I got my M3 Cine yesterday, have got 5 flights in thus far. I'm still figuring out how to get the most out of the main cam but the telephoto is pretty awesome in my opinion.

I did this 8 frame stitch over a river with the ND16 at ISO 100, 1/4 of a second and it really held it good considering I was right at 400' feet AGL. The only shots that were a bit blurry was when I did not let the bird settle after moving it but I caught that bad habit early on and ended up with nice frames

I am really pleased at how fast you can gain / lose altitude with this thing, it's better for productivity and safety.

 

[KS-6]

Another one, this time a 12 frame with some overlap coming in at about 36mp in final size. Once they added raw to the tele-cam, I knew I might be getting an M3. The ability to do this really makes this bird productive, I just ordered a 4th battery...

 

[Meta4]

I am really pleased at how fast you can gain / lose altitude with this thing, it's better for productivity and safety.

Descent speed of 6 m/s is pretty scary if you aren't high in the sky.
I've dialed the throttle expo right back so descent is slower unless I hold the stick right down.

 

[KS-6]

Descent speed of 6 m/s is pretty scary if you aren't high in the sky.
I've dialed the throttle expo right back so descent is slower unless I hold the stick right down.

Are you still getting 6m/s down at full stick after making the adjustment? If so, I could see doing that.

 

[Meta4]

Are you still getting 6m/s down at full stick after making the adjustment? If so, I could see doing that.

Yes .. it just doesn't rocket to full speed down for small stick movements.
When you are only 5-10 metres above the sea, that's the last thing you want.
I'm still tinkering with the settings but this is what I have at the moment.

 

[MaximusCZ]

I get much more respect from Fishermen

I am happy for you that you get respect somewhere at least

 

[itallica]

I see some members dismissing the tele lens that's incorporated into the Mavic 3 and confess that I was initially skeptical about it.
With a fixed aperture and dinky 1/2 inch sensor, I didn't think it would be capable of producing the quality I wanted.
It definitely has limitations and can't match the quality of the 4/3 sensor on the main camera.
But after using the Mavic 3 for a month, I've found that it's not as useless as I first imagined and I'm using it more than I thought I would.

It has a lot more reach than the wideangle main camera and gives a completely different perspective to the very wide angle shots that have become characteristic of drone photography.
Here are three pairs of images, each shot from the same position to demonstrate how different the Mavic 3's cameras are:

And here are a few examples that show what the tele lens is capable of.

WOW - thank you for the insight. Currently sitting with an A2s and Pro controller, thinking spring is when I'll make the call.

 

[Panair]

Images look definatley good but were these taken raw or jpg?
Are raw generated files affected by overexposed central area and wrong wb on the corners like those taken with the MA2?

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

This was a test of the tele zoom on my first flight with the M3. Target bldg was 3.5 miles away and using varying zoom levels. As you can see, depending on your desired goal, it can be very productive.

 

[Panair]

thank you, are this jpgs though, wondering if RAW are free of any issues

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

thank you, are this jpgs though, wondering if RAW are free of any issu

thank you, are this jpgs though, wondering if RAW are free of any issues

These were all shot in JPG on the tele lens. This was before the FW upgrade that added 7x to the primary lens.

 

[Meta4]

Images look definatley good but were these taken raw or jpg?
Are raw generated files affected by overexposed central area and wrong wb on the corners like those taken with the MA2?

If you were asking me, all my photography is done with jpg files.

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

If you were asking me, all my photography is done with jpg files.

All of these were JPG, I also reduced them 50% to be able to upload hear.

 

[GadgetGuy]

All of these were JPG, I also reduced them 50% to be able to upload hear.

"Indiana Michigan Power" is even legible on the tallest building!

What was the zoom/telephoto level used in each of the 9 images?

These were all shot in JPG on the tele lens. This was before the FW upgrade that added 7x to the primary lens.

The primary lens still doesn't have 7x.
That's actually still the 7x telephoto lens.
There is still a jump from 3x digital zoom on the primary lens to the 7x telephoto lens in the Normal mode, where the 7x telephoto has its own 4x digital zoom up to 28x.

 

[edcMavicPilots]

thank you, are this jpgs though, wondering if RAW are free of any issues

The JPG images are created from the RAW capture whether it is done in camera or with conversion software after the fact so there is no reason there would be RAW issues.