Mavic 3 Tele Lens

[Meta4]

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.

 

[alfo2010]

Those photos look good, I'll have a little experimenting , spot on

 

[edcMavicPilots]

I completely agree. It gives me the ability to get compression shots that are not possible with the Hasselblad camera and the quality is fine as long as you keep it within common sense boundaries. I doubt I am going to want to print > maybe 16" x 20" but that's fine. It was just OK until we got the raw firmware which raised the capabilities considerably. I shot this one maybe a month after I got the drone so no raw and I still like it.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Can you post full res versions? It's impossible to evaluate image quality with web-sized images. They look pretty good though at that size. There appears to be a ton of noise in the skies even at ISO 100 but the subjects themselves look OK.

 

[Meta4]

Can you post full res versions? It's impossible to evaluate image quality with web-sized images. They look pretty good though at that size. There appears to be a ton of noise in the skies even at ISO 100 but the subjects themselves look OK.

See them here:

M3 tele lens examples - Above & Beyond Photography

default

abovephotos.smugmug.com

 

[GadgetGuy]

Glad to finally have you "on board" with the tele lens!
Keep up the good work!

 

[Volatus Drones]

Awesome shots, and great post.

 

[MS Coast]

Wonderful photos. The ones of the pilot boat are particularly good. What's the location?

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

Some samples from the M3 telephoto. On my very first flight I took some photos from 3.5 miles of downtown. It can definitely have benefits of you don't want to be seen or need a close up shot of say a roof or tower, etc.
The photos were too large to post here, so I provided a dropbox link. Your free to download them for evaluation.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[GadgetGuy]

Screenshots of your large Drop Box uploads show the impressive change from 1x to 28x.

 

[UAVquadman]

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.

most of those photos I see would do better with the main lens but it's a good test but not good if you are doing Pro work. I take more boat photos than everybody in the group combined or close to it! LOL...

 

[Meta4]

Screenshots of your large Drop Box uploads show the impressive change from 1x to 28x.

I think the keys to getting good results from the tele lens are:
Good lighting
Not using digital zoom
Not shooting subjects that are in the far distance

 

[Meta4]

most of those photos I see would do better with the main lens but it's a good test but not good if you are doing Pro work. I take more boat photos than everybody in the group combined or close to it! LOL...

I do use the main lens for most of my work, but have been trying the tele lens to see what it can do.
While it doesn't produce images of the same quality, it does things that the main lens cannot.
Being stuck with the perspective that the very wide angle main lens has makes things tricky.
It's easy to get ugly images with distortion of perspective and it takes effort to capture pleasing images with the wideangle lens.
And shooting small, fast moving vessels is always a challenge with the wideangle, because you need to be so close to fill the frame and small movements ruin the composition.
But the tele lens makes it much easier to keep the small, fast subject in the frame from a comfortable distance away.

And I'd be surprised if you shoot more boats/ships than another member of the forum.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I think the keys to getting good results from the tele lens are:
Good lighting
Not using digital zoom
Not shooting subjects that are in the far distance

Agreed.
The 28x is most useful for setting manual focus, before backing out to the optical 7x, as focus hunting is still a problem during telephoto video.
The 7x perspective really pulls in any distant background for a very impactful image.

 

[GadgetGuy]

And I'd be surprised if you shoot more boats/ships than another member of the forum.

Indeed!

 

[Meta4]

Nobody takes more photos of F/V than I do... simple fact we all must live with...

That's a bold claim.
Care to give some numbers to support it?

 

[UAVquadman]

I do use the main lens for most of my work, but have been trying the tele lens to see what it can do.
While it doesn't produce images of the same quality, it does things that the main lens cannot.
Being stuck with the perspective that the very wide angle main lens has makes things tricky.
It's easy to get ugly images with distortion of perspective and it takes effort to capture pleasing images with the wideangle lens.
And shooting small, fast moving vessels is always a challenge with the wideangle, because you need to be so close to fill the frame and small movements ruin the composition.
But the tele lens makes it much easier to keep the small, fast subject in the frame from a comfortable distance away.

And I'd be surprised if you shoot more boats/ships than another member of the forum.

Just because your words can have meanings doesn't mean they are true. I just show photos and you have nothing to show that you are even close to my drone flying skills around boats...

 

[GadgetGuy]

 

[Meta4]

Just because your words can have meanings doesn't mean they are true. I just show photos and you have nothing to show that you are even close to my drone flying skills around boats...

I'll pm you a link to a few samples of what I've been doing since 2015.

 

[UAVquadman]

Indeed!

He has got me on the larger vessels! but there isn't many in my area...