Mavic 3 telephoto experience

[stevearends]

I’m LOVING the M3! The list is pretty long on why I fly it all the time now while my Air 2S and Mini. 3 Pro mostly sit in their cases.

But, I have a question on using it!

I inspect property damage. Here is something I’d like to do but I don’t think it’s easily possible:

When inspecting a roof I’d like to pan along recording a video as I look for damaged areas. Then, when I see an area that I suspect has damage I’d like to zoom in, while recording, and document the damage. Then I could zoom back out and resume scanning the roof.

Rather this is what’s been happening:

I record a video while scanning the roof surfaces moving from side to side using the 4/3 camera. When I see a potential damaged area I must stop the recording, go to the 7x camera and start a new recording. Sometimes this is hitting pay dirt- bingo! Lots of high resolution damage video! But now I want to resume scanning the roof while recording so I need to stop recording and switch to the 4/3 camera, resume recording etc.

I don’t believe there’s a way for me to shoot one inspection video that scans the roof from above and then zooms in occasionally to investigate potential damage spots while recording and then zoom back out and resume overall scanning. Does this sound about right?

 

[GadgetGuy]

You'll have to use the Explore Mode, which offers 1x to 28x for continuous video. In Normal mode, it operates exactly as you describe, requiring turning the video off to switch cameras, and then have full control over the camera settings for exposure in the video.

 

[stevearends]

You'll have to use the Explore Mode, which offers 1x to 28x for continuous video. In Normal mode, it operates exactly as you describe, requiring turning the video off to switch cameras, and then have full control over the camera settings for exposure in the video.

OK, that is so cool - this could be perfect for my inspection needs. I thought in Explore Mode I wouldn't be able to record a video. Can't wait to try this out!

So, the disadvantage to recording a video this way is that there isn't any camera customization? I wonder how big of a deal that will be for my inspections use case - hmmmm.

 

[GadgetGuy]

OK, that is so cool - this could be perfect for my inspection needs. I thought in Explore Mode I wouldn't be able to record a video. Can't wait to try this out!

So, the disadvantage to recording a video this way is that there isn't any camera customization? I wonder how big of a deal that will be for my inspections use case - hmmmm.

You still have exposure compensation capability and manual focus capability while in the the Auto setting of Explore mode. For your use, probably good enough.

 

[jephoto]

I know this is an older thread, but I’m curious if you tried this out and how it worked for you. Because unless you’re at either one X or 7X you’re all on digital zoom which is pretty fairly crappy quality.
And the color is very different between the two cameras. Perhaps that doesn’t matter for what you’re doing.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I know this is an older thread, but I’m curious if you tried this out and how it worked for you. Because unless you’re at either one X or 7X you’re all on digital zoom which is pretty fairly crappy quality.
And the color is very different between the two cameras. Perhaps that doesn’t matter for what you’re doing.

Both cameras do quite well at up to 2x digital zoom on each, without any significant apparent difference in quality. That's 1x-2x and 7x-14x while in Explore mode.