Mavic as a still camera

flyby · Aug 17, 2017

I'm still on the fence. Primarily a travel photographer and am in places sometimes where speed to get the shot, as well as time of day are not on my side. So I tend to shoot raw+jpg. jpg for the daily blog I do and RAW for the shots once I get home.

Challenge is when I travel I only have an iPad to process. I already have too much stuff to add a MBP or something. I can add a Mavic and a couple batteries to my day pack and be carry on compliant but not much more

I also like to shoot it "right from the camera" and not "fix it in post". Basically I only want to set the White Balance maybe crop and not much more for my raw shots. I hate farting around on a computer when I could be out travelling. Plus these days any travel shot that isn't on social media within hours of being taken is ignored

So for you photographers out there: Can you get a decent natural shot with just a filter (CP or such) or do you really still need to mess around in post to get it the way it should be? Preferably jpg or at the very least raw that doesn't need alot of messing with.....

PDXteriors · Aug 17, 2017

Most RAWs need a fair amount of editing as I'm sure you know just due to the nature of RAW files, but the Mavic does have AEB and HDR modes which can typically get you a pretty good jpeg if you're feeling too lazy to edit all the RAW values.

But yes, I pretty much only shoot stills and the occasional video for Insta and have very good results!

Mr. Salty · Aug 17, 2017

I wouldn't say you need to do a lot of "messing" with the RAW files, but they do require some amount of basic post processing. White balance is usually pretty good. Contrast, saturation and so forth can use a slight tweak. On the Mavic I shoot jpeg and RAW both and almost always use the RAW files for anything I care about.

But really, if you're any kind of photographer (I've been shooting for 35 years), doing some minor post processing in Lightroom is something you should be accustomed to, regardless of what camera you're using. Newer iPads should be able to handle RAW files.

sonof40 · Aug 17, 2017

Is the only reason to not shoot in RAW + jpg because of large file size?

flyby · Aug 17, 2017

sonof40 said:
Is the only reason to not shoot in RAW + jpg because of large file size?

More or less yes. jpg is a compressed format and easily consumable by anything these days. raw has more data and thus is much larger BUT you can do so much more with a raw file (colour, tone, white balance, sharpness etc). So while most of my shots off my high end DSLR I use the jpg I still shoot RAW +JPG just in case. And in some cases the RAW saves the otherwise ruined shot. I used to shoot raw but the newer cameras make all that extra work not necessary all the time. I'm hoping the Mavic jpg is similar. But cards are cheap so I invest in lots and don't sweat the file sizes.