Mavic Pro review from Philip Bloom

[fakbik]

He is speaking in terms of the cam he used whee he states it shoots 100 Mbps .. Gh4 shoots 100 Mbps. Which incidentally happens to be what is on the inspire. I'm not arguing that he isn't correct. I. Arguing that almost every drone in this class shoots 4K at 60. He's a smart guy he knows this... so why not shoot it and compare apples to apples. Like I said.. I watched some of the video and turned him off.

You know, this Chuck E. Cheese pizza is just complete crap compared to what I had in Naples, Italy. I mean the crust is terrible, the cheese is just flavorless, and the tomatoes taste like bean paste in comparison. I'm really not pleased.

 

[m0j0]

My point is that it would be like giving him a 12 megapixel iPhone and asking him to review it and his first comment is.....12 megapixels isn't enough for a real camera you need at least a full frame 40 megapixel Sony. So I'm going to shoot these photos 6 megapixel because....

 

[m0j0]

You know, this Chuck E. Cheese pizza is just complete crap compared to what I had in Naples, Italy. I mean the crust is terrible, the cheese is just flavorless, and the tomatoes taste like bean paste in comparison. I'm really not pleased.

Yes that's my point. Thank you

 

[fakbik]

My point is that it would be like giving him a 12 megapixel iPhone and asking him to review it and his first comment is.....12 megapixels isn't enough for a real camera you need at least a full frame 40 megapixel Sony. So I'm going to shoot these photos 6 megapixel because....

Sorry if it wasn't clear, I am totally agreeing with you. The man is complaining about a consumer level drone not living up to professional cinematography standards.

 

[m0j0]

Sorry if it wasn't clear, I am totally agreeing with you. The man is complaining about a consumer level drone not living up to professional cinematography standards.

Exactly, truly what I want to know is how does it compare to my P3p.

 

[DefaultIT]

I don't think this was meant to be a [full] review; it's his second outing with the thing. Even so, he did compare with this P4 which is going to be at least as good as anything else in the class...in case you didn't make it that far.

...and just for the record, my GH4 shoots 200mbps


EDIT: I guess his title does say "review" but I think there is probably still a more extensive one coming

 

[Raptorman]

Yeah his colors are way off to my taste but with so little experience and only one battery it's tough to gain the experience. I don't understand why DJI would bother to send a Mavic Pro to someone and then only provide one battery. I think they should have sent four batteries AND some instructions in how to use it.

60Mbps is not enough for pro quality video but it should be OK for a drone that's more of a consumer system. The fact that the Inspire 1 Pro is limited to 60Mbps is a crime in my book. The Panasonic GH-4 can do 200Mbps, but only 100Mbps in 4K as I recall. If it were me I'd make 100Mbps the floor and work to provide at least 200Mbps for Inspire class drones. Looking down the road a couple years there's no way 60Mbps will fly for any drone and Phantom and Mavic class should, by then, be at a minimum of 200Mbps with Inspire class at 300Mbps or higher.

But, it's not just bitrate as the processor needs to be able to handle it and not suck the battery down doing so.


Brian

 

[botasky]

Sorry if it wasn't clear, I am totally agreeing with you. The man is complaining about a consumer level drone not living up to professional cinematography standards.

He is a professional cinematographer, of course he is going do a review from a perspective of a cinematographer, why is that a bad thing? It's a good that he complained about these things because he's giving us information about performance and limitations of the camera unlike other reviewer who say "4k so it is good", I'm not saying that those people are doing a bad job of reviewing, they're do it from a consumer standpoint and that's fine, but someone have to do a review for people who are interested in using this as a professional tool. I use GH4 as my main camera and I know that to get that kind of quality I'll have to get Inspire 1 pro/R or s1000 which can carry the GH4, those are 10 times the price and 20 times as big as the Mavic, of course I don't expected the Mavic to be as good, but I still want to know the limitations the camera.

 

[fakbik]

He is a professional cinematographer, of course he is going do a review from a perspective of a cinematographer, why is that a bad thing? It's a good that he complained about these things because he's giving us information about performance and limitations of the camera unlike other reviewer who say "4k so it is good", I'm not saying that those people are doing a bad job of reviewing, they're do it from a consumer standpoint and that's fine, but someone have to do a review for people who are interested in using this as a professional tool. I use GH4 as my main camera and I know that to get that kind of quality I'll have to get Inspire 1 pro/R or s1000 which can carry the GH4, those are 10 times the price and 20 times as big as the Mavic, of course I don't expected the Mavic to be as good, but I still want to know the limitations the camera.

You know what, you're right, but he really missed out in comparing it to a Red Weapon 8k S35... as a cinematographer, he should be comparing it to the gold standard then, right? I feel like that's only reasonable if we're going to pretend that it makes sense to review a consumer level product at a professional level. That's why the first thing I wanted to see when the iPhone 7 was released was a comparison of the front facing camera to a Hasselblad h5d-200c. Sadly I'm still waiting on DxO optics to do a side by side on that one.

 

[botasky]

You know what, you're right, but he really missed out in comparing it to a Red Weapon 8k S35... as a cinematographer, he should be comparing it to the gold standard then, right? I feel like that's only reasonable if we're going to pretend that it makes sense to review a consumer level product at a professional level. That's why the first thing I wanted to see when the iPhone 7 was released was a comparison of the front facing camera to a Hasselblad h5d-200c. Sadly I'm still waiting on DxO optics to do a side by side on that one.

I think you're not getting what I'm saying. Not all professional can afford the best thing on the market, me included, I can not afford s1000 to hull my gh4 or even inspire 1, the Mavic is in my price range, so I'm getting one for work, so it's good for me to know the limitations and what I should avoid doing. The Mavic is a consumer product, but that doesn't mean professional doesn't interted in it, GoPro, Canon 5D and Panasonic GH4 are all consumer cameras and yet even Hollywood use them, so why not the Mavic?

 

[fakbik]

I think you're not getting what I'm saying. Not all professional can afford the best thing on the market, me included, I can not afford s1000 to hull my gh4 or even inspire 1, the Mavic is in my price range, so I'm getting one for work, so it's good for me to know the limitations and what I should avoid doing. The Mavic is a consumer product, but that doesn't mean professional doesn't interted in it, GoPro, Canon 5D and Panasonic GH4 are all consumer cameras and yet even Hollywood use them, so why not the Mavic?

Its $700 flying camera with 60mbps. The sensor is smaller than a MFT, (which incidentally means its smaller than a FF in a body that costs 3000.) Now if you want to compare it to a gopro that makes perfect sense because that is a much less expensive, fixed lens camera that's also 60mbps that faces the exact same limitations. It too shares the problem of zooming in on grass only to find its not perfectly crisp.

 

[m0j0]

.

...and just for the record, my GH4 shoots 200mbps

Nice to see someone else is a fan of the GH4. I have two for my business.

The GH4 can shoot 200mbps but it uses two distinct compression methods. All I (intraframe) full frame compression at 200 mbps and IPB (interframe) predictive compression. Which is 100mbps.

IBP is three times more efficient than All-I so to get an equal quality shot with all-I you would need 300 mbps just to break even so.... on all my shoots with the GH4 we use 100mbps. It uses half the amount of space on a memory card and the video quality is better.

There is actually an article on it if you are interested.

DW

 

[LuvMyTJ]

Not a bad review. At first I was thinking the detail was crap! Then he saw it to and corrected that. It looked pretty good after he realized it needed to be set a little differently than the P4. Then again... it's not a P4.

 

[botasky]

Its $700 flying camera with 60mbps. The sensor is smaller than a MFT, (which incidentally means its smaller than a FF in a body that costs 3000.) Now if you want to compare it to a gopro that makes perfect sense because that is a much less expensive, fixed lens camera that's also 60mbps that faces the exact same limitations. It too shares the problem of zooming in on grass only to find its not perfectly crisp.

Maybe it's just me, but I still want to see comparison between Mavic and other high-end drone/camera, we all know that it's not going to be as good, that just impossible, not to say bad things about Mavic, but to see how close it is to those high-end solutions which cost a lot more. Back when Panasonic launched the GH4, they invited me to see a comparison between the GH4 and Arri Alexa XT, it totally make sense and sold me on the GH4.

 

[m0j0]

He is a professional cinematographer, of course he is going do a review from a perspective of a cinematographer, why is that a bad thing? .

Nobody said it was. I said I would have liked him to do an apples to apples comparison. I shut him down after about 2 minutes.

i use GH4 as my main camera

I have 4 for my videography business. I know what they are capable of shooting. I wouldn't compare a GH4 to a red. They are entirely different pieces of equipment at entirely different price points.

Let me ask this for the GH4 shooters does 1080p 100mbps provide the same result as 4K 100 Mbps? They are the same bitrate.

 

[zimode]

I think it comes down to "you shoot with what you have" and the portability of the Mavic will probably be the one you have at the time..

 

[DefaultIT]

Let me ask this for the GH4 shooters does 1080p 100mbps provide the same result as 4K 100 Mbps? They are the same bitrate.

...as long as we're wandering off topic I've found that for 1080p finishing, 4k @ 100mbps does a much better job hiding compression artifacts amongst the higher pixel count, resulting in an apparently cleaner sharper image after downscaling, and higher tolerance for reframing/digital push. Really can't claim to understand how that math works, but to my eyes the difference is not subtle.

 

[Raptorman]

Nice to see someone else is a fan of the GH4. I have two for my business.

The GH4 can shoot 200mbps but it uses two distinct compression methods. All I (intraframe) full frame compression at 200 mbps and IPB (interframe) predictive compression. Which is 100mbps.

IBP is three times more efficient than All-I so to get an equal quality shot with all-I you would need 300 mbps just to break even so.... on all my shoots with the GH4 we use 100mbps. It uses half the amount of space on a memory card and the video quality is better.

There is actually an article on it if you are interested.

DW

I have the GH2, have had it for 5 years I think, but I have not upgraded yet. I was tempted by the GH4, but as it had been out for nearly a couple years when my interest in 4K developed I figured on waiting until the GH5 was out. Sadly, it looks like the GH5 is still more than half a year away and now I'm looking at the G85. There is much to like about what the GH5 is supposed to offer (4K @ 60fps) and it should see a boost in bit rate beyond the 200Mbps the GH4 can do. Hopefully the higher bitrate will be matched by a processor that can do IPB at the highest bitrate -- can you imagine 4K @ 30fps and 4:2:2 and IPB at 300Mbps.

So, I may jump on the G85 when it comes out next week and then we'll have to see next year...


Brian

 

[Ed Windham]

Phillip has the same issue that we do. Only one battery. Hopefully that will improve soon.

 

[Grey Wolf]

He is speaking in terms of the cam he used whee he states it shoots 100 Mbps .. Gh4 shoots 100 Mbps. Which incidentally happens to be what is on the inspire. I'm not arguing that he isn't correct. I. Arguing that almost every drone in this class shoots 4K at 60. He's a smart guy he knows this... so why not shoot it and compare apples to apples. Like I said.. I watched some of the video and turned him off.

No, the Inspire also shoots at 60 mbps.