Mavic Pro to Mavic Air 2

[alfaholic]

Hello everyone,

I am thinking of upgrading my old Mavic Pro with Mavic Air 2, however I am not sure about the camera as it does not have D-LOG which I use all the time. I understand Mavic Pro camera is relatively bad, but I learned how to use it and after playing a little bit with some Mavic Air 2 sample footage I noticed that the image quality is not that far from the original Mavic Pro, although it is better.

What would you suggest, will I lose much with not having D-LOG when it comes to IQ, I know the drone itself is great overall.

 

[Starz]

MP2 would be the better tool.
Just my opinion.

 

[alfaholic]

MP2 would be the better tool.
Just my opinion.

Well that is obvious, but there is a price difference as well. Mavic Air 2 suits my budget, just not sure if it is an upgrade over Mavic Pro.

 

[Starz]

Plenty of good used hardware out there.

 

[boblui]

I have got the M2P and I cannot see any significant advantage of shooting D-log. There are lots of material out there comparing D-Log and normal. Here is a thread in this forum : Mavic 2 Pro Normal vs DLOG

 

[nedcook]

I think D-Cinelike is the MA2's equivalent of the MAP's D-LOG. So you can shoot in D-Cinelike to capture a wider dynamic range, then correct and grade it in post.

 

[boblui]

I think D-Cinelike is the MA2's equivalent of the MAP's D-LOG. So you can shoot in D-Cinelike to capture a wider dynamic range, then correct and grade it in post.

I am not sure but I think D-Cinelike is 8 bit but M2P's D-LogM and HLG is 10 bit ?

 

[alfaholic]

I have got the M2P and I cannot see any significant advantage of shooting D-log. There are lots of material out there comparing D-Log and normal. Here is a thread in this forum : Mavic 2 Pro Normal vs DLOG

Thanks but the difference is very important in demanding situations. Thanks for the link but in this test there is no need for D-LOG as the scene does not have large contrast, normal is good enough.
I know the difference between Normal and D-LOG and that is another story, I just wanted to know whether the D-Cinelike with this better sensor will give good results.

 

[Category 5]

Thanks but the difference is very important in demanding situations. Thanks for the link but in this test there is no need for D-LOG as the scene does not have large contrast, normal is good enough.
I know the difference between Normal and D-LOG and that is another story, I just wanted to know whether the D-Cinelike with this better sensor will give good results.

Don't forget the fantastic HDR mode the Mavic Air 2 has. They use the quad pixel bayer sensor to take multiple exposures and combine them in real time, so it's true HDR, no simulated. It's pretty fantastic, despite the slightly over-saturation of the highlights. Film Poets has a LUT to correct for this that's both subtle, and natural. I think for extreme dynamic range, HDR mode is the key, and for almost all others, graded D-Cinelike is oerfect. I do not think there are many scenarios, besides low light, where you will see noticeably better quality from the Pro. The Air 2 actually beats it in sharpness. I never understood why the algorithm the Pro uses to reduce the sensor output to 4k is so poor. It's like 2.7K upsampled.

 

[MGVision]

Had mavic 2 pro and now i got mavic air 2 and in good light condition straight out of camera in normal mode mavic air 2 is giving very very similar picture as mavic 2 pro. Mavic air 2 surpass my expactation in terms of video quality. Mavic 2 pro will give you more room too work with in postproduction and in low light scenario. If you are not professional photographer/videographer buying mavic 2 pro will be just waste of money when there is much cheaper mavic air 2 on the block.

 

[nedcook]

Don't forget the fantastic HDR mode the Mavic Air 2 has.

One caveat here would be that HDR mode disables manual controls, so your white balance is going to be auto-adjusting, a possibly unwanted side effect. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Category 5]

One caveat here would be that HDR mode disables manual controls, so your white balance is going to be auto-adjusting, a possibly unwanted side effect. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yep. You are right. I still think that D-Cinelike would have you covered for most situations. Certainly the Mavic 3 will include improvements that make it the best choice, but for now the Mavic 2 just doesn't seem worth the extra price. You do get that extra flexibility with the video, but unless you shoot in HQ (cropped sensor) mode, the video isn't even close to the Air 2 in sharpness. Honestly, I never got the wow factor the Air 2 gives me, with the M2 Pro. It always seemed just way too soft for 4K, especially considering the quality of the optics. Also, no 4K 60 always baffled me. I assumed they didn't want to step on the Phantom too aggressively.

I am keenly awaiting the M3 Pro though. I think we will see one heck of a tool in that drone, but I expect 2K USD entry point as well.

EDIT - even the 48mp still mode impresses me on the A2. I didn't think it would resolve the detail to warrant the file size, but it really does. In good light it is exceptional, and the resolving power is just astounding. I'd love to see a 1" quad bayer sensor that works like this one. It's really a fantastic bit of tech to be able to switch between high res, and better exposure performance. Using the quad pixels to combine multi-exposures for real time HDR video is just genius. It's like having multiple sensors. This tech HAS to migrate up to the M3 series.

 

[alfaholic]

Thank you all. Today I played with my Mavic Pro and compared D-LOG and D-Cinelike, the results were very interesting as D-Cinelike at first looks like it has more contrast, when I reduce the contrast it has the same dynamic range as D-LOG but with less noise in the shadows and less artifacts.
This camera was never good, and codec simply destroys the footage as it is very low bitrate. It is just that I learned how to used it and utilize the best what I have so I believe Mavic Air 2 with its half inch sensor and D-Cinelike profile will be good for most situations. Both birds are good technically so I have no complaints there, just this original Mavic camera is really at the edge of usefulness and I am looking at Mavic Air 2 as it really does not cost that much.
One thing that I do not like is how noisy the footage of Mavic Air 2 is. It can be solved in post, but really interesting it has more noise than expected.