Mavic Pro - Video quality

[The Mavic Pro]

For you Mavic Pro owners - what do you think of the video quality on the Mavic Pro? I know it´s not as good as the P4 Pro obviously, but the question is how big is the difference?
Was it an easy decision to trade the better picture quality on the P4 Pro for a more compact drone that has not as good video quality?

And do you have problems with the gimbal on the Mavic Pro, for example tilting horizon at sideways flight, or tilted horizon at all times, etc., etc.?

And how is the firmware on the Mavic Pro? Is it stable and safe, or does it have all kinds of problems for example 30/50 meter limit problems, RC disconnection's, Lightbridge dropouts, reduced range, etc., etc.?

 

[tictag]

Personally, I find the video quality to be quite extraordinary but then, I've never owned a Phantom. Certainly in the YouTube videos I've seen (which, I understand, are often down-res and heavily compressed) I see very little difference between them - maybe a little more detail in the highlights. The only problem I face is the slow to adjust horizon after a fast yaw, but as my yaws tend to be as slow as I can make them, this doesn't impact me too much. There are reports of soft 'patches' at low light with low contrast scenes and this has been put down down to in-camera noise reduction which kicks in at 'Sharpness = 0 or below', so I keep my sharpness at 1 and do a little smoothing in post.

No issues with firmware, flyaways, signal losses and so on. As far as I'm concerned, for a drone that fits in your pocket, she's simply amazing.

 

[John Lo]

I will make one assumption. For video quality : mavic pro + good weather and lighting + good flying skill is by far better than zenmuse x7 or bad weather or bad flying skill.

 

[dport177]

I've owned the P3 Advanced and the Mavic Pro Platinum. From the 4k videos I have taken the past week from my MPP, the video quality (4k) is absolutely stunning and blows my P3 Advanced out of the water.

I was a little skeptical bc some said the mavic camera wasn't great, but I don't believe it. I do have a Samsung 4k tv so I can view the highest resolution possible. You won't be disappointed.

 

[f3honda4me]

Having owned both, the video difference is pretty significant to my eye. The p4p video is on par with the inspire 2 x4s.

 

[Qoncussion]

The Mavic's camera falls short on data rate, at only 60 Mbps for 4K. It falls short on keyframes, causing flicker to appear in the image. Its aperture is stuck wide open at f2.2, which gives a very shallow depth of field. While many here will rave about the camera - it really is garbage. That said, I do love flying this thing.

 

[Callum]

I've not been impressed with the camera. Have been trying different settings and settled on 2.7k, 30fps and shutter 1/60 with polar pro filter in d-cine +1,-1,0
It looks alright at first glance but the more you look you can tell it's nowhere near the quality of P4P.

I seem to get a lot of mush in trees etc, even at +1 sharpness and some flickering. It feels as if im constantly searching for something it can't consistently produce.

It is great fun to fly though, and ultra portable. Had no issues whatsoever and generally happy with it that I've accepted the camera quality.

 

[gnirtS]

Theres a fairly big video difference between the two. The mavic with video you have to be aware and make a lot of compromises and work arounds. A few things such as the poor dynamic range of the sensor and the lot 4k bit rate producing pulsing artefacts on detailed areas and so on. Its absolutely nowhere near P4P quality.
If you only want to put videos on FB or youtube the mavic is fine. If you want to do more with it then you maybe frustrated by the mavic.

The mavic is a great portable air platform but the compromise is with the substandard camera.

 

[llucixxeu]

I have all DJI consumer drones and I can sincerely say that Mavic Air is a better overall aircraft. Video footage from Mavic Pro is simply not natural because of the noise algorithm and old compression codec. Also you get a disturbing rolling shutter effect due to low bitrate. I did a DJI Mavic Pro review and put all my feedback there.

 

[mattball]

I have all DJI consumer drones and I can sincerely say that Mavic Air is a better overall aircraft. Video footage from Mavic Pro is simply not natural because of the noise algorithm and old compression codec. Also you get a disturbing rolling shutter effect due to low bitrate. I did a DJI Mavic Pro review and put all my feedback there.

I have had them all. Kept the MP and Spark, sold the Air. I hated that noisy noisy drone. At the beaches that thing annoyed people the day I took it up. Next few hrs with MP and Spark and things were cool. Spark they thought was cool, MP some that walked by were like "wow that thing is a bad mofo"

Mavic Air has this off creamy appearance to areas like limbs, rocks and so on when moving. I didn't like that. I hated the fact the Air stretches the images to fix the lens distortion. Not a problem on the MP because there isn't any LD. Air RAW files still have that and I spent a lot of time fixing files. No thanks!! Even the Spark shot better pics. AIr got disconnected in flight nearly every time I pushed it out. I'd get 1000 ft or so and lose signal. MP I flew across the beach and straight out the ocean for over a mile and back in 25 mph winds. Air was bouncing around like the Spark, so I didn't send it out again.

I didn't like the Air camera for the same Spark point shoot feel. Just didn't have as much functional control, or focus ability the MP has. Air= meh. I sold it. I know others sold MP's to buy the Air, but really in all specs the Air is a step down so that is where it stays. Cameras are basically identical. MP has a better lens. MP shoots a sharper warmer video and images than the Air as well. I don't like the blueness of the Air image. I don't do quick shots, nor do I worry about OA. I fly more in sport mode so it's moot point at that.

YMMV as always. MP2 will destroy them both, so there's that too.

 

[kizbot85]

The camera is great for the size of it's sensor but it's not a fantastic 4k camera. As others have mentioned the bitrate for 4k is only 60Mbps. It suffers when setting anything above ISO 100 due to the tiny sensor. Even at 100, you do get problems with noise / aliasing etc which can be somewhat corrected in post. Great for personal use but if I ever intended to make money off the footage, i 'd be looking elsewhere.