New Mavic 2 Zoom-Love it

[Burk]

I have been flying a P4P for the last 6 months. I have two flights with my new Mavic 2 Zoom and wow! This thing is like a hopped up sports car. Quick, maneuverable, and down right fast. It can get you to your photo spot fast! I have not filmed much, yet but what I have seen from the camera is good. Some of the flight features and photo/video features such as hyperlapse and dollyzoom are very cool. Very stable in the air so far. The winds were calm today so it will be interesting to see if it holds anywhere near as steady as the Phantom does in wind. The other surprising feature is it is so much quieter than my P4P. I got used to listening for angry bees as the Phantom approached. The Mavic 2 is very quiet. Next step is a few more batteries and to get a mount for my Crystal Sky monitor. Very happy I pulled the trigger on this UAS. Can't wait for more flight time!

 

[Gut Stuff]

I know how you feel, I upgraded from The P2V+ so have absolutely no complaints, even with the re goggles range limit, the technology in the Mavic 2 is amazing.

 

[Aaron24]

I have flown my Mavic 2 over a beach, not focusing on anyone or anything in particular and people don't hear it or react to it as it flies over. It certainly is very quiet.

 

[jwt873]

Yes.. I've noticed that the M2 Zoom makes a very good 'spy' drone..

When flying at 400 feet, you can barely hear the thing and it's only a speck in the sky.. But.. The optical+digital zoom lets you see things on the ground like you're only around 100 feet up.

 

[ff22]

Yes.. I've noticed that the M2 Zoom makes a very good 'spy' drone..

When flying at 400 feet, you can barely hear the thing and it's only a speck in the sky.. But.. The optical+digital zoom lets you see things on the ground like you're only around 100 feet up.

How are you implementing the DIGITAL zoom feature? Pinch Zoom or??? Thanks

 

[jwt873]

Both the optical (24-48mm) and the digital (48-96mm) are done with a wheel on the right side of the controller... Twist one way and you zoom in, twist the other and you zoom out.

Normally with digital zoom, you crop what you're seeing and then 'blow it up' to size again using pixel interpolation. This isn't the best way to do it because it results in jaggy pixellated images.

When you're recording video in 1080P, you're not using the whole sensor. When you do the digital zoom, you're not cropping, you're using more of the sensor. As a result, there's no need to up-sample back to 1080P and you get a clean image. The transition from optical to digital zoom is seamless.. You just twist the wheel and hold it from 24mm all the way up to the 96mm equivalent.

The lossless digital zoom only works for 1080P 30 frame video, (or lower resolutions). It doesn't work for 4K video, or stills because you are using the whole sensor. So, in 4K video, when you twist the wheel, it stops at 48mm.

Since I got the Zoom, I've been shooting mostly 1080P video now. it's a real treat having pretty well the equivalent of a 100mm lens in the air.

 

[ff22]

Both the optical (24-48mm) and the digital (48-96mm) are done with a wheel on the right side of the controller... Twist one way and you zoom in, twist the other and you zoom out.

Normally with digital zoom, you crop what you're seeing and then 'blow it up' to size again using pixel interpolation. This isn't the best way to do it because it results in jaggy pixellated images.

When you're recording video in 1080P, you're not using the whole sensor. When you do the digital zoom, you're not cropping, you're using more of the sensor. As a result, there's no need to up-sample back to 1080P and you get a clean image. The transition from optical to digital zoom is seamless.. You just twist the wheel and hold it from 24mm all the way up to the 96mm equivalent.

The lossless digital zoom only works for 1080P 30 frame video, (or lower resolutions). It doesn't work for 4K video, or stills because you are using the whole sensor. So, in 4K video, when you twist the wheel, it stops at 48mm.

Since I got the Zoom, I've been shooting mostly 1080P video now. it's a real treat having pretty well the equivalent of a 100mm lens in the air.

Thanks for the reply. Raining too much to try right now! I got a response from DJI on their forum and it suggestions pinch/zoom? But if so, I couldn't accomplish it?

"Hi there. I appreciate your time bringing this query to us. Regarding your concern, You can enable digital zoom by pinching the screen of your device via DJI Go 4 App. Also, you can control the Mavic 2’s gimbal movements from left to right on the device with the app or a connected pair of DJI Goggles. You can also rotate the gimbal left and right to a maximum angle of 75° when using Head Tracking mode on the DJI Goggles series. Should you have further question, please let me know. Thank you. "

 

[jwt873]

I went for a flight a while ago.. There is no pinch function on mine. (I use an iPad Pro 9.7). I can only zoom with the zoom wheel.

My original Phantom 4 has the pinch function. Spread two fingers wide and it zooms in, but it's a lossy zoom that's done by cropping. You can see a degradation in the video. I recall that the pinch on the P4 was originally availble on Apple tablets and phones, but they might have later added it to Android devices.

One thing that can be done on the screen with a finger is controlling the gimbal. If you press and hold your finger for about a second and keep it pressed, you can slide it around and move the gimbal independant of the drone's direction. You can move up/down, left/right and even look at the front legs and props.
.

 

[Lubar]

I went for a flight a while ago.. There is no pinch function on mine. (I use an iPad Pro 9.7). I can only zoom with the zoom wheel.

My original Phantom 4 has the pinch function. Spread two fingers wide and it zooms in, but it's a lossy zoom that's done by cropping. You can see a degradation in the video. I recall that the pinch on the P4 was originally availble on Apple tablets and phones, but they might have later added it to Android devices.

One thing that can be done on the screen with a finger is controlling the gimbal. If you press and hold your finger for about a second and keep it pressed, you can slide it around and move the gimbal independant of the drone's direction. You can move up/down, left/right and even look at the front legs and props.
.

Good point about touching screen and dragging gimbal to right or left for nice slow panning. When you touch and hold finger on screen a circle with a dot appears. For nice slow pan keep finger in contact and move slightly right or left. I find my desire pan speed by keeping dot inside of circle. When I first tried this I couldn't see the circle . My stub finger covered it up. Now I use a stylist.

My question is once you move the gimbal right or left, it stays in the last position where you lifted your stylist from the screen. Now my camera is not facing completely forward to my flight path. The first time this happened it really threw my orientation off. After I finish doing a pan now I press my C1 that is programmed to down/forward twice to re-orientate .

Is there a better way to get the camera quickly looking exactly on flight path?