Pro? Really???

[baddog]

The Mavic 3 is everything that the average and even many pro consumers will need.... the zoom camera has great potential for inspections, the flight time will save you time getting the footage needed and the new 4/3 camera will capture video that in the right hands will be stunning.

Add in the potential of the 4G dongle, the new wide angle snap on lens, obstacle avoidance and tracking nearing the level of the Skydio, plus incredible range and transmission quality, make this a winner.

Professionals use the tools at hand to turn their output into gold. They work with the strengths and weaknesses of their equipment and use it to their best advantage. Phantom 4 Pro and Mavic 2 Pro footage has been used on many television productions over the last couple of years because they do 4K 30fps, are portable and easy to work with despite not having large cameras. The Mavic 3 will be used in similar fashion and opens up even more possibilities for the filmmaker.

The XDynamics Evolve 2 shows great promise and is billed as a professional piece of gear but was released prematurely so it has some distance to go before it will work to its potential. Reviews are showing a couple of second lag time between its controller and the drone. This can mean slamming into people, buildings and generally having to retake footage that should be routine. Until that is fixed, it can't be considered in a professional environment. The ability to use off the shelf interchangeable lenses will open up what it can do... but at least for now the Evolve 2 can only really be considered for photography, and aerial video up high and away from doing harm.

The zoom lens is not really a zoom lens... it is a static telephoto lens. Plus the camera setting on zoom camera are all auto, no custom settings, a useless camera for now.

No mechanical shutter for the main camera on M3P, but that will keep the Phantom 4 Pro V2 in the game that much longer.

 

[Saladshooter]

The zoom lens is not really a zoom lens... it is a static telephoto lens. Plus the camera setting on zoom camera are all auto, no custom settings, a useless camera for now.

Not sure where you are headed with this?..... using your vernacular its a telephoto lens with zoom functions. It may not be a very capable camera for the photographer or videographer at this point with its lack of manual settings but a tool like this with limitations doesn't make it something that a professional can't use. I have already seen some pretty stunning videos that include footage from this telephoto. And for someone doing inspections it has all the capability it needs.... auto settings are the norm as they don't need the hassle of messing with individual settings.

 

[Montana_Flyer]

So the fact that professionals use the Mavic doesn’t make it a ‘pro’ tool. It MUST have interchangeable lenses to make it ‘professional’?

I think you should look up the meaning of what ’professional‘ is.

Actually my comments were targeted toward the inverse of your response. It is marketed as a 'pro' drone (as is has been before at a much lower price point), but the features added over the lifecycle are really not much more that they should be at for a top-level trend setting manufacturer like DJI. Should consumers have to pay 'pro' prices for what should currently be the norm for the natural progression of the drone lifecycle (maybe like Moore's law applied to drones?).

Consider digging a large hole. I (a landscaping amateur) would use a $20 shovel, but if I called a contractor to do the job, he would likely bring a $30k backhoe. Should I buy a backhoe to dig a hole if I am not a 'Pro'? Should the contractor use a shovel (I'm sure he will have one on the side of his backhoe)? Sorry this is an extreme exaggeration of my point, but the analogy fits.

Why force the consumer market, that has previously been barely able to afford the Mavic Pro line of drones, to now pay so much more for something that should be 'prosumer' status quo given the natural lifecycle of product development? If DJI wants to elevate the Mavic into the 'Professional' category (as opposed to the heavily marketed 'Pro' terminology), then do it right. Offer interchangeable payload capability, mechanical shutter, multiple batteries, etc. Just don't take what should be today's new standard of consumer drones and jack up the price to nearly the professional level, suckering the DJI loyal prosumer customers into paying for their 3 year R&D.

</ I’m a solution architect and have never seen an SS tag in XML>

You are correct, </SS> is not a standard XML tag, it is simply my actual initials in the XML closing tag format. I have used it for years as a closing signature in messages, and it has become habit over those years. I'm sorry if that offended you...

BTW, some of my most creative and brightest employees were SA's (and of course SE's), architecting our ERP and BA systems' integration into AWS. I can't tell you how many times they saved my butt!! My hat is off to you!!!

</SS>

 

[dthreee]

Gad you found it useful - sorry for the late reply as I just saw this.



The XM2 is a ~$70,000 USD platform far larger than any consumer drone (closer to the size of a small car) that can carry some of the largest camera/lens combinations that Hollywood uses, themselves easily costing $150K++. This is obviously totally beyond the realm of what most people will ever experience.

Regarding the price bump, it has a lot to do with the 4/3 sensor (large image sensors are very expensive) and the processing power that goes along with it to allow the resolutions, framerates, and bitrates that the M3 offers. Anyone whose work directly benefits from these will probably think the M3 is a bargain, and those whose needs are met by a M2P or A2S will probably think it's overpriced because they either don't understand or don't need the upgrades. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that either.

Also, everything is more expensive now due to COVID-related supply, shipping, and labor shortages. Without a doubt that is part of the price increase. As one example, a shipping container from Asia to North America used to cost around $5,000 and now costs close to $30,000, and that is just one of many things that go into determining the price of goods manufacturer overseas or with parts that come from overseas. What would the M3 cost pre-COVID? I haven't a clue, but almost certainly it would be less.

ProRes capability requires a licensing fee paid to Apple, and with DJI's Inspire line, we can see the standalone cost of this is $500 USD, so there is a big chunk of the Cine's price premium right there. With the RC Pro available separately, there is no reason to buy the Cine version unless you are specifically wanting ProRes. It also includes a built in 1TB SSD due to the recording demands of uncompressed ProRes (about 10-11GB per minute).

One thing I think DJI could have done better is offer more combinations (for example the non-Cine with the RC Pro, or the Cine without), but having too many combinations especially at launch and with the current global situation, they probably just had to pick a few and go with it. I suspect down the road it will be easier to mix & match.



Indeed it is uncompressed. There are different levels of ProRes, but what DJI offers is ProRes 4:2:2 @ 4K60P with a bitrate of roughly 1,500Mbps or roughly 190MBps. That is approximately 8 times higher than the maximum bitrate the non-Cine version can achieve in any mode, hence the requirement for a different storage medium (the SSD in this case).

ProRes is visually lossless, not uncompressed. There are several levels of ProRes compression, from Proxy on the low end to 4444 XQ on the high end. (Not counting ProRes RAW)

The M3 uses ProRes 422 HQ which is the highest 422 quality ProRes offers. As a side note, 422 is already compressing the color of the image by recording half the number of color pixels as luminance pixels. The maximum bitrate that the M3 would use is 5.1k at 60 fps with a bitrate of 2946Mbps which would require about 22GB of storage for every minute of footage.

 

[sar104]

Should consumers have to pay 'pro' prices for what should currently be the norm for the natural progression of the drone lifecycle (maybe like Moore's law applied to drones?).

Consumers don't have to pay anything - DJI is not forcing anyone to buy the M3. We'll no doubt find out whether you or DJI knows best how to develop and market drones.

Consider digging a large hole.

No need - you have already done that.

Why force the consumer market, that has previously been barely able to afford the Mavic Pro line of drones, to now pay so much more for something that should be 'prosumer' status quo given the natural lifecycle of product development?

Force? By what means?

 

[frank candor]

i got duped on the " 1 inch sensor" on the mavic 2.

 

[Saladshooter]

i got duped on the " 1 inch sensor" on the mavic 2.

Explain this please..... the Mavic 2 Pro indeed has a 1" sensor. It doesn't have the best glass but has been used widely for television level productions as the Mavic 3 will be with its 4/3 sensor.