I'd also looking into getting the
Phantom 4 Pro working first since you may find you're happy with its size and image quality but want a compact alternative so an
Air 2 might be a better companion or you may find you really like the
P4P but want an
M2P to get something similar in a smaller package.
For stills the 1in sensor in the
Mavic 2 Pro is the best of the compact drones particularly if you process the raw files.
My first drone was a Parrot Anafi. An awesome lightweight drone. Visual line of sight is terrible, as it just disappears, as it is so small and quiet. In good light the pictures from it are, passable. The video is better, but awful in low light. Much like the
MA2. The compression artifacts were also awful, on the Anafi. Flying it was super fun though.
If you like pixel peeping, you may be ultimately disappointed with the
Mavic Air 2.
Whilst the
Mavic 2 Pro is better, to a degree, in lower light, there is still sensor noise and mild compression artifacts (at least in the 3
M2P's I have purchased) in the shots, even at 100 iso. At night or lower light, Whilst better than the Anafi, the readout noise at above 800 iso is unusable without a fair bit of manipulation. But again, that might have been me being unlucky, three times in a row.
I have not had much luck purchasing a
M2P. The first one had blurry edges due to a sensor being misaligned. After I found this issue and looked it up, I noticed other people had the same issue, mostly from earlier models. From what I can see, DJI appears to have fixed this with firmware adjustments by cropping in and interpolating instead of fixing the issue optically. This can be seen if you put the raw DNG into lightroom, when, for a split second, the original shot is shown before it automatically corrects itself for distortion etc. It crops in, to quite a degree.
Having had a Hasselblad Digital back and associated lenses, I have had a lot of 'Hassle' with them working properly, and they needed to be serviced regularly to work. When they do, they are lovely. But not worth the grief. So the Hasselblad name to me is maybe not as revered as some people may see it. But maybe I just got unlucky.
These issues with DJI have made me wish I kept my Parrot Anafi, even with its mediocre sensor. At least it does not have geofencing or bad sensor issues like the
M2P. But again, this is directly from my experience, others may differ radically.
If I get my issues sorted with DJI. I may not go with DJI in the end and jump ship to Autel. I am hoping they can't be worse than what I have experienced so far.
