Significant improvement of 7x lens! comparison inside

[Soophoo]

Mavic 3 vs Mavic 3 Pro
This is definitely worthwhile.

 

[GadgetGuy]

How did you manage to get the same girl in both photographs in the upper left, standing in the street, still on her cell phone, face-timing? Did you have both drones in the air simultaneously?

 

[wco81]

For those of you with the M3, what percentage of your photos and videos are shot with tHe telephoto?

10%? 20%? 50%. Over 50%?

what percentage of YoUr “keepers“ or favorites are shot with the 7x camera?

Unless it’s at least 20%, it seems hard to care about incremental improvements on a secondary camera.

does it get you clear shots of people’s faces or landscape/ architectural details that the main camera can’t get unless you move the drone like within 100-200 feet of the target?

 

[Soophoo]

How did you manage to get the same girl in both photographs in the upper left, standing in the street, still on her cell phone, face-timing? Did you have both drones in the air simultaneously?

Of course same time, and at really close range.

 

[Soophoo]

For those of you with the M3, what percentage of your photos and videos are shot with tHe telephoto?

10%? 20%? 50%. Over 50%?

what percentage of YoUr “keepers“ or favorites are shot with the 7x camera?

Unless it’s at least 20%, it seems hard to care about incremental improvements on a secondary camera.

does it get you clear shots of people’s faces or landscape/ architectural details that the main camera can’t get unless you move the drone like within 100-200 feet of the target?

M3 telephoto sucks, especially unusable at night time. However I love using it to shoot citylines or landscapes.
But most time the 70mm makes more sense, great upgrade.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Of course same time, and at really close range.

Did you get her phone number? She looks cute!

 

[GadgetGuy]

M3 telephoto sucks, especially unusable at night time. However I love using it to shoot citylines or landscapes.
But most time the 70mm makes more sense, great upgrade.

Totally agree that the best use of the Mavic 3 7x is in good lighting, as it is a small 1/2” sensor with a slow f/4.4 aperture, compared to the 4/3 at f/2.8. The huge gap between the optical 1x and optical 7x is the problem. Adding an f/2.8 1/1.3 sensor at 3x optical fills the gap nicely! Now the continuous hybrid zoom in Explore mode from 1x to 28x has no jump from 4x to 7x and the 3x is now optical instead of digital.

 

[Soophoo]

Totally agree that the best use of the Mavic 3 7x is in good lighting, as it is a small 1/2” sensor with a slow f/4.4 aperture, compared to the 4/3 at f/2.8. The huge gap between the optical 1x and optical 7x is the problem. Adding an f/2.8 1/1.3 sensor at 3x optical fills the gap nicely! Now the continuous hybrid zoom in Explore mode from 1x to 28x has no jump from 4x to 7x and the 3x is now optical instead of digital.

plus the noticeable upgrade of 7x, the Pro is almost perfect.
Don't know nighttime differences of them yet.

 

[wco81]

My guess is people won't use the other cameras enough to justify the higher weight.

They really are going to hurt their sales in Europe because they couldn't stay under 900 grams.

Or people in Europe who buy a drone on which they can easily spend €4000 this year will be pissed when they find out in 2024 that they can't fly over ANY "uninvolved" people meaning any popular place with tourists, you have to wonder if some random people will walk underneath your flight path.

Well they could but technically they'd be breaking the law. Who knows if the EU or the UK will heavily enforce this rule.

Will they check the CE mark to see if you have a C1 drone, not a C2 drone, which is what the M3P would be since it's over the 900 grams limit for C1 aircraft?

Will they fine you because you have a C2 drone and there are people nearby that you've been flying over?

 

[GadgetGuy]

plus the noticeable upgrade of 7x, the Pro is almost perfect.
Don't know nighttime differences of them yet.

Exactly! The noticeable daytime improvement in the 7x is welcome, and the upgrade to f/3.4 will help with nighttime performance. Alternatively, the acceptable 2x digital on the 3x optical will get us to 6x at f/2.8 on a 1/1.3" sensor which may be the best solution for a night time 6x, which is almost 7x!

 

[GadgetGuy]

My guess is people won't use the other cameras enough to justify the higher weight.

They really are going to hurt their sales in Europe because they couldn't stay under 900 grams.

Or people in Europe who buy a drone on which they can easily spend €4000 this year will be pissed when they find out in 2024 that they can't fly over ANY "uninvolved" people meaning any popular place with tourists, you have to wonder if some random people will walk underneath your flight path.

Well they could but technically they'd be breaking the law. Who knows if the EU or the UK will heavily enforce this rule.

Will they check the CE mark to see if you have a C1 drone, not a C2 drone, which is what the M3P would be since it's over the 900 grams limit for C1 aircraft?

Will they fine you because you have a C2 drone and there are people nearby that you've been flying over?

The drone police will have to carry a calibrated scale capable of detecting a difference of a mere two ounces out of 30! That's within the margin of error of most scales, at 6.7%. I suspect most Mavic 3 Pro fliers in Europe will take the chance for the superior results! I would!

Alternatively, DJI could supply a 70 gram lighter Mavic 3 Pro battery, just for the EU, with less flight time, just like they do for the Chinese Mini 2 that must weigh under 200g! That is the most likely DJI solution, with only 35 minutes flight time instead of 43 minutes, while still being under 900g. Even if DJI doesn't do it, someone will be selling such a battery!

 

[waynorth]

2x digital on the 3x optical will get us to 6x at f/2.8 on a 1/1.3 " sensor

Well, actually no. If you use a 2x "digital zoom" on the sensor, you actually crop the image, and use only half the sensor area. It is no longer a 1/1.3 sensor, but much smaller.

 

[wco81]

The drone police will have to carry a calibrated scale capable of detecting a difference of a mere two ounces out of 30! That's within the margin of error of most scales, at 6.7%. I suspect most Mavic 3 Pro fliers in Europe will take the chance for the superior results! I would!

Alternatively, DJI could supply a 70 gram lighter Mavic 3 Pro battery, just for the EU, with less flight time, just like they do for the Chinese Mini 2 that must weigh under 200g! That is the most likely DJI solution, with only 35 minutes flight time instead of 43 minutes, while still being under 900g. Even if DJI doesn't do it, someone will be selling such a battery!

No they will look for the CE label, C1 or C2.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Well, actually no. If you use a 2x "digital zoom" on the sensor, you actually crop the image, and use only half the sensor area. It is no longer a 1/1.3 sensor, but much smaller.

Indeed, but it still may be better quality than the 7x at f/3.4 in low light, since it is at f/2.8, even though the used sensor size is smaller than 1/2”. This is only if the 7x is still worse!

 

[GadgetGuy]

No they will look for the CE label, C1 or C2.

Cool! Just print up a few labels! HAH!

 

[SmilingOgre]

For me it's come down to matching three color profiles in Davinci Resolve. I like shooting with the MFT camera in dlog. The 3X requires dlog-M. The 7x requires "standard" profile. Once I can obtain unaltered footage of all three cameras and work them over in DR I will be able to make a decision. Obviously that process will include seeing the difference in the upgraded 7x image.

 

[KS-6]

For those of you with the M3, what percentage of your photos and videos are shot with tHe telephoto?

10%? 20%? 50%. Over 50%?

what percentage of YoUr “keepers“ or favorites are shot with the 7x camera?

Unless it’s at least 20%, it seems hard to care about incremental improvements on a secondary camera.

does it get you clear shots of people’s faces or landscape/ architectural details that the main camera can’t get unless you move the drone like within 100-200 feet of the target?

I would say because I stitch images with it often, I use it a good 20% of the time. But you are missing a big one here, it's not just a better long telephoto camera on the Mavic 3 Pro, it is the addition of a third one at 70mm that makes the whole deal better.

I rarely use the 162mm for one shot, usually stitch at least 2x3 to get a wider angle that is more like a 50mm. And I will be stitching that 70mm as well.

 

[Richard R]

If you’re talking about the sharpness of the images (to name one); I post process all the 7x images from my Mavic 3 and the images are excellent. In other words a vast improvement over the out of camera ones. The 70mm lens is a great addition however.

 

[SkywalkerFeng]

For those of you with the M3, what percentage of your photos and videos are shot with tHe telephoto?

10%? 20%? 50%. Over 50%?

what percentage of YoUr “keepers“ or favorites are shot with the 7x camera?

Unless it’s at least 20%, it seems hard to care about incremental improvements on a secondary camera.

does it get you clear shots of people’s faces or landscape/ architectural details that the main camera can’t get unless you move the drone like within 100-200 feet of the target?

M3 telephoto sucks, especially unusable at night time. However I love using it to shoot citylines or landscapes.
But most time the 70mm makes more sense, great upgrade.

It is actually more useful than you think, even at night time.

The image below was shot with M3 7X telephoto lens, blended from three shots of different exposure, with ISO above 500.

It is not the sharpest image in the world, but the final result is more than "usable".

 

[SkywalkerFeng]

For those of you with the M3, what percentage of your photos and videos are shot with tHe telephoto?

10%? 20%? 50%. Over 50%?

what percentage of YoUr “keepers“ or favorites are shot with the 7x camera?

Unless it’s at least 20%, it seems hard to care about incremental improvements on a secondary camera.

does it get you clear shots of people’s faces or landscape/ architectural details that the main camera can’t get unless you move the drone like within 100-200 feet of the target?

You are looking at this the wrong way.

The fact not many people shot with M3 7X telephoto camera, doesn't mean that zoom range is not useful. It only proves DJI's initial offering is far from mature. As result, it created a significant barrier of entry for people to really appreciate the value of it.

There are two major issues with M3's 7X telephoto camera:

1. The poor optical design resulted in soft image.
2. The gimbal is often not stable enough to handle the 7X zoom range. When shooting 7X images requiring long exposure at low light settings, the success rate is low. When shooting video at 7X zoom range, the lens tends to "drift a bit" around the subject of focus, which is quite annoying.

Based on the initial reviews online, it looks like DJI was able to fix both problem in M3P. The redesigned lens now offer higher optical resolution, and captures sharper images as result. Gimbal is also redesigned, video shot in 7X zoom range now looks much more stable. Are these improvements ground breaking? Certainly not, but they have made a previous "unusable" camera totally usable now. For those who knows how to, and love to shot in 7X zoom range, this is god send. This opens the door to a lot of creative opportunities.

Finally, just to show the value of 7X zoom range, here are a few sample images I shot with that "crappy" 7X telephoto camera from original M3.

The first image was licensed to an investment firm. The second image was license to Apple, and used in their Maps product. These are not the sharpest images in the world, but good enough that I can sell them for commercial usage. The improved 7X telephoto camera in M3P would only improve my work flow, and help me create even better images, with higher licensing value.