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the best zoom?

johndrone33

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Wich drone have the best zoom?

When i say "best", i mean it have to be sharp en high magnification.
I have the mavic 3 pro and its great but 7x zoom is not that much when you try to film animals.
There have been man times i have used the 7x zoom but then i have to come very close, like 10m on a smaller animal and then it just flies or run away beccause it gets scared.

Would like to have like 14x instead or even more.
maybee i can put my nikon p1000 on some drone? Would actually be fun to see.
 
I'm no expert but my Mavic 4 Pro has an amazing zoom
 
se

seems to be the same as mavic 3 pro
The main zoom difference is the telephoto camera's sensor; the Mavic 4 Pro has a much more powerful 50MP sensor compared to the Mavic 3 Pro's 12MP sensor, resulting in sharper details at long distances. The Mavic 4 Pro's new long telephoto camera also offers better performance with more detail, a larger sensor size, and the ability to shoot in true DLOG, which was not possible on the Mavic 3 Pro's zoom lenses. While the Mavic 4 Pro's mid-range telephoto is described as having a 2.5x zoom versus the Mavic 3 Pro's 3x, this is due to a change in focal length for the main camera and the image quality from this mid-range lens is largely unchanged, though the focusing issues found on the Mavic 3 Pro have been fixed.
 
Wich drone have the best zoom?

When i say "best", i mean it have to be sharp en high magnification.
I have the mavic 3 pro and its great but 7x zoom is not that much when you try to film animals.
There have been man times i have used the 7x zoom but then i have to come very close, like 10m on a smaller animal and then it just flies or run away beccause it gets scared.

Would like to have like 14x instead or even more.
maybee i can put my nikon p1000 on some drone? Would actually be fun to see.

You really can't expect to fly a drone within 10, or even 20 meters, of most wild animals without spooking them.
 
I was able to take real closeup images and videos of Herons nesting with their baby chicks in several nests on top of 100' high trees behind our home. I primarily hovered the drone at around 200'-300' and zoomed in for very clear images. No herons or their babies were alarmed or concerned with the drone since it was a decent height away from their nests. I used my Mavic 4 Pro.
 
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The best zoom for less than $10K is the Matrice 4 E or an Autel Evo Max. The Matrice 4 E is only a notch below the Matrice 30 series. It is truly a creeper zoom.
 
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Why is DJI Mavic 4 Pro better than DJI Matrice 4E?​

  • 6 km longer flight distance
    2.08x more megapixels (main camera)
    100 MPvs48 MP
    41 km
    vs35 km
  • 4 m/s faster flight speed
    25 m/svs21 m/s
  • Has a gyroscope
  • 3.13x better video recording quality (main camera)
    3384 x 60 fpsvs2160 x 30 fps
  • 171.8 mm shorter
    135.2 mmvs307 mm

Same optical zoom except the Matrice 4E has x112 Hybrid zoom vs x28 Digital on the Mavic 4 Pro
 
His question referred to the zoom.
The Mavic 4 Pro indeed has a better main camera, but it does not have a better zoom.
 
Agreed. However, zoom alone may not serve him well since his wildlife photography also needs high quality recording capability where the 100MP MP4 may be a better choice.
 
Agreed. However, zoom alone may not serve him well since his wildlife photography also needs high quality recording capability where the 100MP MP4 may be a better choice.
Natively, it's actually only 25MP or 12.5MP depending upon the camera.
 

Why is DJI Mavic 4 Pro better than DJI Matrice 4E?​

  • 6 km longer flight distance
    2.08x more megapixels (main camera)
    100 MPvs48 MP
    41 km
    vs35 km
  • 4 m/s faster flight speed
    25 m/svs21 m/s
  • Has a gyroscope
  • 3.13x better video recording quality (main camera)
    3384 x 60 fpsvs2160 x 30 fps
  • 171.8 mm shorter
    135.2 mmvs307 mm

Same optical zoom except the Matrice 4E has x112 Hybrid zoom vs x28 Digital on the Mavic 4 Pro
112x hybrid beats 28x hybrid on the Mavic 3 Pro or 26x on the Mavic 4 Pro, especially when it is enhanced by image stabilization and other clarity-boosting features like electronic dehazing. DJI claims the Matrice 4T can read a license plate from a distance of 250 meters (about 820 feet).
 
Last edited:
It seems that everyone on this thread doesn't know what zoom means in photography.
Everyone is using the word zoom when they mean telephoto.

Wich drone have the best zoom?

When i say "best", i mean it have to be sharp en high magnification.
I have the mavic 3 pro and its great but 7x zoom is not that much when you try to film animals.
Your Mavic 3 pro is one of only two current or recent DJI consumer drones with substantial telephoto cameras.
It has a 166 mm (equiv) lens and the Mavic 4 pro has a marginally longer effective focal length of 168 mm (equiv).
The Mavic 4 pro long tele camera has a larger sensor 1/1.5 inch vs 1/2 inch) and is a better camera.

You aren't going to find a drone with a noticeably greater magnification than what you already have, but the long tele camera in the Mavic 4 pro produces better images..



Why is DJI Mavic 4 Pro better than DJI Matrice 4E?​


  • Has a gyroscope
Every DJI drone has a gyro sensor in the IMU.
The drone can't work without it
Same optical zoom except the Matrice 4E has x112 Hybrid zoom vs x28 Digital on the Mavic 4 Pro
No current DJI consumer drone has optical zoom.
The only zoom is digital zoom and that's junk.
 
This raises an interesting question.

Photography is always a series of compromises.

The 112x hybrid "zoom" on the Matrice 4T is using a smaller sensor than the Mavic 4 Pro 6.5x telephoto camera, but when the image is enhanced in the camera by image stabilization and other clarity-boosting features like electronic dehazing, DJI claims the Matrice 4T can read a license plate from a distance of 250 meters (about 820 feet), achieving what appears to be superior result than a mere crop of the image from the 6.5x Mavic 4 Pro telephoto would produce at that distance. Is this just marketing hype, or is there something to that claim?

What are they sacrificing to be able to achieve such a high resolution magnification on a smaller sensor?
 

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