I believe that Spark, Mavic Air and Mavic Pro all have the same sensor. Spark and Mavic Air have no focus adjustment, so thus are always are infinity. Mavic Air has a higher bit rate for 4K. and the Mavic Air will take a 128GB card without errors, unilke the Spark or Mavic Pro.
All the cameras have excessive retrofocus issues, shortening and fattening of objects towards the edge of the frame. This is common with most wide angle lenses.
The Mavic Pro has an issue where if you hit AF and fly, then hover the focus may or may not stay in place (not sure this have ever been fixed). I have tested it several times on my MPP and don't feel that it's reliable unless you refocus each time. For sure you are advised to refocus between shooting a video and series of stills. Focus is very critical on the Mavic as you are stuck with only one aperture, thus your DOF is fixed. For what it is the camera can do an amazing job for 12mp in flight, however I still check my focus before I shoot a series, use AF, then switch back to MF as then your focus setting stays in place.
Mavic Pro, offers a portrait mode (wonderful for landscape panos where you are better off stitching several portrait images into a single landscape), has a similar focus system to the
P4 (and will get you into trouble if you are not careful). Mavic Pro has 5 shot AEB, Spark is 3, not sure on the Air. Again, the 5 shot is important for stills. It's next to impossible to peg a perfect exposure in one shot and the .07 exposure stop is not really that much, as your max is 1.34 stops plus or minus on a 5 shot AEB. Yes, you will end up throwing out a few shots, but I would rather do that than get a single that is underexposed to the point of non recovery (noise).
None of the cameras allow you to turn off noise reduction (which is excessive on the Spark) but you can turn down the Sharpening on the Mavic Pro. Raw is also a huge advantage, huge as it will have no sharpening or noise reduction applied. Both Mavic's offer raw.
Paul Caldwell
