Why is this camera not great?

[Supercaliber]

Please let me know if im missing something here, but with all the fanfare trumpets and dramatic rollout for this camera, I am underwhelmed so far and not very happy at all..yes, it’s miles ahead of my Mavic 1, but it’s not on par with my P4P and nowhere near my stock I1 v.2..Without getting into specifics, and some have been mentioned already, post production is a nightmare trying to get it to look it’s best, and that’s what I thought would be a high point with the Hasselblad..the color balance right from the camera is not good in my book, and the outside edges look distorted and lacking sharpness..Maybe DJI will figure this out with firmware updates, but that seems a stretch..As far as how the drone flies, it’s flat out excellent (the P4P is a nightmare with all it’s video/rc disconnects)

Does anybody know exactly what Hasselblad has contributed to this camera besides their name?
I really expected a camera that would be AT LEAST as good as the P4P or better, right out of the box..
Anybody feeling me on this?

 

[Fireblade]

You're not the only one. Returned mine after seeing all the video comparisons online. THe auto colors are horribly oversaturated. But as for the reasoning, well, plenty has been discussed here: Mavic Pro-2 vs Zoom and P4P - Line Skipping + Sensor Heat?

It's strange though you're having a lot of rc d/c on your p4p. I loved my p4p, totally miss it. Might end up snagging a used one, one of these days.

 

[PortCanaveralFlorida]

Please let me know if im missing something here, but with all the fanfare trumpets and dramatic rollout for this camera, I am underwhelmed so far and not very happy at all..yes, it’s miles ahead of my Mavic 1, but it’s not on par with my P4P and nowhere near my stock I1 v.2..Without getting into specifics, and some have been mentioned already, post production is a nightmare trying to get it to look it’s best, and that’s what I thought would be a high point with the Hasselblad..the color balance right from the camera is not good in my book, and the outside edges look distorted and lacking sharpness..Maybe DJI will figure this out with firmware updates, but that seems a stretch..As far as how the drone flies, it’s flat out excellent (the P4P is a nightmare with all it’s video/rc disconnects)

Does anybody know exactly what Hasselblad has contributed to this camera besides their name?
I really expected a camera that would be AT LEAST as good as the P4P or better, right out of the box..
Anybody feeling me on this?

For myself, flying the i1.v1 for the past 6 years then making the decision to get this little squirrel was a good one! Camera to my eyes is far better than the x3 (it’s ok) although I’m not one to pixel peep to the utmost-perfection ether. It’s a storytelling platform as a whole, not a DSLR, so for me, it’s far passed my expectations! Dealing with the h265 is another thread.

 

[Starz]

Interesting. I’d much rather look at pics from the mp2 than the i1v2. I always thought the red hue in the i1 was awful.

 

[Kilrah]

I still have my I1 with X3 and the MP camera is better in every way to me.

For myself, flying the i1.v1 for the past 6 years

Umm, it came out less than 4 years ago

 

[PortCanaveralFlorida]

I still have my I1 with X3 and the MP camera is better in every way to me.
Umm, it came out less than 4 years ago

LOL, seems like 6 years, adding in the Parrot too thanks for reminding me how time fly's!

 

[Vanzeppelin]

I've read the threads, and don't seem to have the same impressions some share of the camera. I still have my P4P and Inspire 1 with X3, and prefer the Mavic Pro 2 to both of them for still images. I haven't delved deeply into the various video issues that have been brought up, but what I've shot so far seems easily on par with the P4P and I1.

If anything, my post processing time has decreased with my MP2. I've been very happy so far with this purchase. My only problem with the MP2 is related to poor range with the DJI RE Goggles, and I haven't exhausted all troubleshooting avenues with that yet.

 

[Woodoo]

I would have to agree the photos raw and jpeg seem to suffer terribly with noise especially in the shadows and when edited in post are far worse than my inspire 1 with x3 camera.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

I post this photo a lot but I feel it does a nice job of showing what the M2P can do JPEG right off of the SD card.

 

[Newton Heath]

Personally I bought the drone for images rather than video, and feel that image quality is poor. F2.8 does not give DoF and F11 which is a favoured Landscape F/stop is pure gash...my Galaxy note 9 takes better images it's sad to say.

 

[Streetmagus]

Because everyone is expecting it to be better than P4P for some reason. It was never marketed to be better, although in my opinion it is just as good and in terms of color rendition, it’s way better. Everyone is just looking at sharpness for image quality.

Please upload two of the same photos using the Galaxy phone camera, and the raw from M2P. I’d like to see how the phone camera is better

 

[MaxHam]

Personally I bought the drone for images rather than video, and feel that image quality is poor. F2.8 does not give DoF and F11 which is a favoured Landscape F/stop is pure gash...my Galaxy note 9 takes better images it's sad to say.

The image quality is actually stunning and you must be doing something wrong.
With a 28mm wide angle you have lots of depth of field and I'm wondering what you would ever use f-stopp 11 for.
Use f-stop 4 - that's around the best quality. Everything will be in focus from quite near to infinity.
Or do you want to shoot a flea circus?

To get instantly nice results try the HDR mode.

 

[bkushner]

You're not the only one. Returned mine after seeing all the video comparisons online. THe auto colors are horribly oversaturated. But as for the reasoning, well, plenty has been discussed here: Mavic Pro-2 vs Zoom and P4P - Line Skipping + Sensor Heat?

It's strange though you're having a lot of rc d/c on your p4p. I loved my p4p, totally miss it. Might end up snagging a used one, one of these days.

I almost sold my P4P V2 when I got the M2P then I saw the video. Right now I have both. I think DJI crippled the M2P so they can sell P4P V2 and P5. The ad's running for the P2P V2 specifically mention 4K 60fps.

 

[bkushner]

Because everyone is expecting it to be better than P4P for some reason. It was never marketed to be better, although in my opinion it is just as good and in terms of color rendition, it’s way better. Everyone is just looking at sharpness for image quality.

Please upload two of the same photos using the Galaxy phone camera, and the raw from M2P. I’d like to see how the phone camera is better

Not expected? DJI marketed this as the drone to redefine aerial photography (there words not mine). Also call it their FLAGSHIP consumer drone.

 

[Paul2660]

Camera results for stills are very close for me, between P4 Pro and MP2.

Just like with the P4, you need to make sure you are in good focus. I refocus with the AF often then move to MF, fixing the focus. Trying to manually focus with a iOS device at least for me, is next to impossible as the djig04 app doesn't "respect" retina resolution and thus images viewed with enough magnification to really check are soft.

Aperture like F11, is way to small for most images, just like it is on the F4, due to diffraction. The camera does a good job wide open to around F 5.0 to F5.6. You can only recover so my loss details due to diffraction and at F11 you are losing more than you can recover IMO.

Still need to consider AEB, I shoot everything in AEB mode (5) shot then find the best image or images in post. It's overkill in that you are going to throw out a lot of images, but trying to dial in exact exposure and worry about flying is more than I want to worry about. Cards are cheap even 128GB.

There are issues with the video that have been mentioned many times, mainly the issue of curved horizons in log and the fact that the same video shown in DJIgo4 viewer looks OK. This is something that DJI needs to fix. But it's anyone's guess as to when they will. They still have not fixed the drifting on hover issue with the P4 Vr 2.0 and that dates back to late June 2018.

The sensor in the P4 Pro and MP2 odds are is the same, 1" Sony. The main differences are the in drone processing and here Hasselblad supposedly made some 'improvements" Sure the camera has a Hasselblad name and actual model number etc. but odds are the two physical camera/lenses are very similar.

Highlights seem to have a bit more recovery for me with the MP2 (stills raw) than P4 Pro, but shadow push is a bit less, so expose to the right. There is a lot of image detail left on a 1 stop over exposed image. More than I expected to see.

Not going to get into the raw/jpg issue. I shoot raw, always have always will. LR does a good job on the raws, but there is definitely room for improvement and maybe in a year or so, Adobe will add some dedicated DJI color profiles (don't hold your breath) and better lens profiles. DJI could easily address this also and IMO should have with Adobe.

Paul C

 

[dwallersv]

discussions like this are always so amusing.

BTW, chocolate ice cream is better than strawberry.

Someone please argue with me

 

[melmartin]

Troubling... Glad I waited on buying the M2P.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

discussions like this are always so amusing.

BTW, chocolate ice cream is better than strawberry.

Someone please argue with me

Neapolitan master race

 

[Mitch]

So, as I wait for my M2P to ship I'm pondering to cancel. Are these issues fixable via software/firmware? Or, will DJI need to make an unannounced hardware tweak where holding off until March-ish 2019 for the issues to mysteriously go away be the 'smart' move?

 

[MaxHam]

So, as I wait for my M2P to ship I'm pondering to cancel. Are these issues fixable via software/firmware? Or, will DJI need to make an unannounced hardware tweak where holding off until March-ish 2019 for the issues to mysteriously go away be the 'smart' move?

Depends on which drone you already own. If you have a P4P and your are focussing on video whithout minding the extra weight & noise, I would cancel.
If your focus is on still photography you have a great item with the M2P. Image quality compared with the P4P is hardly noticeable and doesn't justify the bulky Phantom.

There is one thing in general abot the M2P:
It is SO MUCH quiter and smaller then the Phantoms and your 'footprint' is way smaller!
With the MP2 I fly somewehere where I wouldn't take a Phantom.