Is the Mavic Air really that good? A photographer's opinion.
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Agree but I think it's being used as a benchmark at present because people know about the specs and quality of the P4P as it's been out a while but not so much the MA because there's limited information about real-world testing yet.
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My Air should arrive today. One of the things I'm super excited about is the on-drone stitching of 36 megapixel panoramic images. That link that YoshiK1 posted a few pages back with that panorama of the glacier is actually AMAZING for a drone like this. I kid you not, I sat staring at that image with GOOSE BUMPS all over my body.
For landscape photographers the MP size isn't a show-stopper because you take four 12 MP images and stitch them together in a wide panorama and you now have a much higher MP image from a perspective that's very difficult and costly to get from a DSLR. I shot this a few weeks ago, three stitched images, and the source file is 14,000 pixels wide. Plenty good for wall sized prints. The Mavic Air is going to get me some nice images and rather high quality 4K 100mbps video for the price of a super cheap DSLR, and it'll fit in my pocket? You guys can be as negative as you want, but I'm going to be capturing 10x more images now than I would with my P4P because this little drone is going to ALWAYS be with me (assuming it actually works, unlike my Phantom 2 which literally didn't get me even one good flight it was so buggy, and the P4Pro which was terribly buggy as well the first month). I'm praying they got the bugs worked out (BEFORE shipping this time) so that I can take it out this weekend and actually enjoy it.
For landscape photographers the MP size isn't a show-stopper because you take four 12 MP images and stitch them together in a wide panorama and you now have a much higher MP image from a perspective that's very difficult and costly to get from a DSLR. I shot this a few weeks ago, three stitched images, and the source file is 14,000 pixels wide. Plenty good for wall sized prints. The Mavic Air is going to get me some nice images and rather high quality 4K 100mbps video for the price of a super cheap DSLR, and it'll fit in my pocket? You guys can be as negative as you want, but I'm going to be capturing 10x more images now than I would with my P4P because this little drone is going to ALWAYS be with me (assuming it actually works, unlike my Phantom 2 which literally didn't get me even one good flight it was so buggy, and the P4Pro which was terribly buggy as well the first month). I'm praying they got the bugs worked out (BEFORE shipping this time) so that I can take it out this weekend and actually enjoy it.
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P4P. Thanks! The full res image is gob-smacking beautiful. I love that drone. Can't wait for the P5P. My Mavic Air has arrived, and it is in a whole new league from a design standpoint. Up til now the only really elegant drone DJI has designed is the Inspire. But this Air is truly inspirational in both form and function. The design team on this really outdid themselves. Haven't flown it yet, I need to finish a rush job in the studio before I can get out and do anything with it. But I've already lost weight from the amount of drool I've emitted staring at it. The Fly More Bundle is definitely worth the money guys, the extras it comes with are fantastic. And get yourself the fold-able helipad... really cool. I'm taking it out for 3 or 4 days of dedicated shooting once this project is out of my hair.
Only thing from initial inspection that I'm not satisfied with is the bulk-charger. It has a nice compact design, but DJI has once again whimped out and created a charger that only charges one battery at a time... and not quickly. It took forever to charge the three batteries. Looks like once again I'll be going to third-party chargers so I can charge all the batteries at once. Now if I can just find someone who has the batteries in stock. 3 is NOT gonna be enough. I'm gonna want 6-8 of them for sure. Fortunately, they are SUPER SMALL. If only the price reflected their actual worth.
Only thing from initial inspection that I'm not satisfied with is the bulk-charger. It has a nice compact design, but DJI has once again whimped out and created a charger that only charges one battery at a time... and not quickly. It took forever to charge the three batteries. Looks like once again I'll be going to third-party chargers so I can charge all the batteries at once. Now if I can just find someone who has the batteries in stock. 3 is NOT gonna be enough. I'm gonna want 6-8 of them for sure. Fortunately, they are SUPER SMALL. If only the price reflected their actual worth.
I only got the P4P a few weeks ago and due to weather and Work I’ve not had much time to use it properly but love it! I got my Mavic Air a couple days ago and have only flown it in the living room, again due to work and weather, but I think it’s a cracker too! Of course I couldn’t fly much with all the beeping going on from distance sensors but either way it’s awesome! Hope you get to fly it soon! I’ll be Sunday now
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YoshiK1,
Wow, two new drones within two weeks? Nice! I wish I could afford the Inspire 2 with the X7 camera, that's a dream setup. But alas, I just can't justify it yet. Hopefully this little Air satisfies my drone cravings, cuz the P4P is just too bulky to carry everywhere I want to fly. I'll know soon enough. Tomorrow morning is the maiden.
Wow, two new drones within two weeks? Nice! I wish I could afford the Inspire 2 with the X7 camera, that's a dream setup. But alas, I just can't justify it yet. Hopefully this little Air satisfies my drone cravings, cuz the P4P is just too bulky to carry everywhere I want to fly. I'll know soon enough. Tomorrow morning is the maiden.
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If I'd have known about the MA prior to the P4P then I'd have waited and got that first. If it fulfills my needs I might get rid of the P4P but the P4P is awesome and takes great photos and videos so I'll struggle with a decision haha. I've always wanted an Inspire but I don't think I'd get on with it's size as the P4P annoys me with it's size when I need to take it somewhere.
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Mm, that's a tough one. If I had to choose between the Air and P4P, the Phantom would win hands down in my mind. That drone is a super-star IMO. Maybe the Air will win me over with it's convenience though, who knows. I have some tough choices coming up with several international trips where the Air would be just so convenient and the P4P a real pain to haul around, but I know I'd get far superior stills & video with the P4Pro. It's gonna be an agonizing decision. Really it just boils down to whether you're doing paying work, or goofing off. I'd never use a selfie drone for pro work, the P4P barely qualifies as a pro rig. I agree with African Wildlife on that matter. But when I'm just doing personal hobby or family shots, or doing some daring-do, I'm hoping the Air will be enough to satisfy and help me keep my P4P in good shape for the paying work.
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Thanks, Craig, (as well as others), because my simple points have been misunderstood by a few people. I can’t praise DJI high enough for their drones, for whatever purpose or target customer, but their slick presentation launch did become misleading when they involved a working “adventure” photographer. The Mavic Air is not - and will not become - a tool for professionals in most instances. By comparison, the P4P is just good enough. I’m 61 years of age in a few days, highly experienced, commonly in remote locations overseas, and know exactly what can be carried.
Mine are purely for my own video, photography and fun so no pro work being done with them from me except for my vlogs I'll be doing. It's all really down to if the glove fits. I'll probably keep both. P4P for return trips to locations I've did a recce for photography etc and the Air for vlogs, hill walking etc. Enjoy the Air!
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Well, the verdict is in for me. This little drone is a pretty amazing piece of tech, but the grain noise levels are high even in good lighting, the focus is soft, the color is a bit off, and it just doesn't compare to the P4Pro. The problem for me is that I'm completely spoiled by the P4Pro image and video quality. Taking this big of a step back in image quality is hard. That's not a fault of the design or of the Mavic Air, it's just a function of Apples & Oranges, and a function of "you get what you pay for" value. Nobody should be expecting Phantom quality images out of a tiny drone like this. I don't, but I'll admit I was sort of hoping.
I had a heart attack when I reviewed my first flights because the first three videos were completely garbled. Badly garbled. I'm like "Crap, I got a Lemon". I recorded those to the internal storage, not an SD card. But I went into the settings and formatted the internal storage, the next set of videos seemed to be okay. The Air wouldn't read my Phantom formatted SD card, I had to reformat it in the drone.
When I first saw the Mavic Pro video quality from a friend's drone, it immediately turned me off of buying one. That experience is what caused me to go up to the P4Pro, and it was a good choice. I think the Mavic Air is a bit of a step up in compression quality from the Mavic Pro, but I think it might be a step down in lens quality. It's just really soft. Doing a sharpness grade in post helps a TON, but that only goes so far. Where it's fixed focus, there's nothing you can do but just deal with whatever focus quality you get.
Crazy incredible technology is packed in this little drone. It's a design wonder. I've only tested it at home so far, I'll get a better feel for it after I've flown it in the field for a few days. The noise level is significantly more noticable than the Mavic Pro or Platinum, not just for volume, but for pitch. The whine really stands out and the sound travels. So it's not as stealthy.
But dang it folds up small and packs light! Love that so much.
I had a heart attack when I reviewed my first flights because the first three videos were completely garbled. Badly garbled. I'm like "Crap, I got a Lemon". I recorded those to the internal storage, not an SD card. But I went into the settings and formatted the internal storage, the next set of videos seemed to be okay. The Air wouldn't read my Phantom formatted SD card, I had to reformat it in the drone.
When I first saw the Mavic Pro video quality from a friend's drone, it immediately turned me off of buying one. That experience is what caused me to go up to the P4Pro, and it was a good choice. I think the Mavic Air is a bit of a step up in compression quality from the Mavic Pro, but I think it might be a step down in lens quality. It's just really soft. Doing a sharpness grade in post helps a TON, but that only goes so far. Where it's fixed focus, there's nothing you can do but just deal with whatever focus quality you get.
Crazy incredible technology is packed in this little drone. It's a design wonder. I've only tested it at home so far, I'll get a better feel for it after I've flown it in the field for a few days. The noise level is significantly more noticable than the Mavic Pro or Platinum, not just for volume, but for pitch. The whine really stands out and the sound travels. So it's not as stealthy.
But dang it folds up small and packs light! Love that so much.
Interesting. I’ll be trying mine out today. The videos I’ve seen come out of the drone haven’t been like the P4P but do look good to me. I guess I need to stop watching people’s videos and find out myself. Even if it’s still MPish in terms of quality based on what I’m doing now it still has a place for me for hill walks and to up my video game on vlogs without lugging around the Pro.
I was never under the impression it would be as good as the P4P but was that it would be better than the Spark which I believe it to be and that’s one of the reasons why I bought it and not the Spark.
What will you do with yours then? Sell?
What settings were you using on the MA for video?
You should start a new thread and put a video up. I’ll add to it
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YoshiK1, Sorry I didn't respond to your last post. I took off last Monday to spend a week testing and evaluating the Mavic Air. I got to my shoot location and spent a few hours working with it, but then got a call that my father had passed away. So unfortunately I had to abandon the shoot and spend the week planning the funeral and getting through that rough spot in life.
The few shots I did get with it at that location were revealing. This camera has some interesting characteristics. First, it's very soft compared to any other drone I've used. But it's not universally soft across the entire image, it seems softer on the left side of the image than the right side. I've had several people come in and look at it with me, and everybody noticed that. I also noticed that there's some subtle distortion in the middle of the image. The more motion there is in your camera, the more you notice the distortion. It's not severe, but it's there. I need to print out a grid chart to do some actual camera tests.
There are only two settings, the normal and the Cinelike-D, which is the better of the two. The quality is decent for the size of the drone. It does a good job in well-lit scenes, but the noise in the shadows is really strong. Doing grain reduction in post is usually pretty time consuming, so that's something to factor in to your decision on this drone. If you don't have a lot of time to mess with your footage, it may be worth waiting for a better system, but the images can actually be made to look quite nice if you do a noise reduction pass, add some sharpness, and do some color toning.
I didn't get time to test out panorama or any of the other creative selfie modes. But I'm hoping to take it out again this week for a day of shooting. I haven't decided yet if I want to keep it or sell it. I'm conflicted a bit, because I love the compactness, stability, and feature set.
There are a few more things about the drone that really bother me, the most significant being issues with the controller. I love that the sticks are removable, but they are SUPER short. It's almost impossible to do a smooth camera move with it because the sticks are barely an inch long, and they are stiff. But that's not the worst thing, the sticks have VERY STRONG springs that want to force the stick to the center position. So say you want to do a maneuver where you are yawing left for a bit as you come around a bend, then you want to yaw to the right - the stick wants to pop to the center, so you can't move the stick from left to right smoothly. And there are no alternative sticks to buy for it. Either DJI or a third party need to develop longer sticks for this controller 3" would be good. You need to have more leverage to be able to control your stick movements more precisely.
Also, if you are flying with the drone and reach an angle at which the camera is maxed out, but you are trying to push it hard to fly fast, the camera when it reaches it's MAX angle doesn't STAY at it's max angle, it suddenly pops back to center. I had several shots rendered useless because of that camera pop to center. Not a big deal, just don't fly top-speed and you'll be fine, or angle your camera down a bit if you are flying fast.
How did your flight tests go?
The few shots I did get with it at that location were revealing. This camera has some interesting characteristics. First, it's very soft compared to any other drone I've used. But it's not universally soft across the entire image, it seems softer on the left side of the image than the right side. I've had several people come in and look at it with me, and everybody noticed that. I also noticed that there's some subtle distortion in the middle of the image. The more motion there is in your camera, the more you notice the distortion. It's not severe, but it's there. I need to print out a grid chart to do some actual camera tests.
There are only two settings, the normal and the Cinelike-D, which is the better of the two. The quality is decent for the size of the drone. It does a good job in well-lit scenes, but the noise in the shadows is really strong. Doing grain reduction in post is usually pretty time consuming, so that's something to factor in to your decision on this drone. If you don't have a lot of time to mess with your footage, it may be worth waiting for a better system, but the images can actually be made to look quite nice if you do a noise reduction pass, add some sharpness, and do some color toning.
I didn't get time to test out panorama or any of the other creative selfie modes. But I'm hoping to take it out again this week for a day of shooting. I haven't decided yet if I want to keep it or sell it. I'm conflicted a bit, because I love the compactness, stability, and feature set.
There are a few more things about the drone that really bother me, the most significant being issues with the controller. I love that the sticks are removable, but they are SUPER short. It's almost impossible to do a smooth camera move with it because the sticks are barely an inch long, and they are stiff. But that's not the worst thing, the sticks have VERY STRONG springs that want to force the stick to the center position. So say you want to do a maneuver where you are yawing left for a bit as you come around a bend, then you want to yaw to the right - the stick wants to pop to the center, so you can't move the stick from left to right smoothly. And there are no alternative sticks to buy for it. Either DJI or a third party need to develop longer sticks for this controller 3" would be good. You need to have more leverage to be able to control your stick movements more precisely.
Also, if you are flying with the drone and reach an angle at which the camera is maxed out, but you are trying to push it hard to fly fast, the camera when it reaches it's MAX angle doesn't STAY at it's max angle, it suddenly pops back to center. I had several shots rendered useless because of that camera pop to center. Not a big deal, just don't fly top-speed and you'll be fine, or angle your camera down a bit if you are flying fast.
How did your flight tests go?
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Sorry to hear about your father. Been a tough week. My mom also did it her way.
As for the Mavic Air... Hmmm, lens issue maybe?
Is it safe to assume that Cinelike-D and D-Log are two different things? Lack of a logarithmic recording mode would seem to me to be an intentional move to separate the consumer and prosumer products.
As for the Mavic Air... Hmmm, lens issue maybe?
Is it safe to assume that Cinelike-D and D-Log are two different things? Lack of a logarithmic recording mode would seem to me to be an intentional move to separate the consumer and prosumer products.
Dlog does not work well for any of the drones that do not support raw footage currently (essentially all below the Inspire series). 8 bit is simply not enough for dlog (allows for 256 shades) and you end up with aliasing and banding in monotone highlight areas such as a clear sky.
We might get 10 bit with the p5 (1024 shades) which will then allow for a usable dlog profile. Currently, dcinelike is the safe bet for all the consumer models,
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