Is the Mavic Air really that good? A photographer's opinion.

[Bad Andy]

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,

Works well enough for plenty of Phantom users. Anyway I'm more concerned about retention of highlight and shadow detail for post-processing.

Given what YouTube, cable companies and other venues do to video before it reaches the consumers , not to mention the back-alley crapshoot that is consumer computer monitor calibration and the oh-so-"helpful" image processing going on in even the most basic flat panels, I'm just not gonna start discussing bit depth and video compression artifacts here.

 

[AndrewCCM]

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.

As a photojournalist by trade, I still find myself using different tools for different jobs. Unfortunately, at times, I’ll find myself shooting with my 1DX and 5D4 and wish both were the same model. Sometimes both a 5D4 for its advantages and sometimes 1DX for its... I just wish I had multiple of everything in every model so that wouldn’t be a problem. LOL

Take care.