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Mavic 2 Series

Two years ago DJI's Mavic Pro took the drone community by storm. Combining near of the important features of its larger sibling, the Phantom four, into a folding package with a decent price point, it has quickly get a favorite for both amateurs and many professionals. Equally a full disclosure, I purchased 2 of them (always good to have a backup) and accept flown well over 100 missions with each. Today, DJI upped the prosumer drone ante even further, with the Mavic two Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom. They both feature enough of upgrades over the current generation. The only question for many will be which i to save up for.

Mavic two Pro: Hasselblad Camera With Variable Aperture

The Mavic 2 Pro looks a lot like the current Mavic with a beefier cameraThe Mavic 2 Pro ($1,449)SEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce packs an impressive 1-inch sensor Hasselblad-powered photographic camera into its small frame. That should provide some very-impressive prototype quality from its 20MP still images. Another nice improvement is the camera's variable f/two.8-f/eleven aperture. In addition to assuasive some control over depth of focus, it volition too permit videographers to have better control over shutter speed without having to manually fit ND filters. Speaking of video, the camera tin output 10-chip HDR video in Dlog-M, fifty-fifty when capturing 4K.

Mavic ii Zoom

The Mavic 2 Zoom looks like a sleeker version of the Mavic ProWhile the Mavic 2 Zoom ($1,249) doesn't offer the larger sensor of the Pro, it adds another characteristic every drone lensman wants — an optical zoom. The actual zoom is 2x (24mm – 48mm range), only it takes advantage of 4K video non requiring the entire resolution of the sensor to provide a full optical zoom of as much as 4x. (Using only a portion of the total sensor to achieve an in-camera zoom is like to what Parrot has done with its Anafi drone photographic camera.)

Along with the increased focal length comes a demand for more than accurate autofocus, for which the Zoom adds a hybrid stage and contrast detection system. The camera'due south native resolution is 12MP for stills, but the Zoom offers a mode that stitches together ix images for a 48MP final output. A new Dolly Zoom quick shot way (too similar to the one on the Anafi) creates a special effect where the drone moves astern while zooming in, simulating a pop cinematographer technique.

Mavic 2 Family Features

Both models have a substantially improved flying time of upward to 31 minutes, thanks in office to a 19 pct more than efficient chassis profile. Too featured are improved communications and a hope of 1080p video connectivity at up to a theoretical 8 km. That should make additional real-fourth dimension applications possible, and as well permit some video workflow without needing to really recall and unload the microSD card.

The Mavic's current, very limited obstacle avoidance has also been beefed upwardly to an array of 10 sensors that can work up/down, left/right, and front/back. DJI says the updated FlightAutonomy and Advanced Pilot Assistance arrangement tin "analyze its surrounding environment and automatically fly around obstacles without stopping." However, DJI does caution that the left/right but works in sure modes and that the sensors don't provide full 360-caste coverage, so I'd propose circumspection relying on the characteristic until some brave souls run some field tests.

New Flying Features

Forth with the updated hardware, the Mavic 2 family adds and upgrades some flight features. ActiveTrack has been updated to allow college-speed tracking and better ability to stay with a temporarily occluded subject. A new Hyperlapse provides an automatic way to create fourth dimension-lapse videos (a blessing for those of us who've been doing it manually in Premiere Pro). A particularly interesting attribute of the Hyperlapse feature is that DJI says it will work with preset Waypoints. Hopefully, that ways that the new drones will too back up a generalized Waypoint-mode, that today requires using a third-party app like Litchi. Allow'due south likewise promise that at least some of the new features are backported to the current Mavic family models.

Both Mavic 2 models are on auction now.

Now Read: Mavic Pro Field-Tested, Parrot Anafi Field-Tested, and How To Create Amazing Videos With Your Drone.