DJI MAVIC PRO: FIRST IMPRESSIONS TO OWNERSHIP

A few months ago, I wrote a piece about the DJI Mavic Pro and how drone enthusiasts, like myself, saw the Mavic Pro as a revolutionary piece of hardware and a huge milestone for consumer drones. Now, as the proud owner of one, I am happy to say that the Mavic Pro does indeed live up its hype. At $999.00, the Mavic Pro is anything but cheap. The fiscally conservative will be quick to point out that the Phantom 3 4K is about 30% cheaper, and will shoot 4K at 30 fps, just like the Mavic Pro. However, unlike the Mavic Pro, the Phantom 3 is not as portable which is a huge problem for me. I travel a lot throughout the year and bring almost all of my photography gear with me. Since the Phantom 3 has a large footprint, I would have to travel with an extra bag specifically for the Phantom or travel with less gear in general. Both of these are compromises I cannot come to terms with. So what do you get for spending a few hundred dollars more for a drone? The Mavic Pro’s portability is one of its best-selling points. Mavic Pro can fit inside of my camera bag and I can take it everywhere with me in addition to my camera gear. I was also able to pass through two TSA checkpoints without any issues. Plus, it is pretty fun expanding and collapsing the arms to impress your friends and family. The Mavic Pro also flies intelligently thanks to a suite of forward and bottom facing cameras. Not only can the Mavic Pro avoid obstacles in front of it and fly indoors, but it can also track your face allowing for hands-free autonomous flight. To demonstrate the drone was to my parents, I had my father stand in one corner of my living room, while my mother and I were in the opposite corner. I flew the Mavic Pro towards my father, and it stopped automatically once it got within one to two feet of him. An impressive display. Flying the Mavic Pro is a treat. The Mavic Pro is my first drone from DJI, so I can’t really compare it to the other models. What I can say though is that the Mavic Pro is extremely responsive and stable in flight. It is also very robust and can handle itself in non-ideal weather conditions. It managed to stay in a stable hover with winds gusting at around 20 mph, only drifting a few inches here and there to compensate for the strong winds. Also, after a bit of research and testing, the Mavic Pro can fly in temperatures below freezing. I have made about eight flights in temperatures below 32°F and had little to no problems. While I do not recommend flying in temperatures that cold, take care not to get condensation inside of the Mavic Pro when bringing it from a cold environment to a hot environment. Image quality is a bit of a mixed bag. I guess a part of it is because I have been spoiled by my Canon 5D Mark III and its 22.3MP sensor. Images are relatively sharp, and I am glad that the Mavic Pro shoots in RAW DNG. This means that Lightroom users, like myself, have the ability to make Instagram-like filters. Image size is a standard 4,000 by 3,000 pixels, and the RAW files are about 25 MB per photo. The Mavic Pro has a fixed aperture of f/2.2, so images will be soft in the corners. Also, in a majority of my images, there tends to be a bit of vignetting which is easy to correct in Lightroom. Since I have been flying in the cold, I generally do not have a lot of time to compose my shots or tweak exposure settings when taking pictures. Some of my images were also blurry due to the shutter speed not compensating for movement. Since I could not fly the Mavic Pro for more than four minutes at a time due to the cold, I couldnt really test the video quality. If you want an idea of what kind of footage to expect, the Mavic Pro uses a Sony IMX377 which apparently is the same image sensor inside of the GoPro Hero 4. Probably one of the lesser known things about the Mavic Pro is the charging times for both the battery and controller. Average charging times for both devices are about an hour and ten minutes which blows my mind since it takes about three hours to charge my Samsung Galaxy Note 5. A neat feature of the Mavic Pro’s battery is it will automatically discharge itself to 50% when it senses that it has not been used in a while. If I had to state any cons with the Mavic Pro, it would have to be some of the weird software and hardware functions that DJI implemented. For example, to use the Mavic Pro simulator, you need to physically have the Mavic Pro powered on so the controller can connect to it. This confuses me because I do not see a reason to have the Mavic Pro on. There is also the inherent risk that the drone may accidentally start up when you are adjusting the controller. The DJI GO apps, are pretty good and intuitive, but one of my biggest problems is that I have about one or two flights that I have flown with my iPhone 5 connected to the controller that will not sync over to my Note 5. In the future this might be problematic when I have to switch devices depending on availability. All in all, I am very happy with the Mavic Pro. For all the features it packs in such a small form-factor, it gets the job done, but there is more to that. DJI was able to provide an ultra-portable drone without compromising performance. However, it is safe to assume that DJI probably cut a few corners here and there, but I cannot seem to find any real problems. Sure, maybe I will find problems down the road the more I use it, for now, I am satisfied. If you are in the market for a drone, but just want to get your feet wet without diving in, consider getting a Phantom 3 Advanced. It is cheaper than the Mavic Pro, but has Lightbridge for live, 720p video streaming, and can hold its own against other mid-range consumer drones. However, if you want something with current hardware that is super portable, the Mavic Pro will scratch that itch.