DJI Mavic 2 Pro: "I'm a flying camera"

As an aerial photography enthusiast, I still remember the first drone I bought in April 2019, a DJI Mavic 2 Pro. More than two years later, I can still clearly remember the excitement I felt then and the experience I've had. I bought the Mavic 2 Pro Smart Controller Fly More Combo +, which includes: a drone, a smart controller, three batteries, a charger, charging cable, five pairs of Low-Noise Propellers, a Shoulder bag, three adapter cables, gimbal protector, usb3.0 cable, USB adapter, two cable ties, a pair of spare joysticks, a battery charging hub, and a year of DJI Care.

1.Overall feeling of the package

DJI's packaging style as a whole tends to be minimalist, with the model number and picture of the drone and the DJI logo visible on the cover, and very weighty to hold in your hand. Although drones are more complex in appearance than mobile phones or electronics, they don't overly explain themselves on the packaging. DJI's packaging designer-Aris, conveys a design philosophy of "Enough is More". But I have to admit that nowadays most electronic brands pay more attention to the design of packaging. Whenever I buy a camera, lens or drone, I keep the packaging intact, not only because of my personal preference but also because it is convenient to sell it later in case.

 2.Product Design

The Mavic 2 Pro has a rounded appearance, which makes it more aerodynamic, meaning that the drone can reduce wind resistance when flying at high speeds. It is also important to note that when travelling, many people care about the portability and weight of the drone. 907g ≈ 4 iPhone 12 Pro Max, and with DJI's core technology, this is the full sincerity of the Mavic 2 Pro. Compared to the Phantom 4's 1380g weight, Mavic 2 Pro can fit directly into a backpack, and its four propellers can be folded, as can its four arms.

3.Experience with the product

As a recreational player, I will share a few features of the Mavic 2 Pro.

①Noise-cancelling flight

The Mavic 2 Pro uses a silent propeller, which can be a very useful feature. Imagining there are a lot of people around you keeping asking questions when you are taking off the drone, it makes you cannot concentrate. For me, I really like a silent takeoff and a silent landing. Compared to the sharp noise of the Mavic, the volume of the Mavic 2 Pro flight and its frequency sound will be lower, in case I don't turn on the sport mode, I basically can't hear the noise of the drone from 30 meters away.

②Obstacle avoidance function

The 10 "eyes" of the Mavic 2 series in six directions are able to see more and work together in real time, so that the drone knows where it is and can distinguish obstacles and make avoidance moves. However, no automatic obstacle avoidance is perfect and it is advisable to work with visual obstacle avoidance, especially for night flying and for those who do not have DJI care.

③Photo/video

The Mavic 2 Pro features a 20 mega pixel 1" sensor camera with 2.5μm pixel sizes.

That may not be much of an idea, so let's take an example. IPhone 12 pro max, which is considered to be an outstanding camera for mobile, has a 1/3.6” main camera with 1.7μm, which means that the Mavic 2 Pro, still easily crushes the performance parameters of smartphones on the market today. If you still don't have a more concrete idea, then check out the reviews and prices of the DSC-RX100M6 series released in June '18, as this series has a 1” sensor as its core highlight, which means that DJI has really made a camera flyable this time. And what's even more surprising is that DJI has done a deep collaboration with Hasselblad, applying the latter's colour science to the Mavic 2 Pro.

Thanks to the high image quality and dynamic range of the large sensor, and the addition of Hasselblad's colour science, the Mavic 2 Pro is easy to shoot in challenging backlight scenarios and dark city skies. It also has an adjustable aperture that can be adjusted from a minimum of F/11 to a maximum of F/2.8, making it possible to reduce the aperture for sharper images when there is plenty of light, or to open it fully when there is not enough light to suit different scenarios.

 The Mavic 2 Pro also has a lot of fun features, such as Smart Follow. This allows the Mavic 2 to lock onto a person when going around an open beach or grassland and flying forward to shoot. In addition, its ability to follow the movement of a car at high speed also surprised me I first tried and felt like shooting a movie. There is also Time-lapse shooting, with the remote control set to T (tripod mode). The whole process is automatically composited in-camera, without the need for the user to use software post-production. So even inexperienced players can export, enjoy and share moving time-lapse footage with one click.

④Duration of flight

The battery capacity of 3860mAh can be flown for about 30 minutes, which is generally enough. The maximum speed is about 70km/h. Sometimes you need to consider the return time when flying downwind, otherwise it will be very troublesome to run out of battery in the middle of the flight. By the way, an iPhone 12 Pro can be fully charged with the remaining 30% of its battery power after flight through a converter. This is not an advertisement, the Mavic 2 battery has a high voltage of 15.4V, and with a battery converter, it is actually a huge capacity power bank.

4.Product service

I purchased two years of DJI care and although I have not encountered damage during that time, it is the equivalent of a guarantee that you will have a peace of mind while flying. I also want to share another experience. I am in Australia, and some time ago I broke the antenna of the smart controller, at that time the two years of DJI care also expired, I thought that the repair cost of DJI Australia must be very expensive, I did not expect that after checking the quote on the official website only cost $82, equivalent to 400RMB. DJI CARE is a very important milestone for the drone industry in terms of after-sales service, and DJI's comprehensive after-sales service and repair makes a lot of sense for 0both DJI and its users.

 5.Suggestions for product optimisation

Although Mavic 2 Pro's finish is perfect for most players, I have some suggestions from my experience. Firstly, the battery and charger are not resistant to low temperature. When the temperature is extremely low, the power will drop quickly and even can't take off. Secondly, the maximum speed can only reach 45km/h with obstacle avoidance on in follow mode. I feel like there still can be some improvement.

6 Overall Level of recommendation: 4.5  

Since the release of the Mavic 2 Pro, it has been the benchmark in the Mavic series. The fact that its sale has been good up to now, despite being launched 3 years ago, is a testament to its strength. But the Air 2S is now a very strong competitor. Although their photo capabilities are comparable, Air 2S has zoom function. But the real power lies in its superior 5.4K video capture capability, with a higher bit rate. Plus, the Air 2S is smaller and lighter than Mavic 2 Pro and much cheaper in terms of price. Not surprisingly, the Mavic 3 is coming soon as well. But looking at all of DJI's products, every product is attentive. I can say without hesitation that DJI is a Chinese technology company that the Chinese can be proud of. It has redefined "Made in China" and made Chinese manufacturing synonymous with quality and innovation.