DJI Mavic Pro
As a photographer I have always been fascinated by aerial imagery. Getting a drone was therefore a tempting idea. However, until recently most drones were just too big to be practical. The popular DJ Phantom, for example, requires a full-sized backpack or suitcase. This is just not my style. Over the past few years, I have made every possible attempt to shed weight from my equipment which is why I sold all of my beloved Nikon cameras and moved to Fuji. Personally, I want my gear to be so compact and light that I feel compelled to take it to awesome places. Luckily, DJI introduced the extremely portable DJI Mavic Pro drone in October of 2016. Needless to say – I was excited.
A tiny drone
The DJI Mavic Pro is really small. It folds up and has the size of a running shoe while not weighing that much more. Carrying that thing around is super easy. It fits in pretty much any camera bag. The controller is also fairly small.
Unfolded, the DJI Mavic Pro looks a bit bigger. Getting it up in the air is amazingly easy. For a complete drone novice like me, it was a breeze to fly this thing. After just a few sessions, I feel comfortable to do some pretty decent flight maneuvers with the DJI Mavic pro.
Photo & Video quality
This post is not intended to be a full review but I am happy to report that the image and video quality is amazingly good. I have just taken a few photos and they seem to be right on par with the GoPro if not better.
Video quality is pretty awesome in most conditions. I have had a few quality issues here and there but most of them are user errors such as flying in the direct sun which causes propeller shadows to show up in the video. It’ll be fun this spring and summer to learn more about aerial imagery. In the meantime, the DJI Mavic Pro will join me on a number of business trips. There is no reason to keep it home. Below is my first video from a trip to the Canary Islands over the holidays. Highly recommend to view it in full screen HD mode. Hope you like it.
