Anyone know the max speed? I want to follow a boat that does up to 45mph. 30 would be good enough....

I tested it up to a shade under 50km/h (~31mph) last weekend and it was fine with a moderate headwind.

AusAir Posted at 2016-11-17 19:09
I tested it up to a shade under 50km/h (~31mph) last weekend and it was fine with a moderate headwin ...

good news, how did the video turn out at that speed? Only flown twice yet but so far not too happy with the video at higher speed.

Abaco305 Posted at 2016-11-18 08:15
good news, how did the video turn out at that speed? Only flown twice yet but so far not too happy ...

This is the only thing with the Mavic that lets it down. Anything high speed.

I was driving along a dirt road through rather open paddocks with tall dry grass and a few trees here and there. The car looks great in the video. Sharp, clean, clear. The background on the other hand is lacking as a result of the low frame rate. It's acceptable but only just.

I've played around with the various resolutions, frame rates and formats and found the best compromise (because that's really what it is) to be 1080/30 NTSC (forget anything above this as the binning method employed leads to serious aliasing).  4K/30 NTSC works well in some cases and produces excellent results when it works but can falter a little in complex scenes. From a career dealing with video, PAL typically produces a far better result however the Mavic either doesn't have the processing grunt to deal with it effectively or has very inefficient codecs.

Frame rate unfortunately is the Mavic's only real downfall.

I too am interested in the best settings for following a boat as thats really my main reason for having sold my last drone and purchased this one. I want to be able to use the active trac to follow the boat while we cruise around Bimini, the Keys and Miami waters. Also, any word on what the best settings would be as far as avoiding splash downs/accidents? Just got my Mavic and havent played with it just yet due to work but the first open water flight to me is scary as hell.

Dgonz0289 Posted at 2016-11-17 21:57
I too am interested in the best settings for following a boat as thats really my main reason for hav ...

Just get a good grip of it before water. Also make sure if the boats under 30 possible hand catches..... check out on youtube stiltsville dji. Shot that on my old inspire. careful with the new regulations in the bahamas

Abaco305 Posted at 2016-11-17 19:46
Just get a good grip of it before water. Also make sure if the boats under 30 possible hand catches..... check out on youtube stiltsville dji. Shot that on my old inspire. careful with the new regulations in the bahamas

I have been using my Mavic to track a slalom boat. I have found under 30MPH helps, the boat accelerates a bit quick for the Mavic, it does catch up at slower speeds. Perhaps if the lake was longer the Mavic may hold a higher speed once it catches up.