I'm guessing this sort of thing has been done to death by now, but was trying out the new drone and got some side-by-side images for comparison.  Images were taken seconds apart from two drones facing the same way in the same location.

1:1 crop, shows level of detail between the two.  Mavic Pro on left, Mavic 2 Pro on right.



The 2 shows noticeably better detail, and seems to capture highlights/shadows better.

Here's a pair of images where I've cropped and resized the images to get the framing as similar as possible, to get a feel for the overall appearance when reduced in size from the original.  Mavic Pro on top, Mavic 2 Pro on bottom.



The dynamic range is clearly better on the Mavic 2.  Here's a similar shot to the above, with the sky included, from the Mavic Pro:


^ ...note the large areas of cloud that are washed out to pure white.

Below, see the same shot taken from the Mavic 2 Pro:

^... much more detail visible on the clouds.

All of the above pictures are taken in standard JPEG mode.  No post-processing, other than doing resize-and-sharpen for the images that aren't 1:1 cropped.

My impression is also that the Mavic 2 is significantly more resistant to sunflare than the Mavic Pro, which I assume is due to the mechanical aperture.  The Mavic Pro always seems really sunflare-prone, so this is a welcome improvement.

I also like the ability, when I'm going to shoot video, to switch between "full FOV, downsample it to 4K video" mode, versus "crop the center 4K pixels" mode-- gives a bit of flexibility when framing shots, like having a (very slight) zoom.

One thing I'm still getting used to is the limited "focus zone", i.e. the way that focus gets kinda iffy away from the center of the image, presumably due to cramming such a big sensor into such a small camera.  It's unfortunate, but I assume there's not really anything one can do about that, but I'm still absorbing the implications for how I frame and set up shots.

Hi there. Thank you for sharing this shot and the interesting information you provide. Have a safe and happy flying always!

Very informative, Nicely done !

Incidentally, to get an idea of the two different FOV settings on the Mavic 2 Pro's video when recording in 4K, here's a small clip:

https://i.imgur.com/47ku4A8.mp4

...It's dumbed down to 720p, since that's the highest resolution that imgur will let me upload and I can't be bothered to create a YouTube channel, but this should give the general gist.  The video contains three clips.  In order, they are:

1. full FOV video (uses the entire sensor, but the drone downsamples to 4K for video capture)
2. narrow FOV (the drone just crops the center 4K pixels from the sensor)
3. same video as #2 above, but cropped and blown up in post-processing, to give an idea of the level of detail being captured

The drone didn't move between these shots, it's purely video zooming.

The camera on the MP2 is significantly better.

This may not always show on down sized/compressed images or footage but if you need to work with the results and use the equipment in more challenging conditions it's absolutely necessary.

I expect this to get better still with Ai and improved processing in the next model hopefully out before too long.

Very nicely done. The detail and dynamic range is noticeably better on the M2P as to be expected

1" sensor rules...!

Nice comparison, great info

great post , clarity is way better I think the sensor but also the lens itself has greatly improved, be interesting to see how it stacks up against the 4 Pro, I think the Zoom has its charms too but not really tested the cam on it much but very impressed with the 2P

Very nice work. Thanks for compare these two drones.

Update:  Very, very disappointed with my new Mavic 2 Pro.  There's a permanent "smut" on the image:  a circular darkened smudge that's inside the drone's camera.  It's very visible, and it means that all the videos are ruined for the major vacation trip I'm on, which was the reason I bought the drone in the first place.  :-(

Here the problem is visible in a downsampled frame capture from video, with a red arrow pointing to the defect.  The dark circle is the problem:  that's on the sensor, not in the scene (the water is actually uniform color).


(As bad as it looks in this image, it's much worse when viewed on video, since the fact that the smudge stays still as the rest of the image moves makes it stick out like a sore thumb.  It completely ruins the video.)  :-(


I've verified that there's no smudge on the front glass of the camera housing.  It's inside the camera.  I've only had my Mavic 2 barely a month, have hardly flown it, and it hasn't been in any adverse conditions, nor has it had any "accidents".  The smudge is bad enough that all of my videos for this trip are basically ruined.

Seriously disappointed.  The whole reason that I upgraded to the Mavic 2 Pro was that I was planning this trip, where there are lots of spectacular drone-footage opportunities.  I thought I'd tested the drone thoroughly to make sure it was working properly before leaving on the trip... unfortunately, the smudge doesn't show up against "busy" backgrounds (too much "image noise"), and my neighborhood is heavily forested, so it wasn't possible to spot the problem until I left on the trip and now it's glaringly obvious.

Clearly this is a factory defect.  I just wish I'd had an idea that a problem like this could occur (major image smut in the camera, straight from the factory?  Really?), or I could have tested the drone more thoroughly against other backgrounds.  I've got DJI Care, but that's useless to me because I'm traveling and there's no way to get my drone fixed immediately locally.  This has pretty much ruined a major aspect of the trip I was really looking forward to, and completely obviated my whole reason for getting the new drone.  Ironically, if I'd just stuck with my trusty Mavic Pro that I've been flying for the past couple of years, I would have been fine.

Very disappointed with DJI's quality control.  :-(

Schmooit Posted at 5-8 14:18
great post , clarity is way better I think the sensor but also the lens itself has greatly improved, be interesting to see how it stacks up against the 4 Pro, I think the Zoom has its charms too but not really tested the cam on it much but very impressed with the 2P

Without H-log  both zoom and  2pro have same video quality, even  playing directly from computer to 50 screen 4k hdmi connected TV and h264 or 265 codecs. The difference appears only in Log mode . After applying the DJI lut available  for M2P all colors become very vivid, like anything i ve seen before,

Francis Posted at 6-10 18:08
Without H-log  both zoom and  2pro have same video quality, even  playing directly from computer to 50 screen 4k hdmi connected TV and h264 or 265 codecs. The difference appears only in Log mode . After applying the DJI lut available  for M2P all colors become very vivid, like anything i ve seen before,

The Mavic 2 has a higher bitrate. I have seen videos done that demonstrate how this can have an effect on video quality. Because of this, the Mavic Air can get noticeably better quality than the original Mavic Pro if there is a lot of movement in the video. You can't see the difference though if there is not a lot of movement in the video.

Twirlip Posted at 6-10 10:32
Update:  Very, very disappointed with my new Mavic 2 Pro.  There's a permanent "smut" on the image:  a circular darkened smudge that's inside the drone's camera.  It's very visible, and it means that all the videos are ruined for the major vacation trip I'm on, which was the reason I bought the drone in the first place.  :-(

Here the problem is visible in a downsampled frame capture from video, with a red arrow pointing to the defect.  The dark circle is the problem:  that's on the sensor, not in the scene (the water is actually uniform color).

Another reason why the P4PV2.0 makes for a better option.  That's how it looks when something is on the sensor itself on my A7.  I just clean it and it's gone.  That sucks that it's trapped inside forever.  Perhaps shaking it a bit will move the dirt away.

It's not the QC of DJI isn't perfect.  I had a Compass 2 Disconnected on my 1st P4P V2.0 out of the box.  My confidence built up with the Spark and M2Z.  Seller swapped me one with a newer mfg date.  Everything has been great since.  I'm not sure what you can do w/ your M2P but if you can return then get a new P4P V2.0.

The fact that stuff can get in between the sensor and the lens in a sealed case is pretty crazy.  I would never get an M2P now along w/ the other reasons like the M2P not using the full 1" sensor.

Nice comparison.

Tom_A Posted at 6-18 21:15
The Mavic 2 has a higher bitrate. I have seen videos done that demonstrate how this can have an effect on video quality. Because of this, the Mavic Air can get noticeably better quality than the original Mavic Pro if there is a lot of movement in the video. You can't see the difference though if there is not a lot of movement in the video.

i was talking about zomm vs m2p. Same bitrate, small sensor, but hard to notice any video quality difference between two models  under normal settings, with no log.  Still images is an other story.

Francis Posted at 6-19 07:14
i was talking about zomm vs m2p. Same bitrate, small sensor, but hard to notice any video quality difference between two models  under normal settings, with no log.  Still images is an other story.

Sorry, I missed seeing that it was zoom vs 2 pro. I think the difference there is the ability to adjust the aperture. You don't have to land to change filters if you are using them just because the lighting changed a little bit. I think the difference might be more noticeable in low light, but the smaller sensor does just as well in good lighting.

Tom_A Posted at 6-19 19:25
Sorry, I missed seeing that it was zoom vs 2 pro. I think the difference there is the ability to adjust the aperture. You don't have to land to change filters if you are using them just because the lighting changed a little bit. I think the difference might be more noticeable in low light, but the smaller sensor does just as well in good lighting.

Yes, aperture control is very useful but don t alter much the image quality. Just the field of view, but makes really no difference in such small sensors. Even 1" sensors.  I ve expected as you  such big difference in low light situation but, i found very, very small difference. For my needs both are useless in low light situation. I ve owned both since November. I ve used and made many tests  on both and this is what i have concluded.