Last night DJI officially unveiled the Mavic Air 2. The spec sheet is pretty impressive, and one of the notable highlights is 4K/60fps video. Currently, the Mavic 2 Pro only supports 4K/30fps. Will DJI ever roll out a software update to support 4K/60fps on the Mavic 2, or are the limitations based on hardware? Would be really nice to have 60fps on the higher end mavic

I have this same question and came here JUST to talk about THIS!   With the release of the Mavic Air 2, I'm DISAPPOINTED that the recently released Mavic 2 Pro doesn't do 4K/60!  What is the limitation, the processor?  I'd like to put in my request to DJI to offer 4K/60 via firmware upgrade!

I think 4K/60 will be benefit for Mavic3

The answer is NO. DJI will do that right from the beginning to go way ahead competition, don't you think so? And why shot themselves in the foot by doing that, even if it's technically possible, which I doubt?

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 4-28 12:23
The answer is NO. DJI will do that right from the beginning to go way ahead competition, don't you think so? And why shot themselves in the foot by doing that, even if it's technically possible, which I doubt?

Mavic 2 Pro is basically double the cost of Mavic Air 2, and is capable of half of the frame rate.. I really love my Mavic 2 Pro, however, as an aircraft marketed towards professionals & power users, 4K/60fps would be well received...

tylerjhill Posted at 4-28 12:28
Mavic 2 Pro is basically double the cost of Mavic Air 2, and is capable of half of the frame rate.. I really love my Mavic 2 Pro, however, as an aircraft marketed towards professionals & power users, 4K/60fps would be well received...

they need to keep phantom 4 pro alive, i guess..
with mavic3, they will probably kill phantom series.

They ii need to sell the future Mavic 3 and they will need this feature to do that. Mavic 3 hardware wont be too much powerful than 2 and all new possible upgraded features are important. AT 3  4k 60 fps 120 mpbs etc

tylerjhill Posted at 4-28 12:28
Mavic 2 Pro is basically double the cost of Mavic Air 2, and is capable of half of the frame rate.. I really love my Mavic 2 Pro, however, as an aircraft marketed towards professionals & power users, 4K/60fps would be well received...

It would be really good if Mazda make my car go at 200 km/h but only burn 3 litres/100km too.

I doubt it.

sky_makai Posted at 4-28 11:10
I have this same question and came here JUST to talk about THIS!   With the release of the Mavic Air 2, I'm DISAPPOINTED that the recently released Mavic 2 Pro doesn't do 4K/60!  What is the limitation, the processor?  I'd like to put in my request to DJI to offer 4K/60 via firmware upgrade!

the 100Mbps bandwidth it uses to write to the SD card is barely enough for 4k/30, even heavily compressed so no way has it got the pipeline wide for 4k/60 at any sensible quality.

Then add possible processor restrictions on top and no. Its not going to get it.  Its hardware limited.

gnirtS Posted at 4-28 21:49
the 100Mbps bandwidth it uses to write to the SD card is barely enough for 4k/30, even heavily compressed so no way has it got the pipeline wide for 4k/60 at any sensible quality.

Then add possible processor restrictions on top and no. Its not going to get it.  Its hardware limited.

4K30 looks so good on the M2P.  It seems the HCLS or w/e the color process system is takes up a lot of the processing power.

I don't think it's the microSD card limitation.  The microSD cards are doing 4K60 in all kinds of other devices like the GoPRo, P4PV2, Skydio 2, etc.  We are talking bandwidth of course but it's really all about processing power.  If it has to process too hard and crashes then we lose the drone.

Be cool if they made it available in 8 bit video recording tho, like a mode for it

AntDX316 Posted at 4-28 22:13
4K30 looks so good on the M2P.  It seems the HCLS or w/e the color process system is takes up a lot of the processing power.

I don't think it's the microSD card limitation.  The microSD cards are doing 4K60 in all kinds of other devices like the GoPRo, P4PV2, Skydio 2, etc.  We are talking bandwidth of course but it's really all about processing power.  If it has to process too hard and crashes then we lose the drone.

Its bandwidth not card (the actual bus to the SD card).

4k/30 even with h265 is pushing it, there are compression artifacts and so on to squeeze it into the 100Mbps.

Other cameras do 4k60 either by upping the compression or by a faster bus speed.

Ultimately going from just about OK 4k/30 to 60fps is going to massively increase bus bandwidth and processing.

As you said though, processing it also a bottleneck - we know its limited in the amounts of streams for example reduced quality for hyperlapse/quickshots, activetrack with no interval shooting, side sensor limitations etc.

The M2 is likely maxed out CPU and bus wise with what it can do.  It is after all 5 year old hardware.

gnirtS Posted at 4-29 05:08
Its bandwidth not card (the actual bus to the SD card).

4k/30 even with h265 is pushing it, there are compression artifacts and so on to squeeze it into the 100Mbps.

M2 is not 5-year-old hardware.

AntDX316 Posted at 4-29 05:25
M2 is not 5-year-old hardware.

From a design point of view it is.  Its 2.5 year old, development would have started at last 1 or 2 years before that.

We also know from strip downs a lot of the hardware and SOCs used a lot have been around 5+ years.

The entire data bus for SD card etc is identical to the mavic air.

gnirtS Posted at 4-29 06:07
From a design point of view it is.  Its 2.5 year old, development would have started at last 1 or 2 years before that.

We also know from strip downs a lot of the hardware and SOCs used a lot have been around 5+ years.

What is SOC?

System On a Chip.

More broadly here, specific functions and sub processors etc.

gnirtS Posted at 4-28 21:49
the 100Mbps bandwidth it uses to write to the SD card is barely enough for 4k/30, even heavily compressed so no way has it got the pipeline wide for 4k/60 at any sensible quality.

Then add possible processor restrictions on top and no. Its not going to get it.  Its hardware limited.

gopro 6 whith 60 mbps can record 4k 60

DJI is not known for giving away free stuff.

i doubt this will happen i think because in the pass this is not happen, and i also hope tat active track 3 can be happen in Mavic 2 Pro

Francis Posted at 4-29 11:05
gopro 6 whith 60 mbps can record 4k 60

With hideous compression and low quality.

I do understand that it might not be great, but they should add at least Active track 3.0 since it's mostly software and most of it done in the smartphone app, and higher framerate at least on the 1080 slow motion, and even 4K 60fps should be doable with a quality hit, just put a warning or something that the quality will be worst when selecting it and give the option to their clients to choose to use it or not!

I bought my Mavic 2 zoom half a year ago, and now I'm "stuck" with a more expensive and less capable camera, which is counter intuitive.

I've heard in the past that DJI was a great company to their clients and they usually update previous drones with newer features, but looks like that was a looooongg time ago...

serialkiler Posted at 4-30 09:55
I do understand that it might not be great, but they should add at least Active track 3.0 since it's mostly software and most of it done in the smartphone app, and higher framerate at least on the 1080 slow motion, and even 4K 60fps should be doable with a quality hit, just put a warning or something that the quality will be worst when selecting it and give the option to their clients to choose to use it or not!

I bought my Mavic 2 zoom half a year ago, and now I'm "stuck" with a more expensive and less capable camera, which is counter intuitive.

sorry, but i don't agree. mavic 2 series is probably (i would even say not just probably) best drone platform on the market (i'm not talking about real pro stuff), all thing considered, all evos etc included. stability, safety, portability, usability etc, it's all there at the top. with optical zoom you can deliver some completely different cinematic footage.
in the end, it not really about pixel count (not forget we're talking about 12mpix quadbayer sensor here), many other things comes to that to have good footage, when we're talking drones (imo).
as a m2p user, what i only would like, is that they didn't play with pixel binning and all that, but as i said, other things are probably way more important than that.

izotop Posted at 4-30 10:32
sorry, but i don't agree. mavic 2 series is probably (i would even say not just probably) best drone platform on the market (i'm not talking about real pro stuff), all thing considered, all evos etc included. stability, safety, portability, usability etc, it's all there at the top. with optical zoom you can deliver some completely different cinematic footage.
in the end, it not really about pixel count (not forget we're talking about 12mpix quadbayer sensor here), many other things comes to that to have good footage, when we're talking drones (imo).
as a m2p user, what i only would like, is that they didn't play with pixel binning and all that, but as i said, other things are probably way more important than that.

Sorry for disagreeing with you, but in terms of tracking, I think that at the moment is actually one of the worst drones in the market right now, have you seen Skydio 2 tracking for example? and a way cheaper drone than the Mavic 2. I do agree with you that image quality is more than Pixels, and if you read my post correctly, I never complain about pixels, hell, I still think that Mavic 2 PRO is the best consumer drone for photography, but framerate and tracking? I'm sorry these are two things that DJI could "easily" fix with software if they WANTED TO, but I understand, they MUST keep something to put in the Mavic 3.....

Not gonna happen.  If anything they will phase out the Mavic two series in favor of the new Flyapp.

serialkiler Posted at 4-30 11:22
Sorry for disagreeing with you, but in terms of tracking, I think that at the moment is actually one of the worst drones in the market right now, have you seen Skydio 2 tracking for example? and a way cheaper drone than the Mavic 2. I do agree with you that image quality is more than Pixels, and if you read my post correctly, I never complain about pixels, hell, I still think that Mavic 2 PRO is the best consumer drone for photography, but framerate and tracking? I'm sorry these are two things that DJI could "easily" fix with software if they WANTED TO, but I understand, they MUST keep something to put in the Mavic 3.....

i've seen it all. skydio (for me) is neurotic gopro flying cam, nothing else. it's not filming tool.

gnirtS Posted at 4-29 22:18
With hideous compression and low quality.

How about p4 pro 100 mbps 4k 60 fps

tylerjhill Posted at 4-28 12:28
Mavic 2 Pro is basically double the cost of Mavic Air 2, and is capable of half of the frame rate.. I really love my Mavic 2 Pro, however, as an aircraft marketed towards professionals & power users, 4K/60fps would be well received...

I don't have a mavic air 2.  I do have a mavie 2 Pro. Yet, I will  step out on a limb and say that the new air will not come close to shooting in low light situations like the m2p.  The darn thing is in a league of its own with this amazing quality!  Low light is more important to me, than 60 fps. There is nothing I desire about the mavic air 2 that the M2P does not already do, and possibly do better.  If I did not have a m2P,  I might consider the mavic air 2 primarily because of the cost.