I've had my Mini 4 Pro for just a few weeks, but I'm already seeing how gamechanging a telephoto lens would be.I'm repeatedly finding that the 24mm lens on the M4P requires me to get much closer to the subject than I would prefer.
I probably should have started with a Mavic, but the 249g appeal was so strong.


Though I'm not too excited about spending another lump of money so quickly, I'm in one of those purchase/use modes where upgrading feels inevitable.

I just wanted to ask if anyone else has made that same jump and if I should be considering any other options.  Or if anyone has a a Mini and found that adding a Mavic wasn't really worth it.

It does bug me that it appears that I would need to buy another controller for the Mavic, even though the RC2 I already have seems to be compatible.
I also wondered if there is any reason to think I would want to wait for a new Mavic version, or if that seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Any issues with hand launching and catching the Mavic?  I almost exclusively hand launch/land my Mini.

By the way, my primary application is still photos, though I do some video too.

Get an Air 3!

BrianKushner Posted at 1-29 20:33
Get an Air 3!

That doesn't have the 166mm lens though, does it?  So it is missing the feature that is most important to me.

I just sold my M3Pro, I really was not too terribly impressed with the 166mm lens it had. I found the 7X on the Mavic 3 to be not as soft, so I have reverted back to it. They have different designs on the zoom lens. Others just rave about it, but me, I was underwhelmed. Perhaps I got a soft one, others have.  I have talked with other professionals that have exchanged theirs 3 times and finally got one that didn't have optical issues on the 4th.

Dogpilot Posted at 1-29 21:18
I just sold my M3Pro, I really was not too terribly impressed with the 166mm lens it had. I found the 7X on the Mavic 3 to be not as soft, so I have reverted back to it. They have different designs on the zoom lens. Others just rave about it, but me, I was underwhelmed. Perhaps I got a soft one, others have.  I have talked with other professionals that have exchanged theirs 3 times and finally got one that didn't have optical issues on the 4th.

Does "soft" mean unclear/blurry?

Well, not exactly sharp. Part of it comes from bright fringing I think. But overall I find the images to have been less than pleasing and required a bit of post processing. I just found the drone less usable than my others, a 3 Cine and the two Enterprise, a 3E and 3T, which perform completely different functions. Look on the board, you will find others have issues with the large gimbal, being too low (drags if you do not use a landing pad), bobbles and the weight of the pro is higher than the 3. Loads of people a very happy with it, I just found it to not be usable professionally for my purposes. If I need good quality tele images I use my aircraft for that, better lenses and better ability to dwell for best light. Not exactly the mainstream solution. My point being, it is not exactly a very sharp or very high resolution image produced, the actual sensor is quite small and it is improved via internal software. While this works very well on the iPhone's tiny sensor, it is not as well implemented on the Dji attempt in the Pro. I suppose eventually I, personally, will have to upgrade to an Inspire drone. It is just so large for many of my projects to carry back in the wilds. I'm a geologist, so I hike to the middle of nowhere, a lot.

Seriously, if the 7x is your objective, then just get a M3, they can be had for ½ to 2/3's the price of a Pro. Spend the savings on the RC-Pro, which really ups your game being far better screen to read in sunlight.

Dogpilot Posted at 1-29 21:18
I just sold my M3Pro, I really was not too terribly impressed with the 166mm lens it had. I found the 7X on the Mavic 3 to be not as soft, so I have reverted back to it. They have different designs on the zoom lens. Others just rave about it, but me, I was underwhelmed. Perhaps I got a soft one, others have.  I have talked with other professionals that have exchanged theirs 3 times and finally got one that didn't have optical issues on the 4th.

Can you show some samples from that Tele ?
Ideally full res. or 100% crop.

Cheers

Honestly, I have dumped them, since I really had no use for them. I have literally sold the Pro yesterday and cleaned out the SD card. I am sure you can find others who have had the same issues (I am most defiantly not the only one). My other gripe with the pro was the fairly limited selection of supplemental lenses and filers of decent quality.  I had to go through 3 CPL's before I found one that didn't have either internal reflections or cause blur on one side of the image. Do not get the Freewell (usually quite good) or PGYTECH (also usually quite good). I and others found the STARTRC one to have the least problems. I am actually fond of Anamorphic Lenses, and no good quality ones exist for the pro. Just obscure ones from producers I have never heard of at prices too low to be of any quality.

Dogpilot Posted at 1-30 08:49
Well, not exactly sharp. Part of it comes from bright fringing I think. But overall I find the images to have been less than pleasing and required a bit of post processing. I just found the drone less usable than my others, a 3 Cine and the two Enterprise, a 3E and 3T, which perform completely different functions. Look on the board, you will find others have issues with the large gimbal, being too low (drags if you do not use a landing pad), bobbles and the weight of the pro is higher than the 3. Loads of people a very happy with it, I just found it to not be usable professionally for my purposes. If I need good quality tele images I use my aircraft for that, better lenses and better ability to dwell for best light. Not exactly the mainstream solution. My point being, it is not exactly a very sharp or very high resolution image produced, the actual sensor is quite small and it is improved via internal software. While this works very well on the iPhone's tiny sensor, it is not as well implemented on the Dji attempt in the Pro. I suppose eventually I, personally, will have to upgrade to an Inspire drone. It is just so large for many of my projects to carry back in the wilds. I'm a geologist, so I hike to the middle of nowhere, a lot.

Seriously, if the 7x is your objective, then just get a M3, they can be had for ½ to 2/3's the price of a Pro. Spend the savings on the RC-Pro, which really ups your game being far better screen to read in sunlight.

Looks to me like the Mavic 3 and the Mavic 3 Pro are the same price (I'm look at the fly more combos on Amazon).

I find myself almost exclusively hand launching and catching my Mini 4 Pro.  Will that be too sketchy with the larger Mavic?

Is the RC Pro really worth it?  Like, $600 extra vs the RC?
I have my RC2 screen set to half brightness right now.  Maybe I'll feel differently about screen brightness when summer comes around.

Rosewell Flyer Posted at 1-30 15:23
Looks to me like the Mavic 3 and the Mavic 3 Pro are the same price (I'm look at the fly more combos on Amazon).

I find myself almost exclusively hand launching and catching my Mini 4 Pro.  Will that be too sketchy with the larger Mavic?

For some reason, it would not accept an edit of my post.  The difference in cost between the two controllers is actually $840.  That seems a bit nuts to me.

Rosewell Flyer Posted at 1-30 15:55
For some reason, it would not accept an edit of my post.  The difference in cost between the two controllers is actually $840.  That seems a bit nuts to me.

Top of the line always costs. How much do you spend on your phone?

Mobilehomer Posted at 1-30 17:12
Top of the line always costs. How much do you spend on your phone?

Typically, around $250-300.  Though recently I splurged and spent like $700.

Dogpilot Posted at 1-30 09:30
Honestly, I have dumped them, since I really had no use for them. I have literally sold the Pro yesterday and cleaned out the SD card. I am sure you can find others who have had the same issues (I am most defiantly not the only one). My other gripe with the pro was the fairly limited selection of supplemental lenses and filers of decent quality.  I had to go through 3 CPL's before I found one that didn't have either internal reflections or cause blur on one side of the image. Do not get the Freewell (usually quite good) or PGYTECH (also usually quite good). I and others found the STARTRC one to have the least problems. I am actually fond of Anamorphic Lenses, and no good quality ones exist for the pro. Just obscure ones from producers I have never heard of at prices too low to be of any quality.

I had issues with main camera, but 3x and 7x were solid on all 7 units I tried...
Never heard of Tele lenses softness on M3P, wide lens yes, but not other way around.

I went back and looked at all the files I kept from that drone. I had it for a grand total of 238 days and it seems that I didn't keep one image shot with either tele lens. I have about 100 kept from the 24mm, but not a single one from those two cameras. My whole point to get the Pro was to use the 3x zoom to shoot in canyons for more detail to give backup to the thermal images I take with the M3T for my research project. I discarded every image I took with them. I was very disappointed with it. I am trying to see detail in fossil sand dunes deposits. The softness or lack of contrast is what made them unusable.

I am completely familiar with how these cameras are made. I have had nearly a dozen Mavics over the last few years and before the M3M came out I would take apart M2P's and mod them to do multispectral by removing the internal filters. So I have taken them completely apart. I have only dismantled one M3 camera, but since they must be factory calibrated. It is almost a waste of time ($128 to calibrate them) since many times they just replace the drone. I have also tried the Github Python code to calibrate the camera and gimbal, which is tricky. It is disappointing to not be able to do this yourself anymore, since the M3M is more for agriculture and not geology. We rather like to select what band we want to observe in. The entire point is, I rather know when a camera is less than it can be. The M3Pro is disappointing, especially considering the price. It is also kind of heavy as well.

I am happy it is working for you.

Dogpilot Posted at 1-31 21:22
I went back and looked at all the files I kept from that drone. I had it for a grand total of 238 days and it seems that I didn't keep one image shot with either tele lens. I have about 100 kept from the 24mm, but not a single one from those two cameras. My whole point to get the Pro was to use the 3x zoom to shoot in canyons for more detail to give backup to the thermal images I take with the M3T for my research project. I discarded every image I took with them. I was very disappointed with it. I am trying to see detail in fossil sand dunes deposits. The softness or lack of contrast is what made them unusable.

I am completely familiar with how these cameras are made. I have had nearly a dozen Mavics over the last few years and before the M3M came out I would take apart M2P's and mod them to do multispectral by removing the internal filters. So I have taken them completely apart. I have only dismantled one M3 camera, but since they must be factory calibrated. It is almost a waste of time ($128 to calibrate them) since many times they just replace the drone. I have also tried the Github Python code to calibrate the camera and gimbal, which is tricky. It is disappointing to not be able to do this yourself anymore, since the M3M is more for agriculture and not geology. We rather like to select what band we want to observe in. The entire point is, I rather know when a camera is less than it can be. The M3Pro is disappointing, especially considering the price. It is also kind of heavy as well.

It does indeed. For what it is it works as it should.
It will never act like a prime 150mm or 200mm on a FF though

Dirty Bird Posted at 2-1 03:22
My advice is wait for a few months.  With all the latest DJI birds upgrading to O4, I have little doubt a Mavic 4 & a new RC Pro 2 will be released over the next 6 months or so.  You are really going to kick your ass if you invest thousands on a Mavic 3 Pro & a few months later the Mavic 4 is released.  Enjoy the Mini 4 Pro & if you just can't wait for an upgrade then pick up an Air 3 FlyMore.  It is half the price of the Mavic 3 Pro & matches or exceeds it in nearly every category.

I managed to pick up an open box Mavic 3 Pro Fly More Combo for about $2350.  That is $650 off the normal price so I'm fairly happy with that.

DJI seems to like to prerelease new models to content creators, and I haven't seen or heard anything about a Mavic 4, so I feel like that is at least 6+ months out.  I'll get a lot of use out of the Mavic 3 Pro in that time.