Two quick questions:

1) Does anyone know the minimal focusing distance of the stock lens in the Mavic Air? Is that listed somewhere, or did anyone do any tests?

2) Is there an "add on" over-the-lens adapter for the Mavic Air that gives you 2x/4x/8x, allowing you to get closer (or bring items closer from further away)?

Thanks!

0.5m to infinity looking at the official specs.

Never seen a zoom lens for the MA - just ND filters, polarisers

The best way is to shoot in 4K, zoom in 80% - 100% and export in 1080p.

A J Posted at 5-5 00:34
[view_image]
0.5m to infinity looking at the official specs.

Yeah, that 0.5m seems about right. It's such a wide lens. I'm hoping, at some point, someone makes a focal length multiplier. I hear (from Ben Long on Lynda.com) that multipliers don't impact the minimal focusing distance, so that could be a nice way to get closer without getting closer. Thanks!

A J Posted at 5-5 00:34
[view_image]
0.5m to infinity looking at the official specs.

Also, could you possibly link to the official specs? I spent hours looking last night....

Aurelian Irimia Posted at 5-5 04:21
The best way is to shoot in 4K, zoom in 80% - 100% and export in 1080p.

So that's probably fantastic for video, but for still, RAW shots, 4K is actually lower resolution. My RAW images from the Mavic Air come out 4048x3032 in...I want to say 10 or 12-bit. 4K is 3840 × 2160 so maybe fewer pixels to crop into?

But for video footage, yes, that's a fantastic idea. And I do that in Adobe Premiere all the time. (And by "all the time" I mean, I've done it once or twice.) *Laughs*

Amarand Posted at 5-5 08:53
Also, could you possibly link to the official specs? I spent hours looking last night....

No problem - here is the link https://www.dji.com/uk/mavic-air/info#specs

Amarand Posted at 5-5 08:56
So that's probably fantastic for video, but for still, RAW shots, 4K is actually lower resolution. My RAW images from the Mavic Air come out 4048x3032 in...I want to say 10 or 12-bit. 4K is 3840 × 2160 so maybe fewer pixels to crop into?

But for video footage, yes, that's a fantastic idea. And I do that in Adobe Premiere all the time. (And by "all the time" I mean, I've done it once or twice.) *Laughs*

For almost all my video footage I use crop, and also in some photos. When you shoot in RAW you have a little more freedom and you can cut without losing much quality. If the photos are for social networks, which will be seen in most cases on a smartphone or tablet screen, you will not notice the loss of quality.

https://www.behance.net/aureliairimia

A J Posted at 5-5 11:07
No problem - here is the link https://www.dji.com/uk/mavic-air/info#specs

Thank you!

Aurelian Irimia Posted at 5-5 23:51
For almost all my video footage I use crop, and also in some photos. When you shoot in RAW you have a little more freedom and you can cut without losing much quality. If the photos are for social networks, which will be seen in most cases on a smartphone or tablet screen, you will not notice the loss of quality.

https://www.behance.net/aureliairimia

Oh, I agree. Sometimes folks shoot for the output and JPEG is pretty good for most folks.

Years ago, I learned my lesson always shooting in RAW mode. I had left my camera in tungsten mode (which shifts to blue to remove a yellow cast of the tungsten light) and because JPEG white balance is baked in, I made a great photograph of blue geese on a blue pond. But with RAW I could have shifted that in a non-destructive way.



That was the day I decided to always shoot in RAW when I can. Sometimes, like in the case of my Fuji X-T2, I have one card for RAW and one for JPEG, so I can grab a quick and dirty (and usually 90% correct right out of the camera) if I need to. But my RAW workflow is pretty entrenched right now, so with the Mavic Air, I just have it 100% in RAW.

One of the benefits of shooting 100% RAW on mobile platforms, where folks like to shoot sunrise/sunset/clouds/sky is highlight recovery. You don't have that degree of freedom with JPEG files as you do with RAW, which contains many more bits of data to be fiddled around. Doesn't give you a better dynamic range, mind you, but you can absolutely shift highlights down, and shadows up, and you can bring out some great details.

Amarand Posted at 5-6 06:02
Thank you!

You're welcome

Amarand Posted at 5-6 06:09
Oh, I agree. Sometimes folks shoot for the output and JPEG is pretty good for most folks.

Years ago, I learned my lesson always shooting in RAW mode. I had left my camera in tungsten mode (which shifts to blue to remove a yellow cast of the tungsten light) and because JPEG white balance is baked in, I made a great photograph of blue geese on a blue pond. But with RAW I could have shifted that in a non-destructive way.

Also, every time you write out a JPEG file with edits, it loses quality in the recompression.

The first time an image is written to the card by your Mavic Air, it's already lost quality, adding artifacts. So if you decide to open it up in your favorite image editor to do literally anything, then save it back out, you're recompressing it, adding more artifacts. If you then upload it to a social media site, it's usually going to recompress it a third time for storage. You get the picture (pun intended).

Me, I'd rather start with RAW, do non-destructive edits, export it out a single time to a specific output, and know that I'm only compressing it once on my end.

Amarand Posted at 5-6 06:11
Also, every time you write out a JPEG file with edits, it loses quality in the recompression.

The first time an image is written to the card by your Mavic Air, it's already lost quality, adding artifacts. So if you decide to open it up in your favorite image editor to do literally anything, then save it back out, you're recompressing it, adding more artifacts. If you then upload it to a social media site, it's usually going to recompress it a third time for storage. You get the picture (pun intended).

And I say all of this as a guy with eight hours of flight time on my drone over one year (I know, I know), and 34 years of photography experience. So I know RAW isn't for everyone, but once you've seen how flexible the RAW format is, it's hard to go back to JPEG.

A J Posted at 5-5 00:34
[view_image]
0.5m to infinity looking at the official specs.

Oh wow...it looks like the Mavic 2 Pro has a worse minimal focusing distance? Eek!

Shooting Range: 1 m to ∞

Here I was thinking it would let me get closer but...nope. Three feet. I should probably ask them if it's a typo.

Amarand Posted at 5-6 06:17
Oh wow...it looks like the Mavic 2 Pro has a worse minimal focusing distance? Eek!

Shooting Range: 1 m to ∞

This was on take off this morning with my M2P - the closest blades of grass are inches from the lens.

Amarand Posted at 5-6 06:17
Oh wow...it looks like the Mavic 2 Pro has a worse minimal focusing distance? Eek!

Shooting Range: 1 m to ∞

It will also depend quite heavily on the depth of field using the cameras variable aperture as to how much the foreground is in focus compared to the blur of the background. You don't have this ability on the Mavic Air - it's all in focus but can look unnatural too. In the above shot I focused on the sky with the aperture set at f4.0.

A J Posted at 5-6 06:35
It will also depend quite heavily on the depth of field using the cameras variable aperture as to how much the foreground is in focus compared to the blur of the background. You don't have this ability on the Mavic Air - it's all in focus but can look unnatural too. In the above shot I focused on the sky with the aperture set at f4.0.

I love macro photography, but I realize that current drone technology probably isn't where it needs to be to get really close to things. But that's okay. I'll work within the limitations. I get some great shots!

And it's funny, in your shot, the center of attention is 100% the beautiful background/landscape, and the blurry blades of grass make a fun visually "quiet" foreground. Very nice.

Amarand Posted at 5-6 13:02
I love macro photography, but I realize that current drone technology probably isn't where it needs to be to get really close to things. But that's okay. I'll work within the limitations. I get some great shots!

And it's funny, in your shot, the center of attention is 100% the beautiful background/landscape, and the blurry blades of grass make a fun visually "quiet" foreground. Very nice.

Drones aren't really designed for getting too close and personal I guess.

A J Posted at 5-6 13:09
Drones aren't really designed for getting too close and personal I guess.

What, you don't want spinny blades a few inches from your eyeballs?

Amarand Posted at 5-6 13:29
What, you don't want spinny blades a few inches from your eyeballs?

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt and it ain't pretty lol

And about your 2nd question having the 1st answered by DON A J, I've checked there are mobile lenses with different effects but not originally for the MA, and there we go for a gimbal issue if you decide to use any: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/ ... b_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_6_10065_10068_319_10059_10884_317_10887_10696_321_322_10084_453_10083_454_10103_10618_10304_10307_10820_10821_537_10302_536,searchweb201603_51,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=c79cdccb-01d6-4b2f-8b40-a9da932ed829-9&algo_pvid=c79cdccb-01d6-4b2f-8b40-a9da932ed829&transAbTest=ae803_3

A J Posted at 5-6 13:31
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt and it ain't pretty lol

Today, it was fairly windy, so I decided to hover a safe distance from obstacles, and just watch some of the various gauges. I'd never switched between map and "radar" mode before. That was fun. Been taking Mavic courses on Lynda.com (free through our libraries here) and I'm learning a ton.

I think one of the things I need to learn is obstacle avoidance. I always try to maintain VLOS, and am very careful, but my problems are generally: I can see the aircraft but it decides to drift and hit something. So learning how this particular craft reacts to wind or whatever...it's a good thing.

And that's just time and tide and taking off as often as you can, I guess?

is it when you get to the target, you then surmise photographic conditions, navigation conditions, and then proceed?
or it takes several visitations to familiarize and plan the recording?

Amarand Posted at 5-10 08:22
Today, it was fairly windy, so I decided to hover a safe distance from obstacles, and just watch some of the various gauges. I'd never switched between map and "radar" mode before. That was fun. Been taking Mavic courses on Lynda.com (free through our libraries here) and I'm learning a ton.

I think one of the things I need to learn is obstacle avoidance. I always try to maintain VLOS, and am very careful, but my problems are generally: I can see the aircraft but it decides to drift and hit something. So learning how this particular craft reacts to wind or whatever...it's a good thing.

Practice makes perfect as they say!