I read a lot about lost and crashed drones here so I just though that I'd post some positive thoughts with my Mavic.

Before Mavic arrived I bought a super cheap Husban UAV to fly around and crash while I got used to UAV controls. After a bit of practice I could get the thing to go where I wanted and bring it home to land. In retrospect I'm really glad I did this because I have zero experience piloting and I got disoriented quickly when flying. When the Mavic showed up it was SUCH A BREEZE to fly compared to the non-smart drone. Mavic is so stable and forgiving. Having the POV of the video feed helps you stay oriented. I flew in beginner mode for the first two flights with no issues and even flew in 10-15mph gusts with zero issues. I still have a lot to learn about how to be smooth at the controls and how to get non-jerky camera movements out of the Mavic but even by my 4th flight I was able to get some fun shots that I felt were encouraging. If I can fly around and get footage that makes me smile after only 4 flights then the sky is the limit with this little guy.

I've been shooting at 2.7k because the bitrate is a little bit low for 4k (YMMV) and I've been really happy. If I ever want to pull stills from video I'll bump up to 4k.

The still quality from the camera is really fanstastic in relation to the size of the camera. The DNG RAW format makes me smile a ton. No more GoPro super-saturated fake skies and over compression. Mavic gives you nice clean raw files to start with if you want to grade your own photos like I do.

Battery life has been great and with 3 batteries I've run out of light before I've run out of battery. With over an hour of flight time I don't see running out of flying time any time soon. Suprisingly I find my phone is the limiting factor. If it is cold out and my iPhone 6 doesn't have a full charge the phone will sometimes die due to cold. This cuts flight sessions short for sure.

All in all I really couldn't be happier. I waited for a very small, very light personal UAV for years before buying this Mavic. It felt like a really big deal to finally chose this one after such a wait. I expected to have trouble or be disappointed but in the end I've been nothing but impressed.

So far the only issue I've seen is on one flight my gimbal was shaky. When I landed I re-calibrated the gimbal and the video returned to being rock solid. I think this may have been due to me powering up the Mavic before removing the cover and gimbal brace. All of my fears about technical details and learning curve were un founded. Calibrating the compass and updating firmware were easy because the software walks you through them by default.



Here are a few images and some video that I captured on my 4th flight. I can't wait to take this thing for more.



https://www.dropbox.com/s/s71xcslfs19lgmi/DJI_0017.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t3kmyl6i56876x6/DJI_0030.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oxbunk87pvxva3g/DJI_0033.jpg?dl=0

In both of the last 2 scenes it flew very close to you. Was that Active Track going nutty? Or did you have a standby pilot?

@rodeo, Nice and thanks for sharing a good experience, freeride mtb is going to be my first use for the Mavic to.
But the footage looks unsharp, did you tap the screen to focus?

T_A_Rogers Posted at 2016-11-28 15:51
In both of the last 2 scenes it flew very close to you. Was that Active Track going nutty? Or did yo ...

Definitely not active track, looks like he was piloting.

I piloted these. I haven't used Active Track yet.

Good stuff!  I built my first drone from a Gaui 500X frame and it's really tough with a DJI Naza M V2 flight controller it has been rock steady and reliable.  With that said, new technology does require some learning and my experience with the Mavic has been Mavic Marvelous.  I did not panic over the delay and glad I have this new toy, super technology.  DJI rocks!

looks great...I did the same and also purchased a cheap Husban to train on while I wait for my Mavic to arrive.

Is that countrified Radiohead?

Check this video out. Gives some info on gimbal adjustments.