Hi,
I am quite new to DJI products as I just got my Mavic. This thing is very easy to fly and it is easy to capture some good footage.
My first project was shooting a music video. The location we chose was at an altitude of about 2.200 meters (7,200 feet). I was able to collect quite some video with my three batteries, but I wasn't able to get the full 25 minutes out of every battery. What I got was close to 15 minutes.
Does anyone know if altitude affects flight time?

If anyone is interrested, the video i took:

What a beautiful movie! Love your filming style! Guess this wasn't your first movie? Regarding flying on high altitude: the only 2 things I can come up with are less air density, so the props need to spin at a higher speed to create the same amount of lift. Second thing might be the temperature, although it doesn't look to cold.

Nice video, indeed it's the high altitude (thinner air density) that reduces flight time.
The advertised flight times specs are done at sea level.

Brutus Posted at 2016-12-27 00:43
What a beautiful movie! Love your filming style! Guess this wasn't your first movie? Regarding flying on high altitude: the only 2 things I can come up with are less air density, so the props need to spin at a higher speed to create the same amount of lift. Second thing might be the temperature, although it doesn't look to cold.

Thanks! It wasn't my first video, but it was my first video shot with a drone. The Mavic makes flying so easy that one can concentrate on shooting video. I forgot about the temperature, the temperature was about zero degrees celsius so that could probably be an issue. Today I am trying to get some footage at 3.200 meters (10,500 feet). Air pressure should be about 0,65 hPa up there. So I probably will face a 35% reduced flight time. I will report back in, once I got the data.

Try to keep the batteries warm e.g. inside your jacket - this should keep battery capacity at normal level too

Dear Zolima, fellow Austrian !

Also our beautiful drone sticks to the quite simple physics of aerodynamics. As with cars (!! !!) there will always be a difference between "factory values" (achievable at optimum aerodynamic conditions) and real life.

Maybe 27 minutes real flight time can be achieved at sea-level, zero-wind-conditions, switch on and immediate take-off, short climb to final flight altitude at approx. 30m and then slow (approx. 10km/h) level-flight only forward, no moving of the gimbal  and RTH without any timely/battery-capacity safety-margin. ( I dunno how much battery is consumed when continous recording at 2,7k or 4k).

Active flying (permanent ascending, descending, pitch, yaw, accelerating, breaking) in thinner air (higher rotor-rpm needed = higher electric consumption for both active flying and thinner air) at higher speeds (a drone is extremely energy-inefficient like helicopters or gyroplanes both by design = non-aerodynamic body-shape with high air-resistence and aerodynamics = overall air-resistence increases NOT linear but by the SQUARE of forward velocity both from the drone´s body AND the rotors) increases battery-consumption SIGNIFICANTLY. PLUS: DJI integrated - very wisely ( ) a very "conservative" estimate of CALCULATED remaining flight time (comparable to the legal obligation of every pilot to calculate fuel consumption PRIOR to any flight regarding maximum range and flight-time PLUS an extra reserve for at least 30 minutes flight-time to prevent "controlled flight into terrain").

Would a larger battery solve the problem ? Not really: Mavic PRO by it´s overall take-off-weight seems to have the optimum weight-endurance-balance in it´s class of size. Every added weight to batteries for longer flight-endurance might result in ineffectiveness, meaning, for every added 100 grams of batt-weight maybe only 30 seconds additional flight-time might be the result (although I didn´t make any math-calcs this is just a VERY coarse and unscientific GUESS ! )

So just be happy with the performance as it is, You won´t find better NOW (coming from a clumsy Parrot AR 2.0-drone with 10 minutes endurance and sh.. camera I know what I am speaking of) and hope for advances in battery-technology in the next ten years when weight-to-energy-density can compete or supercede combustion-engines. Maybe then in ten years or so DJI will issue a drone (Mavic Pro 5.0) with 6 h endurance .................  

@Angelo: Thank you very much for your long and detailed answer.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to test the Mavics at 3.200 meters yesterday because of high winds and a snow storm.
Today I was flying at an altitude of about 1.400 meters and flight time was a bit better.

I am very happy with the performance of the Mavics.

Wow!  Excellent work on that video--I love it!   I live close to the elevation you filmed at so all my flights are close that altitude. I  have never flown my battery below 40% so I don't know the max time but what you are experiencing may be about right since the RPMs and battery consumption definitely go up the higher you fly.

Altitude, temperatures, and winds will all have an effect on flight time. Higher elevations will result in shorter flight times. Stronger winds increases power consumption as the A/C has to work harder. Higher temperatures will decrease lift capacity resulting in shorter flight times as well.

Rick A Posted at 2016-12-28 21:22
Altitude, temperatures, and winds will all have an effect on flight time. Higher elevations will result in shorter flight times. Stronger winds increases power consumption as the A/C has to work harder. Higher temperatures will decrease lift capacity resulting in shorter flight times as well.

so whats optimum temperature? 20 C°

Beautiful video!  I especially liked the final shot where you orbited around the singers than ended in a still of the mountain... Beautifully done..

BTW, did you use any 3rd party app like Autopilot/Litchi or was this all done with DJI Go?

MavicUser Posted at 2017-1-9 04:45
Beautiful video!  I especially liked the final shot where you orbited around the singers than ended in a still of the mountain... Beautifully done..

BTW, did you use any 3rd party app like Autopilot/Litchi or was this all done with DJI Go?

Thank you very much for your nice words.

The video was shot with the DJI Go app. No additional software was used. I just had two battery packs left, so I had to improvise a bit, and that resulted in the final orbiting shot. It doesn't look like it, but I was going more than 30kmh sideways during that shot.

I also used no special color grading in post-processing. I am absolutely stunned what the Mavics Camera is capable off.

I've read on these forums that published battery life tests were done at sea level. I'm buying a Mavic for traveling, which includes traveling to both the cold thin air of the mountains and dense warm air at the beach. I'd like to know how, this may affect my max flight time. Wondering if anyone has seen a chart detailing the difference in flight time factoring the 3 main variables, wind, air pressure, and cold. If there is no such chart, there's a challenge for someone more dedicated than myself.

TrevorSK Posted at 2017-1-17 13:38
I've read on these forums that published battery life tests were done at sea level. I'm buying a Mavic for traveling, which includes traveling to both the cold thin air of the mountains and dense warm air at the beach. I'd like to know how, this may affect my max flight time. Wondering if anyone has seen a chart detailing the difference in flight time factoring the 3 main variables, wind, air pressure, and cold. If there is no such chart, there's a challenge for someone more dedicated than myself.

I don't think there's a chart, but for sure higher altitude means thinner air and thus more revs to keep up altitude, so airborne time will be reduced. The same applies to heat, as hotter air is also thinner. Then on the cold you also have the effect over the battery performance...

So there's a bunch of things that can and will affect your total flight time.

very nice footage and views

That was different, nice video. I like it!

zolima Posted at 2017-1-9 04:34
so whats optimum temperature? 20 C°

Good question, to be fully honest, I don't know, but I suspect 20 C is in the ball park. We've had -30 C the last few mornings, have kept the Mavic in the bag, and my toes close to the fire.

Very nice.  The place looks like the location the used for one of the Highlander movies.
Wayne Mann