After a short few months after the release of the Mavic Air, DJI has surprised us by releasing the Mavic 2. With the Mavic line of drones being one of the most popular and premium drones in the market even years after their initial release, the expectations for the Mavic 2 were through the roof.
I am going to discuss this for you throughout my review Be prepared, its a long oneThe most surprising aspect for myself of the Mavic 2 announcement and release is that there are 2 versions of the Mavic 2 the Mavic 2 Pro and the Mavic 2 Zoom.
The fundamental difference between the 2 models is the type of camera that they carry. In terms of look and build quality, the Mavic 2 drones do not disappoint. Anybody who has ever had the pleasure of owning and piloting a Mavic drone can give a testament to its sleek and modern design.
The Mavic drones are not all looks, too. My old Mavic drones have fallen, scraped, and gotten banged up numerous times but still fly beautifully. I fully expect the new Mavic 2 drones to carry on this tradition of great aesthetics backed by superior durability.
When you buy a DJI drone, you are buying a drone that is built to last. The ability of the original Mavic to fold up into a size that fits on top of your palm was one of its distinguishing features, and something that has changed the drone game since.
All other iterations of the Mavic drones have pretty much stuck to the original design, allowing them to be carried around in your backpack wherever you go. As expected the Mavic 2 also comes with the foldable arms that have made the Mavic line of drones so popular.
However, there are a few key differences. First, the Mavic 2 drones are slightly larger than all the other Mavic drones. The increase in size is not much around 20mm diagonally and is hardly noticeable unless you take a really close look.
What you are more likely to notice is the added weight of the Mavic 2 drones. While the original Mavic Pro drone weighs only around 740 grams, the Mavic 2 drones clock in at a surprising 905 grams. Thankfully, the added weight of the Mavic 2 does not result to poor flight performance or a shorter battery life.
One of the first things you might notice is that it comes with the Mavic 2 drones flared propellers. These are updated versions of the optimized propellers that came with the Mavic Pro Platinum. Similar to its predecessors, these propellers have been designed to be more aerodynamic.
This means that the Mavic 2 drones fly with less wind resistance and considerably less noise, which is always a welcome change. As with the Mavic Pro Platinum, the decrease in drag due to the improved propellers provides a small boost to the battery life of the Mavic 2 drones.
Now I come to the highlight of the Mavic 2 drones. To recap, all the previous Mavic drones were capable of 12 MP photos and had adjustable aperture settings up to 3200. Compared to the original Mavic Pro, the following releases did not really make many improvements in terms of camera specifications.
With the release of the Mavic 2 drones, DJI bucked that trend in a big way. In case you have not heard of the news, DJI had acquired a majority stake in Hasselblad, a Swedish camera manufacturer. This gave DJI access to Hasselblad technology, which they have previously integrated into some of their higher end drones.
This time, however, they have included a powerful Hasselblad camera into the Mavic 2 Pro. The camera of the Mavic 2 Pro can take impressive 20 MP stills using a 1inch CMOS sensor with ISO settings that can be adjusted up to 12,800.
With the sensor giving the camera a better resolution and lowlight performance, the Mavic 2 Pro can provide greater creative control for drone photographers and videographers. One thing that the Mavic 2 Pro cannot do is to zoom, and this is where the Mavic 2 Zoom comes in.
True to its namesake, the Mavic 2 Zoom comes with a camera that provides both 2x optical zoom and 2x digital zoom. Even if you dont get the image quality that the Hasselblad camera gives, the ability to zoom into specific subjects also provides a lot of room for creativity in terms of video capturing and editing.
Being able to zoom also means capturing footage that you probably could not otherwise, such as that of wild animals. In any case, the 12MP resolution images that the Mavic 2 Zoom can capture is nothing to be disappointed with.
An extremely fun feature of the Mavic 2 Zoom is the Dolly Zoom. You will probably recognize this effect from the old Alfred Hitchcock films, where the camera zooms in on a subject while it moves away, giving a really cool or creepy distortion.
All of the fun things you can do with the Mavic 2 Zoom might just be enough for you to overlook the fact that it does come with the superior sensor that the Mavic 2 Pro does. In terms of video capture, all the Mavic drones have already been equipped with the ability to shoot 4K videos, with the Mavic 2 merely following suit.
The previously released Mavic Air has also gained the ability to shoot slow motion video at 120 fps in full HD, an improvement to the 720p resolution achievable by the Mavic Pro and Mavic Pro Platinum.
Naturally, the slow motion video capabilities of the Mavic Air have been inherited by the Mavic 2 drones. All those automated camera shooting modes that come with the previous Mavic drones have remained highly popular for hobbyists and pros alike.
Both the Mavic 2 Pro and the Mavic 2 Zoom come with a wide selection of automatic camera modes, including Tripod, Active Track, Circle, Hyper Lapse, Panorama, Point of interest, and Boomerang. The Mavic 2 Zoom does come with a few unique tricks.
One of these is the aforementioned Dolly Zoom mode. The other feature of the Mavic 2 Zoom is the ability to take Super Resolution photos, which are stitchedup photos made from 9 zoomedin shots. The result is an impressive highdefinition panorama.
Part of the charm of the original Mavic drone which made it very popular was its extremely tight and responsive controls which resulting in butter smooth flight. I observed the same level of responsiveness with the new Mavic 2 drones.
The communication between controller and drone is just as reliable as before, which means that the drone goes exactly where you want it to go, with minimal wandering or drifting. One thing that has probably helped the Mavic 2 drones attain smooth flight is the upgraded propellers and Electronic Speed Controller ESC.
Previously released with the Mavic Pro Platinum, these upgrades made drone flight less noisy, more efficient, and less affected by drag. This is a technology we applauded back when it was first released, and we expect it to be continuously implemented or possibly even improved as DJI releases better drones in the future.
The original Mavic Pro came with a set of sensors that gave it an ability to avoid obstacles in the forward and downward directions. It was highly celebrated feature at the time, as it afforded drone pilots the confidence to take on more challenging spots.
The Mavic Air further improved this ability by adding a sensor in the backwards direction, making it an even safer drone for risky flight. The Mavic 2 drones blow all of its predecessors out of the water with omnidirectional obstacle avoidance sensors.
The new drones are now equipped with sensors in the backwards, forward, upward, downward, left, and right directions. This is basically your drone with a Spider Sense, able to detect dangers from all directions and react promptly and accordingly.
The sensors work by giving you an alarm when you are approaching an obstacle. Should you still come too close, the Mavic 2 will automatically brake to avoid a crash. The reliability of this obstacle avoidance system is unprecedented, and you practically have to crash on purpose for the system to fail.
Experience drone pilots may say that this is all unnecessary for someone who is very skilled, but there are times when you have to throw caution to the wind to get that elusive shot. The Mavic series has not really had much improvement in terms of battery capacity from the 3,830 mAh of the original Mavic Pro and Mavic Pro Platinum.
Most people who follow DJI probably know that the recently released Mavic Air compromised on battery life to provide a smaller and cheaper version of the Mavic drones. The Mavic 2 drones do present an improvement in battery capacity, albeit a very small one.
Both Mavic 2 drones have a battery capacity of 3,850 mAh, a measly 20mAh higher than the original Mavic Pro. For all practical reasons, a 20mAh increase in battery capacity is barely noticeable. However, DJI has already succeeded in extending flight time without increasing the battery capacity with the Mavic Pro Platinum, which boasts a flight time 3 minutes longer than the Mavic Pro despite similar batteries.
The aerodynamic design of the Mavic 2 further improves this battery life by another minute, coming out to a grand total flight time of 31 minutes. I just loved trying both of these drones out and have opted to purchase the zoon mavic, purely out of personal preference.
I hope this has been a helpful review for everyone, and thank you for making it to the end.