First Thoughts: Mavic 2 Pro

A few months ago we wrote up an article about the Mavic Pro for Adorama.  The article was titled “5 Reasons Why The DJI Mavic is the Best Drone on the Market”. We talked about the portability, quality, and overall package that the Mavic delivers… Then DJI decided to surprise us all and drop a new Mavic.. They also decided to stick a Hasselblad camera on the front of the drone, which made us all drool a little bit more.

Starting at $1500 bucks + insurance, + the fly more kit (Which I am assuming you will want) the DJI Mavic 2 pro is going to set you back close to 2 grand… Now is it worth it? Or should you wait for the next generation? Another thing to consider is the Mavic 2 Zoom edition, which is a little cheaper and does allow you to do some pretty cool things.

We went with the Mavic 2 Pro because it simply has a larger sensor. Essentially meaning the overall quality of the camera is better than the zoom. That being said, I would recommend watching Casey Neistat’s review of both drones… It may change your opinion…

We have been flying the Mavic 2 Pro for a few weeks now, and here are some initial highlights that I would like to mention:

1. I feel like I have more control of the drone. It’s faster, more responsive, and is built with a ton of sensors all around it, so it feels almost indestructible.
2. The longer battery life is definitely noticeable – Giving you over 30 minutes of air time. You can launch the drone, go get lunch, and come back.
3. Video quality is already noticeably better. We shoot our stuff in a D-Log setting on the camera so we can edit in Post, but everything looks smoother for sure. Haven’t seen a HUGE difference in photos yet, definitely a few more megapixels but haven’t been blown away. We are also definitely going to add some filters to the mix, and when we were in Canada we did not shoot with filters.

Some Negatives:

1. The drone is heavier and a bit bulkier. Not by very much, but my Peak Design Backpack is definitely having a tougher time closing. The pro to this is it does handle better in the wind.
2. The charging wires are pretty bulky and take up a lot of space.
3. The drone has sensor absolutely everywhere, including the bottom of the drone. Although I am sure you are not supposed to land the drone by hand, this was actually something that we loved about the original Mavic. We launch drones from moving boats all the time, and sometimes there is nowhere to land the drone. We were able to grab the drone from the front and land it in hand, but it was sketchy.

Overall we have a lot more testing to do with this Drone. But we are happy with the purchase so far, and this will match up nicely with the 4k video content we are shooting.

We will release another review in the future.

Article and photos by flylords founder @jzissu