DJI Mavic Discussion

I finally broke down and bought a set of leg extensions since I fly off dirt roads and trails a lot and the props are just too close to the ground to feel comfortable. I didn't like the one with the rear leg attacked to the center point like a three legged stool. I got one that the leg extensions clip onto the outer part of the rear booms giving a wider more stable stance.

Best buy for me over the legs extension was the holder for controller sticks...it prevents the stick to be damaged when you put the controller into the small dji bag...

I do not use the bag, not a good fit and I could see damage would happen. I have a small hard case that fits very well. It was a $20 hard case from Walmart with pick apart foam. Works perfect for drone, controller, 4 batteries, chargers etc etc and still so much smaller than the Phantom hard cases.

https://forum.dji.com/thread-81987-1-1.html
Here an interesting 3d about sharpening and noise reduction and how underexposing gives a blurry image if the sharpening is turned down too much...
After many tests i can say that the compression is the weakest part of the mavic...the sensor and the lens could give us an acceptable image if they get rid off this disastrous long gop compression...

Yep agreed on that compression thing. It's not the bitrate. If that were the case the AX100 in 60mb/s mode would look similar. It's their implementation of it .. something REALLY funky going on down there at DJI Encoding Labs. For years. Why change it? People keep buying it. Besides, you don't want it to compete with the higher end stuff.

Pretty much exactly the same crap as the Inspire 1 X3 and the Z3 cameras .. if you turn the sharpening down too much, it blobs out details inside of planes, but tree limb and mountain edges are all still sharp .. .often too sharp. Nice images CAN happen, but even lovely shots can be destroyed between the sharpening, the flicker, and the compression mush. Often all in the same instant. At least it's not as distorted as the Inspire 1 cam.

Not to argue for argument's sake, but I like the case .. I am careful when I put the controller in, the whole thing is super small, and easy to carry. Holds three batteries, spare props, controller, ND filter case, etc.

Hand launch and catch. The thing is so stable all you have to do is reach up and grab it. No dust, no snow, no water. No goofy extra legs, etc. Always maintain a firm grip though - make sure to have your left thumb on the collective to shut it down when retrieving... and practice with it off .. see where the props go so you know how much you can grab and not get fingers cut.

I'm also a proud Mavic owner now and hope for good weather at my 2nd weekend for flights experiences.
My 1st experiences were that shooting photos is only well in DNG while JPG is crap. Absolute crap is to try taking stills from 4k video. So fpr photos it's really necessary to stop video flight and shoot photo.
I'm not 100% happy with the auto-focus. Lost a nice video by starting from the ground because the camera focussed a near-by blade of grass and didn't focussed on the further landscape flight. First after changing video/photo mode it focussed correct.
What i'm absolute amazed about is how smooth the Mavic is flying in strong wind. In gusts of wind around 30km/h flight and video are perfect without any shaking. Wow, i didn't expect this.
Now what i would like to hear from other Mavic users is which video mode do you use best for our purposes? Auto or Manual? I made my clips last weekend in auto-mode and they were a bit over-lighted (depending the cloud cover?), but this can be corrected in postwork very easy. While of course manual-mode (shutterspeed etc.) offers more possibilities isn't it so that last not least it results in more trash by wrong settings? I think the small Galaxy S7 display doesn't really show the video quality.

Beckhusen..+1..mavic is very smooth even in strong wing and the gimbal keeps everything steady...the only thing i don't like is the compression...very crap!!!
Here my settings
Everything manual...look at the histogram if you want to be sure to expose correctly..
no autofocus just focus at the horizon..
Cinelike d profile and sharpening set at 0 or + 1 ...

Thanks sebolla74,
will try manual settings step by step. For the beginning i think it's more important to become max. routine with smooth controlled secure flight. Therefore the camera auto-mode is a nice feature in the beginning.
Didn't note the histogram till now. That works?

I find histogram works, but after a while it's just in the way . . . you will get used to how the S7 looks in relation to what you find at home. Also, you CAN use ipad Mini or similar sized tablet. Look up on Youtube ... how to use tablet with mavic contoller

It will help you also to adjust the sensitivity of the sticks (really helps with smooth control) and the gimbal tilt control ... you want to dial that in for smooth slow, and it's a little tricky .. to rise up, say, and tilt down, at same time. Best to practice that.

One thing I found recently that I think is the same on the P4P is the flight logs. Quoted from RCGroups: "Go to the homepage of the app. Select the upper right menu and then select flight record. Under flight list select the flight record that you would like to review. Then click on the RC icon and that will show the sticks, lastly hit play to review the log." You may find that interesting to see how your stick input really affects your flight.

On camera settings, agreed with Seboll74 I am: D-Cinelike, Sharpen 0 or +1 (depending on scene!) but also contrast -1 or -2 (also depends on scene and "may" affect Sharpening somewhat) and definitely color -1. Otherwise it's kind of like the AX100 in Cinecolor mode, which you ... yes you Beckhuzen, I have to thank for making me look again at using it ... I stopped!

My Mavic will be back with me on Wednesday next. Then I send P4P in for repair (blotchy snow color warm spot)

Which reminds me (sorry to write so much)

You are happy with stability of camera ... so check one common problem off (twitchy gimbal)

Also, look carefully at both sides of frame when shooting an even field of something, like a brick wall or fence, or even a rocky plain ... make sure the is no softness on one side or other.

Finally, if you have snow, go frame up something with mostly snow. Fog bank or light, even color will work, but white is best. Look for warm (pinkish yellow) spot color problem in center. If you do not see this, be happy.