Dji Mavic Pro Drone (My Experience)
I really can't say anything new about the DJI Mavic Pro that hasn't been said already in the countless of reviews that can be found online. But what I can talk about is how it has helped me perform a task, that would have required me to have additional help to accomplish. First off If you're a photographer or a videographer you can most certainly find a use for a drone in your tool kit. As a hybrid photographer, I'm quite often hired to do photo and video work and I'm usually by myself. One of many reasons that I got my the Mavic pro is to shoot cool cinematic videos and add drone video/photography to my current services. But I quickly found lot's of additional uses for it that never dawned on me upon purchase. The Mavic pro not only lived up to the hype it exceeds the hype in many areas. I say it exceeds it in some areas because there is always room for improvement. So without further ado, I will begin with the things that I like about the Mavic pro and my initial impressions. Then I will talk about the few things that I didn't like.
Build Quality
The build quality is excellent. As I retracted the arms and attach the propellers everything about the Mavic pro just exhumes quality and innovation. I honestly felt like I was holding something from the future. The remote control fits comfortably in my hand's and has an equal build quality to the Mavic pro.
Initial Set Up
Usually, with most of my gadget purchases. I skip right past the instructions and proceed to use it like I’m the one who invented it. However with a $1200.00 price tag. I refrained myself and proceeded read the instructions thoroughly. Also be prepared to update the firmware for Mavic Pro, remote control and the DjiGo App 4. Next syncing the app to the Mavic pro is pretty fast.
First Flight
Once the firmware was completely updated, I took the Mavic outside for to fly for the first time. Note I said take it outside and not indoors. It's not that you can't fly indoors, It's probably not very wise thing to do as a beginner drone pilot. You want to have plenty of room in case you make a mistake. I recommend going to open field or park and away from people as much as possible. Make sure you have adequate ground clearance for the camera gimbal. Without landing gear extensions the Mavic sit's very close to the ground. Try to find a flat surface to take off from. Avoid anything metal or bi-metal as a take-off area, because it will interfere with the compass calibration. Also, make sure you remove the camera gimbal lock prior to flying. The Mavic pro is set by default in beginner mode, which limits the height and distance that you can fly. I flew in beginner mode for about 2 days before I felt comfortable enough to fly it with out it beginner mode enabled.
Dji Mavic video footage of beautiful beaches of St.Croix USVI.
Do Your Research
One thing that helped me tremendously was that spent countless amount of hours on Youtube watching how to videos and best practices. I will list few of the Youtube channels below that found to be very helpful.
- 5 Tips and Tricks For The Mavic Pro
- DJI Mavic Pro | ULTIMATE BEGINNERS GUIDE | Watch Before You Fly
- BEST DJI Phantom & Mavic Gimbal Settings For Filmmakers || TUTORIAL By Drone Film Guide
- DJI Mavic Pro - How to dial in ND Filters for video
Cons
- Flying the Mavic on sunny days without an ND filter will cause your footage to be overexposed
- Mavic Pro landing gear extenders not included
- Dji Pro 4 app crashes a lot
Katana Pro Mavic Tray
Mavic Pro can as used as a video stabilized gimbal, by mounting it to the katana pro-Mavic Tray. Mavic produces awesome stabilized video footage. The katana pro-Mavic Tray will cost you about $49.99. They are some cheaper alternatives, available but your mileage may vary. I will have a full review of the Polar Pro Katana Pro Mavic Tray coming soon.
Dji Osmo Mobile 2 is a fantastic portable device that can find it's home with professional or beginner content creators, it's been part of my mobile photography kit for about 3 months and It has allowed me to create interesting creative content on the go.