Talking about DJI's Mavic 2 Pro

The Mavic 2 Pro, an entry/mid-level drone with professional-level features that gets put through the wringer in Drone Film Guide’s November 15, 2019 article authored by Stewart Carroll “Mavic 2 Pro Long Term Review.” The article’s aim is directed toward the consumer, someone who’s currently hunting for a new small unmanned aerial vehicle system.

 

“By the end of this review, you will understand both the benefits and downsides of the Mavic 2 Pro, helping you gauge whether it is the right drone for you.”Carroll dives deep into the system addressing each and every component. He provides the results of his extensive testing of its flight performance in various modes, 10-bit video picture quality, HDR performance and more. He discusses what he liked and what he didn’t like about the hardware and software, telling the story of a thing in such great detail you might think his life depended on it, but imagine he hasn’t received a lot of complaints.I for one definitely don’t have any complaints. It’s an article of instruction and guidance, the guidance I myself sought out and instruction I consulted when I was in the market for my very first drone back in 2019. 

Now that I’ve had a Mavic 2 Pro for about two years now I can confirm with confidence that the major majority of Carroll’s assessments ring true based on my own experience with the drone. The build quality is tough and it’s obvious a whole lot of time and money went into engineering this thing. However, there are a couple items that seem a little overembellished.

Mavic 2 Pro ascending

“As much as automated flight modes like Active Track and Point of Interest is fantastic tools, 90% of the time I fly in manual positioning mode and tripod mode. I need a drone that can be smoothly eased in and out of maneuvers and the Mavic 2 Pro does so like it’s on rails at times. This leaves more mental capacity to focus on the creative rather than the mechanical aspects of the shot in question.”

Fantastic when compared to what? While there are rare occasions when I’ll use these tools, more often than not I’ve found shooting manually produces a cleaner shot. I wish I could say these are fantastic tools, but that really hasn’t been my experience. Point of Interested would especially be useful if it were consistent in its function.

For me, Active Track sits bobbing uselessly in the same boat. I’ve tried a handful of times to allow Active Track to prove to me it doesn’t belong in this boat, but it continues to disappoint. If you’re following someone using Active Track they had better be moving continuously in one direction. No stopping or deviating from point A to B, god forbid you stop underneath the drone, otherwise, the drone loses you (its tracking point) and its memory of what it was doing just a moment ago. 

Mavic 2 Pro following cyclist with Active Track

Too often have I found myself saddened by the imported footage I was counting on being exceptional, like nearly everything else. The despair hits when watching the buttery smooth automatic flight path get interrupted by a violent repositioning. Maybe I’m expecting too much.

That’s it. Those are the only few complaints of the brutally in-depth work of Carroll. In the future when that new drone arrives with 8K video at 240fps, I’ll be looking for you Carroll. I want to know what you think about it. I want to know what you think about all of it, including what you think about its fantastic auto-flight modes.

Photo Credit: Thomas Husen