I’ve really enjoyed flying my drones over the past few years and adding them as a tool to my photography/videography story telling. My trip to Iceland last year was the first time I shot more footage with my DJI Mavic Pro drone than any other camera that I brought with me on the trip (see my Iceland video here). The more I flew it the more confident I got that I wasn’t going to lost it. This allowed me to capture footage that I probably otherwise wouldn’t have gotten because I wouldn’t have stepped out of my comfort zone.
This year it’s all about the DJI Mavic Air
Continue reading “The DJI Mavic Air is my New Favorite Drone”
I was very excited to have a drone with a better camera than the one on my older DJI Phantom 2 Vision +. However, when I got it and set it to the settings I thought would be best I admit that I was never really thrilled with the stills that I was getting. The videos were fine, but for some reason the stills were in many cases over sharpened and things like trees seemed “mushy”. I didn’t think that the settings could make that big of a difference and I couldn’t have been more wrong!
. It was the drone that I was waiting for. While I love the Phantom series and my first two DJI drones were Phantoms, they are simply too big and bulky for casual travel. The DJI Mavic Pro fits either in my backpack or carry on suitcase. Not once has it been an issue taking it through airport security even abroad (in Iceland).
. When it comes to aerial photography I’d rather not strap one of these cameras to my drone. The Mavic Pro already has a 12MP camera that shoots Raw.
(a toy by today’s standards). It took a lot for me to buy the first DJI Phantom. I just couldn’t see spending that much money for a quadcopter at the time. Back then there was no integrated camera or gimbal. You used a GoPro and if you wanted a steady camera you invested hundreds more in a 3rd party gimbal that had to be manually installed by drilling holes and soldering directly onto the logic board. My next DJI was the Phantom 2 Vision +. This one was leaps and bounds better than my original Phantom as it had an integrated HD camera and gimbal. DJI has been innovating quickly ever since. The Phantom 3, Inspire and Phantom 4 have made giant leaps in all areas over my Phantom 2. After my Iceland trip, I came back convinced that it was time to upgrade to a better model. I was set to get a Phantom 4, but heard that DJI was going to be making an announcement soon. That announcement ended up being the NEW DJI Mavic Pro! All I could say was WOW! This was drone I was looking for. Something small enough to travel everywhere with, yet with all the modern bells and whistles and image quality of the Phantom 4 (close enough). I pre-ordered on day one.