by David Smith
Some things are worth waiting for and in my case the wait was well and truly worthwhile. I held off buying a drone to replace my ageing and dysfunctional AR Parrot 2 until a worthy successor appeared. I was just about ready to shell out for a DJI Phantom 4 – on special at $1,899 – when David Hague flagged the arrival of DJI’s latest offering the Mavic Pro. I placed a pre-order based on the advertised specs and also because of DJI’s reputation for building high quality drones.
When the Mavic Pro arrived, I was amazed at the build quality. This is a serious piece of video equipment that is beautifully crafted and clearly engineered to last. I charged the batteries – one in the drone, the other in the joystick controller – then gave it a test fly. The controller has a hard-wired USB connection to your smart phone and this gives you a high definition video feed from up to 7 kilometres away. At first I thought the video had frozen on a still frame, but then a car drove through the image. The video is so well stabilised it’s uncanny. Even when you tilt the drone to move forwards or sideways, the video image remains locked on the horizon.
What’s so special about the Mavic Pro?
In a nutshell, just about everything! Unlike it’s big brother the Phantom, the Mavic is small and weighs just under 750 grams. It also folds up to a neat little package just 83 x 83 x 198 mm in size. I will fit in your pocket!
Despite it’s compact dimensions, the Mavic Pro is a real technological heavyweight. It has a miniaturised 3-axis gimbal and records onto a 12 megapixel 2/3-inch CMOS chip to record stills and video at up to 4K resolution. You can dial in various lower resolutions andf at full HD 1920 x 1080 you have the option of recording slow motion at 120 frames per second.
The computer at the heart of the system has no fewer than 24 cores. There are two forward-facing cameras for obstacle avoidance and two downward facing ones that record and image of the take-off site to help the Mavic return to precisely the place it took off. There’s a button on the controller to initiate the return to home procedure. There also two Doppler sensors to aid altitude precision and the system makes use of two GPS signals to ensure accurate positioning (GPS and GLONASS).
The Lithium-Polymer 3S battery gives an excellent flight duration of up to 27 minutes and you can set the low battery threshold so the Mavic will return home when the battery is getting low.
Without doubt the most endearing feature of the Mavic Pro is the Remote Controller. This is beautifully designed to fit your hands comfortably and provide numerous well-positioned buttons to control everything from the gimbal camera angle to video or stills recording to control of various camera parameters. Best of all is the brilliant DJI Go app that takes you right into the heart of the system, providing fine control of camera parameters such as shutter speed, ISO, aperture and so on.
Uniquely, the camera can be focused on near or far objects by tapping the touch screen of your phone. This allows you to, for example, focus on a close-up of a flower, then fly away from it, re-focusing on infinity. You have a vast array of options available in the clear and logically arranged menu system and this is where the fun really starts.
Take a selfie from 15 metres away? point the drone at yourself, frame your face with your fingers and three seconds later it will take one or a burst of stills.
Follow yourself while riding a bike? Activate track mode, swipe across yourself and your bike and the drone will follow you from then on, always framed perfectly on you and your bike.
Film yourself climbing a steep incline? Choose terrain-following mode and the camera will stay at your preset altitude – it uses a barometer to determine altitude, in combination with the downward-facing cameras and Doppler sensors.
A grips kit in your pocket
Drone video is everywhere these days, especially in TV shows like Grand Designs. But although aerial shots are spectacular – and so much cheaper than hanging out of a helicopter at $1,200 per hour! – there are many, many more ways to use a drone like the Mavic Pro.
I tried for ages to get a clear, overhead shot of my little yellow Peugeot. The best I cam up with was to park the car beneath an overhead walkway at the local council offices, then lean out over the rail to get the top shot. The result was OK but not perfect. With the Mavic, I simp0ly flew up above the car, positioned it precisely with the brilliantly accurate joysticks, and got the perfect picture.
I have rapidly come to the conclusion that I never ever again need to rent a crane or lay dolly tracks. The Mavic can do any move I like, and it can even memorise a complex move as a series of Waypoints, then repeat the same move precisely over and over again. You can change the camera properties like zoom, angle etc and get numerous takes from the same complex flight path.
For extremely precise movements, such as inside a building, you can switch to Tripod Mode and the joysticks will become very insensitive. Large stick movements will result in very slow, precise changes in camera position, just like using a slider, only better.
Conclusion
The Mavic Pro drone is a technological masterpiece. It’s brightly lit Remote Controller provides clear information on every possible control and camera parameter. The remarkable 3-axis gimbal results in rock-steady video even in a moderate wind and camera really becomes a superior option for any kind of tracking or craning shot. Aerials, of course, are too easy, provided to limit your altitude to 400 feet (the limit set by CASA – the Mavic has an operational ceiling of 15,000 feet which will be great for mountaineering videos). The fact that the Mavic Pro folds up so neatly is a major plus compared to lugging the much larger Phantom around. This is a remarkable system at a remarkably low price. It is definitely not a toy, but it is also definitely great fun and was well worth waiting for!
Vendor: DJI
Web Site: www.dji.com
Price: AUD$1,699
Australian Drone Ratings
Ease of use: 9
Features: 10
Build quality: 10
Value for money: 10
We liked: Professional build quality, vast range of features, stunning optics and remote control
We disliked: Cable connection to smart phone is a bit fiddly, otherwise nothing to dislike
Australian Drones 
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