I've just watched the Mavic Air launch on screen.
I'm an experienced professional, with three of my six titles being coffee-table books. Two are filled with top-quality wildlife and natural landscape images. Whereas I'm not keen on the label of "adventure photographer", I've worked in countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Bangladesh, and Nepal - plus more common destinations such as Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, India, Australia, and the US - always in remote locations. And you can add five films from years ago (Ethiopia, South Africa x2, Australia, plus the UK).
Today's presentation was slick and well done (with the exception of the "landscape" props which were tacky). And it could have been slightly better if the main presenter had put on an Obi-wan Kenobi cloak/hood for his demonstration of mind/hand control of the drone on stage.
Importantly, this drone is another step forward in technology.
But would someone like myself realistically choose this new drone? "No" is my considered answer, simply because the images/video it can produce are a step backwards when compared to the
P4P's capability. We waited until the
P4P was released and road-tested before adding a drone as a work tool.
Yes, it's compact. And in a very few situations this would be a decisive factor. But in most situations, the
P4P's size and weight is small/light enough. Major film crews carry enormous amounts of equipment, and smaller operators are not shy of packing whatever is necessary to get the job done. I work closely with my fantastic wife. A tough head ranger in the Scottish Highlands affectionately called her "Pack Horse" because of what she was carrying - which included a heavy Manfrotto tripod, two camera bodies, and a big Nikon wildlife lens. Strap on an additional backpack to the front of her body containing the
P4P and she wouldn't complain.
When it comes to still images and film, quality matters. The bar is set high and you only accept lower in certain circumstances, such as for inclusion in a here-today-gone-tomorrow news story. I doubt too many Limited Edition Prints will be made and sold, for example, from using a Mavic Air.
I appreciate that many on this forum are drone enthusiasts and I don't want to be offensive in any way. But today's launch featured a young adventure photographer as a selling point. Whereas this was a good marketing ploy, it will be viewed somewhat sceptically by experienced professionals like myself (with the few exceptions as noted above). The
P4P is already relative small in size and light in weight compared to other drones able to offer quality output. Why would we want to go backwards?