So who's dumping their P4 for Mavic?

Madpunters · Sep 30, 2016

It's often the case that new tech is inherently buggy especially when it's appears that DJI rushed the Mavic to the market because GoPro released the Karma. Rushing products to market is never a good thing in my opinion. Moving parts are places where machines can fail and the Mavic Pro has at least 8 additional moving parts compared to the Phantoms. The Phantoms have plenty of accessories compared to the Mavic.
The Mavic looks like an awesome bit of kit but to me it's more like a flying smartphone and less like a flying professional camera.
I still want one.

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stefan350 · Sep 30, 2016

deltalimatango said:
The only people complaining about video and still image quality are people who know very little about it. First of all the P4 has terrible low light capabilities because of the sensor size. Nothing really to do about it. While you get very good still images, there is no way an P4 can compete with an Insprie RAW with interchangeable M4/3 lenses. The same can be said of the Mavic. It is a very capable machine but to expect professional quality images and video shows how little many here actually know about photography and videography. You pays your money and you take your chances. I will get a Mavic because I understand what I am getting and the capabilities of the device.

True. Also has any body seen the video with a guy using a leaf blower to test how they both handle high winds? I was impressed with the mavic, as it handled it just as good even better than the P4!

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bkushner · Sep 30, 2016

r62ewa said:
Seems to make more sense that the Mavic was released to kill the Karma, not the Phantom. What company would release a product to compete with another model it also produces? Doesn't seem to make much sense. I understand the benefits of the smaller platform and why many will indeed replace the Phantom 4 with the Mavic but as most realize, they are filling different niches. I would like a Mavic as I travel on snowmobile and in speedboat and the portability would be great, but my Phantom is only months old and amazing. Sure it's bigger and heavier but it's pretty light and nimble in the air!

Steve Jobs has a famous quote out there,
If You Don't Cannibalize Yourself, Someone Else Will

m0j0 · Oct 1, 2016

These are the same threads that popped up when the P4 came out. For me at the time and still today. The P4 was not a sufficient upgrade for me to move on from my 4 month old P3p. IMO this is the same thing. The only difference this time is the size of the bird which for me is a game changer.

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Boydy1 · Oct 1, 2016

bkushner said:
I just bought my P4 a week ago..so I'm in return window still and have considered returning it for a Mavic but leaning towards keeping P4.

Jody Pitts · Oct 1, 2016

I would keep it bro

Bckmstr · Oct 1, 2016

NEVER

Michael Heaton · Oct 1, 2016

GMack said:
I'll wait. I have some Autopilot stuff to do and don't know what sort of autonomus flight stuff the Mavik will do. Plus I want a more pixel camera as well. Spoiled by the Nikon D800E I guess. Inspire 2 maybe?

hmm... don't think the inspire will lift the D800E/810. I think you're looking at the Spreading Wings of weightlifters. And as far as I can see, the Mavic camera is a bit behind the P4 camera.

GMack · Oct 1, 2016

Michael Heaton said:
hmm... don't think the inspire will lift the D800E/810. I think you're looking at the Spreading Wings of weightlifters. And as far as I can see, the Mavic camera is a bit behind the P4 camera.

I'm hoping the Inspire 2 will have something better than their 16MP X5R, maybe up into the 24MP range now. My phone has 16MP now and does pretty well and looks better than the 12MP DJI stills too. Heck, it even focuses for macro where the DJI doesn't and has it's own stabilization in such a small footprint. The DJI P4 camera seems so 1990's now, imho. Mavik with same pixel count, no 3rd party autonomous apps (Or will it?), less range/battery life just doesn't excite me. Portability and maybe some degree of being inconspicuous is the only thing going for it so far.

There is Stefan Forster who flies a 36MP D810 with a heavy 14-24mm zoom lens in a S1000 he concocted. Fantastic still work off it too on his website over the 12MP DJI cameras. I'd like a Freefly Alta 8 which lifts 26 pounds, but I'd need to win the lottery to buy one as it would be over $18K if I used my camera. Maybe have to move somewhere where it wouldn't be seen as an urban issue (i.e. Privacy. Ordinances. Airports. Permits. Waivers. Etc.).

bkushner · Oct 1, 2016

Jody Pitts said:
I would keep it bro

I am

hudster · Oct 1, 2016

I will probably still be using both, I think they both have their uses. But I am very excited for the Mavic!

CCheckout my Facebook Fan Page!
I Love My DJI Fan Page

btorphoto · Oct 1, 2016

I am going to keep my P4, even though I like the compactness of the Mavic.
The game changer for me will be a better camera.

hudster · Oct 1, 2016

m0j0 said:
These are the same threads that popped up when the P4 came out. For me at the time and still today. The P4 was not a sufficient upgrade for me to move on from my 4 month old P3p. IMO this is the same thing. The only difference this time is the size of the bird which for me is a game changer.

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You are correct. This changes the game!

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DB4Tim · Oct 2, 2016

Joe Cinquina said:
All comes down to portability versus image quality. For me, image quality wins everytime so I will stick with the P4.

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What example have you seen.................give links

martybabe · Oct 2, 2016

I'm keeping my P4, I love it, but this is very convincing footage....
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Dinerve · Oct 2, 2016

martybabe said:
I'm keeping my P4, I love it, but this is very convincing footage....
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" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Yes although the cartman closeup is to be expected with the focus feature, the Mavic can focus at 0,5m, so even if at a meter, which I doubt, mavic would have the advantage.

As for the rest, we now the Mavic with its aperture is going to be better on dark scenes and we have no clue what post was done. I wont comment on the comments!

Anyway this P4 vs Mavic topic makes little sense. Mavic's given versatility by its portability is obvious and it's feature packed and picture quality couldn't be as bad as these 1st unfocused shots were.

That being said, besides portability, which is huge indeed, Mavic has little to offer if anything more than the P4 and I prefer the P4's FOV for the scenes I'm filming.

m0j0 · Oct 2, 2016

I hear the guys saying they are keeping their 4. I felt the same way with the 3 vs the 4. I'm still keeping the 3 just adding the Mavic.

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MacCool · Oct 2, 2016

Dinerve said:
That being said, besides portability, which is huge indeed, Mavic has little to offer if anything more than the P4 and I prefer the P4's FOV for the scenes I'm filming.

Yeah, that's where I'm at. Setting aside the inevitable pain that comes with a Generation 1 - Version 1 of anything, the only real advantage I see is the portability, and that really does nothing to meet my needs. The Phantom 4 just blows me away compared to the Phantom 2 that I had previously. That was a huge step. The Mavic is a big step, but only if you need the portability, and even then, only if you are absolutely confident that the video/still images aren't soft/OOF and that the limited FOV won't affect your photography needs.

johna · Oct 2, 2016

I heard from someone from dji that dji encourages internal competition. mavic has been developed by a team for two years and gets the nod to go for mass market. The team developing phantoms was stunned initially by seeing mavic and has been working on something new to better mavic. Anyway, the competition, whether internal or external, is always good for our consumers. I keep it.

Flying Dre · Oct 3, 2016

I am a P4 owner and I recently came back from my 5 week vacation in Europe. Now I am not sure how big a difference in video quality there is between P4 and Mavic but I could really use the portability of Mavic in Europe. I can’t stress that enough.

For example: I had a backpack dedicated to the drone and it was the only thing I could take with me on board a plane and had to check in other travel essentials. Before I got the drone, I used to carry most of my personal stuff in a cabin luggage. Saves you lots of time and money, especially on short trips of up to a week.

Filming attractions, sightseeing- if you know exactly what you will be filming and plan for it in advance, again not a big problem. But if you not sure if you’ll get to film and want to see if the conditions are right, e.g. weather, how many people around, is the potential footage worth the hassle of carrying a drone around then portability is the key. I don’t know how many times I left the drone in the car thinking that I won’t be able to film and regretted it.

At one point I left the drone in the car thinking that there is no way I could film in a particular busy place and when I got to the attraction the conditions were perfect for filming so I decided to go back and get the drone. As soon as I got back to my car, it started raining so gone the opportunity. If I had Mavic with me, I would just carry it around anyway.

If you are mainly filming in your home country/state, then portability is not a big problem but if you are a travel enthusiast then I would pick Mavic over P4 hands down.

I am not saying that one should rush to sell their P4 and get mavic instead (hell I haven’t yet decided myself) but if you are in the market for a new drone, then consider the points above.