- This video is all about the Mavic 2 Zoom
versus the Mavic 2 Pro and how
they compare against each other.
(upbeat motivating music)
So I took both these drones out
to the desert on a day where I was actually shooting
for a larger piece that I'm doing.
So I'm helping shoot a little mini documentary
about my parents' install of their new container
house out in the middle of Yucca.
If you don't know where Yucca is,
that's basically Joshua Tree.
It almost looks like Joshua Tree
on their property, which is amazing.
So I went out there to kind of cover
the install of these containers being taken
off the trucks and put onto the steel frame
that has been built in the middle of the desert.
So what I did is I brought both
the Mavic 2 Zoom and the Pro with me so I could
shoot side by side and see which one
I like better when I'm out shooting,
because I'm not gonna always carry
a Pro and a Zoom with me.
And that's one big flaw I think DJI
made with this product, is that they have
drones that are identical except
for the gimbal in the camera.
So you have to choose between either one
and both have their advantages and their disadvantages.
And I'm hoping that through this video,
you will get an idea of which is better-suited
for you and the type of shooting that you're doing.
Alright, before we get into my thoughts
about each drone individually,
let's just look at some of the footage
and what I got shooting with both
the Zoom and the Pro.
(casual uplifting music)
There's a few things that I noticed
right off the bat when I'm shooting with these cameras.
First off, the Mavic 2 Zoom straight
out of the camera is very sharp, and it's more
of a blue tint to it.
Whereas the Mavic 2 Pro has more
of an organic look to it.
So it's a little softer, and the overall
look is more orange.
It's a huge difference when you put
them side by side and you're shooting
in a standard profile.
Now when you're shooting in the flat profile
and you start color-grading, both
these cameras give you the ability
to do some pretty cool stuff in post,
and change the colors and work with them
so you can get some really good-looking footage.
And so that's something I want
to talk about, is that depending
on how much color-grading and how much work
you're putting into post might change
which drone you want to use.
So the Pro definitely has a better look
straight out of camera.
So when you're working with the Pro,
you have that aperture, which gives
you the ability to close down to an F11,
which is pretty amazing.
You can get this cool starburst
effect when you shoot towards the sun.
You can also fly without necessarily
needing ND filters to get your shutter speed
down so you don't have that high shutter-speed look.
That's something that I really like about it.
Now I don't have ND filters right now,
so that's something that I wish I had
them to compare them side by side,
and I'll do that again down the road
because I think that would make
a huge difference if they're both
shooting at the same shutter speed,
because right now, when I was shooting,
the Pro definitely has more motion blur,
which makes it more cinematic.
So the Pro definitely has more of that cinematic look.
It's, like I said, it's more organic,
it has a little softer feel to it,
which if you add some sharpening in post,
you can get that hyper-sharp look
if that's what you want.
Whereas the zoom, it's very sharp
right out of the camera, it's more blue.
It's gonna take a little more effort
in post to get it to the cinematic look.
But the huge advantage that the Zoom
has is the zoom lens, and it's pretty incredible.
And it's something that I didn't really think
about until I was out shooting with it.
Now, when I had it up in the air,
and I was shooting the containers
being installed, I was able to get
super-close and get some really cool
detailed shots without having
to get my drone right up there in the action.
So I got to stay a little bit further
away, zoom in, and I was able to get
some pretty awesome shots that you wouldn't
be able to get normally because you don't
want to fly right up to the crane when it's working.
And there's a lot of situations where
having that zoom lens is gonna
be a huge advantage because it actually
has a really decent zoom.
You could fly it a little bit further away
and get an awesome image that's gonna
help tell your story better.
And so that's one thing you gotta think about.
Are you going for more of the storytelling
aspects of a drone, or are you going
for more of the photo image quality?
Obviously both are tools to tell your story,
but Zoom just gives you some extra tools
to be able to zoom in, get some different-sized
shots without having to fly super-close to different things.
Something to think about, something
that I actually really like about the Zoom,
and which is pushing me more into wanting
to use the Zoom more often than the Pro.
So when I was out in the desert,
I had both drones sitting there,
both charged up, everything ready to go.
And I found myself, I kept going
back to the Zoom over and over because
I just really liked playing with that lens,
I could do some cool things where
I'm punched in on the full length of the lens
and spin around whatever it is I'm shooting
and get that really cool parallax look in the background.
Another thing is that you could do things
like foreground objects so you have
that more depth created because you have
objects and foreground objects in the background,
you're not always shooting on a white lens,
which is not something we've really had
the ability to do until the Pro.
I mean, you could get the Inspire with
different lenses on it, but it's so much easier
in the Mavic Pro 2 Zoom, you can get some really
cool detailed shots with that zoom lens.
So my thoughts on which drone you should get
really comes down to what you're doing.
When it comes to photography, hands-down
the Pro is amazing.
You get some awesome photos, especially
with that F11 lens, you can stop it down,
get sharp, get really detailed,
and the dynamic range looks amazing on the Pro.
Now when it comes to video, it all depends
on how much you're manipulating the video
and how much you're gonna work with it.
If you're someone who's gonna do
a ton of color grading and really work
with it, then you'll probably want
the Pro because you have more ability
to work with the colors and get
some really cool-looking footage.
Also, if you're someone who's not gonna touch
the footage at all, the Pro might
be a good option because out of camera,
the footage looks great.
Now the 2 Zoom is definitely for people
who just want to have more cameras in the sky,
so not just a wide-lens, you can zoom in,
don't get me wrong.
The camera on the 2 is really good
and I really like it as well, it's just
not as good as the Pro.
However, if you put a little bit
of work into grading, you can make
the footage look really amazing with the 2 Zoom.
And when I was shooting flat and I was shooting
at the right time of day and everything like that,
the 2 Zoom looks amazing.
When you're shooting flat in the middle
of the day, these two drones,
you couldn't really tell the difference.
The biggest difference that I saw
was at sunrise and sunset, and that's
where the Pro shines, that's where
you get awesome colors, you get
more dynamic range, you can really do some cool stuff.
But if you're just shooting for more story,
then you're gonna want the Zoom.
Because the Zoom gives you that added flexibility,
it gives you the ability to sit back,
zoom in, get some different shots
that you wouldn't necessarily get.
With the 2 Zoom straight out of camera,
it's not gonna look as good as the Pro out of camera.
So if you're not someone who's gonna do
anything in post and you're just gonna
shoot straight out of camera,
then I might push you more towards the Pro,
whereas if you're someone who wants
to do a little bit of color-grading,
the Zoom will work great because
you can definitely add a little touch
to it and get some awesome-looking footage.
So it all comes down to what it is
that you're shooting, how you're gonna process the footage.
Me personally, I really like the Pro,
but I'm most likely gonna shoot the Zoom
way more often, it gives me way more flexibility,
it's an awesome camera, I just love
having that zoom lens and you can do
some really cool stuff.
So I'm gonna put a little bit of time
into color-grading my footage
on the Zoom, and I'm gonna continue to work
with this camera and figure out
the best settings so that I can get
the most cinematic look out of it
using the limitations that the Zoom had.
There's definitely a lot of ways
that you can play with the sharpness,
the saturation, the contrast in-camera
and it's gonna affect how the image is gonna look.
So that's something that I'm definitely gonna dive
more into because I think the camera as-is is great.
If you tweak the settings a little bit in-camera
with a specific LUT geared towards
this camera looking a certain way,
I think the Zoom is really gonna shine
and it gives you some awesome footage
that you're not gonna get with that wide lens.
Alright guys, I hope this was helpful
in giving you some ideas of the differences
between the Pro and the 2 Zoom.
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