Hey everyone, my name is Evan and in today's review video you are going to learn everything
you need to know about the Mavic 2 Zoom.
We're going to unbox the drone, go through setup, discuss the Mavic 2 Zoom specs, learn
tips and tricks, and you're going to see real footage that I've shot on the Mavic 2 Zoom.
The DJI Mavic drones are a must for any videographer or travel vlogger.
If you cut in a couple of seconds of drone footage into an average travel video, the
production value increases tremendously.
For being so small, durable, compact and light, and affordable, the Mavic 2 drones add a ton
of cinematic value to your videos.
What really sets the Mavic 2 Zoom apart from any other drone is the adjustable 28mm - 48mm
optical zoom.
The ability to zoom opens up a ton of new features in this drone and allows you to get
much more cinematic shots, which we'll get to in a minute.
So first let's open it up and unbox it.
The first thing you will see is the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom remote controller and if you don't
see the thumbsticks, that's because they are no removable and are attached to the bottom
of the remote.
This is a great new feature, and a great idea.
This makes the remote controller more compact than it already was.
You don't have to worry about the thumb knobs getting stuck or snagging on something in
your backpack.
So to attach them you just screw them on like so.
Aside from that, the controller is pretty much the same as the original.
DJI does make a controller that comes with a screen on it, much like you have with the
Phantom 4 Pros.
Apparently it's 2x brighter than a smartphone, so I'm actually going to end up buying that
because one of the headaches with the DJI Mavic drones is using your phone to fly it.
I would rather use my phone for other things and I hate it when I get a text or a call
when I'm flying my DJI drones.
So I'm going to upgrade to that other remote.
You have the Mavic pro instructions, which I'll toss the side.
You have the charging cable and the charging block.
So this very simply goes into the outlet, this goes into the brick.
This part here connects to the battery, go ahead and get this thing charging because
it does take about 45 minutes to charge it from zero to one hundred percent.
So that will be the first step.
And also don't forget to charge the remote.
How do you charge the Mavic 2 remote?
First you remove this cable here, flip this out from the brick, and attach it like so.
Then plug this into an outlet and you can charge both the remote and the controller
simultaneously.
You will also have the props, they're very similar to the original Mavic Pro 1 except
for one major difference and that is the winglets.
These winglets are like the ones you see on a commercial airliner and what they do is
reduce the turbulence of the high air pressure on the bottom moving around to the top, and
that makes the Mavic smoother, quieter and more energy efficient.
Finally, you have the Mavic 2 Zoom itself, and immediately you can feel the quality.
It feels heavier, and in fact it is heavier when comparing the Mavic 2 vs the Mavic 1.
905 grams versus 765 grams of the original mavic.
So here I have the original Mavic Pro and this is the Mavic 2 Zoom.
And you can slightly see that the Mavic 2 Zoom is slightly bigger than the Mavic Pro,
like I said, it's heavier, it feels stronger and better built.
The Mavic Pro feels a little more "plasticy" and the Mavic 2 Zoom feels like if you were
to crash into a tree or something it wouldn't get damaged.
The other difference between the original Mavic Pro and the Mavic 2 Zoom is the gimbal.
And you can see the gimbal is better built, it's more protected, it's less fragile than
the gimbal in the original Mavic.
Which was probably my biggest complaint, I broke a couple of gimbals and had to send
them in for repair.
This one is better protected and more sturdy.
So to open it up, you first open up this arm, the two top arms and then you swing open the
bottom arms.
You'll notice that it has 10 obstacle sensors, two in the back, two in the bottom, one either
side, one on the top and two in the front.
I think this is 10.
But what this does is make the drone so much easier to fly, you can really fly it in confidence
when the obstacle sensing is enabled and you don't have to worry about crashing it, so
you can focus more on getting those cinematic drone shots.
The DJI Mavic Pro 2 and the Mavic 2 Zoom are identical, except for the cameras.
So all of the specs I mention about flight time will apply to both the Mavic Pro 2 vs.
Mavic 2 Zoom drones.
When it comes to flight specs, when it comes to the original Mavic, this drone can fly
for a couple minute longer.
DJI says 31 minutes, and it can fly a few miles per hour faster.
The Mavic Pro 1 could fly around 40 mph and the Mavic Pro 2 can fly around 44mph.
So really the most significant improvements are in the software, the cameras ability to
zoom and the obstacle sensing.
Here are more of the specs, it can ascend at a maximum rate of 5 meters per second.
It will flight up to 6000 meters or about 19,000 feet above sea level.
For comparison, the tallest mountain in the United States is Mt. Denali and it's around
20,000 feet.
So this thing has no problem reaching high altitudes.
It has around 31 minutes of flight time according to DJI, however I think it's closer to 26,
it just depends on the conditions.
Here are the camera specs, the Mavic 2 Zoom has a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor, which is actually
the same exact sensor that was on the original Mavic, so if you were looking for better image
quality, you should actually check out the Mavic 2 Pro.
Which has a Hasselblad camera and a bigger sensor.
One things that's missing from the Mavic 2 Zoom is an adjustable aperture.
What really sets this drone apart is the 24mm - 48mm adjustable focal length.
No for the Mavic 2 Zoom seutp.
Once your battery is charged.
You just touch this button here and the rings should turn all green, and you just insert
it into the Mavic like so.
Make sure you hear the click, you don't want this thing to be loose at all.
To turn on the Mavic, you press once, and then long hold, and you'll hear a noise.
And you hear the fans turn on and you hear the drone come to life.
To connect the phone to the remote, you're going to need to download the DJI Go 4 App,
and then attach your phone to the remote.
So make sure the charging cable is inserted back in to the Mavic remote.
Swing these open, connect your phone to the cable here.
And go ahead and fire up DJI Go 4.
The first time you connect the controller to the app, you might have to link the remote
to the drone.
You'll just very simply follow the instructions on the screen and it's going to ask you to
press and hold this button here at the bottom of the drone to link the controller with the
drone.
The process for turning on the controller is the same as the drone, press the power
button once and then long hold.
Connecting the propellers can be a little bit tricky, first you must realize there are
two sets of propellers, ones with a ring and those without a ring.
The one with the ring attaches to the motor that has a ring on it also.
And this one matches to the motor that doesn't have a ring.
And to put them on you simply push down and turn clockwise to lock it.
The one without the ring you push down and turn counter clockwise.
You should be able to give it a wriggle and see that it doesn't come out.
I'm not going to teach you how to fly the Mavic 2, but I will review some of the cool
modes.
Tap on the controller button on the left side of the screen to see the different modes.
The first one I'll talk about is the Dolly Zoom, the Dolly Zoom was an effect made popular
by Alfred Hitchcok, and basically the way it works is as the camera dollys in, the camera
also zooms out.
And what this does is keep the subject the same size while the background either shrinks
or gets bigger.
To get into Dolly Zoom mode, click on the controller icon on the left of the screen,
go to quick shots, click Dolly, draw a box around the object you want to do the Dolly
zoom on, and click go.
The Mavic will automatically fly backwards while zooming in, and it creates this cool
effect that you can see here.
Here
is a tip, make sure there is nothing behind you, even with the obstacle avoidance you
never want to risk it, so make sure you have a clear flight path before clicking go.
The zoom feature allows you to get a ton of cinematic shots.
If you've ever seen the Jason Bourne movies, in all the establishing shots, they have a
telephoto lens mounted on a helicopter and they zoom in as far as they can while revolving
around a subject, and what this does is compress the background, and makes the background bigger.
I'm going to try the same thing here with my girlfriend Julia.
And as you can see, when I'm zoomed in the background is compressed.
And when I'm zoomed out to 24mm it just doesn't have that same effect.
I'm also going to do it with this building here, when I'm zoomed in to 48mm, the background
is compressed and there is a ton of movement.
So this is one tip on how to get cinematic footage in your videos.
The next mode I'll review is hyperlapse, so click hyperlapse and select between free,
circle, course lock and waypoint.
I'm going to review courselock on the Mavic, so click lock, select the duration of the
video, and click go.
Now the drone will slowly fly forward.
The drone will take a picture at all of the intervals.
The software will stitch it together for you.
You can see that in even very windy conditions the Mavic 2 Zoom is able to create an awesome
hyperlapse.
Before I go any further, I'd like to say that if you're enjoying this Mavic 2 Zoom review
video and you want to see more drone tutorials, please click the like button, click subscribe
and leave any questions in the comments section below, I respond to every single question.
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So another cool feature is active track, like in the original Mavic Pro, you draw a box
around the subject you want to track.
And the drone will automatically track the subject and it will avoid any obstacles in
its way.
I never like to push things and fly in an area with a lot of obstacles but it is nice
to have this feature anyway.
Just to have the peace of mind to know the drone will avoid any obstacles in its way.
Here you can see I'm flying the drone towards Julia, and it senses her and stops.
Another cool feature the zoom allows for is Super Resolution Photo.
The camera will capture and patch nine photos with its telephoto lens which gives you a
48 megapixel super resolution photo.
Compared to ordinary panoramas, the super resolution photo maintains the original look
of the shooting target with a much more accurate composition.
Another really cool mode is cinematic.
And what this does is make the Mavic 2 Zoom fly in a much smoother way.
So the braking speed is decreased and the yaw is slowed down so that there are no sudden
jittery movements.
It basically gives you a clean, flowing picture.
If you go to quick shot, you have some cool modes in there as well.
So here is the rocket mode, which basically shoots straight up.
Here you have the asteroid effect, which basically shoots up, takes a panoramic and then combines
it into a really cool video.
I really likes this, it's great for intros to travel videos.
One tip and trick I like to share with everyone is that you really should get an ND filter
or polarizing filter for your drone.
Especially for the Mavic 2 zoom because it doesn't have an adjustable aperture.
If you're in really bright conditions, and you want to follow the 180 degree shutter
rule for cinematic video you're going to have to reduce the amount of light getting into
the sensor.
Polar Pro has a line of ND filters for the Mavic 2 Zoom and those are the ones I use.
A question I get a lot is: is the Mavic 2 Zoom better, or the Mavic 2 Pro?
And that's really up to you, if you want a higher image quality, then go with the Mavic
2 Pro, if you want the ability to zoom, then clearly go with the Mavic Zoom.
I think the image quality is good enough, I mean it is excellent on these drones, so
I don't really need the higher image quality of the Hasselbald camera, so I personally
went with the zoom.
I think the ability to go from 24 to 48 millimeters, just adds so many cool shooting options.
And that's why I personally took the zoom.
Hopefully in the future, the Mavic 3 drone will have a bigger sensor, and zoom, and an
adjustable aperture and they combine it all into one.
That's it for todays Mavic 2 Zoom review video, if you have any questions leave them in the
comments section.