Ever since I was a little boy I have loved the idea of flying remote controlled airplanes. I used to hang out with a friend whose dad built them and would fly them on their farm. Unfortunately, I was never around to see their plane in flight. The closest I ever got to flying one myself was when my parents bought me a large Styrofoam plane when we visited the Outer Banks… With all the excitement you could imagine, I quickly built said plane and promptly crashed it, breaking the wings clean off. It’s clear I was no Chesley B. Sully. Well, fast forward about 20 years and I finally pulled the trigger on a DJI Mavic drone to add to my photography gear arsenal. With that being said, I’m extremely skeptic of this drones ability to take photos that I would be able to use professionally.
Rather than regurgitate the specs of this impressive drone you can simply hit the link below to see for yourself:
I searched, and searched, and searched for a good article on the quality of the still photographs that drones like the Phantom 4 could create. I wanted to know whether or not I could use specialized software to successfully enlarge images to a size that I could potentially sell to clients. You see, my clients don’t really want a 10×20 image… They want images that are at least 5 feet wide.
So, like any photographer who is about to purchase new gear, I spent countless hours researching the image quality of various drones. I went so far as to download multiple RAW files from others who had reviewed previous versions of the DJI drones to see how much leeway I would have in Lightroom and Photoshop. I’m going to refrain from sharing the results just yet and wait until I have the Mavic in hand (very soon) to share a comprehensive review of the drone with you. This review will focus on the still photography capabilities of the drone and whether it could be considered by a professional photographer or not.
What I’ll cover:
Build Quality
Ease of Use
Image Quality
Value
If you aren’t familiar with PhotolisticLife I feel the need to inform you that I get no compensation from the gear manufacturers that I review. I give real world reviews with no bull shit feedback. If you want to know whether the DJI Mavic is a professional tool or simply a toy then stay tuned to PhotolisticLife.com for my upcoming review.