Aug 31, 2020 5:34:14 PM 4 min read
The DJI Mavic 2 Pro quadcopter has become the standard in consumer drones, and using one quickly shows you why.
The lightweight Mavic 2 Pro has the convenience of folding arms to make storage and transport easier. Its propellers are shaped to generate low noise but provide speed and stability. All-direction obstacle avoidance maximizes safety. The DJI Go 4 flight program is highly capable and easy to use. And the camera produces high-quality still photos and video.
Although this is a consumer drone, the word Pro in the name is no lie. The Mavic 2 Pro would do well for wedding photographers, TV news teams, website journalists, real estate professionals, land developers, marketers, vloggers, remodeling contractors, home inspectors, insurance adjusters, security personnel and law enforcement.
Buying Refurbished
The DJI Mavic 2 Pro Refurbished I flew was trouble-free. These reconditioned products are inspected and tested, and defects are fixed before repackaging and resale. Refurbished electronics are proven performers; even the computer used for writing this blog was refurbished—and going strong after six years.
If I had experienced a problem, I’d have been able to get the Mavic 2 Pro repaired under warranty or exchanged for another refurbished DJI product.
Refurbished saves $320 compared with a brand new Mavic 2 Pro. Personally, I would put that toward a $399 Fly More Kit, which includes a case, two extra Intelligent Flight Batteries, a car charger and four low-noise props.
Flying the Mavic 2 Pro
Mavic 2 Pro is stable for a drone of this size, thanks in part to its propellers. The long blades were surprisingly quiet, so they were less distracting to people I was recording and to animals, but they delivered plenty of power. Mavic 2 is rated for 23 mph wind resistance, about the same as Mavic Air 2. The Skydio R2 does only slightly better, at 25 mph, and the Autel Evo 2 manages 46 mph.
All Mavic 2 drones—there’s also a less expensive Mavic 2 Zoom with 12MP stills and a 2x telephoto—are rated for an extended flight time of 31 minutes. I experienced about 25. Range is 5 miles, not as long as the Mavic Air 2’s 6.1 miles, but better than the 4.1 of the original Mavic Pro. The competitively priced Autel Evo 2 has about a 10 percent longer range and a 20 percent longer flight time.
Excuse me if I rave about the Mavic 2 Pro’s omni-directional obstacle avoidance. The aircraft has sensors on every surface. Mavic 2 Pro does more than sense obstacles and alert you. It’s smart enough to calculate where it was going before it sensed the obstacle, then go around it and return to its original path. No consumer drone is safer. You may get good video and stills from the less expensive Mavic Air 2, but you get only partial obstacle detection.
Hasselblad Camera
The Hasselblad sensor on the Mavic 2 Pro heightens image quality. It’s a full inch, twice the size of the sensor on Mavic Air 2. The Swedish maker’s cameras are renowned for image quality the world over—and beyond, considering the old film images from moon missions. (Check out the iconic “Blue Marble” images.)
Does the prospect of 20MP photos appeal to you? It should. Enlargements, even from just a small portion of the image, hold their detail and colors. Shoot in RAW and you can do even more in editing.
Likewise, 4K 60 fps video footage is first rate, stabilized by the 3-axis gimbal. It’s unthinkably better than what you would get from most drones in this class, although the Evo 2 can shoot 8K video and 48MP stills. If you’re into landscapes, flora and wildlife, you’ll love what you see from Mavic 2 Pro. Cityscapes, including architectural details, are no less captivating.
Mavic 2 Pro employs excellent ActiveTrack. It will follow a moving subject up to about 12 mph. It also calculates a subject’s path when it passes temporarily from view—not flawless but highly effective.
QuickShots and ActiveTrack are more valuable on Mavic 2 Pro because of its obstacle avoidance. Unlike the original Mavic Pro and Mavic Air 2, Mavic 2 Pro has obstacle avoidance that functions even when flying backwards and up, or sideways. Quickshots on Mavic 2 Pro include Rocket, Dronie, Circle, Helix, Asteroid, Boomerang and Dolly Zoom. Timelapse and Hyperlapse also are available, and TapFly lets you tap a spot onscreen that the drone will autonomously fly to.
A reasonable price, made even more so when the unit is refurbished, and ample features make this drone’s broad appeal easy to understand.