Are you sure you didn’t get a dud M3C? Those tests make little sense and we all know cameras and lenses have variance. You may have a really good M2P and a really bad M3C. Ive been shooting images on my M3C as high as iso 1600 and I’m certainly not having as many issues with noise or artefacts as I used to on my M2P and Air 2S. I wish I thought my old M2Ps images were better because I loved that thing, especially the controller, but comparing my RAW files I just seem to get better quality from the M3C. Saying this as a photographer not videographer.
Awesome, thank you! The M3C starts to shine in the video because of the higher bit rate making up for the slightly softer (in my eyes) capture. Had DJI just put the M2P camera on the M3C craft with the doubled bit rate, they would have probably killed it. But the marketing wouldn't look as "new". The M2P is holding it's own, and the availability of waypoints is significant to some users.
I’m really surprised at the results on the torture tests. I will hang on to my M2P! Plus I like using Litchi. Appreciate all the work you put into the videos, thanks Greg!😊
This was an excellent video topic and something I am interested in. However, in the spirit of constructive feedback, I found it confusing when the tests suggested the 2 Pro was superior but the ‘real world’ video suggested the 3 Classic is. So what are the point of these tests? Moreover, it would be great if you showed ‘real world’ examples of how these tests apply. For example, the tests suggested the 2 Pro has better colour handling so I would like to see video examples of how that applies. Otherwise, thank you for the video.
I usually test every camera and lens that I get to see if I got a good copy. I had a a friend with a bad sensor on a Canon 5DMK IV. I wonder if you should send that Mavic 3 Classic back and swap it for another example. You are only dealing with a sample size of one. There are professional photographers who order multiple lenses and test them and keep the best example. Please consider doing that and retesting. Camera and lens variance is real.
As an early Mavic 2 Pro owner, found this review VERY interesting! 😊 Only issue I’ve had with mine so far has been the need to replace a couple of flight batteries due to case swelling preventing them from locking into the frame reliably. I do wish that DJI had made the newer flight controller with the built-in screen backwards- compatible with the Mavic 2 Pro; rather than have to squint at my iPhone (I’m nearly 70, close-up eyesight isn’t what it used to be), I use my iPad Pro on an aftermarket mount as a viewfinder. Excellent, informative review!
I guess I'll hang onto my Mavic 2 Pro for a while longer. The image quality is surprisingly not better, but mainly I'm not in a hurry to upgrade because I have the amazing DJI CrystalSky monitor. It's not supported any more with the new drones! I paid a lot for that because DJI said it would be universal, but none of the new Mavics after the 2 support it. It's too bad because the monitor is 7.85", and twice as bright as the CC Pro.
Interesting. I switched from M2P to the full Mavic 3 and I mainly do static photography. The quality is an improvement and background image noise is definitely less with Mavic 3. Some may not like the 4x3 ratio though, and whilst Mavic 3 climbs and descends faster the M2P definitely flies better.
Thank you very much for that review!I especially appreciate your ISO comparison chart for both camera drones.I am an amateur photographer and M2P owner .I mostly use drone for landscape photography.Shortly after M3 came out I bought it and made some direct comparison.I did not do it quite as systematically as you did but just took some landscape shots at dawn with both drones at the same time and with the similar settings.My impression was exactly as yours!I was surprised to see more noise in M3 shots!Although I appreciated a longer battery life of M3 and liked the aspect ratio of its camera I end up returning M3.At the time there was a lot of hype about M3 and not a lot of image comparison, especially on photography side of things.Thank you again for this review!
Nothing noticeably different except very specific lightning situations therefore M3 is worse due to size and weight+ way more expensive accessories and Care 🤷♂️
One thing not mentioned is the longer effective focal length of the M2P. I felt I got more dramatic video movement from the M2P when flying close to objects, water ground, etc. Also, more drama in gimbal moves. The M2P is sort of a clumsy flyer without spotlight and other cool video moves.
I'm looking to upgrade from a DJI Mini 2, in order to start doing some commercial flying. Since I'm not rich, I will confidently look for a Magic 2 Pro, or perhaps an Air 2 S. But thanks to your video I'm liking the idea of the Mavic a lot better now. The aperture is worth a lot and it seems like there might be great deals out there on the used drone market.
I looked and couldn't find the video, but it would be interesting to see the Mavic 3 in the same test. I know the main camera is supposed to be the same as the Classic, but you never know what DJI may be doing behind the scenes.
Thanks for sharing. It confirms what I noticed when having the latest Mavic 3 along with my Mavic 2 Pro for photography which amazes me too. So I returned it. The remote of the Mavic 3 is really poor. My Mavic 2 Pro was at double the distance, when the Mavic 3 already returned home automatically. Still within sight and no obstacles whatsoever. I'm Dutch so we have to use the lesser reception strength. The extra lenses are very poor too. I'm now waiting on a Mavic 4 and looking at the Air 3 out of curiosity.
Wow, All those camera settings confuse me. I am trying to break away from AUTO, on a mini 2. Good drone but still experimenting with the lens and settings. Good video. Thanks
I like the comparative, as a M2P owner I just bought the M3C. One thing important for me is the weight. In EU , the 907g of the M2P against 895g of the M3C, are a diference between to be legal or not . This are my the main reason to change. About the test, I am a little disappointed with a results, beside I do not tested yet the M3C. I am photographer and I am confortably happy with the M2P results as low iso and till 800. Is not a SLR quality but quite satisfactory. I will test the M3C today, but one thing is important to refer, M3C has a 24mm lens against the M2P’s 28mm , which means, that in the tests you did, all ratio are different between cameras test.
Very comprehensive review my man! Proof positive that just bc something is the "latest" version, doesn't mean it's always the "greatest" version! Seems very akin to how the Hasselblad on the M2P performed greater on paper in many or even most ways than the Sony 1" on the P4PV2, HOWEVER..in real world application, more prevalently on video projects, the older Phantom Sony 1" performed better than the new at the time Mav Hasselblad did. I chalk it up to marketing getting a bit too far over its skis and then diligent photographers that actually know how to test a sensor dig in to investigate their claims 😉..nicely done sir, always a good thing when you may save someone a substantial purchase they may ultimately not need! 🎉 Keep up the great work!
I have both still and have done tests myself. I also feel the M2P is better in Normal color mode than the M3. I prefer the color science from the M2P. However the M3 will be brighter in most scenarios when compared, due to the larger sensor and better when it gets darker out. I often prefer my MA2S over both these, when I know I don't need to edit much and just take SOC images and video from it, over these other two. Seems odd that this Classic is that much poorer in these various tests you've done. I wonder if you compared regular M3 (not classic) to the Classic version to see if they are exactly the same.
@@projanusz78 From a flying perspective yes but compared for cost, no. If money is not a factor can't go wrong with the M3. I use my MA2S more often than my M3 tho!
I wouldn't upgrade as upgrade doesn't really apply in these cases no matter if it's air2s either m3p . The quite high price for used M2p reflects this. i think M2p is most complete drone if you dont require slow motion 60fps 4k or wide angle (I personally actually really preffer 28mm look of M2pro) - it's less "droney" more filmic , natural to look. and better feel in motion if you compare it to 24mm FOV - that's the thing to consider.
@@PilotInstitute You folks are experts, no doubt. I'm not sure why you didn't perform contrast and saturation adjustments that were needed as this is part of developing DLOG footage. I've found that using the Color Display Assist when in DLOG is a great time saving tool and it allows you to expose just a bit to the right and not over expose as per DJI's white papers on the subject. I always enjoy your videos. Keep up the great work.
I find my original Mavic 3 performs worse then my Mavic 2 pro, and its all marketed at superior low ligh performance, yet my photos come out looking like mush most of the time, and thats usually shooting at F4.5-5.6, always try to keep the iso below 400, but i think my m3 has a sensor issue, i used to be able to shoot upto 4seconds in poor conditions and get a usable shot, i got a replacement due to an insurance claim and this model is far worse in terms of quality, the other niggle is i stilll just hate the dji fly app
I really enjoyed this comparison. The M2P is just an excellent drone. That's all there is to it. It's my workhorse. I do building, land, and roof inspections and I just can't justify the expense of moving to M3 Classic or standard. In addition, I don't think there's an SDK for the M3 yet.
I believe it's time to forget about SDK for standard Mavic 3. DJI kind of answered about the SDK issue by creating RTK mavic 3, and thermal. Whatever you work with, maps or roofs, is the drone you need to buy from us.
definitely, if you use daylight photos in general work, there's no big difference. m2 also have sdk support for different apps, you need m3 enterprise version for that (basically double the money).
You can always add a module to it. That's my plan if it's not made std RID compliant which is still a possibility. Seems DJI are kicking out new drones on a bi-weekly basis lately so it may be some time before we know anything about any "legacy" drones.
I have been rocking my M2P since it first came out. A drone is only a supplement to my video work...get some exterior or color shots and call it a day. However, I was thinking of getting a Mini pro just for urban neighborhood shots for when I want to be a little bit incognito. Do you think that M2P is comparable to classic for night shots? Judging by the iso test, it seems to be better but seems noisy on my tests.
So much information on how to tell good camera quality. Great video🙏💪 the SDK on the m2p is a deal breaker. Picked up a m2p fly more for $700 a few days ago.
I’m not sure that the ISO test is relevant to the real world. Most of the time I’m never using anything else than ISO 100. Hell even ISO 200 is terrible on the Mavic 2. Too much noise in the RAW.
In the Mavic 3’s video, Theres a lot more Dynamic range in the sky, if you fly directly into the sun, it’s almost like if the m2pro is always clipping the highlights, what I also found (had the Mavic 2 pro, as well as right now the Mavic 3 Classic), when flying over sea , the Mavic 3 has no distortion, on the Mavic 2 it almost looks like somebody took a fisheye Lens, this is fixable in post, but it’s horrible to do
I just bought teh classic and sold the Mp2. I had not mucvh time yet to compare image quality, but i had a number of issues with teh MP2. The biggest was the batteries. They all started to bulge after a while and if you are not carefull they actually could pop in midflight. The other things obviously is that they stopped production, so to get spare batteries or spare anything is much harder. I loved the MP2, but so far no regrets to switch to the 3 classic. Love the built, the cruise control, the omnidircetional sensors and the enhance battery life. I like how the batteries are securly inside the aircraft again. I also enjoy the new controler, the traditional Mp2 controler was a pain in the butt and towards the end it became almost unchargeable becasue of loose charging hub contacts on thw controler. .. of course i would have expected better image quality, that is really suprising…everything else though its been a big step up.
m2 batteries can still be bought directly from dji site. and batteries for m2 enterprise version (they're self heated etc) are still in production, so you're covered for now.
Thank you for this tests. Results are a bit non-expected... will you provide a dropbox folder with original DNG's, like you done in other camera tests for drones? That will be helpfull!
Good video - something I was searching for because unfortunately my findings in my testing are in line with what you’ve found: photo quality is better on Mavic 2 Pro, and video comparison is tilted towards M3C probably because higher bit rate. I have a support ticket open with DJI engineering on this. They want the drone sent for further analysis, but I am starting to doubt if they can do anything if this is in fact a lens+sensor characteristics issue. It would be interesting to see the same comparison between the original Mavic 3 and Classic. Thanks!
Thanks for the video! I just sold my mini 2 and remain with the mavic 2 pro. I will order the avata and I’m debating between selling my mavic 2 pro and buy 1 mavic 3 pro, or keep my 2 pro where I have 3 batteries and all the acc? What to do? Please, help! :) or buy the mavic 3 classic?
Greg, thanks for the organized review. Very illuminating. You should know, however, that "Micro 4/3" is a system for cameras that have interchangeable lenses. This drone has a 4/3" sensor, but it has nothing else that is part of the Micro 4/3 standard. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Four_Thirds_system
Great video Thanks ! Did you use the 28mm - FOV video mode in the M2P ? If you've used the 40mm HQ video mode, the results would've been even more surprising - in favour to the M2P.... as far as my tests showed
@@PilotInstitute I am quite shocked by the results. Planning to sell my M3 and keeping my M2P unless DJI makes a firmware update to the MAvic3 with a similar video mode as the "HQ mode" - ie. 4K clean crop of sensor... do you think is there a chance ? Maybe we should make a "petition" or group voting by the M3 owners ?
Currently looking for a new drone the M3C seems like a winner .I need to buy the Pro Rc because i like to use my goggles and need an hdmi out which the remote rc does not have which is a shame as its a lot more cash for the Rc Pro controller .
Essentially, don't upgrade for the camera. Do it for all the other things. Longer battery life, better software, more features, lower noise, official C1 classification and much much more.
All the feedback from serious users indicate night mode does some processing at higher ISO’s that would affect these results dramatically…understand that’s for video only but much much better
I love my M2P, but the M3 Classic Cruise Control seems like it could be a game changer in terms of enabling very smooth professional video capture. Additionally having sensors in all directions enabling a more effective collision avoidance matters to me. I like filming and not worrying about my drone.
@@izoyt I rarely do tracking options. But cruise control lets me do things I'd do by hand on the fly with no prior planning and now with the Way Points, the M3C is a great (!!!) choice. I don't do tracking (where the drone is guided by an object's movement, but I do do tracking with the camera. Making Way Points on the fly and having the camera track a subject is wonderful.
that's such a great comparison!, I wish to see Mini 3 pro vs good old Mavic2 pro. as Mini3pro is kind of a "too good to be true" drone for money. Are you keen to do a short comparison on these two ? keep great work , your reviews/comparisons of dji drones are really one of the best .
Mavic 3 files need more work. They appear to be completely as the camera see's with no correction. The M2P always seemed like it was doing more work to photos behind the scenes and baking it into the image. I've seen this on other cameras where I use the same lens but switch to a newer body, and the photos look worse. But it just takes a little editing to make them even better. Same thing with the Mavic 3. It gives you a better file with no correction. But unfortunately takes more time to edit and fix. It shouldnt be that way.
Wow! Your findings are stunning. The still images on the Mavic 3 Classic are awful when compared to the Mavic 2 Pro. At the time I'm writing this your video is nine months old. Since then, has there been a firmware and/or hardware update to correct this? As a current M2P owner from a picture quality perspective, I see no reason to buy a Mavic 3 Classic.
Interesting, I just sold my mavic 2 Pro and switched to the mavic 3 and have found the image quality to be much better. Your results surprised me. I have also found in Photoshop I am able to revive parts of the image that have less detail better than I was able to with a mavic 2.
Sensor size does matter. But it really depends if you're happy with the video you're getting. People are normally not going to notice a subtle difference.
Do you think the discrepancy with the Mavic three classic was with that particular drone and not the entire group of classics? Did you just test one drone of each model?
Hi @@PilotInstitute Could you please make some other footage to compare Mavic 2 Pro vs. Mavic 3, Mavic 2 Pro vs. Air 2s, Mavic 3 vs. Air 2s, and Air 2s vs. Autel Lite+ in the night?
yeah, he definitely got the pricing wrong on this comparison, as $100 isn't really fair, as now it IS four years old, and buying a used drone is for almost every user the prefered choice. I just picked up a mavic 2 pro today for 850, with 5 batteries, and a backup mavic 2 zoom camera, and a second drone body for parts, Sure it was an exceptionally good deal, but even still, its closer to a $800-900 drone now, not near the original price.
Why would you go above 500 or 1000 feet, for that matter, to get hovertime? You wasted time/power traveling to and from those hover points, and the air density is different at those elevations.
@@PilotInstitute Sorry Greg. I guess you would have to know the geographical location of the test launch. And I'd be more interested to know what the statistics at at sea level altitude since most of us live there.
Mavic 3 Classic video look better. The torture tests relate more to the quality of the manufacturing of the lens which could vary between the same model of drone. Not every lens is going to be exactly the same as the next on the same assembly line. There must be a range of variant that is acceptable for output. I have seen this in other optical products.
I love tapfly. I use it as a direction changeable cruise control. I also like Go4 much better than the Fly app. Among other likes,, seems more professional and you can easily see your battery status relative to key points such as RTH and forced land. You need a magnifying glass to get similar info from Fly.
a lot of valid points about m2p, it's still probably one of not the best pro(sumer) drone, dji ever made. only thing they should avoid is pixel binning in full size mode (you get true 1:1 pixel readout in crop mode - kind of zoom variant, which wasn't presented), but has some cinematic effect also. but i must say, you way over dramatizing poor low light performance from m3 (which wasn't really tested in real world scenario, it was just test of same conditions under different isos). take any real world low light photo or video against m2, you will clearly see a difference, its sensor is basically double size area against m2 or air2s. another thing is colour science, which clearly is more natural on m3. people like punched and warn m2 colours directly from jpegs or mpegs. but that's doesn't mean it's more "true" to real world. so, be more fair in this, since it's kind of obvious, you want bash a new and very desired dji model (and this coming from m2 owner). again, a lot what was said, is correct, m2 still have some strong points (i would say go4 app with more manual control, sdk support, so it works with other platforms, side sensors etc), but to say m3 is not improvement in video, but also photo department (specially in low light), is just wrong, imo. but nice test anyway, would be nice to see, how air 2s is holding against m3 also..
