DJI Mavic 2 Zoom Review: An Eagle-Eyed Aerial Ace
DJI Mavic 2 Zoom: Specifications, Features, and Overall Impressions
Let me say right off the bat that I am not the guy you want flinging $1,200 drones through the sky, especially around cliffs, the ocean, and dense forests, all of which are common where I live. But I took one for the team and decided to check out the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom anyway. You see, I have issues with both directions and spatial relationships; I can get lost in my shower, and concepts such as "north," "south," and "up the road" are foreign to me. Thus, on the road, I simply drive where my wife points. (Also, I should mention that I'm old and cranky. Possibly because my wife is always pointing and telling me where to go.) The DJI Mavic 2 Zoom is simply too valuable a piece of equipment to entrust to someone like me.
DJI's Mavic 2 Zoom - A 2 lb quadcopter with obstacle-avoidance and a 3-axis camera gimbal.
And yet, in spite of all this, the HotHardware team insisted that I should be the one to test DJI's new Mavic 2 Zoom. Perhaps Dave and Marco are secretly recording my adventures, eating microwave popcorn, and snickering in a corner, while praying that I don't crash DJI's latest creation into the Pacific Ocean. Let's live fearlessly, they thought I'm certain.
But you know what? Even I can fly this thing.
I've looked at other drones, including earlier iterations of DJI's fleet, but the Mavic 2 Zoom covers a wide swath of use cases and pilot types. It's simple enough for even a complete novice to fly, but sophisticated enough for serious videographers, content creation professionals and aerobatics enthusiasts. Like any well-designed user interface, the Mavic 2 is easy to use for simple tasks and just getting airborne quickly, but capable of complex maneuvers (and frightening speeds of ~ 45 mph) that only a true expert should attempt. And yet, when you require that complexity or desire that speed, it's all fully accessible.
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| Aircraft: | Size: 3.6 in. X 8.4 in. X 3.3 in. (W/L/H) (folded; 14 in. diag. / arms unfolded, 22 in. from tip to tip) |
| Speed: 44.7 mph max speed in Sport mode | |
| IR obstacle-sensing on all sides, APAS mode allows aircraft to avoid obstacles, auxiliary low-light bottom light to assist sensors | |
| Takeoff weight: 32 oz. | |
| Service ceiling: 3.7 miles above sea level | |
| Dual-system navigation: GPS and GLONASS | |
| Camera: | 3-axis gimbal |
| Autofocus with FOV: 24-48mm optical zoom | |
| 12MP 1/2.3" CMOS sensor | |
| Aperture: f/2.8 to f/3.8 | |
| Shutter speed: 8-1/8000 | |
| Photo formats: JPEG and DNG (RAW) | |
| Video formats: MP4 / MOV (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265) Video Resolution And Frame Rate: 4K: 3840×2160 24/25/30p 2.7K: 2688×1512 24/25/30/48/50/60p FHD: 1920×1080 24/25/30/48/50/60/120p |
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| ISO: 100 - 3200 (video), 100 - 1600 (photo, auto), 100 - 3200 (photo, manual) | |
| 48MP "stitched" super-res still images | |
| Dolly zoom and other specialty modes (see below) | |
| Image Storage: | Save to controller, SD card (up to 128GB, not included), or mobile device |
| Battery: | 3850 mAh, 31 minutes max flight time, weight: 10.4 oz. |
| Video Transmission: | 4.97 miles, with 1080p live video |
| 2.4/5.8 GHz, auto-switching | |
| 40 Mbps download speed | |
| 120ms latency | |
| Video Modes: | ActiveTrack 2.0: Tracks moving people and objects |
| Panoramas: 4 sub-modes: Sphere, 180, Horizontal, Vertical | |
| Quickshots: POI 2.0, Asteroid, Boomerang, Rocket, Dolly-Zoom | |
| Hyperlapse: Free, Dronie, Circle, Course Lock, Waypoint | |
| Price: | $1,249 MSRP / $1,160 on Amazon |
As an aside, the Mavic 2 Pro takes even better photos, thanks to its Hasselblad optics and humongous image sensor, but it lacks the less expensive Mavic 2 Zoom's...uh, zoom feature. It does, however, add great optics and manual aperture control, which serious photographers may want and for which they may be willing to pony-up another couple hundred bucks. In all other respects, the two drones are identical.
Nonetheless, the Zoom's ability to shoot 4K stills and video and to zoom while doing so, is no small feat, even lacking the Pro's superior optics. Note that 4K images cannot be downloaded from the drone directly to your mobile device, although smaller images can. The larger images must be saved to the unit's SD card or else sent over via USB from the drone directly to your computer.)
Here are a couple 4K still images, the first one at normal focal length (24mm), the second one zoomed (48mm).
The bottom line is that the Mavic 2 Zoom is a great platform for photography and videography of all sorts, from casual snapshots to the most exacting professional still shot use cases and videography.
And speaking of video...
Like previous versions of the Mavic series from DJI, Mavic 2 Zoom's 3-axis gimbal is its secret sauce. The gimbal offers an amazingly stable platform for any shot mode, for video or still shot production. As you can see in some of the footage above, even along a brisk, breezy beachfront with a fair amount of surf, the Mavic 2 Zoom's positioning holds stable and firm while its gimbal keeps footage smooth and steady. It quite literally makes even novice drone pilots like me look good. Optically-speaking, video shots are met with crisp rendering, great auto-focus response and accurate color balance. We only wish 4K 60fps shooting was in the cards, but as you can see, 4K30 with the Mavic 2 Zoom is pretty crispy and smooth none-the-less. Also the Mavic 2 Zoom shoots up to 1080p 120fps (60fps as well) and has a max bitrate of 100mbps. Unfortunately, even the Mavic 2 Pro doesn't offer 40K60 shooting, however.
Let's dig into how the Mavic 2 Zoom brings all its cutting-edge drone technology together for the user...
