DJI Mavic Pro - 1 year on
When I first saw the Mavic pro at the launch event a little over a year ago, I was smitten. I knew I had to have one.
Having watched the GoPro event a few weeks earlier, I was amazed at how well GoPro had done, making a backpack sized drone that could be easily transported by a budding adventurer. I’m a big GoPro fan, and whilst the Karma looked cool - it was still a step too far for me. It looked to be far more transportable than the popular DJI Phantom, but still not quite as transportable as I would want. You see, I have the benefit of living in the UK - where weekend trips to continental Europe are as frequent as they are cheap - the downside being the only permissible luggage is often only that which can be carried on your back. The Karma drone was still too big. So when Michael Perry took to the stage and unveiled the DJI Mavic Pro - a 4k aerial platform, the size of a Pepsi bottle. My mind was made up.
My first drone
The Mavic to me represented a leap of faith - fuelled only by my curiosity and creativity. I love making travel videos, but up to this point, my single most expensive kit purchase was a GoPro hero 5, and at £1099 I would have quite a way to go convincing myself (and my fiancee) that I needed one. I had never owned, (or flown) a ‘real’ drone before. What if I couldn't control it? What if I lost it? Would I use it enough? What if I crashed it? Do my travel videos need drone footage? Am I good enough at editing to justify a pro but of kit? I viewed a countless amount of tech reviews, Casey Niestat youtube videos and expert blogs. Eventually, Min, my fiancée told me I should just buy it instead of looking longingly at it for so long. I ordered it, along with DJI care, and it arrived within a week.
My first flight
Setting up for takeoff is a mixture of excitement and crippling anxiety. You’ve seen the ads, the flght tests and the tutorials - you know this thing is one of the most advanced pieces of kit you have ever owned, it has an array of safety features and sensors. But on the other hand, you’re about to launch over a thousand pound of your hard earned cash into the sky with the hope that everything will be ok.
My first flight was a bit farcical. I took off, moved around a bit, played with the gimbal height and pitch, recorded some video and landed. It was pretty risk averse 4 minutes. It brought back a common childhood memory - seeing how brave you could be with the helium balloon tethered to a string, knowing that in a heartbeat it would betray you and float to the top of a very large school hall if you were too slow, or too cocky in front of your friends. I was also more than aware that most of London is a strict no-fly zone. Use of drones and UAVs regardless of size are heavily regulated in London. I didn’t want to draw too much attention to this flight, for fear my new prized position would be confiscated.
On my second flight I was brazen. I had travelled up to Huddersfield, a land where the water is as soft as the air traffic regulations. The hilly landscape would provide an ideal backdrop for my first real flight. It was windy. I didn’t care. Amidst warnings from my weather app I flew high and far - testing the Mavic, whilst trying also to develop muscle memory for the control system. I flew 1.4 km away to the nearby viaducts before I got a warning “high wind velocity, return to home”. I ignored it, the Mavic looked impressively stable in flight and I had loads of battery left. I dropped the altitude in hopes it would get rid of the pesky notification. It did, momentarily. When the notification pinged up for the second time, I noticed that the battery was depleting quicker than it had initially said. No doubt this was the drone compensating for the high wind speeds. I hit the auto return to home button and watched as the Mavic precisely made its way back. I later reviewed the footage. Most of it was out of focus.
Since that day, I've covered more than 23km with my tiny drone. It’s accompanied me over this country as well as a few others. I have an anecdote about nearly every flight I’ve made. From seagull attacks, to disgruntled Indonesian rice paddy farmers. But this blog boils down to one thing.
After a year...has the Mavic delivered against my expectations?
The answer is 'Yes'. It’s not a 'resounding yes', but it is a 'yes' nonetheless. The Mavic is a brilliant product, it’s sturdy, well made, with a great optical sensor, pretty straightforward to fly, and had a number of ‘easy’ flight modes to help creatives get the shots they want. After a year, there’s still not a piece of kit on the market that rivals it for portability and video quality. DJI release frequent software updates making the flying experience even more pleasurable. In addition, its price hasn’t come down, meaning I can have no regrets about when I chose to take the plunge and buy one.
So...why not a 'resounding yes'? Put simply, it’s more of a personal failing than it is a Mavic failing. I’ve flown for 4hours hours - for me, that’s just not enough. Living in London means my Mavic doesn't take to the skies as much as it would like. It’s a great product, arguably the best available but it just seems wasteful to not use it more.
Own a mavic? How does it live up to your expectations?
Up next...the 10 most important things to know when using your new drone.
(I'll also try stitch together a compilation of my early flights so that we can all have a laugh.)
