GO ANYWHERE, NO COMPROMISE
DJI MAVIC 2 PRO
by Justin Moore, Cr.Photog.DRONESTHE GOODS
38COURTESY DJIu A 20-megapixel Hasselblad camera in a
foldable drone with 360-degree collision
avoidance—too good to be true? Welcome
to the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, the latest incarna-
tion of DJI’s wildly popular Mavic series.
A couple of years ago, DJI acquired a ma-
jority stake in Hasselblad as part of its
strategy to be both a drone maker and a
serious camera manufacturer. The Mavic 2
Pro debuted in August 2018 and immedi-
ately created buzz as the rst DJI drone to
sport a Hasselblad camera. Does it live up
to the hype?CAMERA
The Mavic 2 Pro’s camera sports a 20-
megapixel 1-inch CMOS sensor on an up-
dated three-axis gimbal. Image quality is
excellent, with the large sensor capturing a
wider range of tones. The immediate ques-
tion that came to mind was whether this
new camera would outperform the camera
on the Phantom 4 Pro, which has similar
specs but is no longer in production. The
short answer is not quite. In my experience
and that of others I’ve spoken with, the edge-
to-edge sharpness of the Phantom 4 Pro’s
camera outperforms the Mavic 2 Pro’s, and
the Phantom’s 60fps 4K video capture gives
it the edge.
That said, the Mavic 2 Pro’s images areIMAGES ©JUSTIN MOOREThe 20-megapixel sensor on the Mavic 2 Pro gives
aerial photographers more creative cropping
options, including vertical crops like this photo of the
USS Lexington anchored at Corpus Christi, Texas.