When it was announced in September, DJI’s Mavic Pro captured the fascination and imagination of drone pilots and videographers the world over.
The Mavic’s compact design and portability, as well as enhanced features from the company’s Phantom series of drones promised to open up drone piloting to more people and more locations. In short, the Mavic looks to make flying drones as spontaneous as taking your camera out into town.
We caught up with DJI to see how the company approached its development of the
Who are you aiming the Mavic Pro at?
The Mavic Pro revolutionizes the way that aerial footage can be captured and is one of the smartest drones on the market.
Its gesture control; Trace, Profile and Spotlight ActiveTrack features; Return to Home and obstacle avoidance capabilities make it the ideal drone for everyone from beginners to professionals.
Being comparable in size to a small water bottle and weight under 750g the Mavic Pro can be carried wherever you go and used at a moments notice.
When the Mavic launched, some Youtubers erroneously reported focus problems because they were unaware of the tap to focus functionality. How did DJI respond to these reports?
The Mavic Pro has a great and precise focus. All you need to do is tap on the screen to focus the area that is the most important for your scene allowing very precise focus.
As this was a new feature that users of previous DJI drones were not used to we just needed to educate people and many reports were updated.
What advantages does the Mavic have over the Karma?
Everything we learned from the DJI Phantom and DJI Inspire we took, miniaturised and built into the Mavic Pro. It’s our first deep learning drone which makes it superior to all our other drones and any out in the market.
Are there any new intelligent flight features on the Mavic that you feel are unique?
DJI’s Mavic Pro has many intelligent flight features although two that are unique to the industry are Gesture Mode and Precision Landing.
In Gesture Mode you can take the perfect ‘Dronie’ using gestures to have Mavic Pro locate you, center you in the frame and take the perfect shot as Mavic Pro’s flashing lights count down to the photo.
The new Precision Landing feature records a burst of video with two stereo cameras every time Mavic Pro launches, then uses both video and satellite information when it returns to land within an inch of where it took off.
Will the Mavic Hardware be open to third party developers?
The Mavic Pro is fully accessible through the DJI SDK, allowing developers to facilitate every feature for new applications. The possibilities are endless here and we can’t wait so see what people will do with it.
Are there plans to create an Osmo compatible Mavic?
The Osmo and Mavic Pro are both technology advanced products which address a particular need and complement each other using the same image stabilisation technology. While the Mavic Pro is designed to be used in the air the Osmo is designed to be used on the ground.
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