The main take away from Casey’s review is that the image quality need not be sacrificed for superior convenience. The story you’re trying to achieve deserves to be captured in ways that serves the clearest point.
You have probably wondered the same conundrum as everyone else regarding size vs. quality when it comes to buying a drone. If you are planning on buying a drone for the first time then this story is for you!
DJI is the leader in the consumer drone market, and GoPro is the kingpin of the high quality cameras. Both companies have made their mark by helping people capture videos and images in hi-def. But the real question is would you rather go with a drone that is small and convenient, over a drone that has a superior camera lens?
Casey Neistat puts these theories to the test as he compares products for “super-convenience” to high quality. Followers of Casey would know that he used to fly a tiny Parrot drone mainly because of its super convenience. The image quality, however, has been thwarted by today’s latest camera specs – rendering the tiny Parrot drone pretty much obsolete.
In the video, Casey places the Phantom 4 drone from DJI on a spectrum within the mid-quality but on the low convenience side. Right up there with the Phantom 4 and slightly better is the DJI Mavic Pro at highest convenience and the image quality is seen as mid grade.
According to Casey’s footage, the Phantom 4 image quality is definitely higher than the recording produced by Mavic Pro. The Mavic Pro produces a much softer, less sharp, image than Phantom 4. Keep in mind, the camera attached to both DJI drones are non-detachable. So when buying the drone, the camera it has is inevitably going to be the camera you’re settling with.
Contrary to recent stories comparing the GoPro KARMA to DJI Mavic Pro, we believe that the HERO5 camera is definitely superior in producing image quality – GoPro has a road map to continue to improve their cameras for many years to come. The KARMA drone is not bound by any camera as you may detach the camera at any time.
Looking at the Phantom footage right next to the Mavic footage, the gap is big but not overwhelming.
According to DJI, the image quality issue is that some users have not set the focus correctly when using the DJI Mavic Pro, resulting in their videos appearing soft.
In the most recent GoPro press release, the company made it very clear that their products will be easy to use right out of the box. This does not seem to be the case for DJI. When comparing the footage of the GoPro HERO5 Session in 4K with no color grading, the quality is notably greater than the Mavic Pro. This is likely due to the back-end optimizations that GoPro has done to make their cameras so remarkable.
Pretty.. Pretty good GoPro – Casey Neistat
While DJI has a tenure of over a decade working for consumers to conceive of the best drones, GoPro has stepped up to the challenge and are on their way to really impress the harshest of image quality critics. As a consumer, don’t forget that often image quality suffers when thinking just about the drone itself. GoPro’s solution is end-to-end from image quality to high convenience.
