Mavic 2 Pro with 8x optical Zoom!

Having to choose between the Zoom and the Pro model of the new DJI Mavic 2 is not any easy choice. Personnally I think the Pro is better suited for low light and with the extra pixels it's always possible to crop a bit and get some minor zooming effect. However there are situation where more zoom is requiered.

In my case, it is especially the case due to some reglementation, I can't get close enough to the cities I want to capture. So I figured out this setup to have both! A great sensor and a long zoom!

I created the 3d model for the bracket and fitted a Canon Elph 180 camera on top of my Mavic 2 Pro. The camera has a 8x optical zoom so it enable excellent close-ups! There was a few challenges I had to solve to make this work and my quest is not totally over yet. There are still some improvements to come but here are my observations so far:

1-Remote control over wifi is not possible

I tried with the Elph 360 to have a live stream and remote control from the ground, but as soon as I establish a connection between the drone and the remote camera Wifi drops.

So I switched camera for an older model, the Elph 180. It supports CHDK (Canon Hacking Development Kit) which enable many advanced feature such as timelapse photography. So I simply activate it prior to take if and take as many blind pictures as I can and hope for the best!

2-The flight is bumpy!

Installing the camera on top of the drone is not the most stable solution ever, but it's the only one that doesn't alter any of the drone sensors. But this cause the drone to be a bit bumpier than in use to be. For sure it should not be used under windy condition...

3-Vibrations

As there is no gimbal, not even an optical stabilizer on this camera, the image can get easily blurry due to the drone vibrations. I try to remain at a shutter speed of 1/1000th Sec or faster. The Elph 180 as another advantage over it's new version the Elph 360. It has a CCD sensor instead of a CMOS. The CCD sensor has a global shutter which avoid jello effect on the CMOS version. But it is not very sensible to the light so it must be used under day light only. (Sunny or cloudy at most)

4-No tilt

The camera is pretty level when the drone is hovering and is point exactly at the same direction as the Mavic 2 camera. So I can use my remote control to point it into the right direction, but for the pitch is a little bit more complicated. I have to move back and forth the drone to give it a little bit of pitch up or down (respectively). I try at different speed so I get different pitch angle and keep the best afterward.

5-Keep calm and go slow!

The camera take a picture about 7 sec with Raw (DNG) image format support so every angle has to be holded for more than 7 seconds.

The results:

So here is uncropped picture of the Mavic 2 Pro. Because it was pretty windy and cloudy I used used a Zoom of 4x on the Elph 180 camera for this one. I then applied a 2x digital crop on the picture of the Elph which should in theory be equivalent to using it's full 8x optical zoom in term of viewing area. Indeed, the magnified area is about 1/9 of the Mavic picture which is roughly 8x...

So here is the result:

We can clearly see more detail with the Elph camera (and it's still missing that 2x optical zoom) so I should be able to get significantly better close up under sunny light and full zoom! The down side are the colors. The dynamic range is a lot better in the Mavic camera. (Look at the snow on the roof for example...)

Jan 13th update:

It was still a lot windy today: 23km/h side wind, but at least the sun was present, so plenty of light... This picture was taken at 1/1000th of a second and still contained a fairly good amount of motion blur in it. This time it was at full 8x optical zoom which explain why it was more blurry. I was able to reduce it relatively well with photoshop shake reduction filter which give an idea of the optimal result I could technically get without wind any by repeating until I get a shot with low vibrations.