DJI’s flagship UAV the Mavic 3 is at the pinnacle of design for aerial cinematography. Not only does it have a micro 4/3 Hasselblad camera and 4K CMOS sensor, shooting in ProRes at 200 Mbps, and smashes battery life with a maximum of 46 minutes of flight time, but thanks to its 7x optical zoom, it provides filmmakers with something they’ve never had in a drone before … parallax. But that’s not all.
According to filmmaker Josh Yeo (aka Make.Art.Now on YouTube), the 162mm zoom lens on the Mavic 3’s Hasselblad camera is the reason why every filmmaker should go out and pick up this UAV. Coupled with its three-axis digital stabilization, Yeo has discovered that the Mavic 3 unlocks so many tools for aerial cinematographers that they didn’t have before.
Image Credit – DJI
First and foremost, the Mavic can be used to reimagine a crane shot, but with more tone. Buildings get stacked up on top of each other because of the compression of the image, and the world looks very immersive.
Another great feature is, that while the Mavic 3’s camera is set to auto exposure by default, the pilot/cameraman can adjust the exposure manually, and then lock it in position to prevent the image from changing the look as the light moves.
DJI has also cleaned up the image’s sharpness at extreme magnification, making the camera image look far more cinematic.
Rather than spend thousands renting a helicopter with a gyro-stabilized camera platform or spend time and money getting the rights to overused stock footage, the Mavic can be used to create a unique cityscape at 24p. Then, by adding a little speed ramping and directional blurring in post, you have a great aerial shot of a cityscape.
The parallax in grabbing such a shot with a cellphone-sized image sensor is incredible, according to Yeo. The 7X optical zoom compresses the image, making it more cinematic and compelling while immersing the viewer into the scene, which is complete with all the parallax a creator needs to believe a scene was shot on a far more expensive cinema camera.
Image Credit: DJI
The Mavic 3 also gives indy shooters on a budget a great option to having to rent a dolly and crew to operate it. A filmmaker can set the Mavic to Cine mode, disable obstacle avoidance, and hover the drone a few feet off the ground, crabbing (or trucking) with the subject as it follows through a long walking scene. The essence of guerilla filmmaking.
Yeo says his mind has been blown by the possibilities that the camera in the DJI Mavic 3 has opened up to him as a low-budget content creator. While he admits that the Mavic 3 won’t replace a cinema camera by any stretch of the imagination, for those looking to make their Youtube content more cinematic, or for those runners and gunners who want to create something special guerilla-style, the Mavic 3 is a great tool to have in a filmmaker’s quiver.
[source: MAKE.ART.NOW ]
Order Links:
- DJI Mavic 3 (B&H)
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