Mavic 3 or Autel Evo Lite+

Bussty · Feb 4, 2022

Hi there

MAVIC 3 OR AUTEL LITE+
I currently own a Mavic Mini and have done for about 2 years and absolutely love it. My needs are simple I just want to put the drone in the air and capture landscape images and panoramas. I'm not really into video at all.

I'm actually at the point of not going out with the Mini just now as with the Autel Evo Lite+ and Mavic 3 on the market I know when I buy one of those drones I'm just going to have to go back and re-capture the images with the better sensor/optics.

However I have a dilemma. From what I have seen online so far the glass in the Autel Evo Lite+ appears to be sharper than the Mavic 3. I can't quantify that it's just an impression I'm getting from the Videos I have watched. There are very few Lite+ sample files available so far but they will come.

This post is really aimed at those of you that have both drones and may be able to confirm from your perspective which lens appears to generate the most detail and has the least edge fall off of sharpness? Grain isn't an issue for me there is enough amazing software on the market to deal with that but crisp clear detail is what I am wanting. Even with the bigger sensor of the Mavic 3 from what I have seen the Lite+ images appear more detailed.

THE TELEPHOTO LENS
One of the things that is swaying me back to the Mavic 3 is the 7x telephoto lens. A lot of people have said it's a bit of a toy with no real useful function but I question that. As a 7x lens on a 1/2 inch sensor by itself is not really a viable option for high quality enlargeable images. Where I see real value is when you have the situation when using the standard drone lens the subject you want may occupy only half or quarter of the image area. This is where I think the telephoto will truly shine. By making a wall of images with the telephoto lens to cover the area of interest you could actually end up with an effective pixel count equal to or significantly larger than the standard lens on the Mavic 3. Effectively giving you a high quality semi telephoto image. The same way you can easily provide a higher resolution on a SLR than any Medium Format Digital Camera comparing shots made up of multiple mosaiced images on the SLR to a singe image on the Medium Format Digital Camera.

What I'm not sure about with latest updates on the Mavic 3 in relation to the 7x lens is this...

Does the telephoto mode allow RAW images
Does the telephoto mode allow Manual Exposure and White Balance
I'm assuming the telephoto lens will at least match detail of the main lens. i.e if you enlarged the image from the standard lens to match the image from the 7x lens you will have better detail with the telephoto lens showing the exact same area? (if not it would be a waste of time.)

If anybody can offer any experiences or thoughts on the above would be very helpful as I try to make the call. I have been edging towards the Lite+ BUT just in writing this and thinking about the possibilities of the 7x on the Mavic 3 there could be massive upside for photographers capturing still images.

Many thanks

Andrew

DARKSeifer · Feb 4, 2022

I've flown a mini 2 and an Air2S for the past year and a half or so, about 290 hours of flightime... I'm a photographer but I fly drones for hobby mostly, because I enjoy both the flight and landscape photography, and drones are by far the best landscape camera you can get, the ability to put the camera anywhere inside the three-dimensional space beats everything else to the point I never use my DSLR/tripod to do either landscape or architecture (exterior ofc XD).

Lite+ beats the Air2S to the ground, no questions about it, in every single aspect is way better. I'm sure the 4/3 camera of the M3 is quite capable, but it's around 70% more expensive than the Lite+ (which is not a cheap drone btw)... and doesn't make the job 70% better.

The main problem with DJI drones are not the drones themselves, which are quite decent, is DJI Aeroscope. All DJI drones come with an inbuilt "MITM", all of them transmit your data and telemetry to all Aeroscope systems within range, no matter if you want it or not. I don't know about other countries, but in Spain there are plenty of portable Aeroscope units around and even fixed antennas in Madrid and Barcelona. Drones are quite persecuted, even when you have all the permits, you don't want your drone broadcasting your telemetry all around without you having any control over it.

Lite+ is the best drone you can get nowadays, at least till Evo III comes out.

PS: Lite+ DNGs are sharper (specially on the corners) and have less noise than Air 2S DNGs, but can't talk about the M3 because I haven't tested the M3 myself, and lost interest in it when I informed myself about DJI Aeroscope.

DARKSeifer · Feb 4, 2022

DARKSeifer said:
I've flown a mini 2 and an Air2S for the past year and a half or so, about 290 hours of flightime... I'm a photographer but I fly drones for hobby mostly, because I enjoy both the flight and landscape photography, and drones are by far the best landscape camera you can get, the ability to put the camera anywhere inside the three-dimensional space beats everything else to the point I never use my DSLR/tripod to do either landscape or architecture (exterior ofc XD).

Lite+ beats the Air2S to the ground, no questions about it, in every single aspect is way better. I'm sure the 4/3 camera of the M3 is quite capable, but it's around 70% more expensive than the Lite+ (which is not a cheap drone btw)... and doesn't make the job 70% better.

The main problem with DJI drones are not the drones themselves, which are quite decent, is DJI Aeroscope. All DJI drones come with an inbuilt "MITM", all of them transmit your data and telemetry to all Aeroscope systems within range, no matter if you want it or not. I don't know about other countries, but in Spain there are plenty of portable Aeroscope units around and even fixed antennas in Madrid and Barcelona. Drones are quite persecuted, even when you have all the permits, you don't want your drone broadcasting your telemetry all around without you having any control over it.

Lite+ is the best drone you can get nowadays, at least till Evo III comes out.

PS: Lite+ DNGs are sharper (specially on the corners) and have less noise than Air 2S DNGs, but can't talk about the M3 because I haven't tested the M3 myself, and lost interest in it when I informed myself about DJI Aeroscope.

Going to quote myself because I edited the message three times and got the moderator approval message.

Bussty · Feb 4, 2022

DARKSeifer said:
Going to quote myself because I edited the message three times and got the moderator approval message.

Bussty · Feb 4, 2022

Thanks for your reply. I'm in New Zealand so we aren't quite that anti-drone yet! If it was just drone vs vs drone in terms of camera I think I'm edging to the Lite + but it's the 7x lens on the Mavic 3 that has me really thinking. If you can use that in a grid sequence to capture scenes anywhere I guess from 2x down to 5x what the main camera sees with higher quality than the main camera as a result (as the final image will consist of multiple half inch sensor images) then I think that opens huge possibilities for the stills photographer. I just want to see some examples so I can determine if this is a theoretical advantage or very real... I use this technique with my land based SLR all the time with great results.

DARKSeifer · Feb 5, 2022

Macrostitching with drones can be done, but unless you want to print really big you are well with the standard single shot resolution.

If you want more quality, doing multiple exposures and merge the DNGs in Lightroom will deliver better results than macrostitching.

The telephoto on the Mavic 3 is another tool to play with, is quite funny having an optical x7 IMO, but in general you'll be using the main sensor for photos.

G_G · Feb 7, 2022

Bussty said:
Hi there

MAVIC 3 OR AUTEL LITE+
I currently own a Mavic Mini and have done for about 2 years and absolutely love it. My needs are simple I just want to put the drone in the air and capture landscape images and panoramas. I'm not really into video at all.

I'm actually at the point of not going out with the Mini just now as with the Autel Evo Lite+ and Mavic 3 on the market I know when I buy one of those drones I'm just going to have to go back and re-capture the images with the better sensor/optics.

However I have a dilemma. From what I have seen online so far the glass in the Autel Evo Lite+ appears to be sharper than the Mavic 3. I can't quantify that it's just an impression I'm getting from the Videos I have watched. There are very few Lite+ sample files available so far but they will come.

This post is really aimed at those of you that have both drones and may be able to confirm from your perspective which lens appears to generate the most detail and has the least edge fall off of sharpness? Grain isn't an issue for me there is enough amazing software on the market to deal with that but crisp clear detail is what I am wanting. Even with the bigger sensor of the Mavic 3 from what I have seen the Lite+ images appear more detailed.

THE TELEPHOTO LENS
One of the things that is swaying me back to the Mavic 3 is the 7x telephoto lens. A lot of people have said it's a bit of a toy with no real useful function but I question that. As a 7x lens on a 1/2 inch sensor by itself is not really a viable option for high quality enlargeable images. Where I see real value is when you have the situation when using the standard drone lens the subject you want may occupy only half or quarter of the image area. This is where I think the telephoto will truly shine. By making a wall of images with the telephoto lens to cover the area of interest you could actually end up with an effective pixel count equal to or significantly larger than the standard lens on the Mavic 3. Effectively giving you a high quality semi telephoto image. The same way you can easily provide a higher resolution on a SLR than any Medium Format Digital Camera comparing shots made up of multiple mosaiced images on the SLR to a singe image on the Medium Format Digital Camera.

What I'm not sure about with latest updates on the Mavic 3 in relation to the 7x lens is this...

Does the telephoto mode allow RAW images

Does the telephoto mode allow Manual Exposure and White Balance

I'm assuming the telephoto lens will at least match detail of the main lens. i.e if you enlarged the image from the standard lens to match the image from the 7x lens you will have better detail with the telephoto lens showing the exact same area? (if not it would be a waste of time.)

If anybody can offer any experiences or thoughts on the above would be very helpful as I try to make the call. I have been edging towards the Lite+ BUT just in writing this and thinking about the possibilities of the 7x on the Mavic 3 there could be massive upside for photographers capturing still images.

Many thanks

Andrew

The 7x telephoto lens currently only shots JPG and in Auto Exposure and in Auto White Balance. That being said, it is impressive, and the gimbal and yaw controls are appropriately dampened for the magnification level. 28x is possible for subject identification to decide if flying closer is worthwhile, if you need better quality from the 7x or the main camera at 1x-2x in Normal mode. It's a game changer if you can't fly closer to wild life or an NFZ prevents flying closer. 7x also gives you a true compression of the DOF for a more impressive image than a crop of a larger image to the same FOV. Automated 360° Spherical Panos on the Mavic 3 main camera are incredible, especially at night!

I'm still working on creating 360° Spherical GigaPanos with the 7x telephoto. It's a work in progress. It will require 1,274 stills instead of 26! That's why it has a 46 minute advertised flight time! It only takes DJI 40 seconds to shoot 26 images, so, if properly automated, the 1,275 stills could be shot in 33 minutes!

Bussty · Feb 7, 2022

G_G said:
The 7x telephoto lens currently only shots JPG and in Auto Exposure and in Auto White Balance. That being said, it is impressive, and the gimbal and yaw controls are appropriately dampened for the magnification level. 28x is possible for subject identification to decide if flying closer is worthwhile, if you need better quality from the 7x or the main camera at 1x-2x in Normal mode. It's a game changer if you can't fly closer to wild life or an NFZ prevents flying closer. 7x also gives you a true compression of the DOF for a more impressive image than a crop of a larger image to the same FOV. Automated 360° Spherical Panos on the Mavic 3 main camera are incredible, especially at night!

I'm still working on creating 360° Spherical GigaPanos with the 7x telephoto. It's a work in progress. It will require 1,274 stills instead of 26! That's why it has a 46 minute advertised flight time! It only takes DJI 40 seconds to shoot 26 images, so, if properly automated, the 1,275 stills could be shot in 33 minutes!

Wow that would be massive resolution on the 360 7x Sperical Pano. That could be quite interesting! Can you auto shoot grid panos with the 7x i.e centre the camera then tell the drone to take a grid say 7x5?? Or are you limited to doing it manually? Seems there is so much potential here DJI hasn't considered yet with 7x?

G_G · Feb 7, 2022

Bussty said:
Wow that would be massive resolution on the 360 7x Sperical Pano. That could be quite interesting! Can you auto shoot grid panos with the 7x i.e centre the camera then tell the drone to take a grid say 7x5?? Or are you limited to doing it manually? Seems there is so much potential here DJI hasn't considered yet with 7x?

Indeed! At this time, it would all have to be done manually. The potential exists that the future SDK might make it possible to automate it with Litchi, once DJI releases it. I would be over the moon if DJI did it themselves! They haven't even done it at 2x on the Mavic 2 Zoom. It does have massive potential to create 360° Gigapanos. Just needs the automation to shoot all the images within one battery. I'll happily do the stitching myself!

chiditty · Feb 11, 2022

I don't have the Lite+ but instead I have the Mavic 3 and the new Evo Nano+. After doing a lot of research on the issues with Evo Nano+, I discovered a lot of quality issues overall with Autel drones. With that said, the Lite+ seems to fair better against the Evo Nano+ but I personally feel DJI has an upper hand when it comes to quality and reliability. If price wasn't an issue, it would be Mavic 3 all the way. Looking at step below that, I guess the question for me would be Air 2S or Evo Lite+ and I'm going to have to say Air 2S at this point even though the DJI doesn't have as good as features as the Evo Lite+. I just find the frustration of dealing with reliability and quality issues on the Autel end is not worth it.

I've always been about rooting for the underdog and that is why I went with the Autel Evo Nano+ but I just can't at this point. Too many issues. I am hoping they succeed in the long run. The specs on their new drones are absolutely THE best. But the quality and reliability issues are enough to take the shine off those specs.

Bussty · Feb 11, 2022

chiditty said:
I don't have the Lite+ but instead I have the Mavic 3 and the new Evo Nano+. After doing a lot of research on the issues with Evo Nano+, I discovered a lot of quality issues overall with Autel drones. With that said, the Lite+ seems to fair better against the Evo Nano+ but I personally feel DJI has an upper hand when it comes to quality and reliability. If price wasn't an issue, it would be Mavic 3 all the way. Looking at step below that, I guess the question for me would be Air 2S or Evo Lite+ and I'm going to have to say Air 2S at this point even though the DJI doesn't have as good as features as the Evo Lite+. I just find the frustration of dealing with reliability and quality issues on the Autel end is not worth it.

I've always been about rooting for the underdog and that is why I went with the Autel Evo Nano+ but I just can't at this point. Too many issues. I am hoping they succeed in the long run. The specs on their new drones are absolutely THE best. But the quality and reliability issues are enough to take the shine off those specs.

This is so frustrating isn't it. Knowing a drone has better quality which you can see but not being happy with backup service and reliability. Thanks for your comments. This may have to be a wait and see game for me but I can't do that forever. I possibly can ignore other issues if the drone just let's me get it in the air and capture high quality stills...