for Photography (not video): Mini 2 or Mavic Air 2?

Iamadan wrote:

Hi,

Most of the videos and reviews I see focus on video quality, not photo quality. I'm more interested in aerial still photography. I've had a Spark for a few years, and I typically end up taking multiple exposures and spending a fair bit of time editing/stacking/etc. to get images I like. I'm trying to decide if either the Mini 2 or Mavic Air 2 will (a) notably improve the out-of-box image quality and (b) possibly even give me a passable JPEG flow with iOS (esp considering HDR and the various modes on Mavic Air 2).

A few questions:

1. Baseline, does the Mavic Air 2 have much better still image quality than the Mini 2? The sensor is only a little bigger, and the 48MP samples I've seen don't look better than the 12MP, so I'm mostly interested in the 12MP samples. Especially JPEG, but RAW as well. Bonus if you can help me understand the native difference in dynamic range, as that's my biggest question (lots of shots with the sun!)

2. Do the HDR/Hyperlight/SmartPhoto capabilities in the Mavic Air 2 notably add to the experience? Will I likely find them usable in JPEG, perhaps with light editing, or are they better off not existing and I'd rather focus on the normal JPEG flow or just go straight to RAW (noting that I'd prefer to save time and avoid that if it's close!).

3. Anything else I should consider? I'm intrigued by tracking and with a little video play perhaps with the kids outdoors, so that's a possibility moving me towards the MA2, but still photos are the main thing for me.

Thanks!

This is not going to answer your question directly but I am going to say it anyway. If you are taking photography seriously you should consider a drone which has a camera with at least 1" size sensor such as the Mavic 2 Pro. Just my 2c worth but you can take my word for it.