Flying Into the Future: My First Look at the Mavic 4 Pro Drone
As a professional aerial photographer including for The Reader’s Digest Guide to the Australian Coast, I’ve spent years charting our continent’s ragged edges from above — cliffs plunging into turquoise swells, tide lines weaving through mangroves, surfers etched like ants in the curl of a break.
And for much of that time, my trusted DJI Mavic 2 Pro has been my eyes in the sky. But the release of the DJI Mavic 4 Pro really is a game changer.
Straight out of the box, the DJI Mavic 4 Pro doesn’t whisper evolution — it roars revolution. Sleek, sure, but it’s the hardware inside this machine that makes it a bona fide game-changer for aerial creatives. Let me take you through it, from the point of view of someone who lives to shoot from the sky.
The DJI Mavic 4 Pro is being hailed as the most advanced camera drone to date, featuring a revolutionary 360° Infinity Gimbal, enhanced aerodynamics, and a powerful triple-camera system capable of 6K/60 HDR video.
While its specs and new features make it both sophisticated and enjoyable to fly, DJI has confirmed that the Mavic 4 Pro will not currently ship to the United States due to ongoing issues with tariffs and US Customs.
The DJI Store on our affiliate link to Amazon USA has some stock.
Buy the DJI Mavic 4 Pro drone from our affiliate Kogan in Australia.
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Three Eyes Are Better Than One
The first thing that made me blink? The triple-camera array. No more lens compromises — now I’ve got a wide, medium tele, and long-reach telephoto at my fingertips, each with Dual Native ISO for buttery detail in sunlight or twilight. Swapping perspectives mid-flight isn’t just convenient; it’s cinematic liberation.
At the heart is a flagship Hasselblad camera with a 4/3 CMOS sensor pushing a jaw-dropping 100MP resolution. If that number doesn’t floor you, maybe the adjustable aperture (f/2.0 to f/11) will. I’ve already tested its ability to paint starburst highlights over the ocean at golden hour. With the Hasselblad Natural Colour Solution (HNCS), the RAWs need almost no correction.
And for those action-heavy road trips through the Outback or down Victoria’s Great Ocean Road? The 70mm medium tele with its 48MP sensor gives crisp, natural compression — the kind you want when tracking a vintage Holden from a dune crest. The 50MP long-reach telephoto fills in the blanks for zooming across ridges, catching that eagle mid-flight, or studying the patterns in ancient Aboriginal stone circles from a respectful distance.
The Gimbal That Doesn’t Blink
What makes this more than a camera in the sky is the Infinity Gimbal. We’re talking 360° rotation. I tilted the horizon mid-shot, chased it around, and watched the world twist on cue. This is not your average pan-tilt — this is a freeform dance, opening new visual languages that were once locked behind cranes and steadicams.
Footage of the drone soaring through a narrow gorge, the camera executing a spiraling Dutch angle mid-flight, evokes the cinematic intensity of a big-budget action sequence—captured entirely without a crew.
Night Flight, No Fear
Low-light aerial work used to be a gamble. Now, the Mavic 4 Pro turns that fear into fascination. With 0.1-lux omnidirectional night vision sensors and LiDAR-assisted navigation, I was gliding over coastal brushland just after sunset with the confidence of broad daylight.
Six fisheye sensors scan for hazards. It’s eerie how well it “sees” in darkness — and essential if you, like me, enjoy pushing flights close to first or last light.
The DJI Store on our affiliate link to Amazon USA has some stock.
Buy the DJI Mavic 4 Pro drone from our affiliate Kogan in Australia.
We may earn a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase from these links.
DJI Mavic 4 Pro tutorial
Mavic 4 Pro Flight Time to Match the Vision
The Mavic 2 Pro demanded careful battery management, often limiting the scope of aerial shoots. In contrast, the Mavic 4 Pro’s new 51-minute intelligent flight battery dramatically extends time in the air, reducing the need for constant landings and battery swaps.
Pilots can cover vast distances and complex terrain on a single charge, with the system providing timely low-battery warnings to ensure safe return and recovery before power runs low.
There’s plenty of time to cover a 41km coastal stretch — headland, sandspit, reef — with a single battery and still had juice left to orbit a pod of dolphins.
Broadcast-Ready, Straight Out of the Sky
Video quality? Supreme. 6K/60fps HDR on the Hasselblad and 4K/120fps slow-mo on the wide and medium tele. All with 10-bit D-Log M, HLG, or D-Log, depending on your workflow. The footage slides seamlessly into a Davinci Resolve colour suite, and if you grab the 512GB Creator Combo, you unlock 10-bit 4:2:2 All-I — something I didn’t expect to see outside a cinema rig.
Smart Tracking, Smarter Flying Mavic 4 Pro
Initial skepticism about ActiveTrack 360° quickly fades once the system is put to the test. When following a vehicle along a narrow dirt road flanked by overhanging trees, the drone maintains precise framing, navigating through complex environments with apparent ease.
Even at distances beyond 200 metres, the tracking remains smooth and reliable, showcasing the system’s advanced object recognition and pathfinding capabilities.
Controller That Just Works
The DJI RC 2 controller is no afterthought. The built-in 5.5” 1080p screen is sharp, and the 700-nit brightness means I’m not constantly squinting into the sun. With the new O4+ transmission, I’m getting rock-solid feed clarity at distances up to 30km — although I’ll leave that sort of long-haul flight to the search and rescue crews.
Mavic 4 Pro recommendation
As someone who’s spent a career crafting images that frame Australia’s coast from above, I’ve always treated drones as tools — valuable ones, sure, but tools nonetheless.
The Mavic 4 Pro changes that.
This isn’t just a flying camera. It’s a creative partner, a cinematic eye, and a machine that knows how to stay out of its own way. It lets me chase light, shape narrative, and tell stories with more depth, freedom, and clarity than I thought possible without a full production crew.
If the Mavic 2 Pro was the beginning of a golden age for solo aerial photographers, the Mavic 4 Pro is the next chapter — and I, for one, can’t wait to see what I’ll find in the clouds next.
— Mark Anning, Aerial Photographer, Coastal Documentarian, and Pilot of Tiny Robots with Big Eyes
The DJI Store on our affiliate link to Amazon USA has some stock.
Buy the DJI Mavic 4 Pro drone from our affiliate Kogan in Australia.
We may earn a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase from these links.
Funny story about drone photography
While sailing across the Tasman Sea aboard the HMB Endeavour, a professional drone operator launched his aircraft to capture sweeping aerial footage of the tall ship slicing through open ocean. The drone circled beautifully, catching the wind in the sails and the wake trailing behind—until the moment came to bring it home. He tapped ‘return to home,’ only to watch in horror as the drone turned and flew off—back toward the GPS location where the ship had been ten minutes earlier. As the drone steadily vanished toward the empty horizon, a brief panic set in, met with roaring laughter from the crew of costumed pirates on deck. With a last-minute override and some deft piloting, the drone was brought back aboard—wet palms, red face, and all.
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