okay so this might be a dumb idea but hear me out. ive had my Mavic 2 Pro for going on three years and the Hasselblad camera is still great but im starting to feel limited by it for some specific stuff im doing, mainly low light video where i really want to push ISO without the noise getting out of hand and also some thermal overlay work for a client who does building envelope inspections.

i know there are third party payload options but most of what ive seen is either for the bigger enterprise platforms or its like a full gimbal replacement that weighs so much it basically kills your flight time. has anyone actually rigged up something on a Mavic 2 frame that works? im not opposed to doing something custom but i also dont want to build myself into a corner with something that loses stabilization entirely. the stock 3-axis gimbal on the M2P is honestly one of the things i like most about the platform so giving that up feels like a step back even if the sensor is better.

maybe im overthinking this and should just move to an M3E or something. idk

realistically the M2P isnt really built to accept third party payloads in any clean way, there's no payload SDK support on that platform the way there is on the M300 or even the newer M3E. people have done janky stuff like strapping lightweight sensors underneath but you lose all the gimbal integration and you're basically just hanging something off the airframe hoping your vibration isolation is good enough. for thermal overlay specifically that's going to be a mess without proper stabilization sync between the two cameras.

honestly if thermal is becoming a real part of your work the M3E with the Zenmuse E payload route or even just an Autel EVO II Enterprise Dual makes way more sense. the M2P is a fantastic imaging platform for what it was designed for but its a closed ecosystem and trying to work around that usually ends in frustration and subpar results.

ive seen a few people mount the FLIR Lepton module under a Mavic frame for proof of concept stuff but the image quality is pretty rough and like the other reply said you lose gimbal stabilization so any wind at all and your thermal footage is shaky garbage. for actual client deliverables that's not going to cut it. the low light thing though ? have you tried shooting in D-Log on the M2P and doing heavy noise reduction in post? not a hardware fix obviously but i got pretty usable results that way up to about 3200 before it got too muddy. depends on what your client actually needs i guess.