Case dismissed. George Steinmetz gets his DJI Mavic 2 Pro back!
Back in April, as he was taking aerial photos of the mass burials on Hart Island, award-winning National Geographic and New York Times photographer, George Steinmetz had his DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone confiscated by the New York Police Department (NYPD).
Update: There has been some confusion as to what drone exactly was confiscated. An earlier version of this article mentioned it was a DJI Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian. I emailed George Steinmetz and he replied saying that it was indeed a DJI Mavic 2 Pro as we originally reported.
It was a Mavic 2 Pro. – George
Case dismissed. George Steinmetz gets his DJI Mavic 2 Pro back!
Kara Murphy reports for DPReview that Steinmetz was issued a desk ticket for violating.
NYC Administrative Code § 10–126, which prohibits the takeoff and landing of drones within New York City.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for early August. The NYPD, however, had kept Steinmetz's drone DJI Mavic 2 Pro as evidence, forcing the famous aerial photographer to buy a new drone.
Steinmetz ended up buying two new DJI Mavic 2 Pro drones after an unsuccessful attempt to get the Mavic 2 drone back from the NYPD. He explained, “I need to get back to work.” Steinmetz added:
‘The Mavic 2 Pro is in a real sweet spot for me. I prefer the optics and files from the big bird, the Inspire 2 with the X7 gimbal. But the Mavic 2 flies really well, has a decent file…the compactness is quite revolutionary.'
Fortunately, the story ended well as Steinmetz recently and suddenly got his drone back from the NYPD. He told DPReview that:
‘My case was spontaneously dismissed last week [the week of August 7th, 2020], so I went down to the Bronx Police HQ on Wednesday and recovered it. During the time it was confiscated I had to buy a replacement to keep working, and don't know if I will pursue any further Legal action.'
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Haye Kesteloo
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It was the DJI Inspire 2 that was confiscated…. He says that in his quote. Look it up, the remote controller for the Inspire 2 is also the remote controller he is holding in the top cover photo.
I emailed George yesterday to clear this up. It was in fact the M2P as we reported in our original article back in April.
It was not his Inspire 2. Read the follow up comment with him confirming the Mavic 2 was confiscated. He even mentions he both a replacement because even though he prefers the Inspire 2 with X7 gimbal/camera the smaller drone fills a niche fir hin.
The initial reporting confused the issue of which drone by mentioning the Phantom series.