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Image quality
I find that for me—shooting around dusk and dawn are ideal times of day because the sun is not front lighting the earth and golden hour shooting lasts only a short period of time. In general, I prefer to shoot within 2 hours after sunrise and before sunset. When it gets dark enough to shoot above 100 ISO for video, noise becomes apparent in 4K. The image looks great at 100 ISO. It falls in line nicely with what the whole line of dji drones can do in the mavic series. It actually looks better than the Mavic Zoom, less moire. They’ve put a new sensor into the Mavic air 2. The quad bayer chip is an upgrade from previous sensors. I think this may not help the resolution so much as the camera’s ability to see a wider range of light and dark. HDR mode is one of the benefits of the quad bayer sensor. However, I didn’t see any major improvements in the dynamic range between my three drones. One additional thing, and this is a known issue with HDR, is that the image becomes a bit more jelly like with heavy left/right motion because of how the sensor must double expose to capture highlight and lowlight data simultaneously. Still though, I like the image straight out of the box.
I think it’s a bit crazy that you can record 4K 60FPS on this camera.
There’s not a lot I can say about the DJI fly app other than it’s a nicely streamlined version of the dji go apps. It’s smoother and simpler. There is one function that I think is interesting. The fly spots is a cool idea whether you’re into doing what’s been done or knowing what’s been done and avoiding it. When that map has been populated more, I think it’ll be a unique tool to help people get closer to what they want.
The fly more combo includes a few things that I think are necessities if you’re not just going out for a casual flight. First, they give you ND filters. The camera cannot change it’s iris so the settings you change for your exposure are the Shutter and the ISO. Raising the ISO increases noise and exposing with the shutter too high creates this jittery effect to the action. All cameras deal with this so the ND is super helpful when you’re shooting in bright sunlight. If you’re trying to get nicer images and you don’t want to spend the extra money for the fly more combo, at least order the ND filters. They also include a USB battery adapter in the kit, which allows you to charge anything that uses USB off of the drones batteries. Maybe you need to charge a second phone and you’re nowhere near your car? Maybe you need to charge the controller? It’s a smart alternate use of the drone’s batteries
They’ve also smartly included extra rc sticks, iPhone cable and props in case you lose either. I rarely lose my gear, but if I’m moving fast, these small parts can easily fall down so it’s great to have backups. One thing to notes is that it takes the Mavic Air 2 Batteries a little longer to charge than the Pro, so it might be worth picking up an extra battery if you’re planning to fly a bunch in one day. However, with that said, I got about 30 minutes of flight time on my first flight.
The new controller is nicely streamlined. It appears to have joined the phone holder and antennae into one piece, which is great. It’s easier to install the phone on the new controller than the previous models because the controller clamps down on the sides of the phone that don’t have the lightning connector. I also appreciate the iPhone being placed above the controller. It’s easier to see.
There is one additional thing they’ve added to this drone that I knew was coming in the future and now that it’s here, I’m a little less worried about it now than when I first heard about it. ADS-B is an aircraft tracking system that is used in all modern aircraft now and keeps pretty formidably accurate tabs on where all aircraft are at all times. Just look on flightradar24.com and you’ll see how many flights you can track live with incredible altitude and flight detail. I thought the addition of the airsense chip that provides ADS-B for the drone might make it easier to track consumers, but instead it’s actually just a receiver that listens for manned aircraft. When a plane armed with ads-b flies towards the mavic air 2, the mavic warns the user through the app that the aircraft is on a collision course and tells the drone operator to move through the app. This is a huge positive development in my opinion. Right away, when I turned it on, I saw that there were planes heading my way. Frankly, if I’m flying a mile away—which I have with this drone—knowing all the hazards around me is essential. I don’t want to endanger people and I don’t want to lose a drone that I’ve spent good money on.
Overall, I think this drone is a good choice for shooters who need a quick and small drone but don’t have the resources for a bigger drone like the inspire 2. It’s smaller than the Mavic 2 Pro and still provides good image quality on H.265. I think if you’ve got $1000 to spend to go adventuring with it, this will enhance your experience. There are a lot of clever additions to this beast and it’s all packed into a tiny package.
I have a few tips for the uninitiated as well:
If you want to get the most natural movement to your videos from this drone, use the ND filters on a bright day. These filters will reduce the light hitting the sensor, allowing you to slow the shutter down for less choppy motion blur. As a rule of thumb, you want to expose your shutter at double the frame rate (ie 24fps, 1/48th of a second or 30fps, 1/60fps).
Professional hyperlapses have smooth, consistent movement and this drone can do a few moves on its own very effectively, like course lock for instance. I strongly suggest filming in non-windy conditions and to not use the free movement mode for the best results.
One last tip, you don’t even need to fly the drone to take advantage of its stabilized camera. You can fold up the arms and run around with the camera just like you would a regular gimbaled camera. It won’t record sound, but for those shots that don’t require sound in your edit, it’s a perfect hack for steady footage.
