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Air 2S vs. Mavic Air 2 - What’s the Difference?

Show us where YOU can get 34 mins flight time. Does not happen in real world. Even at full charge right off the charging base - my Air2 may have 30 mins battery life. That is not flight time. By the time the critical battery warning hits and landing commences around the 3 minute mark - more or less, you have maybe 25-27 mins of real flight time. Add in some wind, sport mode, and other factors - and you're down to well below 25 mins max.

Marketing pitches in the non real world seem to fool a lot of people.
True, BUT, the real world time should still be relative to the theoretical time, and while 3 minutes doesn't seem like much, it's about a 10% reduction. That's something.

Not that it would be a deal breaker for me, but still worth considering.
 
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Show us where YOU can get 34 mins flight time. Does not happen in real world. Even at full charge right off the charging base - my Air2 may have 30 mins battery life. That is not flight time. By the time the critical battery warning hits and landing commences around the 3 minute mark - more or less, you have maybe 25-27 mins of real flight time. Add in some wind, sport mode, and other factors - and you're down to well below 25 mins max.

Marketing pitches in the non real world seem to fool a lot of people.
True, BUT, the real world time should still be relative to the theoretical time, and while 3 minutes doesn't seem like much, it's about a 10% reduction. That's something.

Not that it would be a deal breaker for me, but still worth considering.
 
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While I'm happy with my MA2, if DJI offers a decent trade-in, i would consider the MA2s.

It's safe to say that most of us are here because we like aerial photography.
 
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So the air 2s will pair with an air 2 controller?

It would make the upgrade a lot less painfulwhen air 2s body only deals come out . . Or replacement if you killed your air 2
Yes, and the Mini2 as well. Supposedly though you don't get the full 12km range, only the 10km like with the Mini2 and MA2, even though the controller has the same model number. If that's true then they must have made custom firmware or something. I dont know if that's true but someone on this forum, or possibly youtube, claimed not to get as much range with the MA2 controller
 
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Yes, and the Mini2 as well. Supposedly though you don't get the full 12km range, only the 10km like with the Mini2 and MA2, even though the controller has the same model number. If that's true then they must have made custom firmware or something. I dont know if that's true but someone on this forum, or possibly youtube, claimed not to get as much range with the MA2 controller
Thankyou! I'll bet the range thing has to do with the Air 2s having the 4 antennas VS two in the older drones. . . ?
 
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Thankyou! I'll bet the range thing has to do with the Air 2s having the 4 antennas VS two in the older drones. . . ?
It's quite possible you're right since I'm not a technician or anything to evaluate but when the only difference is whether the controller came out of an Air2s box or a MA2 one I'm not sure why there's a difference. The Air2s is the same either way but supposedly will get 2km less when you use the MA2 controller. Which, based on part number at least, is the same for both drones. So I just don't know, I must be missing something.
 
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Greetings from the Czech Republic. Does DJI Fly have a lockable exposition in DJI Air 2S? For previous drones, there was always an icon with a lock at AE in the application interface "at hand". How is it being addressed there now?
Then it's also not clear to me whether the images are saved separately in the panorama mode or whether only a complete panoramic image is created and saved?
Furthermore, is it true that at a resolution of 4K / 60 the whole sensor is not used and when switching to this mode there is a digital zoom?
And last but not least, do propellers really appear in this drone in flight and in normal mode? Thank you.
 
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Difference? Slight at best, Camera is largest advance though performance is lesses than a MA2. No real need to upgrade if the Mavic Air 2 if already at hand, IMO. Of course if your keeping up with the Jneos'.
The Air 2S, as I understand it, is a camera upgrade. The Air 2S is no longer designated as "Mavic", simply DJI Air 2S.

Am I mistaken. Why the change? Simple a Goof? Looks, smells, behaves mostly like a Mavic Air 2; why drop the Mavic designation?

BTW, I like DronkLink for its waypoint capabilities, over Litchi. After-all, Litchi cant get it up and working.
 
I just did a “stress” test with the 2S in difficult lighting conditions, it is literally in a different world to the MA2 when light is an issue. Don’t think just low light, think also any kind of challenging conditions, high contrast situations. The difference of noise in the shadows and how much of the shadows you can recover on the 2S is really really big, it's not even close.
 
I just did a “stress” test with the 2S in difficult lighting conditions, it is literally in a different world to the MA2 when light is an issue. Don’t think just low light, think also any kind of challenging conditions, high contrast situations. The difference of noise in the shadows and how much of the shadows you can recover on the 2S is really really big, it's not even close.
Oooh cool, thanks, that's the info I was looking for! Color Grading with the Air 2 does kind of SUCK! breaks up pretty quick, especially the noise situation. . .
 
I just did a “stress” test with the 2S in difficult lighting conditions, it is literally in a different world to the MA2 when light is an issue. Don’t think just low light, think also any kind of challenging conditions, high contrast situations. The difference of noise in the shadows and how much of the shadows you can recover on the 2S is really really big, it's not even close.
I just bought the Air2s. It's video at night is amazing. There is hardly any, if any, graininess, when I fly over lit parking lots or street lamps in video mode. Zooming into individual video frames and increasing the brightness causes very little noticeable artifacts. In picture mode, it's very bright, but I think the ISO goes way up, making it grainy, but that occurs with the M2P as well. I am selling my Mav Air2.
 
Yes, the brightness was the very first thing that I noticed, it’s exactly 2 stops brighter than the MA2, which is HUGE.
 
Difference? Slight at best, Camera is largest advance though performance is less than a MA2. No real need to upgrade if the Mavic Air 2 if already at hand, IMO. Of course if your keeping up with the Jones'.
The Air 2S, as I understand it, is a camera upgrade. The Air 2S is no longer designated as "Mavic", simply DJI Air 2S.

Am I mistaken. Why the change? Simple a Goof? Looks, smells, behaves mostly like a Mavic Air 2; why drop the Mavic designation?

BTW, I like DronkLink for its waypoint capabilities, over Litchi. After-all, Litchi cant get it up and working.
MISSING UNMENTIONED NEW FEATURES.......
Hi all,

Relative newbie to droning here, but have been a commercial photographer for 34 years so have some experience in this area

I had never used a drone up until a year ago when the MA2 was released, I now have 2 of them ( allowing for one in use while the other is 'potentially' getting repaired ) :)and have done over 1000kms flying with them so far

I have just purchased a MA2S and took the time to note the differences when setting up​

Point 1 - As I already had 2x MA2 drones, this was my 3rd controller and I figured I wouldn't need it due to owning a smart controller so was intending to sell it
Therefore....... I never even tried to set up the drone using the supplied controller ( wanting to leave it in a 'mint' unused condition ). I then ended up spending 2 days trying unsuccessfully to pair my new drone to the smart controller, all in vain
After a LOT of research, I discovered the drone is initially 'locked' and is pre-paired to the supplied controller so MUST be initially set up using this ( happy to be proved wrong here ). Anyway, got it activated and set up and was then able to get it paired to the smart controller....

Now to the new features NOT mentioned in any of the above posts.......
As I have never used any drones EXCEPT for the MA2, I'm not sure what of these features are available on other drones, I just know that the MA2 DOES NOT have these features......

New Feature 1 :- Manual Focus
The MA2 was a fixed focus camera whereas the MA2S has adjustable focus ( via a slider on the screen ) along with a macro setting

New Feature 2 :- Focus Peaking
For those of you used to using the Sony camera systems ( A or E mount ) focus peaking will be a welcome addition
For those of you that don't know what Focus Peaking is, it's when the camera adds a coloured outline around sharp edges in the photo, but only in the area in focus, allowing extremely easy manual focusing :)

New Feature 3 ;- New Still Photo Ratios
the MA2 has the options of 4:3 or 16:9 ratios when shooting stills
The MA2S has the options of 3:2 or 16:9 ( But not 4:3 )
The 3:2 is a welcome addition to those of us combining our drone stills with conventional DSLR stills, keeping all the images the same shape ! ! !

I'm sure there are heaps of other features but these are the ones I've discovered that I didn't read as covered in the posts above

As for flying, work has been busy so tomorrow will be my first day flying with it, heading to Queenstown NZ ( Google it ) so will be capturing some footage along the way

Have a great weekend everyone, hope my insights prove useful to some......

Cheers, Stu
 
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Only way I am going to an Air 2s from my air 2 is if I wreck out the Air 2 (I already own it) OR if they release the ability for the air2s to use the v2 goggles with Occusync 3.

that being said, if I were needing a new drone I would go for the air 2s.. Other wise i will just wait for what the Mavic 3 looks like.
 
I have the MA2 and interested in upgrading for the MA2s for its ability to capture in dark condition (The camera). But nobody mentions thatbthe MA2s lacks HDR filters! Anyone know about this and how important it may be?
 
In reality you won’t. Most will get 21-24 minutes from both in average conditions.
DJI Air 2S
16 Minute Average Flight Time
(100% -> 20%)

Here are the flight times of my last 20 flights in minutes:
19, 17, 15, 15, 13, 16, 16, 13, 17, 18, 18, 19, 19, 14, 19, 14, 14, 14, 16, 18
 
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