Air 3S Delivered. A Few Big (& Unadvertised) Things I Noticed.

[davidarmenb]

Just like a good number of you, my Air 3S was just delivered!!


Right away, I noticed a few things that I have not seen DJI or anyone else talk about as of yet.
These are not listed by importance; they are random.

First, the bag isn’t exactly the same. The internal separators are thinner and harder in the 3S bag. And the 3S bag appears to have a slightly thicker outer casing. The foam underneath the drone in the 3S bag is also cheaper than the foam in the 3 bag.

Air 3 bag above

Air 3S bag above

Second, I have not heard anyone talk about the fact that the 3S batteries are now Lithium Ion, whereas the Air 3 batteries were Lithium Ion Polymer (top right corner of battery label):

Air 3 Battery above

Air 3S Battery above

Also, the Battery charging hub is exactly the same as the Air 3. It even says “Air 3 Charging Hub” underneath. Same model and everything.

The 3S batteries are very slightly smaller than the 3 batteries, since they move around when inserted into the charging hub (there is a click-clack sound when you shake the hub with the batteries inserted), whereas the Air 3 batteries are very snug and do not move at all when inserted into the hub.

Also, and this one is big. I purchased the Freewell Split ND for my Air 3 because I wanted to have a more even exposure between the f1.7 and f2.8 since I shoot manual and since the Freewell NDs are one stop darker for the wide angle lens (hence the ‘split’ designation).
To my huge surprise, looking at the accessory booklet that came with the Air 3S, I came upon this illustration showing how to install and remove the ND filters:


It appears the DJI ND filters for the Air 3S are also split ND filters!!!

Did anyone know this about the ND filters???


These are the things I have noticed so far, that I did not yet know, despite doing tons of Air 3S research.

 

[Erk1024]

the 3S batteries are now Lithium Ion, whereas the Air 3 batteries were Lithium Ion Polymer

That's interesting! If memory serves, Lipo battery deliver more power delivery per second, but Lion batteries have more energy density? But the Air3's already climbed like a rocket. Is there a difference in weight between the batteries?

 

[4 inch pistons]

The Avata2 and the Neo also have switched to LiOn. They take a bit more abuse than LiPo.

 

[swoermck]

The 3S batteries are very slightly smaller than the 3 batteries, since they move around when inserted into the charging hub (there is a click-clack sound when you shake the hub with the batteries inserted), whereas the Air 3 batteries are very snug and do not move at all when inserted into the hub.

So if the 3S Batterien are smaller.. the Air 3 batteries will not fit into the Air 3S (Drone)?

 

[Suren]

So if the 3S Batterien are smaller.. the Air 3 batteries will not fit into the Air 3S (Drone)?

It does fit and can fly with the Air 3 batteries but when I tried I was getting battery low errors although FW was updated and battery was at 80% charge. Put it back in Air 3 and flew no issues.

 

[GFields]

Thanks for sharing

 

[Macinfo]

Some review videos noted that the batteries between the Air 3 and Air 3S were different and interchangeable .

I have not seen anyone note any differences in the filters yet, however because of sensor differences between lenses, I am not surprised.

Ultimately, unless the case fails prematurely in some way in regular use, you can always look for a hard case of some sort that ultimately may provide better protection. One reviewer noted that the new case seems to be a bit tighter if I recall, making removing components in some cases less convenient.

 

[davidarmenb]

It does fit and can fly with the Air 3 batteries but when I tried I was getting battery low errors although FW was updated and battery was at 80% charge. Put it back in Air 3 and flew no issues.

That’s very interesting! What is the cycle number of that battery? I have used one of my Air 3 batteries on my Air 3S this morning with absolutely no issues. I landed it when it was 15% no problems at all. My Air 3 batteries each have about 50 cycles on them.

 

[davidarmenb]

So if the 3S Batterien are smaller.. the Air 3 batteries will not fit into the Air 3S (Drone)?

No they are not smaller in that sense. They are interchangeable. It is just smaller by a tinyyyy amount which makes it rattle in the charging case.

 

[davidarmenb]

That's interesting! If memory serves, Lipo battery deliver more power delivery per second, but Lion batteries have more energy density? But the Air3's already climbed like a rocket. Is there a difference in weight between the batteries?

Usually yes, but for the amount of power the drone needs from a 4S battery, the power requirements is more than enough. If it was, say, a 2S battery, there might have been more of a difference, maybe.

 

[davidarmenb]

Another thing I’ve noticed which I have not yet seen anyone talk about is the fact that you can now shoot AEB Panoramas! Once you are in panorama mode, and you click on the bottom right section where you normally change the resolution and the white balance, you can now choose to shoot the photos of the panos with 3 or 5 bracketed shots!!

Now, the question is whether the drone uses the AEB photos to do its internal stitching or if the AEB shots just go into the panorama folder for whoever wants to stitch manually?

I would imagine the internal stitcher uses the data from the bracketed photos to stitch the pano, but I am unsure as of yet.

 

[Erk1024]

you can now shoot AEB Panoramas!

OMG. This is what I need!

 

[ryguy80]

Another thing I’ve noticed which I have not yet seen anyone talk about is the fact that you can now shoot AEB Panoramas! Once you are in panorama mode, and you click on the bottom right section where you normally change the resolution and the white balance, you can now choose to shoot the photos of the panos with 3 or 5 bracketed shots!!

Now, the question is whether the drone uses the AEB photos to do its internal stitching or if the AEB shots just go into the panorama folder for whoever wants to stitch manually?

I would imagine the internal stitcher uses the data from the bracketed photos to stitch the pano, but I am unsure as of yet.

That's awesome! DJI implements AEB so well. I'm intimidated to use it on DSLR/mirrorless cameras since it's buried in menus and it's a little more of a manual process to pull it off.

 

[MavicFlyer2]

Another thing I’ve noticed which I have not yet seen anyone talk about is the fact that you can now shoot AEB Panoramas!

I've never had any luck shoot AEB photos.

 

[kinetix]

I haven't been able to find how to set the low battery alarm and low battery RTH like on my Air3 and mini's. Am I missing something?

 

[kinetix]

I haven't been able to find how to set the low battery alarm and low battery RTH like on my Air3 and mini's. Am I missing something?

I moved to a separate post; thx.

 

[davedrone 178]

I measured the Air 3 and Air 3s batteries. And as advertised, the 3s batteries are a full 20 grams
lighter than the Air 3. That's a good thing!

 

[davidarmenb]

I measured the Air 3 and Air 3s batteries. And as advertised, the 3s batteries are a full 20 grams
lighter than the Air 3. That's a good thing!

Could be due to the difference in the chemistry since Li-Ion can pack more energy per unit of mass compared to Li-Po.

 

[davidarmenb]

YET ANOTHER THING that I’ve noticed on the Air 3S! In addition to being able to take AEB shots when in Panorama mode, I have also noticed that it now allows you to choose 48/50MP when shooting panoramas! The Air 3 defaults to 12MP with no way to change it to 48MG when in Panorama mode.
As before, I am unsure what differences there are when it stitches the 48/50MP panos internally, but the photos in the PANORAMA folder will be 48/50MP if that option is chosen!

Also, this is a side note, but when the specs got leaked and we saw that the the 50MP sensor still becomes 12MP when pixel binned, I was thinking there will probably be a crop when switching from 50MP to 12MP because the drone would use the central 48MP of the sensor to pixel-bin into 12MP. As a matter of fact, that is the case; it does indeed crop in a little bit when switching to 12MP mode since it is using the central 48MP of the sensor.

 

[dlazerx]

I'm using 2 air3s and 1 air3 batteries on mine, there's no difference between the two during flight.