DJI Provides Detailed Comparisons of Specs for Consumer Drones

[daisy-girl]

Consumer Drones Comparison- DJI

Here's my take after using the page to compare the Air with the Pro:

For reasons that remain obscure, DJI never mentions that the 28mm lens (35mm equivalent) on the Mavic Pro can zoom up to 2x -- and that at 28mm it already has a narrower field of view (78.8 degrees) than their other consumer drones, which means it's not quite as good for landscapes but better for, say, selfies.

For example, the new Mavic Air's lens is 24mm equivalent with a FOV of 85 degrees. The page does not say whether it can zoom.

There is also a difference in the fixed aperture: f2.2 for the Pro, f2.8 for the Air. When it is recalled that the Pro is capable of zooming out to 56mm (see the below image), this once again means the Pro is better for selective focus, not to mention better low-light capability.

Add the fact that the max ISO with the Pro is 3200 but 1600 for the Air, and the difference between the two becomes more clear (pun intended).

The DJI page omits that the Pro, like the Air, has an HDR setting -- but does point out that only the Air has automatic "32MP" Pano mode. In reality, for photos the Pro can bet set to Portrait view if one wishes to make a panoramic image.

During the presentation on the 23rd, the DJI rep said the Air is capable of 4K@60fps, but the page says 30fps, same as the Pro.

The Fly More (3 batteries) package for the Air lists for $999, whereas the list price for the Pro alone is $999 -- however, DJI is currently selling the Alpine White Mavic Pro Fly More package for $1099. Both prices include tax and shipping.

Is the Pro package worth the extra $100? If the above specs haven't already convinced you, please read on.

Here's an important difference between the Air and the Pro: while the takeoff weight for the former is 430g, for the latter it's 734g. But here's what you get for carrying more weight: the max flying time for the Air is 21 minutes, while for the Pro it's 27.

Re Intelligent Flight Modes (automatic settings), the Air has 7, the Pro 11. The most important one missing from the Air is Course Lock: Point the nose in the direction you want the aircraft to travel, activate Course Lock, including the desired speed in meters/second (as low as 1.0), and push Go. The result is that as the drone travels forward, its forward sensors will both warn the pilot and halt the aircraft if there is an obstruction, no matter which way the camera is pointing.

What that means is that pilots are free to point the camera in whatever direction they please while moving forward. The 3-axis gimbal of the Pro handles -90degrees (straight down) to +30degrees (30 degrees above the horizontal) in landscape view, which means pilots can capture not only gorgeous scenery below but also interesting cloud formations above in their images.

I've set my Pro's gimbal at the maximum setting in terms of slowness and smoothness during tilting (moving up and down). Imagine traveling along a chosen direction at 1m/s while tilting from -90 to +30 and back again and then playing that later at on a HDTV-- especially when made in a country like the Philippines, where most of the scenery continue to be pristine and the sky, too, tends to be gorgeous. I think of this as a Vertical Panorama.

The tilt of the Air is -90 up to only 0 in landscape mode, not +30 -- a very significant difference.

BTW, contrary to what you might have read elsewhere, the front props do NOT show at +30 unless the pilot is traveling forward at high speed.

BTW#2, I don't know whether the Air offers Portrait Mode, like the Pro does (see below image).

The DJI comparison page mentions other differences that I've not covered here.

 

[Atlas]

I would say the Pro is far better just by reading the post. I haven't really looked into the Air nor do I have any reason to. Very happy with my Pro.
Great pic btw

 

[Johnmcl7]

Consumer Drones Comparison- DJI

Here's my take after using the page to compare the Air with the Pro:

For reasons that remain obscure, DJI never mentions that the 28mm lens (35mm equivalent) on the Mavic Pro can zoom up to 2x -- and that at 28mm it already has a narrower field of view (78.8 degrees) than their other consumer drones, which means it's not quite as good for landscapes but better for, say, selfies.

The Mavic pro has no zoom as it has a prime lens, any 'zooming' it does is either through cropping or interpolation.

For example, the new Mavic Air's lens is 24mm equivalent with a FOV of 85 degrees. The page does not say whether it can zoom.

As it has a prime lens, 1/2.3in sensor and 4K support, it can 'zoom' through software the same way the Pro can - if it's not offered on the controls itself, it can be done in video editing software afterwards.

There is also a difference in the fixed aperture: f2.2 for the Pro, f2.8 for the Air. When it is recalled that the Pro is capable of zooming out to 56mm (see the below image), this once again means the Pro is better for selective focus, not to mention better low-light capability.

As above, the Pro has no zoom capability but also the very short focal length due to the tiny 1/2.3in sensor and wide angle lens ( to calculate Depth of field you use the actual focal length, not the effective focal length and apertures are not equivalent for DoF) means there's no selective focus on either the Pro or the Air. Smartphones that offer a selective focus feature are doing it through software (either with the use of a second lens like Apple or Samsung or pure software like the Google Pixel 2's), genuine shallow depth of field needs a much larger sensor generally up to APS-C to get proper usable shallow depth of field and even with a wide angle lens on an FF sensor, you won't really get shallow depth of field effects.

However the faster aperture on the Mavic does offer it a significant advantage in light gathering as the F2.2 lens will let in 2/3 more light than the Air which is important when it's a tiny sensor that's not good with low light.

Add the fact that the max ISO with the Pro is 3200 but 1600 for the Air, and the difference between the two becomes more clear (pun intended).

Well in reality, it's not clear at all - ISO 1600 at 1/2.3in is so horrible it's not much use and iso 3200 is just a numbers game, I suspect DJI are just pushing the ISO in software to get the 3200 mode and aren't doing in the Air to give the Mavic an advantage on paper. The downside to small 1/2.3in sensors is their high iso performance is poor, even at base ISO and at high iso it becomes a real mess. Compact camera manufacturers do the same, I've seen some hilariously quoting max isos of 5000 or even 12000 (where really only FF sensors can manage that) when they're noisy at base iso and not usable past iso 400.

The Mavic's 2/3 faster aperture though does mean it has a genuine advantage as the Air will need to be at a higher iso than the Mavic for the same brightness due to its slower lens.

During the presentation on the 23rd, the DJI rep said the Air is capable of 4K@60fps, but the page says 30fps, same as the Pro

The Air is still 30fps at 4K although it does have a higher bitrate on that mode as it can do 100Mb/s whereas the Pro can only do 60. The Air can also do a wider range of framerates at 1080p from 24 up to 120, I don't know if they ever fixed it but the Pro seemed to have issues with 1080p60.

Here's an important difference between the Air and the Pro: while the takeoff weight for the former is 430g, for the latter it's 734g. But the max flying time for the Air is 21 minutes, while for the Pro it's 27.

That's the big one for me, it doesn't look that much of a difference but with drones the batterylife is so crucial because you have to get it down and landed before the battery gets too low. I was actually relieved they hadn't managed to increase the flight time over the Pro as it made the decision easy, the faster lens on the Pro is also a big plus given the sensor struggles in anything less than optimal light as it is.

The Pro also has a better controller, the Air uses a simpler controller similar to the Spark. I believe the Pro controller's range is better and also it has the display, I guess you can check the phone screen but when flying a Spark I did miss the LED screen on the controller.

 

[TheoMatthias]

...[snip} The Air is still 30fps at 4K although it does have a higher bitrate on that mode as it can do 100Mb/s whereas the Pro can only do 60.{snip}...

The PRO can do Cinema-4K but the AIR is limited to UHD 4K.

 

[LivinLarge]

The f/2.8 fixed focus lens on the Air may mean that the nearest and farthest subjects will be less sharp than those shot with the Pro's lens when actually focused at that distance. The 24 mm equiv lens on the Air will mean that objects will appear smaller on the sensor and thus show less detail. On the other hand you will get more in the frame for a given altitude.

 

[LivinLarge]

Re Intelligent Flight Modes (automatic settings), the Air has 7, the Pro 11. The most important one missing from the Air is Course Lock: Point the nose in the direction you want the aircraft to travel, activate Course Lock, including the desired speed in meters/second (as low as 1.0), and push Go. The result is that as the drone travels forward, its forward sensors will both warn the pilot and halt the aircraft if there is an obstruction, no matter which way the camera is pointing.

What that means is that pilots are free to point the camera in whatever direction they please while moving forward.

The camera does not rotate in course lock, it remains pointing forward in line with the forward sensors. The aircraft can be yawed to point the camera in any direction and hold that orientation as it flies. It could be turned at a 45 or 90 degree angle and continue at that angle even though you are just moving the stick forward. Since the front sensors are not pointed in the direction of travel, they would not warn you or stop the aircraft if there is an obstruction.
There are drones such as the Typhoon H which has a camera that rotates 360 degrees. With this one, you can have obstacle avoidance in the direction of travel while the camera is pointed to the side.

 

[daisy-girl]

The camera does not rotate in course lock, it remains pointing forward in line with the forward sensors. The aircraft can be yawed to point the camera in any direction and hold that orientation as it flies. It could be turned at a 45 or 90 degree angle and continue at that angle even though you are just moving the stick forward. Since the front sensors are not pointed in the direction of travel, they would not warn you or stop the aircraft if there is an obstruction.
There are drones such as the Typhoon H which has a camera that rotates 360 degrees. With this one, you can have obstacle avoidance in the direction of travel while the camera is pointed to the side.

Here is what I wrote:

"What that means is that pilots are free to point the camera in whatever direction they please while moving forward. The 3-axis gimbal of the Pro handles -90degrees (straight down) to +30degrees (30 degrees above the horizontal) in landscape view, which means pilots can capture not only gorgeous scenery below but also interesting cloud formations above in their images."

I'm clearly referring to tilting, not panning.

 

[daisy-girl]

The Mavic pro has no zoom as it has a prime lens, any 'zooming' it does is either through cropping or interpolation.

I"m aware of this. Re DOF, I'll do an experiment next time I shoot and then post the results.

 

[LivinLarge]

Here is what I wrote:

"What that means is that pilots are free to point the camera in whatever direction they please while moving forward. The 3-axis gimbal of the Pro handles -90degrees (straight down) to +30degrees (30 degrees above the horizontal) in landscape view, which means pilots can capture not only gorgeous scenery below but also interesting cloud formations above in their images."

I'm clearly referring to tilting, not panning.

I was referring to this statement:
The most important one missing from the Air is Course Lock: Point the nose in the direction you want the aircraft to travel, activate Course Lock, including the desired speed in meters/second (as low as 1.0), and push Go. The result is that as the drone travels forward, its forward sensors will both warn the pilot and halt the aircraft if there is an obstruction, no matter which way the camera is pointing.
Course lock is normally used to move the aircraft in a straight line but having the camera pointed in a direction that is different from the forward flight direction. This is great for creating smooth horizontal pan or dolly shot where you can rotate the aircraft as you move and keep the camera pointed at the subject. OA does not help in this situation. Also, I don't see any speed adjustment for course lock mode.
The description above sounds more like Tap Fly mode.

 

[Johnmcl7]

I"m aware of this. Re DOF, I'll do an experiment next time I shoot and then post the results.

If you're aware of the Mavic Pro having no zoom, it's a bit odd that your post originally (and still does) incorrectly state it does and still also questioning whether the Air has a zoom or not, quite simply it doesn't.

There's no need to experiment with the DoF, even on a larger sensor you're not going to get much shallow depth of field at wide angles but on a 1/2.3in sensor, you're simply not going to get any (aside from perhaps at macro focus distance but that's useless on a drone) - this is why mobile phones (which feature similar sized sensors to the Mavics) user software to digitally create a shallow depth of field effect. Even with a much larger 1in sensor and an F1.8 lens like the Sony RX100MK4 uses (and the Phantom 4 Pro/Advanced), you don't get usable shallow depth of field.

Confusingly apertures are equivalent for calculating exposure but they're not equivalent for calculating depth of field, the former wrongly leads people to assume that as long as you have a big F number (wide aperture), then you can get shallow depth of field. The focal length and distance to subject are also very important and crucially it's the actual focal length, not the equivalent focal length you need to use, the shorter the focal length the greater the depth of field and this is why devices with small sensors like mobile phones, the Mavics and compact cameras cannot offer shallow depth of field. The Mavic has an equivalent focal length of 28mm but it's actual focal length is much shorter at around just 5mm which would be beyond even an ultra wide on full frame.

You can put the numbers in here and have a play with them to see the effects:

Online Depth of Field Calculator

You can choose something like a Panasonic TZ10 which has the same sized sensor as the Mavic to work out the depth of field, remember to enter 5mm not 28mm for the focal length. If you then change to 35mm (which is what equivalent focal length is meant to match) and change the focal length from 5mm to 28mm you'll see how much shorter the depth of field is, bump the FL up to 50mm or 85mm and you'll see proper shallow depth of field which is why these lens are popular for portraits on large sensors. Also if you bump the focal length up to 600mm (super telephoto) and the aperture up to F11, you'll see the depth of field is incredibly shallow despite the dim aperture.

It's not a downside to the Mavic Pro though as for its type of shots, a deep depth of field is a bonus rather than a downside and more importantly, while it may not be capable of shallow depth of field it does gain an exposure advantage over the Air's slower lens.

 

[Johnmcl7]

The PRO can do Cinema-4K but the AIR is limited to UHD 4K.

That doesn't change the fact that the Pro is limited to 60Mb/s and the Air can do almost double at 100Mb/s which is what the quoted text was referring to.

John