As title says, Is image/video quality improvement noticeable going from
Air 2 to
2S? I have searched and haven't come across any good objective comparisons.
Yes, on a proper 4K monitor the difference is noticeable. However for me, I find the
Air 2 footage easier to color correct and make look more appealing, and you don't need to think about focus while flying. The
Air 2S has a slightly magenta tint, which makes it harder to color correct, especially its more flat D-Log profile, compared to D-Cinelike on the
Air 2.
The 60FPS mode on the
Air 2S does crop in, which is pretty annoying, this doesn't happen on the
Air 2.
For photos, the
Mavic Air 2 48MP mode is better in my opinion than the regular 24MP on the
Air 2S. However I found myself almost never using the 48MP mode on the
Air 2, because the photo is just way too big to upload to social media. On the
Air 2S there is the additional benefit of AEB mode in 24MP, however there is no 48MP on the
Air 2S, but its 24MP mode is almost as good.
Editing 24MP raw photos, especially AEB 5 pictures takes some processing power, I needed to upgrade my computer to be able to edit
Air 2S shots.
An added benefit of the
Air 2 is its HDR Video mode, it looks very good straight out of camera, but with a bit of editing in DaVinci Resolve, the video will look even better! Sometimes it is noisy in very contrasty scenes or in dark environments, but not that often.
When talking about Night Photos and Videos,
Air 2S seems better, especially in videos with lower frame rates. Photos are better with larger sensor as well, however you can achieve as good results with the
Air 2 using Long Exposure (this doesn't work in windy environments).