Is the Mavic 3 a better choice over an Air 2S? For professionals, for hobbyists?

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Yes it can fly but there is a lot missing , like everything . lol
There are aspects missing in every facet of the drone both video and photo and active track and slow motion .
This is a small list of what is missing,

View attachment 138124

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain and Capture the Storm, Land on the Water.

..
Did they actually tell consumers this before purchase is done ?
I haven’t followed the M3 release much at all
I agree though, release and they have the needed (self imposed) pressure to get these fixed / completed updates as fast as possible.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

..
Did they actually tell consumers this before purchase is done ?
I haven’t followed the M3 release much at all
I agree though, release and they have the needed (self imposed) pressure to get these fixed / completed updates as fast as possible.

No , there was no mention , I was hypnotized to hit the button as fast as i could so even if there was a sparkling light banner with some hot girls holding it I< I would have missed it.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[BSauce955]

No , there was no mention , I was hypnotized to hit the button as fast as i could so even if there was a sparkling light banner with some hot girls holding it I< I would have missed it.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

The money was burning a hole in your pocket huh?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

The money was burning a hole in your pocket huh?

No I honestly thought they would sell out in minutes so I purchased two of them , one for bargain on Ebay when they are sold out , the software delay changed that.

I have till january to decide the fate of both of these.

 

[BSauce955]

No I honestly thought they would sell out in minutes so I purchased two of them , one for bargain on Ebay when they are sold out , the software delay changed that.

I have till january to decide the fate of both of these.

You bought two, wow... I'm sure the second was for me free of charge. Right?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

No , there was no mention , I was hypnotized to hit the button as fast as i could so even if there was a sparkling light banner with some hot girls holding it I< I would have missed it.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

Not good by DJI at all.
I’ve always maintained I’d wait 3-6 months before buying new models, after release glitches in many (most ?) of their past new models.
Let the iron out the bugs, and get things working properly.

edit in months

 

[BSauce955]

Not good by DJI at all.
I’ve always maintained I’d wait 3-6 before buying new models, after release glitches in many (most ?) of their past new models.
Let the iron out the bugs, and get things working properly.

I've always maintained that I'd wait until people start crashing, buy a crashed one, and send it into DJI to be repaired, get a new or refurbished one back, and save a couple of hundred dollars hopefully in the process.

Play smart, not hard.

 

[old man mavic]

it always amazes me ,why we are shocked that a new wonder drone ,has been released ,without the firmware to fully activate all its features
this happens every time a new drone is produced ,not just with DJI but most other drone makers as well
it takes a good few months to iron out bugs and write the programs to correct or add features
because all of us become Beta testers during this process
i recently purchased a new drone ,and have had 4 firmware ,and 3 App updates in the space of two weeks ,this is the norm these days ,as company's try to outdo each other ,in the race to be first with a new product

 

[Ty Pilot]

it always amazes me ,why we are shocked that a new wonder drone ,has been released ,without the firmware to fully activate all its features
this happens every time a new drone is produced ,not just with DJI but most other drone makers as well
it takes a good few months to iron out bugs and write the programs to correct or add features
because all of us become Beta testers during this process
i recently purchased a new drone ,and have had 4 firmware ,and 3 App updates in the space of two weeks ,this is the norm these days ,as company's try to outdo each other ,in the race to be first with a new product

Bingo. This is the drone market, and how it has been for quite some time. I have yet to own any drone that was not updated/upgraded over time. This is also why I never buy first releases - I don't mind coming late to the game, I just don't wanna be a Beta tester.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

it always amazes me ,why we are shocked that a new wonder drone ,has been released ,without the firmware to fully activate all its features
this happens every time a new drone is produced ,not just with DJI but most other drone makers as well
it takes a good few months to iron out bugs and write the programs to correct or add features
because all of us become Beta testers during this process
i recently purchased a new drone ,and have had 4 firmware ,and 3 App updates in the space of two weeks ,this is the norm these days ,as company's try to outdo each other ,in the race to be first with a new product

Yes, if they waited to get these machines perfect from the box, they'd NEVER get them released.
They should just TELL their customers though.
I suppose if they did that, many more would hold back.

 

[Johnmcl7]

it always amazes me ,why we are shocked that a new wonder drone ,has been released ,without the firmware to fully activate all its features
this happens every time a new drone is produced ,not just with DJI but most other drone makers as well
it takes a good few months to iron out bugs and write the programs to correct or add features
because all of us become Beta testers during this process
i recently purchased a new drone ,and have had 4 firmware ,and 3 App updates in the space of two weeks ,this is the norm these days ,as company's try to outdo each other ,in the race to be first with a new product

I bought the Mavic 1 and Mavic 2 at release and the only missing feature I can recall was the precision landing on the Mavic 2 which is extremely minor in comparison to what the Mavic 2 is missing. I could understand the Mavic 1 missing some features and adding them later as it was the first of its type but I certainly wouldn't expect a mature drone like the Mavic 3 should be missing the features its predecessors offered.

What does amaze me is people defending such practices and accepting them as normal when they absolutely aren't and what's worse in this case is the way DJI are hiding it. They do not make it clear that there are major features missing from the drone that will be added later instead they advertise the features with prominent promotional videos and then the actual information about them missing is hidden in small text further down the page.

In response to the thread title I think at the moment there's a lot that's unknown and I've seen no information about when an SDK will be available. Personally as a hobbyist I was on the fence, I would like the bigger sensor but at the moment it's not enough of an upgrade over the M2P for now but I won't be considering the M3 at all until they've resolved the missing features.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

If folks don't like what it actually has at this instant in time surely the simple thing to do is not buy it. Then wait until it does have what is wanted.
If enough people did that.....who knows......the price might even fall.

Just think of the screams of anguish and mania that there would have been if DJI had said "Oh we wont be releasing this until we get all the kinks out.

 

[Johnmcl7]

If folks don't like what it actually has at this instant in time surely the simple thing to do is not buy it. Then wait until it does have what is wanted.
If enough people did that.....who knows......the price might even fall.

Just think of the screams of anguish and mania that there would have been if DJI had said "Oh we wont be releasing this until we get all the kinks out.

The problem is the way DJI are hiding it they may well not know those features are missing until they fly the drone, there's such a post in the Mavic 3 forum already.

I don't think there would be many screams of anguish or mania if DJI had delayed the drone and this is absolutely not just 'getting kinks out', there are major features DJI are advertising on the Mavic 3 page that are missing.

 

[commsz344]

Is the Mavic 3 a better choice over an Air 2S? For professionals, for hobbyists?

It’s all of the above - Those that buy buy for their own reasons and could fall into anyone of those categories - Naturally DJI have a target audience in mind but will take anyone’s money - There will be people that have bought it on this forum just simply because they can

 

[Dave Maine]

Companies have been releasing products with promised, incomplete features at least from the 70s. The overwhelming desire to be first to market with a set of features almost always leads to this result. Competitive capitalism at work.

 

[JoelP]

As a former engineering manager at Amazon’s Lab126 I can assure you that Amazon would never release a product of their own design that was incomplete. At best some accessory might be delayed.

In this case they boasted of several features and provided nothing with the introduction about these delays. It seems that they relied upon the professional reviewers to tell us about these delayed features - and those reviewers did a good job of telling us. I can’t say I was unaware of the deficiencies.

While I knew about these delays, thanks to these reviews, I still ordered on the day of the intro. It will arrive today. Why did I do this you might ask?

1. My old MA 1 has batteries at EOL so I am due for an upgrade.
2. The Mavic 3 without the delayed features meets all of the features that are most important for me in an upgrade: longest battery life, improved Occusync, Hasselblad camera and lens, Dlog recording with largest dynamic range. The missing features are for just icing on the cake.
3. My wife needed to get me something for XMAS that I really wanted.
4. With all of the chip shortages I worried about how well DJI could support the supply pipeline even at this price point.

Missing these features during a month that I rarely fly are far less of an issue to me than the likelihood that Apple SDK for Litchi’s mission flight support may be 6-12 months out or longer.

I suppose I will open the box, register it, order the new registration labels and wait for a month or more to go fly it just to be sure that there aren’t any reported bugs that may make flying it unsafe. Or, I may spring for DJI Refresh and try it a little sooner.

 

[Dale D]

And at a higher price, and without exchangeable cameras?

Since I know very little to nothing about the Air 2S (I have a Mini 2 and Mp2) I cannot give you an educated vote.

 

[BSauce955]

Since I know very little to nothing about the Air 2S (I have a Mini 2 and Mp2) I cannot give you an educated vote.

Well darn, lol.

 

[slozukimc]

You bought two, wow... I'm sure the second was for me free of charge. Right?

@Phantomrain.org Send it to me Bro. I will be glad to suit it up and get those shots of the falls and storms over the Fingerlakes you need to sell more Rescue Jackets.

 

[SkySteve83]

I am picking mine up today...
I'm still a bit undecided but will probably go through with it. I really need the high-quality camera but it's my first drone, so a bit nervous learning on a $3K model. I have a job for it in two weeks, so the pressure is on . It's a bit scary that the software/firmware is still missing some features, but hopefully, DJI will be supportive to its customer base. The alternative is the Air2s, but I just don't think the camera with its fixed 2.8 lens is going to get the image quality I am used to from the Phantom and Inspires I've used in the past.

I'll keep you posted!