Mavic Air 2, looks great.... so what doesn't it have?

[Deleted member 94047]

having seen almost half a year pass by for mavic mini, Im not as optimistic. Does it usually take that long?

It really does depend on DJI than Litchi. The sooner DJI release the SDK, the sooner Litchi will support the MA2. To answer your question though, the MA came out in Feb 2018, Litchi added support to it in late April. But for the M2P, I think it was just a matter of days - all because DJI was much quicker to release the SDK.

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Personally, reading the specs, I'm pretty impressed with what DJI was able to pull off for that price point! I fly a Mavic 2 Pro primarily for photography and I'm very happy with it. I'm not considering an Air 2 right now but if I were, here are questions I'd be asking:

• How will the half inch sensor handle in lower light conditions?
• Could I get by with a fixed aperture camera?
• Would I be happy with a remote that has no data readouts?

But these are all just personal considerations based on what I want out of a Mavic. The Air 2 really does look like a solid offering. I'll look forward to hearing from members who start to use them in day to day flying.

 

[JpigletH]

Because the GPS uses two data bases both US an Russian it should be able to hover in the wind a little better by keeping a tighter position , which will also help it benefit in the wind.

Hello.

Being able to utilise both GPS and Glonass, has the benefit of faster initial positioning and potentially more accurate positioning in a natural, or urban canyon environment, the main source of stability however, is through the IMU. My main experience is from survey ships and the IMU data update rate is 10/second, I can't think of a GNSS system with an update rate faster than 1/second.

There are many videos on GPS limitations, warm restarts, cold restarts, epoch period, multipath, scintillation and DOP.

If you've not used your drone for a while, or are flying in a new area, it is well worth letting the drone get a proper GPS fix prior to flying.

Similarly, doing the compass dance (away from metal objects such as cars/containers/reinforced concrete) to update the magnetic variation.

Safe flying
Jerry

 

[Zeroing]

What about the sensivity settings for smooth cinematic camera move? Is there a DJI Fly update ?

 

[lee82gx]

It really does depend on DJI than Litchi. The sooner DJI release the SDK, the sooner Litchi will support the MA2. To answer your question though, the MA came out in Feb 2018, Litchi added support to it in late April. But for the M2P, I think it was just a matter of days - all because DJI was much quicker to release the SDK.

Yes yes, I do mean the speed of dji releasing the sdk. And what level of sdk access can be offered via dji fly kind of device maybe different from dji go 4 device, as we don’t have any precedent from Mavic mini yet, from my uneducated speculating.

 

[Scottalmas]

I am really hoping that it is also controllable via phone only or Smart Capture. I am very disappointed that there is no way to fly the Mini without a controller. It's why I won't ditch my Spark, Anafi or Mavic Air for now.

 

[webvan]

Yep and the MA had a very effective "Palm Control" feature, unlike the Spark where it's rather flakey ;-)

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Yes yes, I do mean the speed of dji releasing the sdk. And what level of sdk access can be offered via dji fly kind of device maybe different from dji go 4 device, as we don’t have any precedent from Mavic mini yet, from my uneducated speculating.

It's anyone's guess at the moment. DJI are far from predictable on this front. I mean it took them a month (possibly more*) to release the SDK when they updated GO4 to work with Android 10.

__________________
Android 10 was released on 3 September 2019 and DJI updated their GO 4 app on the same date or the day after for compatibility with Android 10. Litchi was only able to add support to Android 10 on October 18.

 

[Dale D]

I was all ready to order one until I saw the remote. I also prefer to fly with an iPad, and with the M2P, I use a MavMount. I'm sure there will be aftermarket accessories available at some point - including a method to use an iPad - but as of now, it doesn't look like the stock remote can accommodate this. Even if it could as is, the angle would be all wrong as would the center of gravity.

For those who use a phone however, the remote looks awesome and could be a nice upgrade over what we have seen so far with the Mavic line.

I am so used to my 9.5 inch iPad that I could never return to using a phone even though I have the iPhone 11 which is big.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Sorry but that makes no sense.
GPS in a drone doesn't use any database.
You are confusing the different GPS systems used (GPS & Glonass).
These are separate systems, using separate satellites.
Using one or both systems won't make any difference to hovering or wind resistance at all.

Also every DJI drone that you can buy uses both systems, so none have any advantage by having access to both systems.

Why than have them both, what is the reasoning for that ?

 

[Zeroing]

I had hope DJI go for Galileo satellites.

 

[deltamike]

Why than have them both, what is the reasoning for that ?

I would think that by using both GLONASS & GPS the a/c will acquire a greater number of satellites than with one system so the positioning has greater accuracy which is important in the case of any RTH and map accuracy.

 

[Keule]

I had hope DJI go for Galileo satellites.

The last Mavic models are using the GNSS chipset from uBLOX . the UBX-M8030 series. (M8)
This chip can be used to make use of concurrent reception of up to 3 GNSS (GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, or BeiDou)

It's only a question of firmware to make use of 3 GNSS.

 

[Zeroing]

Thanks for the tech explanation.

 

[Akademik]

I just wished it had the Waypoints. The original MA didn’t have it which I think would have been better than Tap Fly, If you have limited battery then you should be able to plan mission, set up, get shot, and move on as necessary. MA2 only has it in hyperlapse mode.

 

[CactusJackSlade]

I updated my sheet with the MA2 and was about to buy one until I saw no Goggles support (for now anyway).

Humm, could not get the file to open?

 

[Lady Rover]

Sorry, but it does not look great at all.
Boring old DJI design and boring color.

The old one gave hope for the design of the new one, but the result is a failure.

Only excuse for this could be, that they had some time-line design or production issues due to Covid-19.

Apart from that it's much more bulky and so is the remote.

I'll stick with the current air. It has the right size, makes wonderful pictures and video all while being less affected by wind than the mini.

 

[naiku]

Sorry, but it does not look great at all.
Boring old DJI design and boring color.

The old one gave hope for the design of the new one, but the result is a failure.

Only excuse for this could be, that they had some time-line design or production issues due to Covid-19.

Apart from that it's much more bulky and so is the remote.

I'll stick with the current air. It has the right size, makes wonderful pictures and video all while being less affected by wind than the mini.

I get some of the complaints about the aesthetics of the Air 2, but really, it makes sense to have made it look more like the other drones in the DJI Mavic line up. From the Mini all the way through to the Mavic 2 Enterprise they are all easily distinguishable as DJI products. Previously, while the Air 1 looked great, it did not match the other Mavic drones (not saying this is a bad thing, but it's a fact, it was the odd one out). There's no excuse behind it, Covid-19 related or otherwise, it's all about having the Mavic family of drones look the same.

Boring color, it's not exactly like the color choices of the Air 1 were incredible, black, white or red. Woohoo. Additionally, I am sure within a short time of release there will be a multitude of skins available to personalize the drone any way you'd like. Cost of manufacturing a single color drone likely helps keep the price point where it is with the Air 2, they likely know many people will put a skin on them and once the drone is 50' in the air anyway, what difference does the color they manufacture it in make?

Much more bulky? Meh, it's bigger does not look to be a huge amount bigger and given the new technology inside, it's understandable that it is larger than the Air 1.

The controller, yeah, I'll give you that. I am hoping the new one is at least comfortable to hold as that does look like a step backward, even though the mounting the phone on top instead of the bottom and the antenna do seem a better solution. I wish they would have angled the sides in slightly like this / \ instead of like this | | just to make it a little more ergonomic.

If you are happy with your current Mavic Air, excellent. It is an amazing drone (former Mavic Air owner) and if I could have justified keeping 2 drones I would still have mine. Instead, I am impatiently waiting for a Mavic Air 2.

 

[Jfvdenning]

This is an odd minus, how can it have Litchi support yet? It isn't even out!

another major minus is no Litchi support out of the box, we won't know how long if ever Litchi is going to work. It really is a powerful tool for autonomous flight.

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Rampant? Was that a typo?
Anyway, the mass isn't important.
A housebrick has mass but it can't make headway against even a gentle breeze.
What's important is how fast the drone can fly.
The Air 2 is 50% faster than the Mini

Max Speeds (near sea level, no wind)
Mavic Mini
13 m/s (S Mode)
8 m/s (P Mode)

Mavic Air 2
19 m/s (S Mode)
12 m/s (N Mode)

Nope, not a typo... the forums I have been reading are well stocked with mini fly-aways, its the main complaint. That aside, thanks for the sarcasm . As someone else has now pointed out, the single IMU, like in the Spark, is a deficiency that concerns me also. As you pointed out, 19m/s (42.5mph) should allow the craft to fight the wind better than the less powerful models. This is a good read..... The Annoying Physics Of Air Resistance