Mavic Air at Night

Pebbleheed · Feb 12, 2018

dwallersv said:
@Pebbleheed I am certainly not insulted by your actual experiences with the Spark, or the quite reasonable inferences you're making for the Mavic Air.

Having had direct, quite different experience with the Air, similar to my experiences with the Spark I'll add, it seemed some balance was appropriate regarding your assertions.

I didn't, and still don't question what you actually experienced, in the city and out in the countryside. I simply pointed out that where you were becomes irrelevant when there is actual data -- i.e. the connection performance in flight -- available.

Your actual data, such as it is, says only one thing: You were stationed with the RC in either a noisy environment, or a shielded one (were you among trees?). There's no alternative (well, other than a defect, but I'm not including that for the purposes of this discussion).

For some reason, pointing this out has riled you.

Does Occusync perform better than Mavic Air wifi? Yes. Substantially so.

Is the Mavic Air capable of meeting or exceeding the manufacturer's specified range? Yes, easily, as I've personally proven.

So, the issue isn't wifi, per se, but the environment one will be flying in that matters most. An urban environment? Not a good choice. Beachside community? Awesome.

You’ve certainly not riled me. More amused me.

Your suggestions fail to take in the fact that there are three Wi-fi drones being used here. Sometimes in the same area together, sometimes apart and in different areas. There’s also a wide range of areas they were being used in too, including a seaside type location as you reference. If you have a read back you’ll see I mentioned all this in my post.

Not sure how you can conclude it’s not the Wi-fi at issue and suggest it’s the environment when clearly my experience with CE mode shows otherwise. If it was one drone in a limited number of environments then maybe your suggestion would carry some weight but as it is, three sparks in a wide range of environments, it shows the Wi-fi is the issue.

I’m not sure if you have experience of England and Scotland, but there are many parts that are open and unpopulated with no interference at all.

It’s also worth considering the other point I made - the Mavic Pros fly perfectly in the same areas without issue at all and no signs of interference or any environmental problems.

The Wi-fi connectivity in a CE area is for my purposes useless. It seems under powered sadly. This isn’t an environmental thing, it’s the technology being used. If it were environmental then some of our locations would have shown this. But all three sparks has issues in all areas. That’s conclusive and I think you’ll struggle to convince me otherwise.

But when you say my data says only one thing, sadly you’re wrong. Either you failed to consider the same issue over three drones and the fact they were used in many areas where the pro had no issues or you didn’t read my posts in their entirety?

You’ve at least agreed with me on part of my point about the pro having better connectivity. That’s a start. But in terms of CE mode in England and Scotland, what experience do you have to be able to attempt to dispute my experiences in these areas that I’m speaking about?

Barrettsbuzzin · Feb 12, 2018

I do wish people would use this thread for what I imagine it was intended. Stop bitching about the WiFi or comparing it to the Mavic Pro in pointless ways and just post some photos and videos for people to enjoy. If you don't want one, don't buy one. If you have bought one, either put out some content or just send it back and go moan about it on another forum. Just enjoy yourself and stop wishing for things that either don't exist or you can get from another drone

dragonmuzz · Feb 13, 2018

Fmoots said:
Nice photos AeroMirage! Were these shot in Auto or Manual? Do you know the ISO & shutter speed for these photos?

I've only had the chance to take my Air out at sunset/dusk so far since I've been busy at weekend and working until 5pm, sun sets at 4.50pm here in Scotland just now. So I've been testing the video/photo quality in low light. So far the video is very noisy anything above 200 ISO, so it's hard to get good shots without noise reduction software, I've heard the Neat video plugin works amazing for Mavic footage, but its $99 so I can't justify that at the moment (I need more batteries first!)

I've taken afew raw photos in fairly low light and managed to get some half decent photos:

View attachment 30729

View attachment 30730

This one is a still from 4k 30fps video with a LUT applied:

View attachment 30731

First one was manual mode - ISO 100, shutter 1 3/5 of a second (You can see the long shutter creates some nice light trails on the cars)

Second is auto mode - ISO 400 shutter 1/10 second

Third is a still from 4k 4fps video with a LUT applied (I think settings were auto). The two photos were shot jpeg&raw and raws tweaked in lightroom

I'm in the boat in regarding noise and wifi/range with the Air. I love the size, but where I've been using it in an Urban areas, noise is very noticeable, range isn't great (I'm in CE so video gets laggy over 500m) and of course battery isn't as good as MP. I'm going to test it more outside the city more but considering swapping for a MPP - quiter, longer battery, much better range (especially in CE) - footprint is only slightly larger.

im getting my Air this week and the range is a concern but it looks like forcing FCC mode is very easy on the Air anyway so that will be done before the drones first flight lol....im also in uk too so feel your pain in regards to CE mode....ive purchased a windsurfer mod like i did with my P3 and P4 cos they work wonders for range ..will see how i get on with FCC and a windsurfer

dxlnt1 · Feb 13, 2018

Forgive me if this becomes a hijack, but I’m new to drones. Has anyone used the propeller lights? They seemingly would make LOS flying easy. But does it affect photos, videos, or drone performance?