Mavic air honest photographer's review and why I am getting rid of it

[moonlitnite]

Shooting in aperture mode on a drone - I don’t get it? We shouldn’t be expecting or needing DOF in this environment.

 

[koren100]

1/3rd battery drained when connecting the controller to the aircraft - i found that it you follow the instructed steps on the app, it connects quickly. i.e.
1. app
2. drone
3. controller
I assume that when the controller turns on, it actively search for the drone wifi

 

[Moving Zen]

These reviews kill me. You bought a drone for less than the price of good glass, why would you even compare it to a dslr? It's the equivalent of a flying cell phone camera not some golden egg of photography.

 

[toddellis]

i have a mavic pro & a phantom 4 pro - yes - the p4p delivers better quality in low light & being able to adjust f-stop is great - but i find myself using the mpp much more often simply for convenience.

 

[RobertJC]

I liken drone photography/videography a bit to underwater activities by the same name. Whilst we have more control with underwater gear, it is not the same as above water and you need to be prepared beforehand. With a drone (of that price) it is a bit worse. Mind you, if you find the perfect shot, these Mavic Air drones are so stable that you just let the drone hang in the air until you have adjusted the settings to your liking and take pictures whilst you are at it. In any case, shooting raw allows you full post-shooting control in Photoshop to tweak the image exactly the way you want it. So, you have near-professional photography gear, well guess what your drone is not in that league, although for the price you paid and what you get, I'd say it is downright amazing what these little machines can do. Updates are a fact of life. If I look at how often my Adobe suite does updates, DJI is not out of the ordinary. The night before you intend to fly, see whether there are any updates and let them run in the evening and re-charge your batteries before you go. As I said, like underwater photography/videography, once you are 20 metres under water, you cannot exactly decide you wanted to mount another lens on your DSLR, so we compromise with wet lenses. It is all in the preparation. Happy flying!

 

[dwallersv]

Unfortunately as for polarizers, these cannot be motorized at such a small scale (with the current tech at least). I'd reckon if such a thing is available, it would be for high end quads.

As a matter of fact, this is not beyond current electromotive technologies, in particular something designed with SMA (shape-memory alloy) could easily do it.

The problem is not engineering/tech, it's price... There just isn't a market willing to pay $200 for a filter just to be able to turn the polarizer in-flight.

 

[dwallersv]

@joehargrave3419, look to the moderation to set the tone. There ya go!

 

[houldsworth1]

Thank you for the detailed write-up.

I too would prefer a wheel and more easily available controls for the camera instead of the extra button. Not a huge deal, but that would have been good.

More importantly, to your point about updates. I see people complain about this all the time and I don't think they realize that you can simply continue to fly without making the updates. I know it's red...but that is just a warning. If you have the Go Fly button at the bottom right, then go fly! No need to do the update until later when you have the time to do it.

I'm fortunate. I have a P4Pro which has an AMAZING camera, all the controls easily available and an actual mechanical shutter. I use that for anything serious. For everything else, the Air does a great job similar to having a point and shoot in your pocket. It's always with me (which the P4Pro isn't) and it IS possible to get great shots and footage out of it.

 

[Aerial West]

I appreciate your honest post tbrissiaud.

As someone who flies all of the DJI lineup, as well as shoots professionally with cameras, i understand your pain with the AIR. To speak in camera terms, the drone you bought is like an old point and shoot, and you were hoping for DSLR controls.

As for having those controls (and with no worry about money, right?) take a look at the cendence controller. sexy right? just look at those camera control readouts.



1k, only works with inspire 2. Ouch, right, whats the inspire 2? it's the RED camera of cinema, and its the DSLR level you're probably used too shooting professionally.. and fun stuff... it has a pro price tag. But god its gorgeous footage.

Is it small and super portable? Nope.. that was the point and shoot drone. That tiny sensor doesn't scream DSLR.

PRO Tip!

Turn your wifi off, or get a ipad! Updates are the devil, do not do them before a shoot. Do them when you have hours to deal with an issue if you have one. i have dedicated ipads just for shooting on the drones. The wifi is off, so the app never knows that an update is incoming. if the bird is flying well, then why mess with it?

Well, i check update logs and decide if i want too... but when im flying across the world for a shoot, the last thing i need is to be doing updates in my hotel room, right? same for you... no reason to drive somewhere and end up updating a point and shoot.

Pro Tip 2.

If you're just below pro level... im surprised you're still using a phone. Just to be able to see the screen since you dont have a viewfinder. If you're in socal you're welcome to try mmy setup... ipad mini or 9.7, and a full hood. you'll never go back. nice size screen, color is not washed out by any light... darkroom quality.

Pro Tip 3.

get used to not seeing your drone for a few seconds. its ok to look at the screen. you'll learn quick that the position of your drone is easy tro see on the screen by reference, and eventually even small movements or drift will be evident.. so don't worry too much. just be aware and you'll relax for shooting images.

My suggestion, if budget allows, is take a look at the camera functions on the higher level drones, doing the research now instead of after you've bought it. see what fits you, your style of shooting, etc. if you sell the air, use that to save up for one that does fit your needs.

I wish you the best.. and hope that your experience with the 'point and click' of DJI drones does not turn off your love for shooting aerial photography for good! happy flying!

 

[Drone on]

You should keep it, and just wait a while. Eventually, the updates stop or slow down dramatically. There are many updates in the first few months of release as they correct bugs.
Wait a while to get over the frustration, and think about what you have to do to make it work according to your work flow. Many of your comparisons are to equipment you are familiar with, and want for the Air to conform to.
I have a Spark and a Mavic Pro. I use the Spark more often, but I have had to think of work around solutions to get what I want out of it. Having done so, and lowering my expectations, I can make it work to my satisfaction.
None of the drones are perfect, but they do offer a unique perspective, which makes aerial imagery much easier and less expensive than renting helicopters.
The higher the expectation the less chance the tech can live up to it.
Keep it, wait a while, develop a drone specific work flow while you wait, then try again.
BTW I think the Phantom 4 Advance, or Pro have features you are looking for, but you will have to give up size/portability, and cash. This may not matter if you can make it work to your satisfaction. Generally, those who own the P4P don't consider the Air, Mavic Pro, or Spark. Those models are more of a photographic sacrifice, than the sacrifice of size/portability of the P4P.

 

[Donnie Frank]

I am more used to read the posts of others than participating myself, today is different!

Having failed (once again) to fly this morning because of the updates, I decided to write this review, review that has been in my mind for quite a long time now… It is not a full coverage review, but more of a list of what's really annoying with this drone. You can find plenty of marvelous positive reviews on the net to moderate mine!
DISCLAIMER: I don’t pretend to be an expert in drone flying, the following statements might be wrong, as I don’t totally master the drone nor the software (I might have missed some options…). However, being generally speaking ‘’tech-savvy'' I think it is an honest review and that, at least, I tried to do my best, please don’t send me hate messages!

I qualify myself as a serious amateur photographer: it is not my main activity but I do sell photo for advertisement or stock, mainly in the travel and adventure industry. I do own professional level photography equipment and the Mavic air was supposed to be a great addition to my kit. I must be honest and say that I bought the Magic air mainly to do aerial photography, as I am not into videography. But I certainly enjoyed the possibility of filming as well.

The magic air is my first drone: after having contemplated the possibility of doing aerial photography for a long time, I took my decision after the announcement of the Mavic air: after having read a lot on internet about it, it seemed that it was THE perfect drone for me: foldable, easy to operate, image quality seemed to be good enough.

I had not tried it myself before, nor any other model or brand: The Mavic air was my first drone experience, and I have since tried the Mavic pro.

Knowing that I paid less than 1000 $, I didn’t expect a professional grade product, and that most of my following comments would be addressed if only I had more money to spend, but I think that most of my bad experience comes from the software rather than the hardware.
Maybe I am dreaming, and I should only pay more to get what I want…

Although it is an amazing piece of technology, as a photographer, and after 3 months of use, I want to get rid of it as soon as possible, and here are the reasons why:


Camera controls (for photographer):

- Being a DSLR user, I am used to have all my controls available at the fingertips, so I can change the settings without leaving my eye from the viewfinder. With the air, changing settings is a pain in the a**…

On the mavic air, we have two ‘’fn’’ keys that we can personnalise. I would have preferred to have only one, and have an aperture or shutter-speed wheel instead, like on the mavicpro remote.
Of course you can change the settings on the app, which means not looking at your drone anymore, and try to hit the right spot on your tiny screen with your big finger (of course I could use an iPad, and the problem wouldn’t be one anymore…).

I know that the mavic pro has more controls like this, and that DJI needed to cut costs in order to sell it at the price I was able to buy it, but it is really a pain...

- Automatic controls: I wish I could have different modes, like on a DSLR : Aperture priority, speed priority, program mode.
For now, the air offers us a fully manual mode, and a full auto mode. The problem of the full auto mode is that sometimes it will raise the ISO (knowing that above 100 ISO, you would start to see noise a lot), or slow down shutter-speed to the point that your image will be blurry… There is no way (as far as I know) of choosing to have the fixed iso and change only the speed, or the other way around.

- Of course I would have loved to have control of the aperture as well…

- As I said, I didn’t bought the drone with video in mind. However, I very often shifty to the video mode, and I would have loved that the software would have separate settings options. I explain myself:
Say I am shooting photography with certain settings and I see something that I want to film: I hit the record button, the app switches to video mode and I am able to record. I can change my settings in the menu (ISO, shutter speed…).
When I am done with video, I go back to photography mode, but I need to change again my settings, because it is now the settings I used for video that are on… Meaning I need to go back to the settings again… If I need to switch from one mode to another several times, I would love that the app keeps different settings in memory: one set for photo, the other set for video.


Suggestions:
- Shutter-speed controlled by the wheel (like on the pro), with real-time visual return, like on modern electronic viewfinders.
- Semi automatic modes based on the Program mode of DSLR.
- Automatic mode with fixed ISO
- Separated set of settings for photo and video


Connexion problems:

- Very often it takes forever to connect the mavic to the controller, I don’t know why… By the time it is connected, in third of the battery is gone.
- Connexion is very unstable…During a flight in semi urban area, I will have several connexion issues during a battery worth of flying time.
- I have had one very frustrating experience, where the drone would fly away and disappear, with a lost connexion, to the point that after trying everything, I started packing my things, sobbing to the loss of my new drone… when It magically reappeared! Returned home easily (thanks DJI for this amazing feature!). I only wished I had some informations from the controller or the app...


Updates: THIS IS THE MAIN POINT OF FRUSTRATION FOR ME!
First of all I would like to say that I find it very reassuring to see that DJi continues to update it’s products and tries to resolves all the small bugs that we are experiencing : it means that they really care about it!
I live in this parts of the world where internet connection is a nightmare (we are talking about 175kb/s at its best…)

So every now and then, when I want to fly my drone, I prepare everything, unfold my drone, connect it to the controller, and then… Nothing! Because I need to update this or that…

It means:
- I cannot fly right away
- I need to spend 3 full Drone batteries in order install do the updates
- I need to use some of the battery of the controller (I don’t know why I cannot download the update without being connected to the controller and the drone running up? Every time the drones shuts down, the remote starts ringing, and the updates stops…)
This means that because of my internet speed, I am not able to do the updates correctly. (The drone runs out of it’s 3 batteries before I can manage to download the update!)
- I need to drain my phone battery. Knowing that when my phone’s battery will be under 50%, the app will refuse to download the update.

It means that before the updates are finished:
- I have lost an entire day worth of shooting (because my internet download speed is almost inexistant)
- Even if I had some more time available, I don’t have anymore battery on my devices to fly

At the end of the day, I have experienced these issues almost every time I wanted to fly… Which is very frustrating!

Meaning that since march 2018, I have managed to fly only 7 times!

Basically I bought a drone that is only capable of updating itself, nothing else… I would have saved money in buying a ‘’useless box’’ instead!

This means I cannot use my drone on any serious project in which I need to be sure I can fly!

Suggestion:
The app could send us a ‘’popup’’ message whenever an update is available: like this, we can update everything having to wait 3 hours, or maybe we could receive an email, stating that next time we want to fly, we wonM’t be able unless we do the update before! AS for now, every time I want to fly is more of a gamble…
The update could be downloaded automatically in the background, the app just ‘’popping up’’ when the download is finished and the update ready to be installed. Like this, even if the update takes 3 weeks to download because of internet speed, I can still use my drone! (It would mean allowing the drone to flight without the last update as well, which is not the case at the moment: no update, no flight!).

Small other things:

- Remote controller sounds and ‘’Bips’’: could we just have the opportunity to turn it off? Or maybe just turn down the volume? I know it is here to make us aware that we are running out of battery, or returning home, or maybe something else that we don’t know, but once we are aware of it, it is very annoying to have to endure it until the drone has landed…. Of course I could do a ‘’mechanical’’ and definitive operation with a heated needle, but we are in 2018, and a small

- Focus: as a photographer It is very frustrating not to have any control over the focus… I know the pro have a focus selection possibility, and that the air is cheaper… but still, in the end, images from the air are never sharp: not an issue in video, but definitely a No go for photo…


- Ok, this one is maybe a stretch, but is there not any way to have a variable ND/PL filter that we could manage from the app? (either physical or not…), using a rotating PL filter on a drone is almost a bad joke…

In the end, the mavic air is a great technology packed product, with a lot of fussy options and auto modes that are great for videographers, but I feel that we don’t event have the basic stuff needed for photography…

Of course my experience is very bad because of my internet connexion, in which DJI cannot do anything, except allowing me to do the updates at any other time than the time I decide to fly….

Overaal these little things ruined my experience with the drone, to the point that I am now reluctant to even think of turning it on...
After a fewweeks without using it, I prepared everything today, got ready to fly, and once again I wasn't able to...

Right now: my 3 batteries, my phone and the controller are charging, and the update was a failure (because of ''no more juice'' to perform it!).
Why don't you just allow me to fly with the old firwmare?

It has been a very frustrating and disapointing experience overall....

I only read the first sentence. Load these FW and software versions, STICK to them, and you will experience reliability and bliss unlike you have ever experienced before.


App: 4.0.8
Aircraft: 01.03.0700
Remote Controller: 01.03.0700
Flight Database: 00.00.01.04
Basic App Fly Safe Database: 01.00.01.05
Precise App Fly Safe Database: 01.00.01.05

Remember, a drone isn't a camera. It requires a whole other set of skills to fly and maintain a drone proficiently and reliably. Twice I got 2 drone gigs as the result of professional camera operators who purchase a drone at Best Buy for a daily shoot, only to find out that they crash it and lose an entire day's footage. I personally think DJI pushes the whole "plug-n-play" thing too hard. They really aren't plug-n-play at all. As you have experienced, there are a whole litany of things that can go wrong...up to and including complete lock down while in the field miles from Internet or cell service. That happened to me ONCE. Never again.

Look at this poor chap.

All that said... I would think the small sensor, crappy optics and crappy bitrate would nix the Mavic Pro from any professional setting.

 

[Kilrah]

I only read the first sentence

And as a result you missed that this topic is about a Mavic Air, not a Mavic Pro so none of your recommendations apply.

 

[dirkclod]

Yup.

 

[Lil' DronePilot]

install a "custom" formware in the bird and rc and be done with updates, i finally have mine where i want it, i modded her back in feb and she will never see the internet again. theres many custom firmwaress and firmware for the rc as well that will not run the update warning

What you talking about Willis? So custom firmware = Never updating Fromm DJI again? Another reason why I love this forum. Do tell...

 

[Donnie Frank]

And as a result you missed that this topic is about a Mavic Air, not a Mavic Pro so none of your recommendations apply.

The Air is a toy. Not in a thousand years did I imagine a pro photographer would even consider such a toy for actual photography/videography. At least the Mavic Pro produces real-estate quality video and can fly in 15 mph winds. The Air is little more than a training tool for newbies. Touché. Next time I'll read further.

 

[mstuartk]

The Air is a toy. Not in a thousand years did I imagine a pro photographer would even consider such a toy for actual photography/videography. At least the Mavic Pro produces real-estate quality video and can fly in 15 mph winds. The Air is little more than a training tool for newbies. Touché. Next time I'll read further.

That about nails it about the air. I have had all of the 3: P4; mavic pro and mavic air. The air is more toyish than drone but it is a fairly good toy, Fly the air behind a freaking treeline and there goes your signal-just like my first toy drone, Get a little wind and freaky deaky-just like my first toy drone, The Mavic pro and P4 are not as toylike in my opinion. That freaking mavic pro is an amazing piece of tech and folds up to travel. The P4 is the better all around but then you lose the portability. If I was going to purchase just one DJI drone it would be the Mavic pro.

 

[genesimmons]

What you talking about Willis? So custom firmware = Never updating Fromm DJI again? Another reason why I love this forum. Do tell...

use this app and it will disable update notifications and even allow u to not use your dji account to sign in, ive been using this on my mav pro for a few months now, its more for the spark and air as it does stuff to wifi but still works fine for a mav pro

DJI GO 4 MOD 2.0 | DJI GO 4 MOD LITE [ Additional Features | Android | App Ver. 4.1.15 ]

 

[JDawg]

The Air is a toy. Not in a thousand years did I imagine a pro photographer would even consider such a toy for actual photography/videography. At least the Mavic Pro produces real-estate quality video and can fly in 15 mph winds. The Air is little more than a training tool for newbies. Touché. Next time I'll read further.

Here we go. Do you feel more manly now?

 

[MavicFlyGuy]

I find the Mavic Air a perfect “learning drone” it takes amazing footage with the RIGHT settings and post tweaking. Taking video in Sports mode is obviously a no go... I think people who take the time to learn every in and out of MA will be rewarded. About your connections problems with the remote... this ain’t normal... it only takes a few seconds. Use your warranty that’s what it’s there for!

 

[Kilrah]

The Air is a toy. Not in a thousand years did I imagine a pro photographer would even consider such a toy for actual photography/videography. At least the Mavic Pro produces real-estate quality video and can fly in 15 mph winds.

Uh no. The Air's camera produces significantly better results than the Pro (yes, I have both, and from all the reasons I still use the Pro none are about the camera).

But whatever you want to think.