Mavic Air - What Don’t You Like

[JoelP]

I love my MA that I have owned for 1.5 years. If I were to name it’s key deficiency I would say battery life and the lack of side sensors.

I never schedule a mission of over 15 minutes since I nearly lost this 2X by going longer.

The second deficiency is the lack of side sensors. I track moving subjects and fly around POIs in a circle which forces me to always be cognizant of obstacles to the side that cannot be seen my the camera.

 

[slup]

With this one I am a little confused. First, if you are shooting raw, none of that should matter - or so I have been made to believe. I always shoot stills in raw format, and have never bothered to check those settings (except white balance). Am I missing something? ...

Sorry, my bad ... partly mixed in video handling by proposing shooting "flat". But I usually from pure habit always shoot RAW+JPEG so I have something quick to use without to much time spent for post processing. And as nearly all in camera JPEG processing (to my experience & liking) are to over done I also there use the flat look.

But you are completely correct, for stills in RAW, Sharpening, Contrast & Saturation settings doesn't matter ... and actually nor does the white balance.

By "exposure to the right" you brightens the lightest parts in the picture to the verge of blowing out to pure white & by that you lift (lightens) the shadows so you minimize the introduction of noice & capture as much details as possible in the darkest parts. Once in post you bring every thing down again to your liking. Of course every thing is limited by the dynamic range of the sensor ... once on the limit either re-frame or go AEB. The first pic of my neighborhood, that with the sun is a 3 pic AEB. Not even my full frame Canon can cope with that wide dynamic range.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

Sorry, my bad ... partly mixed in video handling by proposing shooting "flat". But I usually from pure habit always shoot RAW+JPEG so I have something quick to use without to much time spent for post processing. And as nearly all in camera JPEG processing (to my experience & liking) are to over done I also there use the flat look.

But you are completely correct, for stills in RAW, Sharpening, Contrast & Saturation settings doesn't matter ... and actually nor does the white balance.

By "exposure to the right" you brightens the lightest parts in the picture to the verge of blowing out to pure white & by that you lift (lightens) the shadows so you minimize the introduction of noice & capture as much details as possible in the darkest parts. Once in post you bring every thing down again to your liking. Of course every thing is limited by the dynamic range of the sensor ... once on the limit either re-frame or go AEB. The first pic of my neighborhood, that with the sun is a 3 pic AEB. Not even my full frame Canon can cope with that wide dynamic range.

Thanks for the explainer, I see where I went wrong with the "exposure to the right" method. Awesome ?

 

[Flipsonic]

How fast does the battery charge to full?

 

[slup]

How fast does the battery charge to full?

Slightly under one hour from nearly flat ... but be aware that the charger in the fly More Combo kit doesn't charge all 4 places in parallel, only one at a time.

 

[Stormin]

Sold my P3P and in the market for a Mavic Air. I’ve seen many YouTube vids and so far this is the one for me. The main reasons are: compact, APAS, Quick Shot modes, 4K. Except for 4K, those are things I didn’t have on my P3P. I know it’s loud, battery is not as efficient , wifi interference. Just wanted to hear from your first hand experience what don’t you like about it. Maybe there is something I don’t know about. Thanks.

My only issue with the Mavic Air is the lack of fire power, no machine guns or missile systems apart from that it's perfect.

 

[crlmjohnson]

I’ve had one since launch. I don’t get the noise issue - it’s not that bad. Maybe it’s people that have never had a drone before? Compared to the first Phantoms it’s fine.
I’ve never had any connection issues either, but I always fly in VLOS, which might be the difference.

I own a mavic air, Mavic pro 2 and a 3dr solo. the 3dr solo is the loud one of my three.

 

[crlmjohnson]

Slightly under one hour from nearly flat ... but be aware that the charger in the fly More Combo kit doesn't charge all 4 places in parallel, only one at a time.

same as the mp2. i have purchase another power charger.

 

[Bigbird48]

I put the MAS stealth pros on they help with the noise, flight time is ok as I usually know what I'm going to take pictures of and it doesn't take more then 10 mins to go up find my subject take a few shots and a short video come home and land. Distance is not a problem I can go out 1500 ft and still see my drone most the time, very seldom go beyond vlos . In a nutshell I love my air. Oh and its built like a tank, takes a beating and keeps on flying. start crash at 2min

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[Thomas B]

I put the MAS stealth pros on they help with the noise, flight time is ok as I usually know what I'm going to take pictures of and it doesn't take more then 10 mins to go up find my subject take a few shots and a short video come home and land. Distance is not a problem I can go out 1500 ft and still see my drone most the time, very seldom go beyond vlos . In a nutshell I love my air. Oh and its built like a tank, takes a beating and keeps on flying. start crash at 2min

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Please set your video to public so we can see it. TIA

 

[Maviac]

The MA is a great drone and pretty close to being perfect, at least given the technology when it was released. So I won't belabor the point by saying all the good things. I agree with the other complaints:

Cons:
-There really should be a much easier way to get data off the aircraft. You either have to remove the SD card, which is not that easy, or if on internal memory fire the thing up (unfolding legs, removing gimbal lock). There really should be a data mode - when transferring a lot of data, mine can get fairly hot.
-Noise. Not sure a whole lot can be done here, but the MAS props help a decent bit. Not a huge deal, but a bit of a pain that seems like could be more easily remedied.
-WiFi transmission. I've just come to accept that I'll regularly get a disconnect notice, and it will come back when it starts heading back to me. It happens enough that I've gotten comfortable with it. But it would be nice if it didn't happen at only 500 feet out. As others have noted, this is really only an issue in more urban areas - out in the country, I've never had a problem going significantly farther.
-Micro USB-A on the controller? What?? Literally the only electronic device I've ever seen using that plug, and a clear point of failure.

Other:
There are things that could make it better, like overhead and side OA, but those would increase the cost, so I wouldn't consider those cons. I guess the same could be said of the relative weakness of the WiFi signal, but that's a more significant concern in day-to-day operations. Also, a screen on the controller like the Pros would be nice, but again, would increase cost.

 

[hiflyer201]

I find the noise the most objectionable thing about the Air but reviewing my videos I never see people looking to see where the noise is coming from. I keep it above 100 ft. for the most part. I like that you can control the exposure in flight. I rarely shoot in 4k because I don't have the power to edit it. If I want to catch a quick shot, I like what I get in auto mode with my Spark as much or better than auto with the air. That could just be me.
With the Spark and as I remember with my Phantom you can make the controller the home point which is pretty handy at times. The Air doesn't have that feature, and in fact has the option to land if you lose connection???? that would have caused me to lose my drone on many occasions as you can easily lose connection. In all cases with me it has regained connection when it started to return to home.
In the U.S. the Air is a couple of hundred bucks more now than what I paid for mine so ..I'm feeling like I got a real bargain and I give it a thumbs up.

 

[slup]

... I rarely shoot in 4k because I don't have the power to edit it.

With the Spark and as I remember with my Phantom you can make the controller the home point which is pretty handy at times. The Air doesn't have that feature, and in fact has the option to land if you lose connection???? that would have caused me to lose my drone on many occasions as you can easily lose connection. In all cases with me it has reg...

I use the free version of Davinci Resolve 16 for edit ... if you use the function there called "Generate Optimized Media" all computers can handle 4k videos. Google it & try

Regarding home point to the RC (or to your phone actually) ... you have it. The difference towards the Spark is that it isn't dynamic ... you need to manually reset it if you move again.

 

[MavicairLou1]

Sold my P3P and in the market for a Mavic Air. I’ve seen many YouTube vids and so far this is the one for me. The main reasons are: compact, APAS, Quick Shot modes, 4K. Except for 4K, those are things I didn’t have on my P3P. I know it’s loud, battery is not as efficient , wifi interference. Just wanted to hear from your first hand experience what don’t you like about it. Maybe there is something I don’t know about. Thanks.

Hi I had a spark for about 5 months then I sold that last month and was all set to get a mavic mini because 1 I thought it was an upgrade and 2 I didn’t think I could afford a mavic air which is what I really wanted then 3 days before the mini was to be released I found a guy selling a 6 month old black mavic air that he flown 3 times,he also modded the remote controller which was something I had really wanted to do since I had my spark but I hate waiting for bidding on eBay so I took a chance an emailed him and asked if he would take $400 it came with the drone,1 battery,charger and the modded remote and to my surprise he had just bought a mavic 2 and wanted to just get off the mavic air,I received it 4 days later and I couldn’t be happier,the video and pics are awesome and I haven’t had any transmission problems and I don’t fly super far but I’ve been out to at least 2km and still had excellent reception and video reception but I usually don’t even fly it close to that far,I just wanted to try it out,so I say go for it for sure and if you can mod the remote and you will be 100% satisfied,I just bought another battery and case for it and the only other thing I want is 1 more battery,maybe after Christmas,one thing I don’t get is why are the mavic air batteries the most expensive,it’s ridiculous but I’m telling you I absolutely love my mavic air,good luck brotha!!!

 

[Bigbird48]

Please set your video to public so we can see it. TIA

it should work always did before this is like the 3rd time its been posted

 

[Thomas B]

it should work always did before this is like the 3rd time its been posted

Maybe a YouTube lag... came up with preview and played fine for me now.

 

[slup]

I put the MAS stealth pros on they help with the noise, flight time is ok as I usually know what I'm going to take pictures of and it doesn't take more then 10 mins to go up find my subject take a few shots and a short video come home and land. Distance is not a problem I can go out 1500 ft and still see my drone most the time, very seldom go beyond vlos . In a nutshell I love my air. Oh and its built like a tank, takes a beating and keeps on flying. start crash at 2min

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Looks like you should dial down your RC stick sensitivity ... easier to navigate in tighter places, give smoother video & takes away that ... go forward & stop, turn slightly go again & stop, move up & go again.

Look here

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And when you want to zip around go over to sport mode.

This wouldn't have helped you out in that RTH crash though

 

[Maviac]

Maybe a YouTube lag... came up with preview and played fine for me now.

In my experience all Google apps like YouTube (not limited to them - Facebook is just as bad) experience a lot of lag when it comes to changing settings, etc.

 

[hiflyer201]

I use the free version of Davinci Resolve 16 for edit ... if you use the function there called "Generate Optimized Media" all computers can handle 4k videos. Google it & try

Regarding home point to the RC (or to your phone actually) ... you have it. The difference towards the Spark is that it isn't dynamic ... you need to manually reset it if you move again.

Thanks for the info on DaVinci resolve 16 I've been using Videopad..and not liking it very much
I'm thinking that when you reset the home point you are setting it to the position of the drone. Not the controller. It say's in case of lost connection.
The photo shows what I like most about the AIR...

 

[harle83]

Funny that you sold the P3P I saw one yesterday at a Pawn Shop I love to treasure shop at. Great price for all the goodies and DJI hard case. I have an Air and I like it. I fly with MAS props and it’s really a great drone and I use it a lot. So I’m thinking about the P3P I like Phantoms and it would be nice to have again. I don’t think you’ll go wrong the Magic Air is a great drone. As a disclosure, I am a rabid DJI Fanboy. So, I might be baised about it a little............