My thoughts on the DJI Air 3S as an Air 3 owner

[Kiwicbrthou]

Waiting for the Youtube tests of the night time capabilities of this new drone. Very happy
with my Air3 at night but would consider the "S" version if it's far superior at night.

Billy Kyle talks about the night time capabilities of the air3s in his review on YouTube.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Billy Kyle talks about the night time capabilities of the air3s in his review on YouTube.

If only his style didn't grate on me so much, I'd pop right over there and watch it. Nothing personal, Billy. It's me

I'll still probably watch it...

 

[Wreckhunter]

Billy Kyle talks about the night time capabilities of the air3s in his review on YouTube.

Kyle is going to always say that it is the greatest with every new release,the true reviews are the pilots that buy it with their own money and have their reviews on it.

 

[davidarmenb]

They are? I haven't seen this anywhere. In fact, the only official statement I've seen in any advertising collateral from DJI is a brief statement that the 3x camera is the same as the A3, no change at all.

Do you have some reference for the 14-stop ability on the tele camera?

Yes sir! From the official Air 3S page. I mean I could totally be fooled by a marketing gimmick but the following screenshots tell me this refers to both cameras. Specifically since it begins by saying “Dual Camera” before stating the specs for the dual cameras. Again, this is just my understanding. A few YouTubers have also understood it like this.



In Addition, am I to assume from this disclaimer that this also means we will not even get 14 stops from the 1” if we use manual shooting mode?

 

[Droning on and on...]

Mark me down as skeptical. While you logic is sound, logic often doesn't apply to advertising collateral

One could read those as statements about the Air 3, not both cameras, and I'll bet that's how DJI reads it.

 

[davedrone 178]

Billy Kyle talks about the night time capabilities of the air3s in his review on YouTube.

he has posted two videos already on the new Air 3s. He didn't mention night time capabilities in the second video but quickly talked about it in the first but didn't seem like it was based on any formal testing he has done.

 

[ryguy80]

Kyle is going to always say that it is the greatest with every new release,the true reviews are the pilots that buy it with their own money and have their reviews on it.

Billy feels too much like a hype sales guy. I’m skeptical of the Air 3S “greatest drone of all time” claims. I appreciate his passion, however.

Of the people that get drones early, I like Shawn over at Air Photography. He has a no non-sense, straight to the point style on his overviews.

I also enjoy DC Rainmaker’s obstacle avoidance gauntlet he performs on drones to demonstrate the anti-collision capabilities. Even with the addition of LiDAR, the Air 3S seemed to struggle in his test. Smaller drones seem to fair better in his testing.

 

[MavicPro2Pilot]

For photography, I'd definitely get a different drone. I checked the RAW files in detail and colour noise levels of the 50 MP files are just horrible, even in daylight at ISO 100. 12 MP files look better but still worse than my six year old Mavic 2 Pro. They really should've used a 20 MP 1-inch sensor instead.

 

[davidarmenb]

For photography, I'd definitely get a different drone. I checked the RAW files in detail and colour noise levels of the 50 MP files are just horrible, even in daylight at ISO 100. 12 MP files look better but still worse than my six year old Mavic 2 Pro. They really should've used a 20 MP 1-inch sensor instead.

The interpolated 50MP photos will always be more noisy than when pixel binned to 12MP.

 

[ryguy80]

For photography, I'd definitely get a different drone. I checked the RAW files in detail and colour noise levels of the 50 MP files are just horrible, even in daylight at ISO 100. 12 MP files look better but still worse than my six year old Mavic 2 Pro. They really should've used a 20 MP 1-inch sensor instead.

That’s kind of disappointing, but hopefully the 12 MP files look better. At least with the Mini 4 Pro, I had to run de-noise in Lightroom even at base ISO.

 

[Wreckhunter]

Billy feels too much like a hype sales guy. I’m skeptical of the Air 3S “greatest drone of all time” claims. I appreciate his passion, however.

Of the people that get drones early, I like Shawn over at Air Photography. He has a no non-sense, straight to the point style on his overviews.

I also enjoy DC Rainmaker’s obstacle avoidance gauntlet he performs on drones to demonstrate the anti-collision capabilities. Even with the addition of LiDAR, the Air 3S seemed to struggle in his test. Smaller drones seem to fair better in his testing.

Every new drone Kyle gets to use and test is the greatest drone of all time ,until the next release,then he repeats the same thing over again.
Shawn is good yes I think the best of the three easily.Rainmaker,well too interested in strictly the follow me features,I for one do not care what I look like riding my bike through the woods down bike lanes while my drone follows me.Then have to listen on here why the pilots start crying about their crashed drone,that hit a tree or limbs,i rest my case.

 

[davidarmenb]

Every new drone Kyle gets to use and test is the greatest drone of all time ,until the next release,then he repeats the same thing over again.
Shawn is good yes I think the best of the three easily.Rainmaker,well too interested in strictly the follow me features,I for one do not care what I look like riding my bike through the woods down bike lanes while my drone follows me.Then have to listen on here why the pilots start crying about their crashed drone,that hit a tree or limbs,i rest my case.

I must say, I was extremely excited about the Active Track 360 and all those smart autonomous subject tracking features when I got my Air 3. However, I find myself using those features very rarely and relying on manual flight most of the time. I don’t even use Waypoints as much as I thought I would, though I probably should!

 

[Wreckhunter]

I must say, I was extremely excited about the Active Track 360 and all those smart autonomous subject tracking features when I got my Air 3. However, I find myself using those features very rarely and relying on manual flight most of the time. I don’t even use Waypoints as much as I thought I would, though I probably should!

That would be the one feature I would love to have,meaning waypoints,as I photograph
shipwrecks for a hobby,and would like to be able to mark and fly back to a location of a wreck.

 

[davidarmenb]

Billy feels too much like a hype sales guy. I’m skeptical of the Air 3S “greatest drone of all time” claims. I appreciate his passion, however.

Of the people that get drones early, I like Shawn over at Air Photography. He has a no non-sense, straight to the point style on his overviews.

I also enjoy DC Rainmaker’s obstacle avoidance gauntlet he performs on drones to demonstrate the anti-collision capabilities. Even with the addition of LiDAR, the Air 3S seemed to struggle in his test. Smaller drones seem to fair better in his testing.

What I dislike a lot about him other than the fact he is just a sales guy, is the fact that he plays it fast and loose with the specs and then ignores or blocks people who call him out on it with actual official specs.

 

[Macinfo]

Waiting for the Youtube tests of the night time capabilities of this new drone. Very happy
with my Air3 at night but would consider the "S" version if it's far superior at night.

Here is one for Night video on the Air 3S, though the video in general does not focus entirely on on night video.

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[Droning on and on...]

Here is one for Night video on the Air 3S, though the video in general does not focus entirely on on night video.

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Yeah... he loses alot of credibility with me by being too slick and overproduced.

 

[Macinfo]

Yeah... he loses alot of credibility with me by being too slick and overproduced.

To each their own I guess, some people like well produced videos that provided the needed information.

Every YT channel does something to enhance their videos , some more then others.. But not sure how the video is produced would cause a problem with the credibility of the information provided, unless it was clearly wrong or inaccurate.

 

[Cymruflyer]

You got your hands on a 3S already?...the color from the Mini 4 looks best in the example followed by Air 3...the 3s looks like the poorest quality photo...the background looks like less than "good" light for photography, so maybe that effected the finished products

Poor light may have affected the images, however they would have all been affected equally, which means the best camera would have been able to present the best image, given the poor lighting conditions. To me the 3S looked the most pleasing of the 3 comparison images.

With that said, it is difficult to compare images, to an extent, because our monitors are all going to be different, and that alone, may affect how we perceive what our eyes are telling us.

 

[Macinfo]

Comparing photos and videos is a highly subjective thing, Mostly because we are all viewing them from a different lens.., our monitors (and eyes) Unless you have a calibrated studio display, and everyone evaluating does too, its going to look different to everyone looking at the same photo.

Where the totally subjective evaluation comes in, I can say the photo or video looks great, and someone else comes along and says its ok, but there is this and that could be better..

I have 2 similar but not identical models of LG 32" Displays, they are similarly setup using the same color profile on my computer and I made some manual adjustments to make them as close as I could without calibration gear.

Still I can move a photo from one to another and still see perhaps subtle differences in the displays, and I am probably not going to futz with it and see if I can fix that, because without calibration, I am probably not going too get it right and not going to spend the time or $$ to do that.. And I don't manage images or graphics for a living, so not going to purchase expensive studio displays.