Now that I have actually used the air a little more... I am extremely disappointed.

[Verizondrone28]

Where can I find the source for that recommendation?

Thank you.

Here you go.

 

[AlgarveDroning]

The only reason Pro owners (or potential Pro buyers) wanted the Air over the current Pro is because it has the latest DJI tech, making it appear to be an upgrade from the Pro.

I agree with your Post regarding the positioning of the Air in the model line up as it was always obvious but you are very wrong regarding the above statement.

I didn't see the Air as an upgrade to the Pro I already have; I saw it as a more compact, easier to carry drone for when I am out walking and cycling.

For me, the Air has replaced my Pro. I have not flown the Pro since the arrival of the Air. Why? It does exactly what I thought it would: it can produce images on a par with the Pro and it fits in my cycle shirt back pocket so when I am mountain biking along the coast and along the cliffs, I can quickly take out the drone and take some pictures or video. The Pro, for all its compact size, is just slightly too large for this and demands its own bag. Also, for whatever unknown reason, the Air is attracting less seagull attention - which has been an annoying issue with the Pro for me.

When I am walking with my wife, she is impatient with stopping to take pictures, let alone get a drone ready, so I have to have the drone "ready" to fly all the time in case I see something. The Air is better in my experience for how that works for me.

I appreciate some folks have issues with Wi-Fi vs Occusync but I have had no problems whatsoever. In fact, I believe my Air starts up faster than my Pro and for my use, the signal has always been just as good wherever I have flown it. The only reservation I had was the loss of the RC screen but that has proved to not be an issue at all.

Ultimately, the Air has the same tech as the outgoing Pro where it matters for me along with a more compact body. Therefore it does what a Mavic Pro 2 will not do unless it is the same size as the Air, so I'm not at all intending to get one and I'm very happy with the Air over my "old" Pro.

 

[daisy-girl]

Here you go.

I looked at that image so many times in the manual, and only now do I understand it.

Thank you!

 

[abridge]

I agree with your Post regarding the positioning of the Air in the model line up as it was always obvious but you are very wrong regarding the above statement.

I didn't see the Air as an upgrade to the Pro I already have; I saw it as a more compact, easier to carry drone for when I am out walking and cycling.

For me, the Air has replaced my Pro. I have not flown the Pro since the arrival of the Air. Why? It does exactly what I thought it would: it can produce images on a par with the Pro and it fits in my cycle shirt back pocket so when I am mountain biking along the coast and along the cliffs, I can quickly take out the drone and take some pictures or video. The Pro, for all its compact size, is just slightly too large for this and demands its own bag. Also, for whatever unknown reason, the Air is attracting less seagull attention - which has been an annoying issue with the Pro for me.

When I am walking with my wife, she is impatient with stopping to take pictures, let alone get a drone ready, so I have to have the drone "ready" to fly all the time in case I see something. The Air is better in my experience for how that works for me.

I appreciate some folks have issues with Wi-Fi vs Occusync but I have had no problems whatsoever. In fact, I believe my Air starts up faster than my Pro and for my use, the signal has always been just as good wherever I have flown it. The only reservation I had was the loss of the RC screen but that has proved to not be an issue at all.

Ultimately, the Air has the same tech as the outgoing Pro where it matters for me along with a more compact body. Therefore it does what a Mavic Pro 2 will not do unless it is the same size as the Air, so I'm not at all intending to get one and I'm very happy with the Air over my "old" Pro.

I agree with you mostly. The reason why I bought the air is because of that compactness. It fits in my camera bag when I go traveling perfectly with my camera equipment/gopro/air controller, compared to my mavic pro that BARELY fit in my bag. Seeing the better camera, more compact size convinced me to sell my pro and get the air. I just didnt think I would have so many issues with the wifi signal and lag and having to recalibrate the compass every startup. Ill try to switch to 5ghz to see if that fixes it.

 

[griffinhart]

For panos you can let the drone take the shots (in raw) then stitch them together in Lightroom and get some pretty amazing shots for what you're working with. What the drone stitches together automatically are just jpg shots that I use just to give me an idea of how everything framed out. You'll get far better results putting the raw images together in Lightroom, but that is true of just about any DJI drone. The built in stuff is never going to give you the best result.

.

I agree with this. I took a 360 Pano and found the drone generated version to be underwhelming. I took the RAW photos it generated and stitched them in Lightroom and the results are dramatically better. My guess is that since the drone needs to stitch them fairly quickly with its on board processing power, it needs to be lower quality or it would take too long to finish. Even on a beefy desktop PC (i7, 32GB of RAM and an 1080 Ti video card) stitching them together takes a minute or three.

 

[allnamestaken]

I wanted to love the air. I had the Mavic pro as my first drone and thought to myself "if it was just a little smaller with a slightly better camera it would be the perfect drone for me when I travel". When I saw the air was announced I preordered it immediately so that I could use it on my two upcoming trips, Turks & Caicos and Salt Lake City.

Turks & Caicos: Not many wireless signals or cell service there to mess with the wifi connection. The drone worked as intended and I had absolutely no issues with it.

Salt Lake City: I was in the middle of nowhere, outside of the city. Not a building in sight. I was plagued with an extremely laggy video transmission (I even lost video transmission one time which freaked me out. Where was the drone? 2 miles away from me? nope, it was 90 feet above my head), constantly having to calibrate the compass every single time I turned it on, and every single panoramic shot came out with either a blurry background or blurry foreground due to the wind (using automatic camera settings. I usually do manual but wanted to see how well it did on auto). The air just does not handle wind that well at all due to its size.

All in all, I honestly cannot wait for the mavic pro 2 to be announced so I can sell this. The RC signal they use is just years ahead of the wifi signal that is in the Air and Spark and I am extremely disappointed that they decided not to put that technology into the Air. Lets hope the Mavic Pro 2 has a better camera than the 1.

I bought an Air at Bestbuy, as I was excited it was on the shelf. Took it home. Watched a bunch of youtube videos on it and it and decided to return it a week later. I never took it out of the package. There is no reason I could see to upgrade over my Mavic Pro.

 

[abridge]

I bought an Air at Bestbuy, as I was excited it was on the shelf. Took it home. Watched a bunch of youtube videos on it and it and decided to return it a week later. I never took it out of the package. There is no reason I could see to upgrade over my Mavic Pro.

I think you made a good decision. Especially sine the 2 is being announced soon.

 

[twitchyzero]

Here you go.

my other wifi bird recommended i point the antennas diagonally down and out like an upside down rabbit ear and to keep the remote pointed at the bird, will that not also be optimal?

 

[Kilrah]

This depends on how the antennas are installed in the aircraft which will differ between manufacturers.

 

[scott rand]

From doing research before purchasing my Air, I knew very well the Air was not just a smaller Pro. It’s not really targeted to be a competitor to the Pro, and the Pro upgrade is coming soon. The only reason Pro owners (or potential Pro buyers) wanted the Air over the current Pro is because it has the latest DJI tech, making it appear to be an upgrade from the Pro. But it neither is nor should be thought of as an upgrade from the Pro. It’s soecifialky designed to be between the Spark and Pro.

Those buying the Air as an upgrade from the Spark (or possibly a mid-class Phantom) will likely be very happy. Those moving from a Pro to an Air will likely be disappointed unless they know well ahead of time that transmission and battery life are not on the same level.

That said, the Air hits a sweet spot for me. DJI are masters of marketing and the Air has just enough to make it very desirable but also enough left off to make the Pro 2 stand out when it comes out. The Air and Pro aren’t supposed to be compared horizontally, and once the Pro 2 comes out, this will be made clear. The difficulty for some is whether to buy a current gen Pro with all the discounts knowing that it has better transmission and battery life, but lacks the better camera, rear sensors, and some of the newer modes. That’s a tough one.

I have a Pro and an Air. I haven’t flown my Pro since I got my Air. Not once have I been disappointed. I prefer it’s camera and safety features and new modes. I prefer it to the Pro. That being said, I still love the Pro and the Goggles experience with the Pro is better than with the Air. I don’t know why they didn’t add Occusync to the Air, but I’m assuming they couldn’t keep the size or price down if they did.

As far as flight distance, I barely go further than a mile, even with my Pro. So 2+ miles is fine with me. I also like the gimbal of the Air a lot more, so much sturdier than the Pro. I feel the camera is better than the Pro (most people feel that way).

So, in reality, I own drones to take great video and pictures from a perspective that I wouldn’t get from the ground, my main priority isn’t to win distance tests. Therefore for MY personal needs, I couldn’t be happier than with what I have with the Air. I like it better than my Pro.

 

[BJR981S]

my other wifi bird recommended i point the antennas diagonally down and out like an upside down rabbit ear and to keep the remote pointed at the bird, will that not also be optimal?

That is not recommended for any antenna including Circular Polarised. Linear antenna are on the DJI Air, Spark and Pro need to be at 90 degrees to the location of the aircraft and parallel. Adjust them or point the TX down or up if you are flying directly overhead.

I believe the parallel recommendation is due to the seperate Command and Video channels. Normal 2.4 Ghz linear antenna should be 90 degrees to the model and angled 90 degrees apart.

Cheers

 

[Scotdrone]

DJI make great drones but are certainly not experts when it comes to photo stitching. For big pano images I'd recommend a specific pano stitching software package rather than Lightroom. Lightroom still isn't quite there when it comes to full 360x180 photospheres. HUGIN is free and really good, but it takes a while to stitch. Microsoft ICE is also free, is lightning quick and brilliant with uncomplicated panos like those produced by the Mavic at altitude. You need to manually patch the sky in Photoshop and insert metadata to make it work as a photosphere on Facebook etc but you can get huge resolution photospheres with absolutely zero errors and no blur.

 

[Flyin@Higher]

I wanted to love the air. I had the Mavic pro as my first drone and thought to myself "if it was just a little smaller with a slightly better camera it would be the perfect drone for me when I travel". When I saw the air was announced I preordered it immediately so that I could use it on my two upcoming trips, Turks & Caicos and Salt Lake City.

Turks & Caicos: Not many wireless signals or cell service there to mess with the wifi connection. The drone worked as intended and I had absolutely no issues with it.

Salt Lake City: I was in the middle of nowhere, outside of the city. Not a building in sight. I was plagued with an extremely laggy video transmission (I even lost video transmission one time which freaked me out. Where was the drone? 2 miles away from me? nope, it was 90 feet above my head), constantly having to calibrate the compass every single time I turned it on, and every single panoramic shot came out with either a blurry background or blurry foreground due to the wind (using automatic camera settings. I usually do manual but wanted to see how well it did on auto). The air just does not handle wind that well at all due to its size.

All in all, I honestly cannot wait for the mavic pro 2 to be announced so I can sell this. The RC signal they use is just years ahead of the wifi signal that is in the Air and Spark and I am extremely disappointed that they decided not to put that technology into the Air. Lets hope the Mavic Pro 2 has a better camera than the 1.

Sour grapes huh absolutely not one single issue with mine.... none.

 

[Phrillseeker]

I wanted to love the air. I had the Mavic pro as my first drone and thought to myself "if it was just a little smaller with a slightly better camera it would be the perfect drone for me when I travel". When I saw the air was announced I preordered it immediately so that I could use it on my two upcoming trips, Turks & Caicos and Salt Lake City.

Turks & Caicos: Not many wireless signals or cell service there to mess with the wifi connection. The drone worked as intended and I had absolutely no issues with it.

Salt Lake City: I was in the middle of nowhere, outside of the city. Not a building in sight. I was plagued with an extremely laggy video transmission (I even lost video transmission one time which freaked me out. Where was the drone? 2 miles away from me? nope, it was 90 feet above my head), constantly having to calibrate the compass every single time I turned it on, and every single panoramic shot came out with either a blurry background or blurry foreground due to the wind (using automatic camera settings. I usually do manual but wanted to see how well it did on auto). The air just does not handle wind that well at all due to its size.

All in all, I honestly cannot wait for the mavic pro 2 to be announced so I can sell this. The RC signal they use is just years ahead of the wifi signal that is in the Air and Spark and I am extremely disappointed that they decided not to put that technology into the Air. Lets hope the Mavic Pro 2 has a better camera than the 1.

I understand your frustration but, as a builder from scratch of drones myself, I have to tell you that the Mavic Air is an absolute marvel of technology. For the price you cannot build a similar drone. In fact, you cannot build a drone this small and beautiful yourself, period! I have a Phantom 4, which I love as well, but like you I had to have the Air, simply for what it stands for: smaller, more security cameras, more photographic options: in short "a must have".

I suggest that if you have quality issues, you return it to DJI immediately and if it is indeed faulty, they will send you a new one, no questions asked, pronto. I crashed mine in low light conditions 2 weeks ago (my fault) and it fell 3 metres onto a hard floor. Back leg broken, wires twisted, scratched. I sent it back and 10 days later a brand spanking new Mavic Air was delivered to me free of charge. Total cost: €74 + VAT! Go beat that.

 

[Flawless]

Take a look at Microsoft Image Composition Editor - ICE.

It's a fast and easy tool for stitching any images of any layout.

 

[DAMIANG]

From doing research before purchasing my Air, I knew very well the Air was not just a smaller Pro. It’s not really targeted to be a competitor to the Pro, and the Pro upgrade is coming soon. The only reason Pro owners (or potential Pro buyers) wanted the Air over the current Pro is because it has the latest DJI tech, making it appear to be an upgrade from the Pro. But it neither is nor should be thought of as an upgrade from the Pro. It’s soecifialky designed to be between the Spark and Pro.

Those buying the Air as an upgrade from the Spark (or possibly a mid-class Phantom) will likely be very happy. Those moving from a Pro to an Air will likely be disappointed unless they know well ahead of time that transmission and battery life are not on the same level.

That said, the Air hits a sweet spot for me. DJI are masters of marketing and the Air has just enough to make it very desirable but also enough left off to make the Pro 2 stand out when it comes out. The Air and Pro aren’t supposed to be compared horizontally, and once the Pro 2 comes out, this will be made clear. The difficulty for some is whether to buy a current gen Pro with all the discounts knowing that it has better transmission and battery life, but lacks the better camera, rear sensors, and some of the newer modes. That’s a tough one.

Well said. I have the Mavic Pro, when the AIR was coming out I said great a smaller PRO, NOT. The AIR is not suppose to compete with the PRO. Those that expect the AIR to be a smaller PRO are going to be disappointed. The Wifi transmission was enough for me to steer clear of the AIR. I love the way it looks, but that is it. I would love for the PRO to be as small as the AIR, but the only way that is going to happen if DJI has competition.

 

[DAMIANG]

I agree with your Post regarding the positioning of the Air in the model line up as it was always obvious but you are very wrong regarding the above statement.

I didn't see the Air as an upgrade to the Pro I already have; I saw it as a more compact, easier to carry drone for when I am out walking and cycling.

For me, the Air has replaced my Pro. I have not flown the Pro since the arrival of the Air. Why? It does exactly what I thought it would: it can produce images on a par with the Pro and it fits in my cycle shirt back pocket so when I am mountain biking along the coast and along the cliffs, I can quickly take out the drone and take some pictures or video. The Pro, for all its compact size, is just slightly too large for this and demands its own bag. Also, for whatever unknown reason, the Air is attracting less seagull attention - which has been an annoying issue with the Pro for me.

When I am walking with my wife, she is impatient with stopping to take pictures, let alone get a drone ready, so I have to have the drone "ready" to fly all the time in case I see something. The Air is better in my experience for how that works for me.

I appreciate some folks have issues with Wi-Fi vs Occusync but I have had no problems whatsoever. In fact, I believe my Air starts up faster than my Pro and for my use, the signal has always been just as good wherever I have flown it. The only reservation I had was the loss of the RC screen but that has proved to not be an issue at all.

Ultimately, the Air has the same tech as the outgoing Pro where it matters for me along with a more compact body. Therefore it does what a Mavic Pro 2 will not do unless it is the same size as the Air, so I'm not at all intending to get one and I'm very happy with the Air over my "old" Pro.

I think the reason it is might be attracting less Seagulls is the louder/different prop noise the AIR Generates vs the PRO. Which up in the air if it causes birds to avoid it is a good thing. A Seagull is still way bigger than a PRO so I dont think the smaller size of the AIR is the difference. I think the noise it generates bugs the Seagulls more.

 

[jwjonesjr]

As far as flight distance, I barely go further than a mile, even with my Pro. So 2+ miles is fine with me.

It's not just the flight distance that sets ocusync apart from WIFI. A radio signal is much stronger than wifi on any given day, any environment, and at any distance.

 

[Jameslavis]

This is not a clear upgrade from the pro. But it is the better option if you don’t have the pro. With the fly more bundle on the air, I see no issues nor any reason why it isn’t the best compact consumer drone. I’ve found and read most issues are user error.

 

[scott rand]

It's not just the flight distance that sets ocusync apart from WIFI. A radio signal is much stronger than wifi on any given day, any environment, and at any distance.

Haven’t had radio signal problems yet.