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

[abridge]

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.

 

[Simmo]

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.

Ummmm. Yup...

 

[Kilrah]

Manual channel selection usually does wonders.

It handles the wind very well, been in 35km/h with no issue.
The built-in pano stitching is useless indeed, wind or not. But take the original shots and stitch them in a decent program and you get great results.

Every new device needs taking time to learn its characteristics and how to get the best out of it. It'll be the same with the MP2.

 

[paul1664]

This sounds like a fault. Can easily reach 2Km without issue (been to 2.6Km, can literally circle the entire village) and wind never been a problem to 30mph gusts. Likewise with pano stitching bu t I can see how strong wind PLUS pano stitching could be an issue but never seen it.

 

[tcope]

If you thought the Air was going to be better then the Pro all around, this was your first mistake. Also, the Air is not much smaller than the Pro.

I've not had any issues with signal control. I can easily fly out 2500' in pretty much any location. I've not really pushed it yet.

I've taken many panos (180s and 360s) and they have been stitched together perfectly.

 

[Kilrah]

I've taken many panos (180s and 360s) and they have been stitched together perfectly.

That one is full of stitching errors like all of mine, never got a single clean one. Lots of places where things are "duplicated".

 

[tcope]

That one is full of stitching errors like all of mine, never got a single clean one. Lots of places where things are "duplicated".

I think the stitching itself is very good. There are some areas that are blurry. Personally, I don't expect it to be perfect so perhaps it's my expectations.

 

[abridge]

If you thought the Air was going to be better then the Pro all around, this was your first mistake. Also, the Air is not much smaller than the Pro.

I've not had any issues with signal control. I can easily fly out 2500' in pretty much any location. I've not really pushed it yet.

I've taken many panos (180s and 360s) and they have been stitched together perfectly.

View attachment 32799

I see plenty of blurry parts of that image...

 

[Air Beetle]

There are plenty of posts related to old firmware and android devices causing issues. It's tough to help if you don't provide more details. It seems that you are set to give up on it so we aren't sure if you want help or want to complain. The panorama above is great in my eyes. How else could a person provide such a stunning shot at all so a little blur is insignificant to 99% of us.

 

[abridge]

There are plenty of posts related to old firmware and android devices causing issues. It's tough to help if you don't provide more details. It seems that you are set to give up on it so we aren't sure if you want help or want to complain. The panorama above is great in my eyes. How else could a person provide such a stunning shot at all so a little blur is insignificant to 99% of us.

I do photography so blur covering a good 25% of the middle of the image is pretty unacceptable to me.

I am on the latest firmwares on both the controller, the drone, the app and my iphone IOS version. I checked this morning. I have used the internal and external SD cards to make sure it wasnt one or the other.

and I am not trying to be an ***, but I posted in this section to complain about it. I have already read through multiple help topics in the help section. I didnt believe in the occusync vs wifi signal debate. I thought I would have 0 connection issues in the middle of nowhere. I am just posting to show how disappointed I am when I could have just kept my Mavic Pro and gotten less blurry shots, just not as good of a camera.

 

[Split-Second]

The air just does not handle wind that well at all due to its size.

Lol....
watch this :

 

[abridge]

Lol....
watch this :

Well it seems it is an issue with the software then when it comes to panoramic shots (as someone said above) and that I will just have to take multiple pics myself and stitch them together. It fels like the wind to me since every pano shot I took in SLC was blurry and every pano shot I took in Turks was crystal clear.

 

[Split-Second]

Well it seems it is an issue with the software then when it comes to panoramic shots (as someone said above) and that I will just have to take multiple pics myself and stitch them together. It fels like the wind to me since every pano shot I took in SLC was blurry and every pano shot I took in Turks was crystal clear.

I always use Lightroom for stitching. The built-in stitch function is, in my opinion, only intended for fast pano results to be shared on social media

 

[Travisimo]

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.

 

[thongbong]

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.

Next time youre flying directly ovrrhead, try folding the antennas to be horizontal with the ground since the radiation pattern will shoot up instead of out and away.

 

[Vanzeppelin]

I've been extremely impressed with how well the Mavic Air handles the wind. It may be small, but the almost flat profile seems to cut through it very well.

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 have had some lag in the signal in populated areas, but it's usually fine. The Mavic Pro definitely has it beat in signal reliability and distance. A Mavic Pro 2 with the sensor of the Phantom 4 Pro would be ideal, but until then the Air and P4P combo covers just about everything I need.

 

[Air Beetle]

Maybe you should return it for a replacement.

 

[Kilrah]

I will just have to take multiple pics myself and stitch them together

You can use the auto function as long as you set it to keep original pictures and stitch them yourself. The multiple shot automation is good and decent software takes it right in and produces perfect results without manual adjustement, It's only the built-in stitching that isn't.
Anyway when you can make perfect panos out of the DNGs it's be kinda stupid to settle with the built in thingy, as someone said it's just good for quick social media posts where nobody cares.

For the link, as already mentioned manually switching to a clean channel usually in the 5G band has always solved my problems where I had some.

 

[daisy-girl]

Next time youre flying directly ovrrhead, try folding the antennas to be horizontal with the ground since the radiation pattern will shoot up instead of out and away.

Where can I find the source for that recommendation?

Thank you.

 

[Simmo]