Quite Possibly The Best Mavic Air Video I've Seen

Lon Denard · Jan 25, 2018

I had never heard of this guy before but I watched his video and I really like his style.

Here's the link,

philh24 · Jan 25, 2018

Yes I watched that earlier today and was well impressed

WilliamG · Jan 25, 2018

First, take ALL these (DJI gave me this weeks ago) reviews with a hefty grain of salt.

Also, note how he shows off the obstacle avoidance in the rear, but doesn't even mention that if the drone were rotating around him while he controlled it with his hand - that it would crash sideways into the ice. Easy to just not show stuff that still needs work, and the location he was using it is clearly not ideal in terms of no-controller mode.

Hopefully the Mavic II has full obstacle avoidance in all directions. Six-direction obstacle avoidance or go home. At the end of the day, the Air only has half of the directions covered. Back, Forward, and Down. Nothing Up, Left, or Right.

Anyway, this review SCREAMS paid-reviewer, and hey - it is.

Still, fun to see the Air in action.

R1Mavic · Jan 25, 2018

This one impressed me the most

WilliamG · Jan 25, 2018

R1Mavic said:
This one impressed me the most

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Yes. Most interesting point was at the end where he said, telemetry on Pro controller vs not on the Air controller.. He basically said he only had to bring home his Mavic Pro one time using the telemetry on the controller, so it's not a big deal.

WHAT?!

That one time is potentially the difference between losing your drone and not losing it!

Also, I didn't know that the Air has a F/2.8 aperture vs F/2.2 on the Pro. That's a massive different in favor of the Pro, especially in low-light environments.

kiwi flyer · Jan 25, 2018

WilliamG said:
Yes.
Also, I didn't know that the Air has a F/2.8 aperture vs F/2.2 on the Pro. That's a massive different in favor of the Pro, especially in low-light environments.

Its interesting comparing the specs side by side.. I saw a lot of differences between the two.

R1Mavic · Jan 25, 2018

WilliamG said:
That one time is potentially the difference between losing your drone and not losing it!

LMAO!....True.I'd be curious to know why his RTH wasn't working that one time. That distance/height counter on the MP control is huge. Will miss.

fiberdude · Jan 25, 2018

R1Mavic said:
This one impressed me the most

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This guy claims he never flew his drone out for more than 400 meters?! Then why does he need a Mavic? Any of those earlier, much cheaper Phantom models would be perfect for his purpose.

Was he paid by DJI to make this lousy review?

4wd · Jan 25, 2018

It's a mystery why they improved some features of the camera but removed D-Log - as he clearly states.
It would be wise to see real user results before jumping to the Air for 'better' camera,

WilliamG · Jan 25, 2018

4wd said:
It's a mystery why they improved some features of the camera but removed D-Log - as he clearly states.
It would be wise to see real user results before jumping to the Air for 'better' camera,

From all information out there, it's an inferior camera. The same setup, with a smaller aperture. How is that better?

The real difference is 100mbps vs 60mbps video. But that's not necessarily the camera itself, and more likely sheer processing power that may have received a bump for the Air.

4wd · Jan 25, 2018

The bitrate is higher, and it does faster frame rates at lower res.
Fast frame rates have their uses but not for most things you do when aerial filming.
Higher bitrate will not look much better when uploaded to youtube.
Apparently it's the same sensor which has modest ability with important stuff like dynamic range - and is now rather dated.

DefaultIT · Jan 25, 2018

R1Mavic said:
This one impressed me the most

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I'm not sure what I'm watching at the front of this...the guy's comments are all speculative so I'm assuming that is Mavic Pro footage.

kiwi flyer · Jan 25, 2018

These days everyone's a vlogger or trying to be a YouTube personality.. So much junk to swift through.

I'll decide on the air or mavic 2 later in the year.. I think the mavic pro 2 will be the drone that were all looking for.

ckizer · Jan 25, 2018

DevinSuperTramp is one of the biggest stars on youtube. Look through his other amazing videos. He's been a YouTube personality and drone enthusiast for 10 years. He made nearly $5million last year. His reviews of the drone are not paid endorsements by DJI.

Somebody asked why he didn't just use a Phantom if he doesn't fly over 400m? Really? I don't fly over 400m away and I have a Mavic. Flight distance isn't the selling feature of drones for most people. It's the features. He's made more drone videos than everyone on this forum combined. You don't need to fly a drone far away from you to take video footage.

He has like 2 of every DJI drone, just check out his channel especially his hawaii footage. It's fantastic.

ckizer · Jan 25, 2018

WilliamG said:
Yes. Most interesting point was at the end where he said, telemetry on Pro controller vs not on the Air controller.. He basically said he only had to bring home his Mavic Pro one time using the telemetry on the controller, so it's not a big deal.

WHAT?!

That one time is potentially the difference between losing your drone and not losing it!

Also, I didn't know that the Air has a F/2.8 aperture vs F/2.2 on the Pro. That's a massive different in favor of the Pro, especially in low-light environments.

Interesting so it doesn't have GPS/location built in the controller right? Which means If I move a ton return to home (where I'm at) will use my phones GPS and location right? Never been an issue before. But I'm curious.

philh24 · Jan 25, 2018

Another demo on YouTube. This guy took it to 1.5 miles and demo’s the different modes. Worth a look if you haven’t seen it. I would never want it to go that far anyway I’m a coward.

Lon Denard · Jan 25, 2018

Hey I'm cooking some fries could one of you salty dudes loan me some? Hahaha! Yeesh!

So to summarize, you either have to be a fan boy or paid by DJI to say anything positive about a DJI product. Gotcha.

This guy's videos are amazing! I like his basic type of review where he doesn't spend a bunch of time pounding on the specs but actually flies the dang thing! Btw the drone maps and remembers it's surroundings so it's possible that it can avoid a sideways crash if it "saw" the obstical before the mode was engaged. Also, the field of view is rather large on both the front and rear sensors, I fully agree that it's not a complete 360 though. In fact, it's 50° 24 meters in the front and 50° 20 meters in the rear. Definitely an improvement over no rear sensors.

You guys are killing me! The same guy will complain about missing features and then complain about the price. If it were priced higher, it would have those features. If it were priced lower, it would have less features. It already has features better than drones costing over $1000.

Cliff_622 · Jan 25, 2018

WilliamG said:
From all information out there, it's an inferior camera. The same setup, with a smaller aperture. How is that better?

The real difference is 100mbps vs 60mbps video. But that's not necessarily the camera itself, and more likely sheer processing power that may have received a bump for the Air.

Just because it's a f2.8 instead of f2.2 doesn't mean it's "inferior". As with most lenses, the more you open the iris, the softer the image gets. Practically every lens that was ever made will perform much better at f5.6 or f8 than it will at f2.8 or f2.1 or f1.4.

It's just the laws of optics. It's not "inferior" at all. 99% of my flying is in daylight where the last thing I want is f2.2 under very high (and harsh looking) shutter speeds and I'm always forced to place ND filters to limit that light anyway to keep shutter speeds down I'd prefer a sharp f4.0 any day as I rarely fly in "true" low light. Unfortunately the Mavic's 60mbps bit rate the the absolute rock bottom bitrate that anybody would ever want to record 4k....on any devise. This is the TRUE "inferior" aspect of these two cameras you are talking about, not the lenses. DJI has addressed this issue and from now on we are never going to see 60mbp/s again on any DJI 4k drone.

It's funny,...DJI didnt just "add" 100mbp/s as an option to pick from, giving you both 60 and 100mbps. They actually REMOVED 60mbp/s completely from the AIR. (The P4P doesn't go that low either)

I think that speaks volumes about that DJI thinks of 60mbp/s 4k today.

Lon Denard · Jan 25, 2018

Cliff_622 said:
Just because it's a f2.8 instead of f2.2 doesn't mean it's "inferior". As with most lenses, the more you open the iris, the softer the image gets. Practically every lens that was ever made will perfume much better at f5.6 or f8 than it will at f2.8 or f2.1 or ff1.4.

It's just the laws of optics. It's not "inferior" at all. 99% of my flying is in daylight where the last thing I want is f2.2 under very high (and harsh looking) shutter speeds and I'm always forced to place ND filters to limit that light anyway to keep shutter speeds down I'd prefer a sharp f4.0 any day as I rarely fly in true low light. Unfortunately the Mavic's 60mbps bit rate the the absolute rock bottom bitrate that anybody would ever want to record 4k....on any devise. This is the TRUE "inferior" aspect of these two cameras you are talking about, not the lenses. DJI has addressed this issue and from now on we are never going to see 60mbp/s again on any 4k drone.

It's funny,...DJI didnt just "add" 100mbp/s as an option to pick from, giving you both 60 and 100mbps. They actually REMOVED 60mbp/s completely from the AIR. (The P4P doesn't go that low either)

I think that speaks volumes about that DJI thinks of 60mbp/s 4k today.

Nice summation!

Lon Denard · Jan 25, 2018

R1Mavic said:
This one impressed me the most

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