We have the usual range, signal strength, wind, and battery life tests, but what I'd really like to see are tests of things that are different with this drone. Such as:
1. How the manual controls behave when in spotlight mode. Up and down or forward and back seem obvious, but what about sideways? Since the camera always points towards the subject, does straight to the side on the right stick result in circling the subject? Does a slide both forward and to the side result in a spiral towards the subject? Or, does a sideways move behave the same as normal, with the drone moving in a straight line but pointing towards the subject, kind of like an automated course lock? If it does this and you stop and then start again does it still go in the same direction?
2. Orbit mode, same thing. Does sideways do anything? Is yawing disabled?
3. Video hdr compared to normal and graded cinelike. What happens if you delberately under or over expose hdr? From what I've seen of sunrise/sunset the sky can be a bit overly darkened with the shadows not lightened as much as I'd like, so what would happen in that scenario if you overexpose by half a stop? Others have said hdr blows out highlights too much to achieve its lightened shadows. So what if you underexpose a little? How does detail and noise look like in the shadows with hdr compared to grading cinelike?
3. 48mp stills. There have been some comparisons with 12mp, but opinions regarding its usefulness are all over the map, so I'd like to see more of a deep dive on this. Is it always worse than 12mp in low light or very contrasty lighting because of noise and low dr? Does it really offer a significant advantage for detail if the lighting is bright and even enough?
And finally, 4. How can you maximize the performance of tracking from in front? We know you can get the Air 2 to track from in front for a while, but then it eventually moves to the back. How can you keep it in front the longest? And how good is the oa when flying backwards? So much worse than forwards as to be completely untrustworthy, or does it do reasonably well?
Those are my top four. What tests would you like to see?
1. How the manual controls behave when in spotlight mode. Up and down or forward and back seem obvious, but what about sideways? Since the camera always points towards the subject, does straight to the side on the right stick result in circling the subject? Does a slide both forward and to the side result in a spiral towards the subject? Or, does a sideways move behave the same as normal, with the drone moving in a straight line but pointing towards the subject, kind of like an automated course lock? If it does this and you stop and then start again does it still go in the same direction?
2. Orbit mode, same thing. Does sideways do anything? Is yawing disabled?
3. Video hdr compared to normal and graded cinelike. What happens if you delberately under or over expose hdr? From what I've seen of sunrise/sunset the sky can be a bit overly darkened with the shadows not lightened as much as I'd like, so what would happen in that scenario if you overexpose by half a stop? Others have said hdr blows out highlights too much to achieve its lightened shadows. So what if you underexpose a little? How does detail and noise look like in the shadows with hdr compared to grading cinelike?
3. 48mp stills. There have been some comparisons with 12mp, but opinions regarding its usefulness are all over the map, so I'd like to see more of a deep dive on this. Is it always worse than 12mp in low light or very contrasty lighting because of noise and low dr? Does it really offer a significant advantage for detail if the lighting is bright and even enough?
And finally, 4. How can you maximize the performance of tracking from in front? We know you can get the Air 2 to track from in front for a while, but then it eventually moves to the back. How can you keep it in front the longest? And how good is the oa when flying backwards? So much worse than forwards as to be completely untrustworthy, or does it do reasonably well?
Those are my top four. What tests would you like to see?
