DJI launches Mavic Air

indiawilds

indiawilds

Veteran
DJI launches Mavic Air.
4K camera in a 3 axis gimbal and 12 MP still photos.
It is foldable like the previous one.
It has a top speed of 43mph in sport mode.
Flight time is upto 21 mins.
4K video @ 100 mbps using H.264
4K only upto 30fps.
2.7K @ 60fps, 1080p@ 120 fps.
Lens is 24mm (in 35mm equivalent) and not skewed like GoPro. Fixed aperture of f2.8

One can buy in different colours like Arctic White, Onyx black and Flame Red. Wonder why this colours?

B&H lists it at $799 USD.

Not sure when it will be available. What do you guys think?
 
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100mbps is nice to see. The clips on their video still look more Mavic than P4 pro, so I'll skip. What I really want is something portable (Mavic size is great, doesn't need to be microscopic) but with a camera that is at least as good as the P4 pro (variable aperture and high frame rate combined). I'd pay above the P4 pro price for that drone.
 
That's also why I've stayed away from the Mavic; the quality of the image that I saw in the samples and tests was... well, bad. Way too much compression... it turned areas that should have had lots of detail in the into mush.
 
I'll bite.

This will be my first drone and it's more or less just for fun stuff and family. I'm taking a pretty relaxed stance on image quality, but I'll say this: my main gripe about cheapish drone footage has always been how underpowered they have been in terms of bitrate. 100 Mbps is probably the bare minimum, but at least I'm hoping this will be 'OK' for some fun footage.

Another key metric for me is that with a weight of 430g only, it qualifies as a mini drone here in Switzerland which means the rules are more relaxed (<500g).

Delivery is pretty soon: 28. January in the States. 8 days delivery for me here.
 
It looks like DJI lowered the price of the Mavic Pro to $830, which is only $30 more than the Air.

So I had a Mavic Pro, but it took a swim last summer and I'm in the market for a new drone. I was hoping DJI would announce a Mavic Pro 2, but now I'm torn. If this really does have a camera that is as good as the Pro, this might make sense for me to replace it with. But on the other hand this has noticeably less flight time, the remote looks more basic and I still have perfectly working extra batteries and a remote for the Mavic Pro. Add in that you can get a replacement Pro for less than an Air and I'm not sure which one makes more sense.
 
I bought a Mavic Pro Platinum back in Nov/Dec. I just wanted a toy, more or less. Not using it for business. I have a friend that's a professional drone pilot if I really need GOOD aerials. I agree, the camera on the Mavic is lacking. The image goes to crap and is over compressed with fine detail like tree branches with no leaves(although I haven't tried it in 4K, yet, to see if that helps. Only 1080/24). I saw rumors floating around last week about this one and it looks like most were right. It's a cross between a Mavic and Spark. But like a lot of others, I'd like to see what amounts to a Mavic Pro Platinum with the camera of a PP4(a "Mavic Pro 2").
 
I will definitely buy one now. The weight issue with regard to legislation again being the advantage and as a value-added part of my package. I am not interested in competing with the drone biz but in some cases it will be a nice addition to some shoots. I prefer to work with pro drone operators and it the past two location shoots we have done so in Atlanta and Barbados. But to be able to toss the Mavic Air up for a shot or two is just good business for me.
 
Fahnon said:
It looks like DJI lowered the price of the Mavic Pro to $830, which is only $30 more than the Air.

So I had a Mavic Pro, but it took a swim last summer and I'm in the market for a new drone. I was hoping DJI would announce a Mavic Pro 2, but now I'm torn. If this really does have a camera that is as good as the Pro, this might make sense for me to replace it with. But on the other hand this has noticeably less flight time, the remote looks more basic and I still have perfectly working extra batteries and a remote for the Mavic Pro. Add in that you can get a replacement Pro for less than an Air and I'm not sure which one makes more sense.
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Isn't the Pro's max bitrate only 60Mbps? Maybe the reason for the price drop?
 
BrianMurphy said:
I am not interested in competing with the drone biz but in some cases it will be a nice addition to some shoots.
Click to expand...

Exactly my thoughts.

These days there's plenty of jobs that ask if you have a drone, and I always tell them to hire a pro. Once the 'drone frenzy' settles down a little and people are tired of 3-minute videos comprised entirely of drone footage, I'll be getting something like this just to use for the odd establishing shot.
 
The only thing remotely interesting to me about the Mavic Air is the higher bit rate. But once they come out with a Mavic 2 with the same or better bit rate and or camera, I would consider replacing my Mavic Pro. But lower run time, less mass for stability in the wind, etc. None of those are appealing. Also 24mm FOV vs. 28mm on the Mavic Pro isn't desirable.
 
One of the reviews I watched this morning said that they thought the link between the Mavic Air and the remote was Wi-Fi and not a normal "RF" link like on the Mavic Pro, Phantom, etc., which would probably help explain why the Air has roughly half of the transmission distance of the Pro.

I do like how the gimbal on the Air seems more protected/enclosed/secure vs. the MP/MPP. It does seem very fragile on the Pro. I crashed my first MPP and trashed the gimbal. The craft still flies just fine and the camera itself still works, but the gimbal is broken and it's almost the cost of a new drone to get it fixed through an authorized repair center(like an idiot I listened to a few reviews on the internet that trashed the DJI "insurance" program calling it useless, so I decided to not get it. Lesson learned, bought it on the second one).
 
I thought these copters won't crash.

The theoretical maximum flight distance without any wind for the Mavic Air is 10 kms and that of Mavic Pro is 13kms. This is from the DJI site. I would be happy with the Mavic Air flight distance, as I have no plan whatsoever of flying far off. The small size appeals as one can easily accommodate the Mavic Air in situations where you are trying to limit baggage.
 
indiawilds said:
I thought these copters won't crash.
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I've been flying my Mavic Pro for almost a year and fingers crossed, no crashes yet! But I have had a couple of close calls over water, which is where I mainly used it. Tip: Never use "Return to Home" when flying over water, even if you started the flight over land. My drone almost went into the waves a few weeks ago when I did this. Learn to fly completely manually by instruments. I was over the ocean on a cloudy day also, had the camera pointing straight down and couldn't see anything because the water was dark and I was a bit underexposed. I couldn't tell which way it was back to land, I was out pretty far, I used the readout on the display to make it back to land blind essentially. I have had the Mavic Pro pretty far away, about 4,000 yards and yes, I was violating the rule about keeping it in sight, but it was over water, not people, so therefore safe. I do NOT like the limited range on the new Mavic Air, also the controller looks really cheap too compared to the Mavic Pro controller. If anything, I will possibly update to the Inspire with the new camera, if I decide to become a drone DP and get my 107 but I think the market is saturated, too late.
 
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puredrifting said:
I've been flying my Mavic Pro for almost a year and fingers crossed, no crashes yet! But I have had a couple of close calls over water, which is where I mainly used it. Tip: Never use "Return to Home" when flying over water, even if you started the flight over land. My drone almost went into the waves a few weeks ago when I did this. Learn to fly completely mahually by instruments. I was over the ocean on a cloudy day also, had the camera pointing straight down and couldn't see anything because the water was dark and I was a bit underexposed. I couldn't tell which way it was back to land, I was out pretty far, I used the readout on the display to make it back to land blind essentially. I have had the Mavic Pro pretty far away, about 4,000 yards and yes, I was violating the rule about keeping it in sight, but it was over water, not people, so therefore safe. I do NOT like the limited range on the new Mavic Air, also the controller looks really cheap too compared to the Mavic Pro controller. If anything, I will possibly update to the Inspire with the new camera, if I decide to become a drone DP and get my 107 but I think the market is saturated, too late.
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Never have "Return to Home" as a safety turned on for low battery or lost signal when flying at low altitude, either. That's what bit me. I was flying at very low altitude(15-20 feet?) in my front yard and the critical battery alarm went off and "Return to Home" was ON. As you know, the drone will automatically begin to ascend at a high rate of speed to the set minimum altitude to return to the home point. It took just a matter of seconds before it was into a bunch of tree branches. I did manage to stop the ascent before it slammed into anything, but it was hovering in a very precarious position and before I was able to get it out of the branches, it drifted laterally into some small branches enough to clip one or two of the props and knock it out of the air. My first instinct was to try to catch it, BUT I wasn't sure if the props would still be spinning or if it automatically kills them, so I stood there and watched my new drone slam into the ground. Two chipped props and one of the front "struts" partially damaged, no big deal, but the gimbal was smashed and hanging from the body. It still flies just fine and the camera works and the image is fine, but completely useless, because the gimbal is broken.

I was so mad I just threw the whole thing into the trash. My girlfriend, trying to be supportive, fished it out and said "you can fix it". I ordered a new one the same afternoon. The next day, I took the wrecked one back out just to see if it would still fly and to my surprise, it flew just fine. So I had a drone to practice flying with that didn't really matter if I wrecked it again plus when the new one arrived I would have a total of four batteries, two chargers, two remotes, etc., because I had bought the "fly more combo" kit with the first one.

I guess it's like one of my friends who flies drones and flew RC planes says, "If you haven't wrecked a drone, you haven't flown drone".
 
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