DJI Mavic Air 2 Fly More Combo - Drone Quadcopter UAV with 48MP Camera 4K Video 8K Hyperlapse 1/2" CMOS Sensor 3-Axis Gimbal 34min Flight Time ActiveTrack 3.0 Ocusync 2.0, Gray

I have been flying drones professionally for major Hollywood sets for 5 years now. So it’s no surprise to me that DJI has continued to innovate with the release of the Mavic Air 2. It might be my favorite little drone to bring around. The 30+ min flight time and 48MP camera make it amazingly useful for pro or amateur use.In the Box FLY MORE Combo Initial ImpressionsBATTERIES -- Includes 3 flight packs. The AIR 2 batteries are very similar to the Mavic 2, EZ to use and charge. New pin style LEDs this year as indicators. 13.2V 40.4WhND FILTERS – This is an amazing feature; they are high quality and easy to use. Normally I had to buy these separately. I was pleasantly surprised by this.CONTROLLER – New style for DJI it's much taller than the previous Mavic series remotes. I prefer this layout as it feels more substantial to hold. The phone clamp does a much better job. The phone really feels attached to the controller. (Yes you can shake it and your phone won't fall out). One of my favorite features of the new controller is the quick button trigger for photos. It has an extremely rewarding push that reminds me of a PS4 controller R2 Button. The controller also stores the USB cable for your phone inside the clamp during storage, allowing easy setup times.PROPELLERS – 2 sets, nice wingtips for reduced noise and efficiency. Easy to attach and clamp-on. A classic DJI product.CHARGER – AC power, small and compact. The charger has a usb port to charge controller or cell phone simultaneously. I really wish it had 2 usb port, this would be super helpful to charge your cell phone too. The charger optionally attaches to the included 3 bank charger. Unfortunately, it charges one battery at a time. I was surprised that this kit did not include a car charger, previously the car charger was my favorite included accessory. This will be something you will have to purchase separately as its super useful when traveling. Lastly, the USB Bank attaches to the aircraft battery which powers the 2 usb, easily charging my cell phone and controller. Convenient when traveling.CASE – This case is a nice improvement from previous Mavic releases. It is a little bit taller but allows the more thoughtful organization to store the FLY MORE combo. It includes a foam insert for the gimbal, protecting the camera and the propeller side of the folded aircraft.AIRCRAFT – Sleek grey, and foldable. The Mavic Air 2 is like the Mavic 2 Pro, slightly smaller, and lighter, with a black camera. Obviously being this is a DJI product, there are sensors all around the body. Excluding upwards facing avoidance. This is generally not necessary so it’s tough to knock. It has a very bright external downward-facing LED that can be switched on and off from the controller with the Function button. Overall, the aircraft folds up easily and is elegantly designed. The aircraft has built-in flash storage, just in case you forgot an SD card. This is an amazing feature that will help those who can be forgetful, Error! Filename not specified.Flight PerformanceOverall, the Mavic Air 2 is a champ. It does well in wind, it can fly fast enough to get the shots you need and provides that rock steady GPS autopilot performance DJI is known for. Boasting 30+ min of flight time, you will likely get bored of flying before the battery runs out. With an insane 10km range, you are likely to get bored of flying mindlessly away from yourself before you run out of video transmission. The autopilot, video transmission, and long flight times gives the pilot peace of mind, allowing you to have fun, and focus on the shot. For those who want the drone to get the shot for them, there’s that too. With obstacle avoidance and intelligent flight features like POI and tracking, the Mavic Air 2 can easily make awesome shots nearly automatically even for the newest pilot.CameraThe tiny camera on the Mavic Air 2 packs a serious punch. At 48mp the quad bayer sensor looks great shooting raw 8k photos. I honestly prefer it for photos in comparison to the Mavic 2 Pros 1” Hasselblad. The extra resolution gives me the ability to crop photos and zoom in. Allowing my flexibility to edit my photos how I want without needing to fly super close to something. The auto function works well, but manual options are available if you choose. The ½” sensor’s video capability is impressive shooting 4k 60 fps and 1080p 240 fps. The little camera is so good, it might tempt you to hold the drone and wave it around like it’s a gimbal. It's not quite as good as the Mavic 2 Pro for video but holds up for the price point.DJI FLY APPDJI’s new app, is elegant and clean. I prefer the look to the previous DJI Go 4 and DJI Go 3 apps. However, it’s a bit difficult to navigate without being aware of all the features. I would suggest thoroughly going through the tutorial on your first use to make sure you are aware of the features. The app has a much cleaner menu system that’s easy to navigate. Overall the app is a major improvement but it will take some time to learn if you are coming from the previous generation DJI Product.TipsA few general tips for the Mavic Air 2. When flying the Mavic, pick an area without grass to takeoff from. It should be clear of dirt grave water and moisture. The Mavic sits low to the ground so even grass can cause issues taking off. Always make sure your take off location is a safe auto return location in case you need to use failsafe to return to home (IE lost connection).When Exposing photos and video with the new DJI FLY App, make sure to touch the screen as you would your phone to the area you want auto exposure to focus on. In addition, when flying in full sun, use the ND 64 filter included in the Fly More Case, this will give you less stutter in video, and more depth in photos. If you want a lot of motion blur, use the ND256 included. It's amazing for long exposure ocean waves, or for trailing car blur from above. I highly recommend using these to your creative advantage.Tips to get smooth shots…. I recommend turning the tilt rate way down, and smoothing up on the Mavic Air 2. This allows you to operate the tilt in a slow precise manner. I also recommend not using Sport mode unless you really need to go fast. Sport mode disables obstacle avoidance, and makes it harder to fly slow precise movements. Try to fly smoothly when taking video and make your directional changes gradually. It takes time! Get out there and practice.Wrap UpOverall, this is the best drone on the market, for its price point. This would be the first drone I would recommend to the average consumer. The best way to describe it as seriously good camera, THAT FLYS!

The media could not be loaded. I just got mine last week. I’ve flown it probably 8 times so far and have a few things to report. Right out of the box, two things occurred to me. This is a smaller mavic pro with some nice enhancements. The bag that it comes with is well designed and the whole package fits nicely in a smaller space. It’s fantastic imo. Everything fits and there’s room for all the accessories.Image qualityI find that for me—shooting around dusk and dawn are ideal times of day because the sun is not front lighting the earth and golden hour shooting lasts only a short period of time. In general, I prefer to shoot within 2 hours after sunrise and before sunset. When it gets dark enough to shoot above 100 ISO for video, noise becomes apparent in 4K. The image looks great at 100 ISO. It falls in line nicely with what the whole line of dji drones can do in the mavic series. It actually looks better than the Mavic Zoom, less moire. They’ve put a new sensor into the Mavic air 2. The quad bayer chip is an upgrade from previous sensors. I think this may not help the resolution so much as the camera’s ability to see a wider range of light and dark. HDR mode is one of the benefits of the quad bayer sensor. However, I didn’t see any major improvements in the dynamic range between my three drones. One additional thing, and this is a known issue with HDR, is that the image becomes a bit more jelly like with heavy left/right motion because of how the sensor must double expose to capture highlight and lowlight data simultaneously. Still though, I like the image straight out of the box.I think it’s a bit crazy that you can record 4K 60FPS on this camera.There’s not a lot I can say about the DJI fly app other than it’s a nicely streamlined version of the dji go apps. It’s smoother and simpler. There is one function that I think is interesting. The fly spots is a cool idea whether you’re into doing what’s been done or knowing what’s been done and avoiding it. When that map has been populated more, I think it’ll be a unique tool to help people get closer to what they want.The fly more combo includes a few things that I think are necessities if you’re not just going out for a casual flight. First, they give you ND filters. The camera cannot change it’s iris so the settings you change for your exposure are the Shutter and the ISO. Raising the ISO increases noise and exposing with the shutter too high creates this jittery effect to the action. All cameras deal with this so the ND is super helpful when you’re shooting in bright sunlight. If you’re trying to get nicer images and you don’t want to spend the extra money for the fly more combo, at least order the ND filters. They also include a USB battery adapter in the kit, which allows you to charge anything that uses USB off of the drones batteries. Maybe you need to charge a second phone and you’re nowhere near your car? Maybe you need to charge the controller? It’s a smart alternate use of the drone’s batteriesThey’ve also smartly included extra rc sticks, iPhone cable and props in case you lose either. I rarely lose my gear, but if I’m moving fast, these small parts can easily fall down so it’s great to have backups. One thing to notes is that it takes the Mavic Air 2 Batteries a little longer to charge than the Pro, so it might be worth picking up an extra battery if you’re planning to fly a bunch in one day. However, with that said, I got about 30 minutes of flight time on my first flight.The new controller is nicely streamlined. It appears to have joined the phone holder and antennae into one piece, which is great. It’s easier to install the phone on the new controller than the previous models because the controller clamps down on the sides of the phone that don’t have the lightning connector. I also appreciate the iPhone being placed above the controller. It’s easier to see.There is one additional thing they’ve added to this drone that I knew was coming in the future and now that it’s here, I’m a little less worried about it now than when I first heard about it. ADS-B is an aircraft tracking system that is used in all modern aircraft now and keeps pretty formidably accurate tabs on where all aircraft are at all times. Just look on flightradar24.com and you’ll see how many flights you can track live with incredible altitude and flight detail. I thought the addition of the airsense chip that provides ADS-B for the drone might make it easier to track consumers, but instead it’s actually just a receiver that listens for manned aircraft. When a plane armed with ads-b flies towards the mavic air 2, the mavic warns the user through the app that the aircraft is on a collision course and tells the drone operator to move through the app. This is a huge positive development in my opinion. Right away, when I turned it on, I saw that there were planes heading my way. Frankly, if I’m flying a mile away—which I have with this drone—knowing all the hazards around me is essential. I don’t want to endanger people and I don’t want to lose a drone that I’ve spent good money on.Overall, I think this drone is a good choice for shooters who need a quick and small drone but don’t have the resources for a bigger drone like the inspire 2. It’s smaller than the Mavic 2 Pro and still provides good image quality on H.265. I think if you’ve got $1000 to spend to go adventuring with it, this will enhance your experience. There are a lot of clever additions to this beast and it’s all packed into a tiny package.I have a few tips for the uninitiated as well:If you want to get the most natural movement to your videos from this drone, use the ND filters on a bright day. These filters will reduce the light hitting the sensor, allowing you to slow the shutter down for less choppy motion blur. As a rule of thumb, you want to expose your shutter at double the frame rate (ie 24fps, 1/48th of a second or 30fps, 1/60fps).Professional hyperlapses have smooth, consistent movement and this drone can do a few moves on its own very effectively, like course lock for instance. I strongly suggest filming in non-windy conditions and to not use the free movement mode for the best results.One last tip, you don’t even need to fly the drone to take advantage of its stabilized camera. You can fold up the arms and run around with the camera just like you would a regular gimbaled camera. It won’t record sound, but for those shots that don’t require sound in your edit, it’s a perfect hack for steady footage.