In early 2021, it was clear that the Phantom 4 Pro was no longer attracting the interest of consumers. We needed to find a new drone that would be more discreet and less noticeable, one that would still meet our professional specifications. At the time, the DJI Mavic Pro 2 and the Autel Evo Pro 6k were both options that met our needs. However, we decided against choosing either of them because both of those drones had outdated technology. ..
The DJI Air 2S is essentially the Mavic Air 2 from a year ago, but it has a better camera, upgraded obstacle sensors, expanded automatic camera movements, and other strong safety features that have helped DJI become the industry leader in aerial imaging. For professional photographers and videographers, the larger camera sensor and 5.4K recording are worthwhile upgrades. However, we believe that most pilots just getting started with a drone will be just as happy with the Mavic Air 2, which costs $200 less and is still our Editors’ Choice winner. The Air 2S is still worthwhile if you require more than 4K footage. ..
DJI Air 2S review: Design
The Air 2S and DJI Mavic 2 Pro are both very compact and lightweight drones that have a striking resemblance in terms of construction quality and fundamental design. The front arms swing out while the rear arms move down and out, and the propeller arms are folded in for storage and out for flight. The construction quality is superb, making these drones very easy to fly and maintain.
The Air 2S is a small, foldable drone that has excellent portability credentials. The drone body stays the same, so the extra unfolded size is just the lengthened propeller arms; it is still incredibly small in both configurations.
The Mavic 2 Pro controller is designed to be foldable, but it instead uses a fixed-size design with a larger battery. This generally results in improved battery life, but the controller also supports phones via a telescoping grip at the top. To transport, the control sticks can be unscrewed and stored in the rubber sections at the controller’s base.
Features
The DJI Air 2S is a safe and simple drone that is perfect for beginners. Although it lacks omnidirectional object sensors, the Air 2S can see forward, backward, upward, and downward. This makes it less likely to collide with something. Additionally, the drone has four antennas which will increase the controller-to-drone range to 12 km. Even though those are ideal circumstances, it is still illegal to fly the drone beyond eye level. ..
The Air 2S drone is a lightweight, compact design that maintains a steady hovering position like a robotic harrier thanks to GPS and sensor-based stabilization. A switch on the controller lets you switch between the normal, cinema (slower), and sports (fastest, without safety sensors) flight modes if you want to change how it moves in the air. It also zips around with surprising speed and nimbleness, landing and taking off quickly. ..
DJI’s new DJI Motion Controller and DJI FPV Goggles are not supported at this time. DJI is working on a future firmware update that will support these devices. The maximum flight time per battery is 31 minutes, which is very good. Since it takes them a while for them to recharge (about 80 minutes from empty to full), you should have extra batteries on hand if you intend to shoot from the air for a long period of time.
Despite some quirks, DJI’s Fly companion app is a great tool for anyone looking to fly with their drone. With its easy-to-use touchscreen controls and focus tracking, the app offers a variety of tracking modes that make flying more fun and easier.
DJI Air 2S review: Performance
The Air 2S camera is a 20MP one-inch sensor, full-frame equivalent focal length of 22mm, fixed aperture of f/2.8, and focus range of 60 cm to infinity. It offers in-camera processing for noise reduction that is applied to Raw files as well. This produces excellent results because noise is only discernible at ISO 6400.
The Air 2S has a 22mm equivalent lens that produces sharper photos in the center with a fall-off in clarity towards the corners. However, this is typical of most consumer drones, so it isn’t a significant problem overall. In addition, the Air 2S has a digital zoom that, despite the fixed lens, enables you to go much closer to the action without physically moving the drone in that direction. ..
If you’re shooting video, you should shoot in standard color profiles for footage straight out of the camera. For stills, you can shoot in Raw, JPEG, or both.
Video quality
In terms of video, any drone would be impressed by the boost to a maximum of 5.4K (5472 x 3078), even if it were to be done at 30 frames per second as it is in this case. When resolution is reduced to 4K (3840 x 2160), the entire image is substantially zoomed in to fit the crop, and frame rates can also be increased to 60 fps or digital zoom is available at 30 fps or less. The lack of digital zoom in 10-bit video modes and at 120 frames per second, which may indicate hardware limitations, seems unlikely to be a problem because it only likely appeals to those who want to share quickly.
Our best guess is that the majority of the time, 4K shooting—or even one of the lower resolutions preferred by the MasterShots automated shooting—will be the choice of most people. It helps you avoid the lens’ edges and get a little closer to your subject. For example, if you’re using the automated ActiveTrack feature to follow a mountain biker, you won’t mind if they take up a little more of the screen.
The Mavic 2 Pro’s 150 Mbps bitrate results in excellent video quality. Video can be recorded in 10-bit D-log, and today’s advanced image processing algorithms make post-editing and post-processing for the majority of users entirely unnecessary. Some people might think it’s advantageous to switch to “Pro” mode before starting a shot where camera turns might otherwise force a change in exposure, but the system does a good job of handling this, especially at Cine speeds.
Image quality
The DJI Air 2S camera is a great choice for anyone looking for high-quality images. The camera has an 88-degree field of view or a full-frame equivalent focal length of 22mm, and it has a 20MP 1-inch sensor. The Air 2S, like the Mavic Air 2, regrettably has a fixed f/2.8 aperture with a focus range of 60 cm to infinity. Even when the Mavic 2 Pro’s aperture is set to f/2.8, still shots look noticeably softer around the edges than those taken by the Pro.
The Air 2S’s ability to handle high ISO noise must be the biggest improvement in image quality over the Mavic 2 Pro.
DJI has implemented temporal denoising technology in the Air 2S to reduce high ISO noise. This results in excellent files, but it raises a crucial question: is a raw file still a raw file if processing is applied? Consumers may lose faith in products like cameras and drones if they can’t be sure that results are honest and accurate if any alleged negative issues in raw files are corrected using in-camera processing.
DJI Air 2S review: Battery life
The Air 2S is a great device that has a battery life of up to 31 minutes. It is windy where we tested it, but the 3-axis gimbal kept the video looking nice and smooth.
Price and availability
The Fly More Bundle costs £1169 / US $1299 and includes the drone, controller, one battery, propellers, a backup pair of propellers, a charger, and all necessary cords. It also comes with two extra batteries, extra spare propellers, a three battery charging hub, a shoulder bag, and a set of four ND filters.
Conclusion
The DJI Air 2S is an excellent drone for photographers and videographers who are looking for a drone that is both build quality and features-rich, as well as being simple to operate. It has been highly contested by other drones on the market, but our opinion is that it is the best drone on the market.
