New DJI Mavic Air

[buckbuck]

Any one have the new Mavic Air? It appears DJI is getting closer to having a drone I am willing to buy. I am looking for some real life experience from you guys.

 

[Ronnie]

I don’t own one but got to check one out a few weeks ago. A guy was flying one in the parking lot and he showed me the advanced flight modes. Breifly stated, it does not perform these or generally better than the Mavic or phantom. If you want a good standard use drone, this may be it but it imho is between a spark and a Mavic pro performance and feature wise. That is, I agree with many of the online assessments.

If you want a good follow me drone, this is not it. FYI - im looking into the staacker and air dog 2 but have not made a purchase or pass decision yet.

 

[buckbuck]

Yea, just spent some time looking at reviews. No "follow me" mode. And the camera quality is just not there yet.
Interestingly, one guy was saying the Mavic Pro II is coming out late next month with the Phantom 5 after that.

 

[seanmclean]

Even today, I would still buy the Mavic Pro. Spark is unbuyable to me, and the Mavic Air gives up too many features to the Mavic Pro, without much discernible benefit.

 

[BigAbe75]

I’m loving my Mavic Pro that I got for Christmas, though I still haven’t gotten too much time outside with it due to the weather. Maybe 2 hours total so far. Last time out was my first exploration of the advanced modes.

 

[vanmurray]

I've been flying DJI since Phantom 2 (I really miss that one -- at the bottom of Kerr Lake due to battery failure). Got Spark for portability (which for me was the primary issue for not flying as much as I wanted).

At this point, I think it really depends on what you want to do with it. Mavic Pro is the gold standard I think regarding photo/video and general portability. Mavic Air is an attempt to make it more portable. It's still quite a bit bigger than Spark, but is smaller than Mavic Pro.

For the money, Spark still has it for me. $500 fully loaded. I've been really impressed with the capability of the Spark given it's size. It is also a tough little drone since it's arms don't fold and I think generally has less to break. That said, if I'm on a mission for professional video, I'm taking the Mavic Pro.

Here is a cool follow me test of Spark. I spun around on this one because I was solo driver/pilot and didn't want to lose it but it would have kept up easily in sport mode.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MMiIbNpn-qveD00mA8Z6xza-0SCTawX6

 

[buckbuck]

@vanmurray That looks pretty good. Is that the closest you could get the drone to follow? I would like to capture surfing and want to fill the whole frame.

 

[vanmurray]

You can bring the drone closer to subject. DJI says ActiveTrack should be at least 3 meters above and 5-15 meters from object (person, car or boat). You have to let it “detect” the object. In my case it actually showed a boat icon. Cool.

 

[Ronnie]

Dji’s Active track and follow me modes don’t perform well enough for me. The spark is just to slow to keep up with anything above no wake speed. Both my phantom 4and Mavic have lost sight of my boat on sunny days when it was the only boat / vehicle nearby for miles. Still great for their primary purpose but I’m tired of flying and taking pics/vids, I want to be in the footage.

 

[0627Devildog]

Yea, just spent some time looking at reviews. No "follow me" mode. And the camera quality is just not there yet.
Interestingly, one guy was saying the Mavic Pro II is coming out late next month with the Phantom 5 after that.

What do you mean no "follow me" mode? I watched the launch video and could swear the follow features for individuals/vehicles/etc. . . . was not only present, but enhanced. Are you sure?

 

[Ronnie]

I believe the Mavic air has track me not follow me. Track me allows the user to select the object to be tracked whereas follow me mode basically tracks the remote. Track me also has a distance limit based on the home point which is ok if the Home point is constantly being updated or can be on the fly but not all DJI products have this dynamic Home point feature.

 

[BigAbe75]

Track me allows the user to select the object to be tracked whereas follow me mode basically tracks the remote.

Thank you for this!! I’ve been trying to figure out why follow me wasn’t doing what I wanted it to. I’ve been doing it wrong.

So, if riding an atv (or eventually a boat), I’ll get better footage following the remote than using active track? I know just chasing the atv around the yard, active track lost it several times and had to be reconfigured.

How does the POV (I think that’s what it’s called, where it just circles an object) work? I keep getting an error that I’m too far away. But, I’m trying to circle the house. I don’t want to get any closer.

 

[spatty99]

@BigAbe75 From what I remember, active track is better at following (assuming good visuals) than the remote following mode (as counterintuitive as that seems).

To circle your house use the point of interest mode (not any of the tracking modes). Go above the house and set it as the center, then fly the distance at which you want to circle and start.

 

[Ronnie]

@BigAbe75 , track me works a little better than follow me if the object being filmed does not move very far from the drones home point (assuming it does not have a an automatic dynamic Home point feature or it is turned off).

 

[Benny Sibbitt]

I crashed my mavic pro in the water few weeks ago and end up buying the mavic air
I like the handling a lot better in the mavic air vs the mavic pro.

Edit

 

[0627Devildog]

I crashed my mavic pro in the water few weeks ago and end up buying the mavic pro
I like the handling a lot better than mavic pro

?

 

[Benny Sibbitt]

Ha~ I tried to hand catch it and failed..... i retrieved it, let it sit for a week and it actually worked
I sold it on ebay for $500.00, with a disclaimer I crashed it in the water. A drone repair shop bought it from me.

 

[seanmclean]

I think you meant you like the Mavic Air better?

What's the real-world range like? I have lightbridge on my inspire, and ocusync on my Mavic - the old WiFi systems were garbage I'm wary of going back.

 

[0627Devildog]

My question mark was more around this:

I crashed my mavic pro ... and end up

buying the mavic pro...

I like the handling a lot better than mavic pro

 

[Benny Sibbitt]

I only flew it twice not sure about distance yet
I mostly use on boat and normally wide open with no obstacles so distance is not important for me.