Frequent fans often ask in the background: Want to buy a portable drone that can put in pockets. In the current DJI product line, there are three products: "Mc" Mavic Air, "Yu" Mavic Pro, and "Xiao" Spark. What are the similarities and differences between? How to solve the difficulty of purchasing at the time of purchase? Intimate Xiao Bian brought a multi-dimensional evaluation from Focus Magazine today. Through the real experience and product evaluation of two enthusiasts, I believe this wave of recommendations will enable you to choose the “pocket aerial photographer†that best suits you. .
In January of this year, "Focus" participated in the coverage of the domestic conference of Dajiang "Queen" Mavic Air. From the site experience to the media group visit, I felt the heat caused by Mavic Air and I also learned a lot of questions.
In response to these problems, the evaluation experience of Mavic Air no longer adopts the traditional single product evaluation method, but is the old fancier in the field of photography and drone aerial photography jointly by Liang Xinjian (ID: laomaike) and ZDD. Dimensions feel Mavic Air, especially its difference with Xiaoxiao and Mavic Pro.
Use every inch, only for one handIn appearance, Mavic Air's difference from Xiaoxiao and Mavic Pro is very obvious. It is neither a simple folding version of Xiao Xiao nor a smaller version of Mavic Pro. The volume of Mavic Air is between "Xiao" and Mavic Pro. After folding, it is slightly smaller than "Xiao" which can't be folded. After being unfolded, it is still larger than Xiaoxiao.
When Mavic Pro was just released, many people lamented the high space utilization rate of their folding design, while Mavic Air went further. The folding structure was still clever, the volume control was smaller, and the three-axis platform was still retained, even after the increase. As obstacle avoidance, it creates a new height in functional integration.
At a more detailed level, Mavic Air has better control over the details of the workmanship, such as the fuselage or related accessories, such as the newly designed folding forefoot, integrated pan/tilt cover, charger, remote control rocker storage settings, etc. , excellent in product texture.
Photography: Liang Xinjian
Equipment: Mavic Air
Question area
What is the "enrichment" experience of "Yu" Mavic Air?Liang Xinjian:
I would like to pay special tribute to the fact that the volume and weight of Mavic Air are really well controlled, and DJI engineers are very much liked to embed so many functions in such a small body, and the performance is not inferior to that of Mavic Pro. Really amazing "Made in China."
Easy to operate, handyIn the manual flight operation, Mavic Air has little difference with the "Xiao" and Mavic Pro operating experience. Easy to get started is still the pursuit of this level of UAV represented by Mavic Air. Compared to Xiaoxiao and Mavic Pro, Mavic Air's new APAS advanced assisted flight system and one-click short film "Asteroid" and "Comet" shooting modes are its highlights.
In the actual operation experience of individuals, when the outdoor lighting is good, the advanced assisted flight system (APAS) implemented by FlightAutonomy 2.0 of Mavic Air can really exert good results, effectively avoiding the relatively complicated obstacle environment (actual operation flight please Remember to use a protective cover.)
On the Mavic Air's Huipai mode, you can clearly feel the gesture recognition rate and the corresponding speed increase. These auxiliary functions for ease of use, in addition to more friendly for beginners, the gesture control shooting function has become more convenient.
Photography: Liang Xinjian
Equipment: Mavic Air
Question area
What's your favourite function point for "Mavic Air"?Liang Xinjian:
Mavic Air is not only more stable than the other major aircraft types, but it also has stability (fuselage flight is stable, it can resist 5 gales, PTZ stability, integrated three-axis machinery to stabilize the PTZ, take photos and videos properly. ), but also has a relatively high playability, coupled with a compact body, is definitely a portable outdoor travel photography "weapon", a variety of modes of its one-button short film so that just getting started drone "white" can also be Easily shoot creative video clips, share Weibo, and the circle of friends is definitely "Bigger". After opening APAS, obstacles were automatically circumvented and the safety of drones was further improved.
ZDD:
The "asteroid" and "comet" functions in Mavic Air's one-click video are my favorite smart flight functions. Previously, it was difficult to capture a picture of an asteroid not only for early shooting but also for post-production. It takes a lot of energy and a long time, but now it only needs to be lightly touched on the screen. The rest of the things are not bothersome and easy to believe. The shooting method of the comet, manual shooting requires the flying hands to have a strong control technology and spatial perception capabilities, but with the smart flight, tap the screen to complete, easy for ordinary enthusiasts to easily open large-scale mode.
Let's talk about APAS. This function may have some similarities with the obstacles in the previous Elven 4 series and the Mavic Pro series obstacle avoidance. However, in the process of use, it can be felt that its sensitivity and recognition ability are optimized. , should be a certain upgrade from the algorithm level, so as to form a separate function, coupled with the superior protection capabilities of the propeller shield, the actual use of the effect is good, but APAS in addition to relying on adequate light, in the actual environment is more complex (Such as woods, wires) I suggest to pay attention to safe operation.
Have the ability to photograph each otherIn the photographic camera part, the personal summary is that Mavic Air and Mavic Pro belong to the same level, and each has its own victory and defeat. If you are video-based, personally recommend Mavic Air, a detailed table of differences in specific parameters for everyone to review.
There are many parameters inside the "royal" Mavic Air has advantages such as the equivalent focal length of 24mm (wider picture), 1080P 120 frames, the maximum video stream 100Mbps.
Operational ease of use We mentioned one-button video clips, in which the "asteroid" and "comet" shooting modes were also the first smart functions to be tried after the individual arrived. With the "one-click panorama" for shooting, Mavic Air can say that It is a circle of friends in the journey.
Question area
What is the recommended camera angle?Liang Xinjian:
In terms of image quality, Mavic Air is basically the same as Mavic Pro, and at least not seeing much difference on the naked eye, it is better than “Xiaoâ€. Although 12 million pixels may not seem high, it is good to look at ordinary computers or mobile clients. Not to mention a variety of panoramic shooting methods. If you use these modes to shoot panoramas, the pixels are really big. In addition, the video quality does not reduce the picture quality due to the increase in the bit rate. On the contrary, the 120p video recording has more interesting gameplay than the Mavic Pro.
ZDD:
Since "Xiao" does not have RAW format photo shooting and 4K shooting functions, it is not involved here. In the official website to compare the camera parameters of Mavic Air and Mavic Pro, the most intuitive is that the effective pixel Mavic Air is lower than Mavic Pro 35 megapixels, the aperture is smaller, the lens angle of view is wider, the equivalent focal length is shorter (24mm); and At the same time, it has improved in shooting video, and the higher video bit rate (100Mbps) brings better video images. In slow-motion shooting, Mavic Pro only supports HD 120p slow motion, and Mavic Air can support FHD 120p, which are two different effects. Therefore, the advantage of Mavic Air in shooting is that the video capture rate is higher and more sharp. The disadvantage is that the overall parameters of the Mavic Pro lens are weaker, but it is completely enough for the average user.
Enhanced Wi-Fi graphics performanceWhen Mavic Air was released, the controversy among many players was the effect of its enhanced Wi-Fi graphics.
After the actual test experience, Mavic Air's image transmission effect is actually worse than that of Mavic Pro. This is more obvious in the urban environment, but the outdoor suburban environmental performance is much better. Taking into account the usual flight distance and safe power considerations in the actual flight operations, in fact, the distance between the maps can be great, but if you operate to use the anti-interference (such as urban center) or the flight distance is higher, So Mavic Pro's OcuSync HD digital video may be more suitable for you.
Photography: Liang Xinjian
Equipment: Mavic Air
Question area
How is Wi-Fi graphics used in practice?Liang Xinjian:
I think a lot of people who have a lot of skepticism about Mavic Air's photo transmission really do not really use this machine or do not know the target consumer group positioning. The map of Mavic Air can reach almost two kilometers after I measured it in Iceland. It is far beyond the line of sight. Although it is slightly weaker than Mavic Pro, it is much stronger than many other models in the past. After all, Most people use drones not to pull long distances, not to mention that their batteries can only maintain 21 minutes, and the actual time to fly in the air may only be about 18 minutes (to set aside time for return flights), if they really fly beyond the limit Distance, that is not safe.
ZDD:
In the image transmission aspect, many users have heard about the Wi-Fi image transmission, and they immediately think of the image transfer of the Genie Phantom 3 Standard. The distance is not far, and the impression of easy Catton is mapped to Mavic Air. In fact, in the process of use, Mavic Air's image transmission is much more powerful than imagined. Under the mode of automatic channel selection, the aircraft can quickly switch the frequency band according to the interference, and the actual flight distance is more than 2000 meters, which can meet the daily aerial needs. After all, aerial drones are used for aerial shooting instead of playing pitch. Mavic Air is in the midstream relative to the Mavic Pro and "Xiao" graphics transmission performance. Mavic Pro's graphic transmission technology is obviously difficult to surpass. Similarly, the long-distance Caton is less than "Mavic Air". However, the "Xiao" image transmission is worse than Mavic Air, but it is small and cheap. As the saying goes, the penny and the goods, performance concessions are also reasonable.
Is DJI really revolutionizing itself?After the release of Mavic Air, the drone fandom circle immediately added a saying: “Dajiang has changed its own life.†This sentence refers to the object of the revolution as “Xiao†and Mavic Pro. ?
In fact, after Mavic Air's Shanghai conference learned that Mavic Air's proposal was not an extension of Mavic Pro or “Xiaoâ€, it was based on emerging consumer groups (traveling outdoor enthusiasts, Vlog bloggers, etc.) targeting them. The demand for the birth of a product, the three user groups are actually still different, from above it is not difficult to see some of the reasons for setting parameters on Mavic Air.
Photography: ZDD
Equipment: Mavic Air
Question area
What is the positioning of Mavic Air in your heart?Liang Xinjian:
Mavic Air will have some impact on its own "Xiao" and Mavic Pro. From the price of the product, it can also be seen that it belongs to a product that is positioned between the latter two. Therefore, Dajiang is actually aware of it. In terms of software and hardware, the three were opened a certain distance.
From my personal point of view, Mavic Pro should be the second daily backup machine for the relatively professional drone owners such as the Inspire 2 or Elven Phantom 4 Pro, while Mavic Air is more suitable for certain shooting needs. But do not want to spend too much time on the depth of the study of ordinary users of the operation and shooting (photo processing and video editing), as "Xiao" can be seen as an entry-level drone, with a certain degree of interactivity, can be used from Take the product.
ZDD:
In fact, in terms of new product launches and technological innovations, DJI is often “self-improving,†such as the release of the Elf Phantom 4 and drones with black obstacle avoidance capabilities have brought the entire industry into the picture. In the era of intelligence, some people said at that time what to do with the Elf Phantom 3 series. Will anyone buy it? However, in reality, different people have different use orientations. Even after Elf 4 was released a year later, many people around me still purchased Genie 3S for various reasons. Indeed, to some extent, Mavic Air's release will certainly divert users of Xiaohui and Elven 4 Pro, but overall, DJI DJI Innovation uses Mavic Air's own specific positioning to bring a new choice. It has enriched its industrial chain and provided market parameters for the research and development of follow-up models.
The best choice for portable drones?How to choose the three portable drones for Mavic Air, Mavic Pro and "Xiao"?
Mavic Air Package
In general, consumer electronics products, the principle of personal insistence is to buy new and not buy old, but these three products are not just old and new problems, so it is recommended to consider based on their own common usage scenarios, such as your budget is less than 3000 or you only intend to Buying an introductory drone as a flight operation teaching exercise, then the "xiaoxiao" cost performance is still high; and if you are a traveler, and is more sensitive to the weight of portable equipment, but does not require professional-grade performance, perhaps Mavic Air more For you; as for Mavic Pro, with the strongest flying performance of the three, especially the graphics performance. So the so-called ultimate portable selection is just which drone is best suited to your personal needs.
Photography: Liang Xinjian
Equipment: Mavic Air
Question area
Three drones, who is your final election?Liang Xinjian:
I have used all three types of drone products, but personally, I personally recommend Mavic Pro because I have a longer battery life and a longer image transmission distance. This is really important for professional photographers. , This allows me to carefully compose images to capture some of the more unique perspectives.
ZDD:
Through the evaluation experience of these three portable drones, I can feel that the user groups they target are different. On the one hand, from the perspective of prices, different budgets basically divide the optional models. If the budget is sufficient and you want a good flying experience, Mavic Pro and Mavic Air are all good at their all-around suit. If you prefer to experience DJI's latest intelligent flight operation function during travel tour, and have RAW and 4K requirements at the same time, and want powerful shooting performance, then it is highly recommended that Mavic Air, both portable and performance, be powerful and avoidable. The barrier function plus the propeller guard greatly improve the safety factor and is the best for travel and outdoor use.
When product performance, price, and personal needs reach a certain balance, drones can achieve maximum productivity in their hands. I hope this long text assessment can make your choice no longer tangled and find it.
RF coaxial cable, Flexible and semi-rigid cables, 
TIMES microwave systmes, corrugated cables etc.
Xi'an KNT Scien-tech Co., Ltd , https://www.honorconnector.com