The original DJI Mavic Air was released in early January 2018, and immediately gained attention due to its incredibly compact size and performance features, making it a popular portable travel drone for content creators. And now, the company has built upon the powers of the original, launching today the new DJI Mavic Air 2, and providing a new powerful compact option for traveling creatives…
Key Features:
- 48 MP photos
- 8K Hyperlapse, 4Kp60fps, 1080p240fps videos
- HDR Video
- SmartPhoto/QuickShot/Hyperlapse/Pano
- 10 km video transmission range, 2.4G/5.8G Adaptive (OcuSync 2.0)
- Focus-Track: Spotlight, Active Track, POI
- APAS 3.0 obstacle avoidance
- 34 minutes flight time
- Weighs only 570g
Camera Performance:
Right off the bat, the significantly updated camera performance stands out, thanks to the Mavic Air 2’s updated 1/2-inch camera sensor, which is the second largest in the Mavic series.
For image stills, the Mavic Air 2 can capture images at a whopping 48 megapixels, which is up to par with professional camera image quality. That is a major upgrade from the previous Mavic Air, which captured 12 megapixels images, and a huge win for aerial-focused photographers.
In regards to video, the Mavic Air 2 improved significantly as well, now capturing stunning video, at 4K/60 fps, as well 1080p/240 fps for ultra-slow motion footage for fast-moving, action-related content. Even more impressive, video bitrate is recorded at 120 Mbps, providing the highest bitrate of any Mavic series drone.
Finally, the Mavic Air 2 can shoot videos and stills in beautiful HDR, and now has the ability to shoot incredible 8K hyperlapse videos from above, which strengthens another powerful way content creators can create.
The Mavic Air 2 didn’t lose the important features we loved in the previous model, like the 8GB of internal memory, but it gained so much in camera performance, making it potentially not just the best travel drone on the market, but one of the overall best drones.
Flying Capabilities:
The Mavic Air 2’s improved flying capabilities are just as impressive. First, the maximum flight time was significantly increased, providing up to 34 minutes of flight time, which is the most in the Mavic series, and 13 minutes longer than the Mavic Air.
Another encouraging addition for the Mavic Air 2 is the use of GPS and OcuSync 2.0 with Anti-Interference 2.4/5.8 GHz. This change expands the Mavic Air 2’s flight range to a maximum of 10 km or more than 6 miles, which is the largest flight range in the Mavic series and significantly expands the flight range of the previous Mavic Air, which stood at 4 km.
The flight improvements are major while still offering the safety features like APAS 3.0 Obstacle Avoidance, forward, backward, and downward obstacle avoidance sensors, and more.
Size:
Finally, while the Mavic Air 2 received all of these incredible improvements and features, DJI still managed to keep this successor drone small, lightweight, and compact, paying tribute to the original’s biggest selling point.
While the Mavic Air 2 is slightly bigger — 180 x 79 x 84mm, compared to the 168 x 83 x 49mm dimensions of the original Mavic Air — and slightly heavier — weighing 570g, compared to the 430g weight of the previous — it still is significantly smaller than the popular Mavic 2 Pro, which measures in at 214 x 91 x 84mm and weighs 907g.
Because of its small, lightweight, and compact build, the Mavic Air 2 seems to be a perfect travel drone for jet setting creatives who require camera equipment that can travel with them.
The DJI Mavic Air 2 looks to be a winner, and should be a new favorite flying tool for on-the-go creatives. It’s available now for preorder for . The Fly More Combo is also available for at Adorama.
Feature image via DJI
