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…

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 Impressions

BATTERIES — 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 40.4Wh

ND 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 Performance

Overall, 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.

Camera

The 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 APP

DJI’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.

Tips

A 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 Up

Overall, 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!

I originally purchased this Drone in August of 2021, this was my very first Drone. I wanted something that had some advanced features to help me as a new flyer and took amazing Video\Photos. This delivers on all points! Epic Photos and epic video, follow a subject mode, The ultimate FLYING cameraman. I got some flight time in and got a little practice. My backyard is basically a fairy tale forest in western PA, complete with a stream I can watch the animals drink from. So there were no shortage of amazing shots to take or my wife could live stream from it on hikes. To play around flying in my house to get some fine control skills down a bit I turned off the perimeter safety. Then after the battery was charged I went flying farther outside for some epic shots. Forgetting I turned off the perimeter warnings I got too close to a tree and the unthinkable happened. Yeah only careless people get their drones stuck in a tree that could NEVER happen to me right? right…. :(.

WRONG! I had this amazing piece of technology for all of 1 day and crashed it amazingly good 150 feet up into a tree. I finally located the exact tree with the last vestiges of my battery life with the very useful feature of it beeping and flashing. Which was still difficult through the dense foliage. (note to self invest in a self powered strobe and a bright orange skin or sticker after I retrieve the drone.). The problem with this particular tree is on the civilization side between any route in about 15 ft away from said tree is a power line, the other direction is dense bramble filled forest. This particular tree also doesn’t have any branches lower than 30 ft up, Ruh Roh. I spend about 8 hours for a week straight trying to come up with ideas to knock it down.

I tried Fish sticks (they are light semi bendy poles used to fish wire through walls if you are unfamiliar.), I tries throwing object at it, (Way too high up.) I researched Climbing gear but decided it was too high a risk of getting hurt. AHA! The perfect plan, buy a mavic Air 1 tie fishing line and a hook around it, hook the stuck Mavic Air 2 and boom, no more stuck Drone. Then sell the extra one. So I did Just that, errr tried just that anyway.

I amazingly hooked the first drone and the plan was working great, the first was really stuck though so I kicked up the throttle to full speed more with a payload. then…. the hook broken the second drone flipped over and yes you guessed it got stuck in the tree also. So here I am standing in the forest with about $1500 in a tree behind my house. Well that went south fast.

So after more extensive research I make kind of a primitive pipe slingshot spear gun thing that flings a dowel that has fishing line attached and a fishing reel over the branch, then you tie stronger rope to the fishing line and use the line to pull the stronger rope over the branch, then tie off one and and pull hard back and forth till you can shake it loose. Success getting the Second Mavic air 1 out of the tree and back to safety! At this point I am about 3 weeks in and a lot of time in this forest. 4 more days with the slingshot thing and no luck getting the first one out.

My wife makes an ultimatum, No more trips into the forest getting the drone while she worries or there will be no more wife. I am very fortunate and have married the woman of my dreams and my soulmate! So as much as it CRUSHED my spirit to do so I agreed because I love her. It is not in my nature to give up but for her I would do anything. The worst part is I can see the drone in the tree in the winter from my mailbox taunting me.

My friend (under close supervision) let me practice and use his Mavic Air 2 which he loves. I got some great shots and lots of practice. Fast forward to Yesterday, (11-19-22) The drone was not in it’s usual taunting place and the leaves have pretty much just all fallen now. This requires closer investigation. Could it be true did it finally fall from it’s taunting perch? YES IT DID! so this drone has been up there through snow and rain storms quite hot days and everything unprotected for 15 months, on top of that it fell 150 ft to the ground. What kind of shape could it possibly be in? believe it or not AMAZING SHAPE! Except the battery it has discharged so much that the electronics would not allow it to charge anymore, but that was expected. It was a tiny bit scratched up and Dirty, nothing a cleaning couldn’t fix. But does anything in it still work through all that weather?

Well I borrowed a battery from my friend and shockingly it still works and flies without any issues! I can no longer find my case with the extra propellers or the prop guards I wish I had been using. But hey I still have the rest and it works after all that! I can’t think of any more ringing of an endorsement than surviving 15 months in a tree and then a 150 ft fall. So if you want a great very durable Drone that takes amazing videos and picture I would HIGHLY recommend this one. Just stay clear of Trees while the perimeter warning system is turned off!

Tengo otro productos DJI, esperaba mucho más de este.

He hecho aproximadamente 10 vuelos y he tenido los siguientes problemas.

1. Notificación de sobrecalentamiento del gimbal, me pasó los primeros dos vuelos únicamente

2. Señal terrible, en lugares donde el mavic 2 me da 4 km sin problema, el air 2 a la 1.5 ya tiene una latencia inaudita.

3. Desconexión total repentina a 1 km de distancia. Estaba haciendo un hyperlapse, aparentemente sin problemas de conexión, cuando de repente tuve una desconexión total, obviamente se paró el hyperlapse y repentinamente se volvió a conectar también.

Para mi la nueva forma de las antenas no ayuda, constantemente aparece un mensaje de ajustar antenas pero con este control es imposible.

Estoy pensando seriamente en devolverlo a no ser que se me de una solución. Actualizaré cualquier cosa.

Saludos