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How To Force Focus Mavic Air Camera

Tom's Guide Verdict

Smaller, more than compact and less expensive than its predecessor, the DJI Mavic Air still has the aforementioned great photographic camera and some new features that brand this drone even better.

Pros

  • +

    Very easy to fly

  • +

    Swell photos and video

  • +

    Innovative gesture controls, autonomous flight modes

  • +

    Object avoidance

Cons

  • -

    Hard to switch between photographic camera modes in app

DJI's Mavic Pro made waves for its portability: It was the first drone to have artillery that folded against its body, making it supercompact. Since information technology launched, many others have fielded knockoffs with a similar pattern, but information technology looks similar only DJI can knock the Mavic Pro off its perch as our favorite camera drone. And information technology has, with the Mavic Air.

Smaller (and $200 less) than the Pro, the $799 Air likewise has folding arms and the aforementioned 4K photographic camera and gimbal every bit the Pro. Merely the latest model likewise comes with a new object-avoidance mode that makes it even easier to airplane pilot in narrow spaces. Information technology'due south why we matter the Mavic Air is the best drone nevertheless.

Ed. Note (4/27/xx): DJI has released the DJI Mavic Air 2, which offers an even longer 34-minute flight time and a larger image sensor that tin take 4K video at up to 120 fps, equally well every bit 48MP yet images. The Mavic Air ii is on sale for $799.

DJI Mavic Air: Design

It'southward like the Mavic Pro, only smaller. The Mavic Air has a sleek look with swooping curves that go far look similar it's flight, even when information technology's on the ground. Similar the Pro, the Air'south four artillery rotate outward from the main trunk for flight mode.

When folded, the Mavic Air is about three.5 inches wide and half dozen.5 inches long. With the arms extended, the drone expands to most seven inches wide, not including its rotors.

The Mavic Air has a sleek look with swooping curves that brand it await similar it's flying, fifty-fifty when information technology'south on the ground.

The front of the drone houses its 4K camera and three-axis gimbal, which is the same as on the more expensive Mavic Pro. Here, though, the camera is protected on two sides by the drone's body. On the Pro, the camera was more than exposed, so a articulate plastic shroud was needed to protect information technology during transport.

The Air is studded with sensors that help it navigate its environment: Above the chief camera are ii forwards-looking sensors, while the underside and rear add ii more than sensors each.

The bulk of the bottom of the Air is taken upwards by its removable battery, which has four lights to point how much accuse it has.

DJI Mavic Air: Controller

Similar to the controller for the DJI Spark, the Mavic Air'southward controller has two arms that extend from the chief trunk to hold your smartphone in place. I like that the Air's controller uses a physical cable to connect it with your phone (there are adapters for Android and iOS devices); with the Spark, yous had to first pair your phone wirelessly with the controller, and then with the drone — a minor but annoying extra pace.

Otherwise, the Air's controller is much the same: Two joysticks command altitude and movement, while shoulder buttons rotate the camera, take photos and video. Other buttons on the face land the Air, engage Sport manner and power the controller on and off. Everything is laid out well. Anyone who's used a PS4 or Xbox controller in the terminal decade will accept no problems figuring out how to use the Air's version.

Another prissy impact: The controller sticks for the Air unscrew and can be stowed in the body of controller, which makes it much easier to comport around. I seemed to always forget this, though, and had to unfold the controller'southward arms, stow the sticks and fold the arms support again.

DJI Mavic Air: Gesture controls

If you want to skip the controller entirely, the Mavic Air, like the Spark, can be controlled using nil more than than hand movements. You tin launch the Air, motility information technology upward, down, right and left, and take photos and videos.


MORE: All-time drones

These gestures all worked fairly well, simply sometimes, I would have to effort a few times before the Air's camera would recognize my hand movement. The Air's range is also limited to most 20 feet in this mode, since the camera needs to take a clear view of your palm.

DJI Mavic Air: Flight performance

Equally with all of DJI's drones, the Mavic Air was an incredibly easy drone to fly. It hovers well in all simply very strong wind gusts (the app will warn you if it'southward too windy) and zips around effortlessly.

A new characteristic chosen Avant-garde Pilot Assistance Systems (APAS) volition cause the Air to automatically fly around objects, such equally trees and bushes. When that feature is activated, the Air flies a scrap slower than usual, but APAS works well. I found information technology was especially helpful when I flew the drone through wooded areas. However, the Air doesn't render to its original form after dodging an object; you'll have to reorient it manually.

In Sport way, the Mavic Air moves. According to DJI, it can hitting speeds of up to 48 miles per hour. While I don't have a radar gun, the drone covered the approximate length of a football field in about iii seconds, and sounded like a bat out of hell doing and so.

DJI Mavic Air: Video and photo quality

As it has the same 4K camera and iii-axis gimbal as the more expensive Mavic Pro, videos and photos taken with the Mavic Air were excellent.

The camera did a slap-up task adjusting to dissimilar lighting conditions. In i scenario, I launched the drone at dusk, facing the setting sun. As it rose into the air, the Mavic Air was able to keep the houses in the darker foreground properly lit, while still showing off the rosy hues of the lord's day. I did notice a bit of racket in the darker areas, but that'due south to be expected.

On a articulate wintertime's day, the Mavic Air'due south camera was sharp plenty so that I could make out the skyscrapers in Manhattan, nearly 15 miles away.

Saving 4K videos takes a little longer than lower-res files. Afterwards I stopped a recording, the Air would often take about 10 to 15 seconds to finish processing what it had only recorded.

In HDR mode, the Mavic Air tin take a series of three photos at different exposures and combine them into a single shot. I also like that the drone stores each photo individually, so you tin can use a photo editor to tweak the HDR yourself.

It became a bit annoying to dig through menus on DJI'due south app to notice things such equally the panorama or spherical fashion for the Mavic Air camera.

As with the Spark, the Air has a few autonomous flight modes, chosen QuickShots, that allow you capture some pretty dramatic video. The 2 newest, Asteroid and Boomerang, are pretty wild; Asteroid has the drone fly upwardly to a preset altitude and take a 360-caste photo. And and then information technology combines that with a video as it flies down to you lot.

Asteroid mode

Asteroid way

Through the DJI app, yous become pretty granular controls over the camera, letting you arrange exposure, shutter speed and more. However, it became a bit annoying to dig through menus to find things such equally the panorama or spherical mode for the camera.

Another nitpick: When I switched from video to photo mode, the app'due south interface resized and shrank to account for the different aspect ratio of notwithstanding shots. Notwithstanding, this also compressed all of the on-screen controls.

DJI Mavic Air: Flight time

DJI says that the Mavic Air should stay aloft for about twenty minutes, and I institute that to be close to accurate. That'south only a few minutes less than the Mavic Pro, and certainly a reasonable trade-off, given the lower price of the Air. The drone ships with a single battery, which can hands be swapped out; extras price $79 each.

Configurations

On its own, the Mavic Air costs $799, and comes in white, black or carmine. It includes a controller, 2 sets of propellers, prop guards, a charger for a unmarried battery and a case for the drone itself.

MORE: 15 Cheap Drones Ranked From Best to Worst

The Fly More than Combo ($999) includes the controller, three sets of propellers, 3 batteries, a charger that can fit four batteries, plus a messenger pocketbook-style carrying case that can accomodate the drone, batteries and controller, as well as a spare fix of props. The bag itself is very attractive and fabricated it very convenient to tote everything.

A third package, which price $ane,299, includes everything in the Wing More bundle and adds in a set of DJI goggles, for a first-person view from the drone.

DJI Mavic Air: Verdict

When the Mavic Pro came out, I thought DJI had made the all-time drone ever. With the Mavic Air, it's once more made a drone that's the green-eyed of all others. The Mavic Air is portable, maneuverable, takes bully photos and video, and comes packed with a number of goodies, such as the automated camera modes and object avoidance. At $799, information technology'south $200 less than the Mavic Pro, withal offers near all of the same features. (I'd jump for the $999 Fly More than bundle to get two extra batteries, the carrying case and the charger.) If you're looking for the best all-around consumer drone, the Mavic Air will fly you right.

Credit: Mike Prospero/Tom'south Guide

Michael A. Prospero is the deputy editor at Tom's Guide overseeing the habitation, smart home, drones, and fitness/wearables categories, too equally all buying guides and other evergreen content. When he'south not testing out the latest running watch, skiing or training for a marathon, he'due south probably using the latest sous vide machine or some other cooking gadget.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/dji-mavic-air,review-5201.html

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