DJI Mavic Air: All information about the new drone

DJI presented its new drone, the DJI Mavic Air, on 23.01.2018. With the new model, the Chinese manufacturer wants to follow the successes of the last Copters. In this article, I’ll explain what functions the DJI Mavic Air have and whether it’s worth buying.

For a long time, there has been a trend towards small and light drones, which can be transported easily and yet capture first-class images. DJI continues this path with the Mavic Air. The new DJI Mavic Air is only half the size of the popular DJI Mavic Pro and weighs just 430 grams. Thus, the Mavic Air can be taken anywhere without problems.

Mavic Air convinces with improved gesture control

Already with the Spark DJI has introduced the gesture control. But with the Mavic Air, this technology is now once again improved. As usual, the DJI Mavic Air can be started with just the palm of your hand and the position of the drone can be determined without further aids. Also, it is possible to influence the distance of the drone. I can change the distance between the drone and myself by pulling my two palms apart or moving towards each other. This feature gives you even more creative freedom in the design of your drone selfies.

You can control the DJI Mavic Air with gestures so that no remote control on selfies can be seen / Photo: dji.com

Further control possibilities and range of the DJI Mavic Air

Gesture control is a beneficial feature, but it only works in a limited radius and makes sense if you want to perpetuate yourself. You can also operate your Mavic Air with your smartphone or remote control.

By using your smartphone, the DJI Mavic Air can be controlled within a radius of 80 meters and up to a height of 50 meters. With the DJI app, you can adjust the camera settings and use many helpful features.

If you use the Mavic Air in combination with the remote control, the drone even creates a range of several kilometers. But please remember that you have to operate your drone in direct line of sight according to the drone regulation in most countries.

Camera of the DJI Mavic Air

4K camera is attached to a 3D gimbal/ Photo: dji.com

A 3-axis gimbal compensates for all movements in the DJI Mavic Air, and the camera thus takes videos without blurring.  The Mavic Air can record videos with a 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) with a maximum of 30 frames per second. FullHD recordings are even possible at 120 frames per second so that you can create beautiful slow-motion effects into your videos. Images are photographed with 12 megapixels.

In addition to the proven photo settings, the Mavic Air has an HDR feature for detailed images even in challenging lighting conditions. With large differences in brightness details are lost in usual photos. The HDR function takes multiple images with different exposure settings and then superimposes them. This creates high-contrast images without additional image processing.

Your videos and photos are saved on 8GB internal memory. You can quickly expand the storage space with a 16GB microSD card. All recordings can be pulled from the drone to your computer with a USB-C port.

The internal memory is an excellent innovation because you can now take pictures even if you forget your SD card at home.

New on board: the panorama function

In the past, DJI drones have been missing a feature to capture panoramas. Such photos were only possible with a lot of effort or with an external app. But with the Mavic Air, this is about to change because the new quadrocopter can take up to 25 pictures in just one minute and put them together in a single panorama photo with 32 megapixels. We are especially looking forward to the new panoramic function of the DJI Mavic Air!

Complicated maneuvers with just one click

The drones from DJI have been equipped with intelligent maneuvers for quite some time to help you make complicated camera moves. In particular, the ActiveTrack is very useful, with which the drone can independently follow a previously defined object. ActiveTrack has been further improved for the Mavic Air. Now the drone also recognizes several objects that move at the same time. Thus, it can no longer happen that an actor disappears from the picture while a group is being filmed.

Mavic Air convinces with improved ActiveTrack / Photo: dji.com

The intelligent flying maneuvers also include the QuickShots. The QuickShots have now been enhanced for the Mavic Air, and there are two more functions available:

  • Asteroid creates a spherical panorama in an initial scene, and then the Mavic Air flies to the ground to highlight the main subject.
  • Boomerang circles around a specific subject (similar to the point of interest), raising the altitude and then lowering it.

I like the Boomerang feature pretty well. But I’m also curious how other creatives will use the Asteroid QuickShot.

More security with FlightAutonomy 2.0

DJI continues to work to increase safety during drone flight. So the DJI Mavic Air has seven cameras, which serve to detect obstacles. Additional infrared sensors help to determine the position of the drone more accurately. With all the data collected, the DJI Mavic Air can create a 3D map and better move in space. Obstacles are detected up to a distance of 30 meters. Thanks to the innovative Advanced Pilot Assistance Systems (APAS), the DJI Mavic Air autonomously avoids barriers without the drone pilot having to react.

The DJI Mavic Air creates a 3D map to avoid colliding with obstacles/ Photo: dji.com

Flight characteristics of the DJI Mavic Air

The Mavic Air reaches a flight time of about 21 minutes. That’s enough to capture your best memories.

The Mavic Air has a sports mode that allows the drone to reach 68.4 km / h.

Scope of delivery of the DJI Mavic Air

The DJI Mavic Air is available in three different colors: polar white, onyx (black) and fire red. In addition to the DJI Mavic Air, the delivery includes a battery, remote control, propeller, carrying case and all necessary cables.

As with other models, DJI also offers a Fly More Combo package for the Mavic Air, which includes two spare batteries, additional propellers, a battery charging station and a travel bag. So that you have everything with you, I would recommend you to grab the Fly More package right away.

The shipping will begin on January 28, 2018. If you want to buy Mavic Air, you should order quickly, as there have been massive delivery delays in the past. When you buy the DJI Mavic Air fast, the chances are good that you hold your new drone in your hands very quickly.

My conclusion to the DJI Mavic Air

The Mavic Air combines the advantages of the two top sellers Spark and Mavic Pro in one device. Its small size and sophisticated camera make the Mavic Air the perfect companion for your next adventures. Let me make it short: we can only warmly recommend the purchase of this drone to you. The camera leaves nothing to be desired, and you will not regret the purchase of the drone in any case.

Do you still have questions about Mavic Air? Then please leave us a comment! Or have you already collected your own experiences with the drone? Then we look forward to your review below the article!

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About the author

Since January 2015, we travel around the world. In our backpack we carry a camera drone which we use to capture the best places from a bird’s perspective. First we travelled with a DJI Phantom 2. But now we use several drones like the DJI Phantom 4 Pro+ or the DJI Mini 3 Pro. On our blog we share the best tips for you about travelling with a drone. If you have questions about this article or new information, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment!

Discussions

  • solomon | 23.03.2018

    i love it

    • Francis Markert | 28.03.2018

      Sounds good! 🙂

  • Paul | 26.07.2018

    Hi im a Filipino. I was planning To go back to my country (Philippines) for 2months and i was planning to buy a DJI Mavic air for my travelling and taking good videos. Do i have to get a license or process some papers?

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