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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1256627
Taking Flight The onsite setup, from unzipping the case to takeoff, somehow seemed faster and easier than the Air. You just need to unfold the props into something close to the right position. Centrifugal force will take care of the alignment, though the DJI Fly app will remind you to check them. The Mavic Air 2 is a much quieter drone—more like a hum than a sharp buzz. From the moment of takeoff and my preflight control checks, I noticed that it few more smoothly; it felt like it had the momentum and inertia of a larger drone. This is likely the result of the longer arms and more efficient propellers. As I climbed out, I discovered that the Air 2's color wasn't the only thing that made it hard to track visually. Its rate of climb is phenomenal. Though its response to the lateral controls are appropriately sedate, even in normal flight modes, it gains altitude with remarkable speed. And finally, the quieter propellers make it harder to hear at a distance. Joggers, dog- walkers and Frisbee-tossers were all oblivious to the Air 2, while my Air would normally cause passers-by to look up to find the source of the sound. It didn't take long for me to feel comfortable enough with the Air 2 to try some shooting and camera moves. This is when, in spite of my best efforts to maintain a reviewer's objectivity, I began falling in love. Even without switching to Tripod flight mode or being able to make the control and gimble changes that I normally do, the Air 2's movements were surprisingly graceful and the new controller was a dream come true for me to handle. Both apparent in normal flight and very obvious in Tripod mode, the Air 2 naturally eases in and out of most moves, something that usually took a lot of work to set up with the advanced flight controls, not to mention practice. Even flying in Normal mode gave a lot of the fine control that I normally turned on the Tripod to achieve. Like a lot of folks who shoot on assignment, I've never really depended on DJI's automatic flight controls, blocking shots out with the director and flying them by hand. The Mavic Air 2 introduced me to Spotlight. This is a feature, previously only available on the Inspire, DJI's professional "Hollywood" drone. Spotlight 2.0 follows the subject, but the pilot is still flying the drone, performing whatever kind of camera move they want while the drone takes charge of keeping the selected subject framed. Spotlight is the default FocusTrack mode and has two options, Trace and Parallel. Trace is the traditional tracking mode, where the drone maintains the appropriate speed and framing. Parallel mode allows the drone to track the subject laterally, assisting with those angled, crab-dolly moves that are so hard to achieve manually. After flying the Air, I couldn't help being impressed by the Air 2's battery life. On cold or gusty days, I could only count on about 15 minutes of battery time. When I'd get near that point, I'd be scanning the battery gauge like a fighter pilot watching fuel levels, making sure I always had a relatively short, easy trip back to the landing pad when it got low. On the Air 2, that time stretched to 30 minutes and it seemed like I needed a break before the battery did. The Look of Love The real test, for me, was when I got home and loaded the images onto my Mac. The new Mavic Air 2 was a pleasure to fly and maneuvered beautifully and I knew, with just a couple more hours practice, focusing on Spotlight, I could break into some new territory creatively. But how good are the pictures? In a word: superb. The limited time I had with the Air before our deadline, I stuck with the county park practice area where I normally fly—not many opportunities artistically, but a good way to see how it stacks up against the Air. Looking at the Air 2's DNG images in both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, they had the eye-catching definition noticeably smoother tonal gradations, obviously the product of its large, half-inch CMOS sensor. If the lighting conditions weren't too odd, the autoexposure system actually produced some good results. I wasn't in any position to throw anything really challenging at it, but I could see the built-in HDR processing could even out the images containing bright blue sky, water and a diverse terrane. When shooting in raw format, the Air 2 includes some hefty JPEG preview files, as well. Loading my video clips into Premiere Pro, I instantly saw that all those nice things people have been saying about H.265 are true. And frankly, as good as I once thought it was, the Mavic Air's video, even at 4K, can't hold a candle to the Air 2 from 1080 on up. (I should note that it also can shoot in 2.7K, a nice intermediate size that provides some cropping and stabilization room without being too much of a strain on the CPUs.) The DJI ND filters did tend to warm the colors up a bit, but that was easily remedied in Lumetri if it the look didn't fit. By the time you read this, PolarPro will be shipping its great Cinema Series filters for the Air 2, as well. The original Mavic Air was a game - changer when it came on the scene, a great drone to learn on and do some serious work once mastered. The Mavic Air 2 is at a price ($799 for the basic kit, $988 for the Fly More Combo), where it still can be considered entry-level. The difference is that, at this point, you won't feel quite as envious of the Mavic Pro 2, even with its Hasselblad imaging. I have a feeling that Spotlight 2.0 will be opening up some new avenues for me creatively and I'm certain that my work in general is going to improve, both in image quality and camera dynamics that will give my work some subtilty and not just shout out, "Look, I have a drone. Like another company we know, DJI has found a way to produce both top-quality hardware and exquisitely- designed software. The Mavic Air 2 also shows that it's capable of advancing the technology and value at an even faster pace. And yes. I'll be placing my order for an Air 2 shortly. For more information, visit: dji.com