(upbeat music)
- This is the Autel Evo Lite +,
it's a six K drone that rivals some of DJI drones
and I've been flying with it for the past couple weeks.
And I've found some things I really like about this drone
and some things that are a little bit funky.
So in this video,
we're gonna go through 10 pros and 10 cons about this drone.
And throughout this video,
I'm gonna show you a ton of video
that I've shot with this drone,
so that you can see if this is a solid drone to get.
(upbeat music)
So where this drone fits in,
is somewhere between the DJI Air 2S and the DJI Mavic 3.
Because it's got features of both
and it's somewhere in the middle.
And so I wanna show you all the capabilities of this drone.
I wanna show you some footage from this drone
and also show you some places where
this drone could improve.
But, when you look at the big picture,
this is a solid drone
and you might actually wanna get the Autel Evo Lite +
over something like the Air 2S depending on your needs.
All right, so let's just get right into it.
And the first thing that really stands out with this drone,
is the flight time.
So I've flown a bunch of batteries,
in a bunch of different situations,
and overall, the flight time of this drone,
feels so much longer than every other drone that I've flown
even the DJI Mavic 3,
which that drone feels like it hangs up in the air
for a long time,
this one feels like it's up in the air even longer.
And so for a comparison,
I flew a full battery on this drone
in somewhat windy conditions,
and I got about 34 minutes out of the battery with 15% left.
Now in similar conditions when I flew the Mavic 3,
I got 28 minutes with 10% left on the battery.
And the Air 2S I got 20 minutes
with 10% left on the battery.
So overall,
this drone drone is getting more out of each flight,
which means that you can do more with each flight.
They say on the website that you get
40 minutes of flight time and it's much more accurate
than DJI Mavic 3 saying you're getting
40 something minutes of flight time.
But let's talk about something that
is a little bit funky with this drone,
and that is the design.
So it does look like a Mavic drone.
It's about the same size as the Mavic drone.
However, there's a few things that,
that just seem to have missed on.
So for one, when you fold it up, the legs kind of stick out.
And for me, this is important
because when I stick it in and out of my bag,
while the DJI drones are pretty solid
because they're very clean when you put 'em in a backpack.
Whereas this drone, I've noticed that,
it kind of catches on different things in my backpack
'cause the legs stick out a little bit.
So it's not a as clean design when the drones folded down.
Now also one of the big things that's frustrating
is the controller.
There's nowhere to put the sticks.
And when you have cable plugged in,
well you can't really close the top bracket.
And overall the just design of the controller
is bigger in bulkier,
so when you're putting it in a backpack
it's not as portable.
DJI drones it's all integrated into the controller nicely,
and also that controller folds down into a smaller package.
So, the design of this drone is almost there,
a few minor things and this drone
would be right in line with the Mavic drones.
Now there's two versions of the Autel Evo Lite.
This is the +.
Now the + has 6K resolution,
which gives you more flexibility
when you're editing to do things like crop in
and move your frame around.
So whether you just wanna punch in
on a section of the frame, and crop something out
or you wanna do something like stabilization,
use a more ability with that 6K
and overall the image looks super sharp.
Now, one thing that's really frustrating about this drone,
is that there is no log profile.
There's no way to preserve your highlights and your shadows
when you're out filming.
You're basically getting a baked in image every time.
Overall, I prefer to have the ability
to shoot in a log profile
when I'm shooting in some of these settings
where it's super contrasty.
So I have the sun in the background
and I'm driving my black Jeep through the landscape.
Well, I want more flexibility
to be able to color grade that in post,
rather than having a burnt in image.
When you have this strong contrast,
it's a little bit harder
to be able to color grade that later.
Whereas if you have a log profile,
you typically will get some more dynamic range
out of that shot
and you'll be able to make something look much better.
Now, unfortunately, this camera is only an eight bit camera,
it's not a 10 bit camera.
And that's probably one of the reasons
why you don't have access to a log profile.
Because if you have an eight bit camera,
and you're doing heavy color grading, well
the sky's gonna break apart.
You're gonna get some crazy color banding.
You're just not gonna get a good image.
Whereas if you use a burnt-in standard look,
then the footage is gonna look much better.
So I understand why they might pull the log
out of this drone, but it is something that is unfortunate.
And if you are someone who's used to doing color grading,
and having more control over your image,
well you can't really do that with this drone.
You basically get one color profile,
but overall it's just that standard look
with lots of contrast, and lots of saturation.
Now I'm just gonna pause the video right here.
I don't have a sponsor in this video
but I do want to tell you about
a course that I have over on Skillshare.
It's a two hour in-depth editing course that goes through
basically everything that I do
when I approach my YouTube videos,
and also all of my adventure films.
And also over on Skillshare,
I have an in-depth course on color grading.
So if you wanna learn more about editing or color grading,
I'll include a link down below a description
to where you can get 30 days for free on Skillshare,
and you can take one, if not both of these courses.
All right, let's go back into some drone stuff.
The third thing that I really like about this drone
is that it's a one inch sensor.
So the Autel Evo Lite + has a bigger sensor,
which gives you more low light capabilities.
So if you're shooting closer to sunrise, sunset,
or even if you're shooting at night,
they have a night mode
and you're able to get some pretty awesome looking footage.
I personally don't shoot a ton at night.
So for me having that night mode,
I could take it or leave it.
But overall, the image with the one inch sensor,
does look really good.
Now, also with this one inch sensor,
you have an aperture at least on the + version.
So on the + version, you get an f/2.8 to an f/11.
So overall, it compares to the Air 2S
with the one inch sensor.
However, you get the added benefit of having the aperture,
like you would get on a Mavic 3.
Now, unfortunately this drone
was released without all the features available.
So one of the things that you don't have a access to,
is active track.
And for me, that's a big thing that I like to use
because I go out and film by myself a lot of times,
and I wanna be able to get those shots
of me interacting with a landscape,
and active track really helps getting those shots.
So it feels like an incomplete drone
because I know that there are capabilities in this drone
to be able to do things like tracking,
but I don't have access to 'em.
Now, one thing that's interesting
is there is this mode called portrait mode.
In this mode I've found that you can use it as tracking.
Now, what portrait mode is supposed to do
is focus on your subject and blur the background.
But what I've found
is that you can put it into portrait mode
and it works as a tracking.
So it will lock onto you.
You can move and it works like the spotlight mode
in a DJI drone.
And that's where basically it locks onto the subject
and you can move the drone in any direction,
and it keeps that subject centered.
So I can only envision that this drone
will come with some decent tracking when it's available,
but you know, we're waiting on that.
Now because of the 6K sensor,
this drone has a three times lossless zoom.
And you can do zooming in camera.
So if you wanted to shoot at a 2x zoom
you can do that while you're flying.
Or if you're shooting at 6K resolution,
you can punch in later in post
and you're not gonna lose as much data
when you punch in and you're using it on 4K timeline.
Now, one thing that's kind of frustrating for me,
is that the controller doesn't charge your phone.
It may seem like a minor thing
but after using a DJI controller
where you can charge your phone while you're flying,
having that function taken away,
is actually pretty noticeable
because there's been a few times when I'm out flying
and my phone battery was pretty low.
And I pop it in and I start flying
and my phone drains super fast.
And then all of a sudden I can't fly anymore
because my phone is dead.
Now, one fee feature that I really like
with the Autel Evo Lite is the hyperlapse.
It's really easy to use.
So when you go into the hyperlapse mode,
you can just set how long you want your hyperlapse,
how many seconds in between each shot,
and you can set the max speed
that you want your drone to fly at.
Now, you just push in a direction on the controller
that you want the drone to fly,
and then click the function button on the controller
and it's gonna lock that speed and that direction.
And it's just gonna fly and get your hyperlapse.
So this is like super easy way
to get to hyperlapse is really quick.
And I found myself actually using this when I'm out flying
especially when you pair it the long battery life.
Now with this lens, it's not as wide as other competitors.
So this lens is about a 29 millimeter equivalent
which isn't as wide as I would hope for, with a drone.
I typically like shooting on something that's a 24 or wider.
So the Mavic 3 is around a 24 millimeter,
and the Air 2S is around a 22 millimeter.
Now, all the footage I've been getting outta this drone
just looks super good.
And a lot of the time I've been flying with just automatic.
I haven't really been putting it into the manual settings
which I'll talk about in a little bit,
because the drone seems to calculate
the exposure really well.
I found that this is a drone
that I could just put up in the sky.
And as long as what I'm filming is staying consistent
in terms of lighting, it has a good looking image.
And even when it's super contrasty
with a super dark foreground and a super bright sky,
it seems to find a good balance.
And the foreground actually looks really good
without the sky being super overexposed.
Now, when you are switching between modes
like photo, and quick shots, and video, and then pro mode,
and then hyperlapse, it's got a dial
that's similar to something you might find
on like an iPhone.
And I really don't like this experience when I'm out flying
because it's just kind of clunky
trying to get from mode to mode.
I wish it was a little bit cleaner
and something where I could jump around modes easier
because quick shots is like at the top,
pro mode at the bottom,
photos is somewhere in the middle
kind of towards the top.
So I'm constantly like going up and down,
and it just takes a little bit longer to switch from modes.
Now, this drone apparently has a seven mile distance.
I haven't tested seven miles because
when you fly seven miles away
you're way out of line of sight.
You can't really see that far,
especially with a little drone that way out in the distance.
But because of that capability
of being able to have a super strong connection,
I found that the drone just never loses signal
with the controller.
So when I'm out flying, it's just reliable.
I can see a clean shot.
I don't really get much stuttering.
And overall the experience has been pretty good.
However, with this image transmission,
what you see on the screen is not necessarily
what you're getting.
I found that a lot of times when I'm out flying,
in these heavy contrasted situations,
the foreground looks super dark.
So if I'm trying to fly manual settings, I'll try to adjust,
but when I bring the footage into my computer,
it actually is a different exposure.
So what I found is that,
the screen is not true to what I'm filming.
It's not a perfect kind of one to one.
On the DJI drones,
I found that the screen is much more accurate
to what I'm actually recording.
And so that leads into something that's good,
but also a little bit frustrating and I found
and that is pro mode.
So you have just standard video mode
which does all the exposure and everything for you.
And then you have pro mode,
which you can do shutter lock, aperture lock,
you can do full manual,
and it gives you the complete control over your image.
However, because the image seems more contrasting,
I found that when I'm trying to do manual,
I just have to get used to know what the drone is producing
versus what I'm seeing on the screen
and make a little bit of adjustments based on that.
This gets into the next thing that's frustrating,
and that is there's no histogram.
So the only control that you have to see your exposure
is an overexposure warning.
So it puts zebras on elements of your image
that are over exposed.
Now that's great, but I would also like to have histogram
so I can at least see where my exposures are on a graph,
especially because I'd be able to see
what I'm actually getting on a graph
versus just trying to eyeball it on the screen.
Now, one thing that's great about this drone
is that you have quick shots.
You have four of them.
So you have, what's called flick.
You have rocket, you have fade away,
and you have orbit.
Now only four options but these are good options
to use when you're out flying.
But one thing that I found is kind of frustrating
is that there's not a whole lot of options
when it comes to these four different, quick shots.
So if you're doing the orbit, you either go left or right.
You can't choose how fast.
So if you wanna slow orbit,
well you're gonna have to do it manually
because it only has one speed.
And the same with the rocket or the flick or the fade away,
it's a set distance and it's a set speed.
So you can't control any of that.
The quick shots on a DJI drone,
you have a lot more creative control
to make the quick shot exactly what you want.
And the last thing about this drone
is that the way that it's positioned and priced
is interesting because it's definitely more expensive
than the Air 2S.
So the Air 2S premium bundle,
which is what you'd wanna get
with extra batteries and everything is 1,299.
Now the Autel Evo Lite + with the premium bundle
which gives you extra batteries and D filters
basically everything you need, it's 1,849.
Now the Mavic 3, if you wanna get at the Fly More Combo,
you're looking at $3,000.
So is this a good drone to get
and should you consider it over a DJI product?
Well, it depends on what you need, if you want 10 bit,
and if you want log, well the Autel Evo Lite +
doesn't have those features.
But if you want the super long flight time
well the Autel Evo Lite is a much better option.
So it really comes down to your price range
and what you need out of your drone.
And next, you really need to check out
this video right here
goes through 10 different drone moves
that you can use when you're out filming by yourself.