(serene music)
- We've gotten so many DJI drones
in the last couple of years
and here's the new one, it's the Air 3.
It has two cameras, 46 minutes of battery life,
improved connectivity and range with Ocusync four,
new controller, brand new design
and I don't mean to be a downer,
but did any of this make you just jump outta your chair,
like really really excited?
No, I'm sort of in the same boat
and listen, before you all get mad at me for this hot take,
let's set the record straight.
The Air 3 is a fantastic drone.
It's reliable, it's versatile, it is a well capable drone
that improves on a few things from its predecessor,
arguably takes away a few things too,
but above all, it got me thinking about one thing.
Has drone innovation plateaued?
Is DGI getting boring?
And if it is, who's gonna make drones exciting again?
So this is my review of the Air 3,
but also this is your status update on drones
and yes, it's summer, it's hot and some are very beautiful
and spoilers this video might make you envious.
With the Air 3, DGI decided to shrink the main sensor
but in return gave us the second three times telephoto lens.
At first I was worried about the smaller sensor,
but looking back at my clips, I think that was premature.
This footage looks great.
Both lens are capable of capturing stunning imagery.
I do prefer taking photos with a larger sensor.
I think it just handles noise better,
but I think this compromise was worth it.
The aperture on the main lens
is larger than it was on the Air 2S,
enabling better low light performance which is a big plus
and if you use the mini three pro,
it'll all look very similar.
Same sensor size, same aperture as well.
The second lens is a 70 millimeter lens
with a smaller aperture than the lens below it.
It is the same telephoto lens that you'll find
on the Mavic three pro that came out not too long ago
and it is a fine lens, but at maximum aperture of 2.8
footage can sometimes look a little bit flat.
There is some but not a lot of separation
between the foreground and the background.
Don't expect like stunning bhoga here.
That said, I'll take a dedicated lens
over digitally punching in any day of the week,
just for decompression alone and the parallax effect,
it's pretty great.
I love the ability to use the second lens,
but that lens also sort of complicate things.
So let me explain.
As someone who desperately wants to extract
the best possible image quality from any of my cameras,
I'm aiming to film at the lowest ISO possible,
with proper shutter speeds as well.
So I need to use an ND filter,
but using an ND filter on the Air 3
is a little bit of a hassle.
So once you switch from a main lens with 1.7 aperture
to the 2.8 tele lens, you'll likely have to raise ISO
which will increase the noise introduced
and just the whole process becomes a bit cumbersome
and kind of takes away from that flying experience.
I know, I know it is a small complaint,
but smaller sensors do struggle with degrading image quality
at higher ISO.
What I'd love to see is for some aftermarket ND filters
which can compensate for that aperture difference
and make switching between the two lenses, seamless.
Wouldn't that be nice or even better?
Something we've all been wanting for a long time,
built-in ND filters, innovation
and outside of just talking about these two lenses
there really isn't much else to discuss here.
There's a new controller
and it's just as good as the last one
except it has visible antennas, which I don't mind.
Ocusync is upgraded, but I haven't had any major
connection issues in years and the range is rated
for 20 kilometers or 12 miles, but in practice and legally
you will not be able to take advantage of that.
Battery life is pretty much same
across the whole lineup now, which is to say that
it's about 45 minutes give or take and I think that's fair.
That's great.
All in all a great drone, but without any new
or fresh ideas really, just iterative smaller updates.
Okay, so let's just go quickly
through a list of things that I noticed
while reviewing this drone.
D-Log is gone and it is replaced
by something called D-Log M,
also something that was introduced recently.
It is not as flat and it doesn't hold as much dynamic range
as the traditional D-Log.
This drone is not too loud, it's rated as 81 decibel
and it has like a nice bassy propeller sound.
A big fan of that
(drone buzzing)
Slow motion is up to 100 frames per second
and there's no cropping here.
Batteries and charging dock are substantially larger.
There's night mode here,
it basically allows you to film at higher ISO,
slower shutter speeds and it does apply some
in-noise camera reduction and it really kind of
lowers the darker parts of the image
and we can end the video here but,
let's talk about why I feel like things are slowing down.
Why did I come to this and what's next?
Back in the heady days of 2018,
DJI was the clear market dominator, nearly untouchable
even before the Mavic two Pro,
their phantom line has made DJI synonymous
with the word drone.
DJI was on top of the world and it was an exciting time.
Drones were getting better and smaller
and DJI grew, bought the Hasselblad,
the legendary camera company to improve its color science.
There were competitors out there like Yuneec, 3DR,
Verizon Skyward.
Some made it, most collapsed,
some never even shipped the product.
Remember Lily?
The point is the whole market just felt alive.
No one was playing at the level of DJI
and the Mavic two Pro to me, it kind of proved that.
It was a milestone drone,
but the success of the Mavic two Pro had a side effect.
DJI kind of got complacent.
Its market share was a commanding 74% in 2018,
but it started to drop and DJI reacted.
It took a page from Apple's playbook
and started releasing the S and SE
and pro and cine models at a much faster refresh cycle.
I mean, just look at this product list now.
Just in the last couple of years we had more than 10 drones.
There have never been more options
for someone who wants a new DJI drone,
but making the choice is actually not easy.
Even if you look at the Air 3
and the Mini three Pro, right,
the main cameras are pretty much the same.
No seriously can you actually tell
which drone film the shot here?
But now you have to choose between wanting an extra lens
on the Air 3 or the ability to film vertically
on the mini three and I just wish we can have both.
Although there is a vertical mode on the Air 3,
but it's just a cropped nine by 16
at a lower 2.7K resolution,
you might as well just keep filming horizontally
and just crop later in post,
but for all those shiny new models
really the only new features are the lenses
and don't get me wrong, I like the new lenses
but it feels like DJI is setting us up
for years of quick product refreshes
and small, frankly sort of boring updates.
Does that sound familiar to you?
- [Reviewer] I'm gonna be blunt there's not a whole lot
to get excited about this phone.
- And in the meantime, a few other companies
have been doing genuinely exciting things.
When the Skydio R1 came out,
it showcased some truly mind blowing tech.
It's autonomous flying was hard to comprehend.
We all assume that DJI would work overtime
to match Skydio tech, but that hasn't happened yet.
DJIs own autonomous flying has been largely unchanged.
Meanwhile, Autel was the first
to offer large apertures in drones.
Something drone pilots have been asking for,
for a long time.
They were the first ones to have an 8K drone.
Although some argue that 8K wasn't actually great
and I haven't had a chance to test it myself,
but you know, resolution is not everything
and then there's the connectivity.
DJIs own Ocusync used to be the differentiating factor
between DJI and other companies
and with the Air 3, DJI introduced Ocusync four,
but in my testing, again, it's just as good
as Ocusync three and Ocusync three plus.
It's good. You won't lose connection.
But this year at CES, Autel went a step further
and introduced something that is a mesh networking system,
meaning that each auto drone can basically extend the range
and piggyback off of each other to create super reliable
and longer connectivity.
In theory, it can even help you get connection
around obstacles like buildings and such,
a different approach to DJI Ocusync and I haven't tested it,
but I'm really intrigued by it.
(upbeat somber music)
(thunder claps)
So yeah, that's the Air 3.
Still a very capable drone that does many things right,
but also just a little bit uninspiring.
At 1,549 with the brand new controller,
you can also buy it for cheaper with the older controller.
It slots it nicely between the mini
and the expensive Mavic threes,
but now it's up to you, the viewer to decide
if you want a sub 250 gram drone with vertical filming
like the mini and a lot more portable drone too,
or do you want stellar, micro four,
third sensor on the Mavic three?
Or if you really need that second tele lens and listen,
lastly, DJI, big fan, but you're kind of killing me
with these incremental changes.
Just go big, inspire me.
No pun intended there, but let's see something new.
Some built-in NDs, maybe a backwards camera.
What about 360 cameras or just better autonomous flying?
It's about time for something new and exciting.
Thank you for watching. Curious if you agree.
Are we reaching a point of just diminishing returns?
Are you excited by extra lenses?
Which drone do you have now?
And does this one want to make you upgrade it?