- This is the DJI Air 2S,
and this drone is a huge upgrade
from a lot of the other drones in DJI's lineup,
and in this video,
I want to go through 10 different reasons
why you would want to get this drone
or upgrade to this drone,
and I'm gonna go through some of the things
that I've found when I've been
playing around with it for the last few weeks.
(upbeat electronic music)
So, I had the chance to get this drone a few weeks ago,
and I've been flying in a ton of different situations
just testing out all the features that I could on it,
and in this video,
I'm gonna go through the reasons
why you would want to upgrade to this drone,
but also I'm gonna give you my thoughts around it
and some of the things that I found that I liked
and also some of the things that I found
that I don't necessarily like.
So, let's just get right into the first reason,
which is the one-inch sensor.
Now, this sensor is gonna give you better-quality footage,
and it's gonna give you better footage
in low-light situations.
The one-inch sensor is only reserved for the Pro cameras.
We've only seen a one-inch sensor
in the 2 Pro and the P4P,
but now there's a one-inch sensor on an Air-style drone.
Now, this isn't a Hasselblad one-inch sensor.
This is a DJI one-inch sensor,
so there might be a little bit
of a difference between the two,
but one of the massive upgrades with this one-inch sensor
is that it does shoot 5.4K resolution for video creators.
Now, this camera has a F2.8,
and that F2.8 is not adjustable,
so it's not like the 2 Pro where you can go to an F11.
This one is just a fixed 2.8 aperture.
And for the field of view,
you're getting a 22-millimeter equivalent,
so it's an 88-degree field of view,
and the sensor is a 20-megapixel sensor.
The original Air 2 is a 12-megapixel sensor
with a 48-megapixel Quad Bayer system.
Basically, they split the pixels into four.
It's some different style of sensor.
This is a CMOS 20-megapixel sensor,
so it's going to be able to give you
some better-looking footage,
and it's going to give you
some better noise performance as well.
When I'm out flying,
and I'm seeing the quality
that I'm getting out of this camera, it looks great.
Like, I'm really happy with the footage
that I've been able to get when I'm out flying.
I've been in a bunch of different situations,
whether it's morning, middle of the day, evening,
as well as in some darker situations
when the sun has just gone down over the horizon,
and all the footage that I've been able to get
out of this camera looks really good.
And having a one-inch sensor
definitely gives this drone a huge advantage
across the entire lineup of DJI's drones.
Now, Number Two is a better obstacle sensing system.
So, this drone has more sensors on it.
It's got backwards, forwards, up, and down.
It doesn't have any side-to-side sensors,
however, when you're out flying,
it will detect objects in the way
and it will fly up and over them, or it will just stop,
depending on how you have your settings set up.
Number Three is 10-bit footage,
and this is huge for anyone who wants
to do some post-processing on your footage.
Having 10-bit gives you more data
to be able to color-grade and fix and adjust things in post.
It records in H.265
and it has a video bit rate of 150 megabytes per second,
which makes it higher than the other drones in DJI's lineup.
The Air 2 only has 120 megabytes per second,
and the 2 Pro,
even though that camera is a 10-bit camera,
it only has 100 megabytes per second.
You're getting more information out of this drone,
which allows you to do more color grading in post,
and it's just gonna make your footage look better overall.
All of the other cameras in DJI's lineup are 8-bit cameras,
except for the 2 Pro,
however, that one only records up to 4K,
30 frames per second,
and this drone does have
a lot more flexibility when it comes
to resolution and also frame rates.
Number Four is the size.
This drone is the exact same size as the original Air 2.
When you put them side-by-side,
the only difference is the sensors and the camera.
You can use the same battery as you used on the Air 2,
and the only other difference that I've noticed
is that the propellers have the orange on it
versus the gray.
Overall, this kit with the drone,
a few batteries, the controller, and the ND filters
packs up super small into this little case.
It's a much smaller footprint than the Pro 2,
so it's easier to travel with and take anywhere.
Number Five is the 5.4K resolution.
This drone shoots in 5.4K,
which just gives you more flexibility,
so if you are editing on a 4K timeline,
that means you're going to be able
to punch in 1-1/2 times on your footage
and not lose any resolution when you're cropping in post.
And when you combine this 5.4K resolution
with the 10-bit camera,
you have the highest resolution
at the best quality that you'll get
out of any of DJI's drones.
Number Six is frame rates.
Now, you have a ton of different options
when it comes to frame rates in this drone.
In the 5.4K resolution, you have 24, 25, or 30.
You're not going to do, really, any slow-mo
when it comes to 5K,
however, when you drop it down to 4K,
you can go all the way up to 60 frames per second,
and when you drop it down to 1080P,
you can do 120 frames per second.
Just gives you a lot of flexibility,
so if you want to shoot at a higher frame rate
and slow down your footage,
you have the option in this drone,
especially with the 4K 60.
This is one thing that I really liked
about the original Air 2
when I first started flying with that drone.
Having 4K 60 gives you the flexibility
to slow down in post and make your shots even smoother.
Now, there are some issues that I found
when it comes to the frame rates.
When I put it in 4K 60,
the camera crops in two times.
Now, the original Air didn't have this crop.
You could go in any frame rate in any resolution
and it would stay the wide field of view.
When I'm shooting in 4K 60,
I don't want to be limited to a two-times crop,
so I'm not sure what's going on with this drone,
but it's not able to process the 4K wide footage
with 60 frames per second.
It's punching in on the sensor.
So, this is where the original Air
is going to have a major advantage,
because if you want to have a wide field of view
and be able to slow down to 60 frames per second, well,
you can only do that on the original Air 2.
Number Seven is zoom options.
So, you have a lot of different flexibility
to zoom with this camera,
even more so than the original Air 2,
but when you're zooming in,
you're essentially losing pixels at a certain point.
For a lot of situations,
especially like social content on your phone,
you won't notice the loss in resolution.
In the 5.4K mode, there is no zooming available,
however, when you drop down to 4K,
you can do a two-times zoom, a three-times zoom,
and a four-times zoom.
Now, what I've noticed is when you go
to three times or four times,
there's definitely a clear loss of resolution
when you put it on a big screen.
On a phone, it's not as noticeable.
Doing quick edits and you're just
uploading straight to your phone,
it is nice to have these zoom functionalities in the drone.
Now, Number Eight is master shots.
So, it has ActiveTrack, it has QuickShots,
and now you have MasterShots,
and essentially, MasterShots is an automatic drone
that then edits your footage for you.
So, depending on what you're doing a MasterShot of,
the drone's going to decide a series of shots
that it thinks is best
for that location or that situation.
It's going to shoot all of them in a few minutes
and then it's gonna edit a video automatically for you.
So, if you don't want to have to think about anything,
and you just want to get some really cool footage
of a location that you're in or something specific,
and you want the drone to do everything for you,
you just turn on your MasterShots,
draw on the screen like you would in ActiveTrack,
hit the button to go, hands-off.
Drone does everything for you
and then it edits all that footage
for you into a short little video.
Number Nine is ActiveTrack 3.0.
so this is the best ActiveTrack that DJI
has put into a drone.
It locks onto the subject and stays locked on,
and I think that this can be definitely used
for follow situations where you're like mountain biking
or you're trail running it,
and you won't have to worry
about the drone losing its lock on the subject.
I was playing around with this
in a lot of different situations,
and when I was putting it in Sport Mode
with some Jeeps going through the desert,
it stayed locked on and it could do these crazy moves
where I was whipping around the Jeeps,
and it would completely keep
the subject center the entire time.
Now, I just ordered a bike mount
because I want to test this and have it follow me
through trails because I definitely think that this is now
at a level where the drone will stay locked onto you
as long as it can see the subject.
Even if your subject does
go behind like a bush or something,
it will continue the movement for a little while
until it locks back onto the subject,
and I'm super impressed with how this works.
Now, because the sensors only sense in four directions,
up, down, forward, back,
if you're moving side-to-side,
it's not going to sense an object that's in the way,
so doing something like an orbit with ActiveTrack,
you have to actually pay attention to what's on the sides.
However, if you're following
a subject forwards or backwards,
then you'll be able to rely on the optical sensing to stop
and potentially move up and over that object
so it doesn't actually hit anything.
Number 10 is the new transmission system
that's in the drone itself.
Now, the original Air 2 had two antennas
to give you a clean signal.
This one has four,
so no matter what situation you're in,
you're most likely not going to lose a transmission
from the drone to the controller.
And as I've been out flying,
I've had no dropouts whatsoever.
Like, the image has stayed crystal clear
wherever the drone is and whatever situation that I'm in./
So, the video transmission signal
will stay connected to the controller,
and you're not going to have
to deal with dropouts or anything like that.
Now, is this drone perfect
and should you run out and get it?
Well, it just depends on what you need.
So, for video shooters,
I definitely think this is
a great addition to the DJI lineup,
and if I was to choose between the Air 2 and the Air 2S,
I probably would go with the Air 2S
because of all these upgrades.
I think if you're a Mini 2 owner
and you're looking for ActiveTrack
that's going to stay locked on,
this is definitely a solid choice
when it comes to an upgrade.
Now, if you're an Air 2 owner,
you might want to pick this one up
because you're going to be able
to get better resolution for video,
and also that one-inch sensor's better low-light,
and it's also gonna give you a better look
out of the camera overall.
Now, for Mavic 2 Pro owners,
you might want to switch to this
because it's a one-inch sensor,
however, you have a lot more features packed into this,
and there's just more options to shoot.
This drone gets me super excited
for what DJI is going to come out with for the 3 Pro,
because if all of these features
are packed into an Air 2 body,
then that means the 3 Pro is going to be, like, insane.
Probably going to have a higher resolution
or more features packed into it.
It's definitely going to have the better transmission,
the ActiveTrack, all of that.
Mavic Pro line hasn't been upgraded in a while,
so hopefully we see a 3 Pro soon,
because that drone is going to be on another level.
The Air 2S is definitely a Pro drone
in a super small setup.
So, I'll put more information down below in the description,
and I highly suggest you check out this video right here.
It goes through 10 different drone moves
that I like to use all the time,
and a lot of the footage that you're going
to see in this video
was all shot on the Air 2S.
All right, guys, I'll see you over there.