- Ho ho ho ho.
Guess what, Sam?
- [Sam] What up?
- I forgot the SD card (laughs).
Luckily, there's eight gigs of internal storage in there.
So, that should probably get us through this, huh?
Oh that's cool, there's a phone charging option too.
So when I turn that on, the remote charges the phone.
That's cool. (drone buzzing)
All right, let's go take it for a little spin.
Here we go.
(peacful music)
Oh yeah, this is looking nice.
It's a little bit
of gloomy weather right now, but man,
this is looking nice and crispy.
All right, I'm on sports mode now.
I'm getting about 35 miles per hour, so not bad.
I know it's creepy to look at houses with a drone.
You shouldn't do that, but these houses are epic man.
All right, let's stop being creepy and let's just fly.
So, I don't know if it's because it's the new drone
or because of the new app,
but you can see that it says manned aircraft nearby
and on the map you can actually see the airplane,
where it is, live.
So, that's pretty cool.
Oh, yeah, and you can hear it coming too.
Okay, I'm literally watching the flight path
of that airplane, which I can hear,
but it's a cloudy day so I can't see it,
but I can hear it.
That's honestly pretty neat.
Just being able to see the planes and where they are, live.
Another thing I'm noticing
is that most other drones, you tap to focus.
But, here it looks like it's a fixed focus
because everything seems to be in focus.
Everything all the way over there is in focus.
And even Sam, you're like, what, two feet away from me,
two and a half feet, something like that?
You look like you're pretty sharp in there,
so I guess there's pros and cons to that.
You won't be able to get a shallower depth
of field like you would be able to do on the Mavic 2 Pro.
But at the same time it's nice
because you don't have to worry about focus,
I mean, unless you get in real close.
I'm going to get into one of your bananas.
That sounded wrong.
And, honestly, I'm surprised at how in focus you looked
even though I'm a foot away.
And honestly, if you're flying,
you don't want to get this close
'cause if I'm this close,
I'm probably going to be cutting some fingers off.
But here for like a medium shot, it looks super clean.
So, it is kind of nice that you don't have to worry
about the focus anymore.
All right, first impressions it flies really well,
and I also like some of these smart features
like ActiveTrack.
And they actually did a great job integrating it
into the app itself.
So instead of having to open up ActiveTrack
and dial through the menu a little bit,
you literally just drag and select me right there.
And now that I got myself locked in, I can just go ahead
and just maneuver the drone around
and I don't have to worry
about where the camera is aimed at.
I just kind of tell it where to go
and it should frame up for me, which is awesome.
It really makes flying this drone so much easier
and the tracking has been pretty solid so far.
But features like ActiveTrack,
which I've always been a fan of,
it's really easy to access it now
so I should really dig that.
I select me and by default,
it goes into tracking mode so I can go
and fly around and not have to worry
about which direction the camera is pointed.
And we are also able to adjust what part
of the frame the ActiveTrack is putting the subject.
So, I can put myself on the bottom right of the frame
and I can still use ActiveTrack.
And these are some pretty difficult shots to get right here,
but I'm literally just operating this thing
with just one thumb.
At any point you just go fly around, find your subject.
I want to track Sam, so I'm going to select him right there
and it's tracked.
It's super easy.
So, I love how they've made
this cool feature easier to access.
From here I'm going to go into orbit, so let's go ahead
and set the speed
and I just hit go and it just does its thing.
And then let's put you on the top left of the frame
and it's doing it just fine
and it's holding you perfectly fine.
Wow!
This is awesome!
What do you think Sam?
- I'm diggin' it. - [Gene] Yeah.
- I'm really diggin' it.
I'm going to recreate a dramatic scene.
Why is this happening to me?
Was that good?
- [Gene] You have to feel it.
- This isn't fair.
This isn't fair.
(drone buzzing)
(dramatic music)
- I should just become an actor.
- [Gene] I think so, yeah.
Dude, you committed.
All the way.
- Yeah, dude, I'm very method.
- I could put it into trace mode
where it will essentially follow you.
Sam was trying to use it a little bit earlier
and trying to escape the drone, but he had no luck.
And then there's also parallel, as well,
where everywhere you move, it moves parallel
to you so if you want to get a profile shot
or something like that.
So, lovin' these smart features
and the flight time has been pretty decent.
I know a lot of people have been saying
that this controller is bigger and bulkier and, yeah,
it is bigger and bulkier,
but the signal out of here has been solid so far.
I flew it all the way out to there
and had zero issues with connections.
But first impressions, I'm loving this.
I kind of want to compare it to my Mavic 2 Pro.
Let's head back to the studio and check it out.
This is it, fellas,
this is the very last video I am filming in this studio.
What is it, over a year and a half ago
when we first moved into this space?
It sure has evolved a bit, but for the most part,
it's all kind of stayed the same.
And I'm definitely going to miss it.
I moved into here with 200,000 subscribers.
Now we're at almost 650.
It's treated me well and it's been almost a character
on this channel so,
thank you.
Thank you.
But you know what, let's do this.
Final review here in this studio.
Mavic Air 2,
let's jump up to the overhead cam.
This is kind of my go-to Mavic 2 Pro.
And then in here I have my trusty Mavic Mini.
So it really seems to sit right there nicely in the middle
of the Mavic lineup in terms of size,
but also in terms of price and performance.
But one thing that is clearly different
is this new controller.
Definitely the biggest of the lineup.
And I guess the big question we want to figure out,
is which one of these would you buy.
Mavic Mini is great because it is inexpensive.
It is very compact.
It's super fun to fly.
But the problem is that it didn't really
have the professional features I really wanted.
Mavic 2 Pro is really impressive
because it was still considered small,
relative to its bigger brothers,
but it still packed a pretty good punch.
One inch sensor, great images out of it.
I mean, if I were to buy a drone right now,
I think I would personally be kind of in the middle
of these two, because I do really care
about getting the best image quality out of it.
And I think the only way to find out
which one of these drones I like better,
is just to go out and fly them both.
So, let's go do that.
Farewell studio, you've been real nice.
Sam, should we just like both tear through it
at the same time?
- [Sam] Yeah.
(paper screen crinkling)
- Uh, I think we did that wrong.
You gonna miss this studio, Sam?
- No, not at all.
It's too tiny and it smells.
(laughing)
All right, time to pull out these boys.
Which is going to fly better?
This one, this one, I don't know.
- Stop, stop.
The new place that we just moved into is very close
to the beach, so hope you guys enjoy seeing shots
around here, because we're going to be coming here a lot.
All right, Sam.
Counting on you not to crash this drone.
- I'm not making any promises.
(laughing)
- We gotta do a giveaway with this drone, so.
- Sorry, lucky winner.
- With this amount of light,
since I don't have ND filters for the Mavic Air 2,
I have to crank that shutter speed all the way up
to a 1/800th of a second.
And since we can't control the aperture
like we can on the Mavic 2 Pro,
we are kind of stuck at this super-fast shutter speed.
So, ND filters would definitely be nice for here.
When it comes to color picture profiles,
there's normal, and there's D-Cinelike.
But for now, let's pop both cameras into 4K,
24 frames per second in D-Cinelike
and let's compare some of the footage.
(upbeat music)
Looking at the footage from these two,
I still kind of lean towards the Mavic 2 Pro
although that Mavic Air 2, not far behind.
And I love the way the Air 2 flies.
It's very powerful.
We did a little race
and it's only a few miles per hour behind the Mavic 2 Pro.
Significantly faster and more powerful than the Mavic Mini.
Now the image is looking flat
because I am shooting D-Cinelike,
so it's the flat color profile intended to be color-graded.
But I did notice that the only options I have
is Normal and D-Cinelike.
So those are the two options, which is cool.
It's nice and simple,
but it doesn't give you as many options
as the Mavic 2 Pro gives you.
This might be something we see in a future firmware update,
we'll see, but for now we have more color options
on the Mavic 2 Pro.
I still feel a little bit less freaked out
flying the Mavic Air 2 than the Mavic 2 Pro
because of that price difference, you know?
I mean it would suck to crash either of them,
but if I had to crash one or the other,
definitely would be the Mavic Air 2, you know.
- I'd rather crash the Mini.
- Exactly.
The thing with the Mini is that it is a great one to kind
of practice on, but it has no sensor
so you're actually more likely to crash it.
I'll admit the Mavic 2 Pro sensors
have saved me a couple of times.
So flight-wise, Mavic Air 2 is really, really solid.
I'm really enjoying flying it.
I also love how integrated the ActiveTrack is into the app.
I think they did a really great job with that.
And image quality wise, everything I've seen so far
out of the Mavic Air 2, actually looks pretty good.
I still think I prefer the look out of the Mavic 2 Pro,
but the difference isn't huge.
One thing I do like about the Mavic 2 Pro
is that you can shoot in the wide field of view,
but you can also shoot in a tighter field of view.
So, you get a little bit
of flexibility while maintaining 4K, so that is cool.
But the Mavic Air 2 can shoot 4K at 60 frames per second,
while the Mavic 2 Pro stops at 30.
So from a technical standpoint,
the Mavic 2 Air does have that better frame rate in 4K.
So far, all our footage has been in broad daylight
with pretty even lighting
so they're both definitely going to look good.
But one thing I do like the Mavic 2 Pro's one inch sensor
is that it's pretty good
in more difficult lighting situations.
- [Sam] Here we go, let's try this.
I'm in the shade, silhouetted by some direct sunlight.
- Now in a lot of cases, they both look really good
and a lot of times, they go neck and neck.
But here in this shot,
the Mavic 2 Pro definitely has a little bit
of a cleaner image.
The colors look cleaner.
Everything just looks a little bit more natural
and just overall better, in my opinion.
The Mavic Air 2, it still looks good,
but it definitely has a little bit more
of a digital video-ish feel,
almost like an action camera a little bit.
With the Mavic 2 Pro,
if you're going to spend the extra money,
I mean, this is where it goes,
towards this one inch sensor.
It just looks overall cleaner and more natural,
in my opinion at least.
Especially with skin tone.
Here's another example here.
I'm going to open up the Mavic 2 Pro to an f/2.8
and check that out.
Look at that.
You're getting some shallow depth of field actually
out of this drone.
Now shallow depth of field in a drone
isn't something that you always notice,
especially if you're up high flying.
Focus just kind of gets set to infinity
and everything looks like it's in focus.
And one of the coolest parts of the Mavic 2 Pro
is that you can actually go in and adjust the aperture
from f/2.8 all the way to f/11,
opposed to the other smaller versions of the Mavic,
it's a fixed aperture.
One thing I was happy to see that the Mavic Air 2 had,
which the Mavic 2 Pro and also the Inspires have,
is that you can press on the screen and you can drag it
to actually move the camera around.
Not just up and down, but also sideways,
so that's always a nice feature.
Last, but not least,
let's go check out our low-light dungeon
and see how the drone looks in here.
Welcome to the dungeon.
- [Sam] I feel like you're going to murder me right now,
that's what it looks like.
- Low light's when the larger sensor's usually take the win
and this seems to be the case,
more detail and clarity in the deeper, darker shadows.
But again, it's not as terrible as I was expecting.
And looking at some of these shots,
I was shocked at how similar they looked.
A lot of times I couldn't even tell
which camera it was coming out of.
All right, so now that we've had a chance to play
with the Mavic 2 Air for a bit, let's talk about them.
Let's start with this little one.
The Mavic Mini, the smallest
and least expensive of the bunch.
It's sitting right around $400.
For the price, you just cannot beat this thing.
It's got a pretty decent camera on there.
It's super fun to fly.
It's got a pretty decent battery life.
It's awesome.
I don't think you'll be disappointed.
But really, the one to get if you can swing it
would probably be the Mavic Air 2.
It is going to be around double the price the Mavic Mini,
so there is that.
But, you're going to definitely recognize a lot
of improvements going from the Mini to the Air.
Across the board, everything from the image quality,
how it feels, how you fly it.
I think a real big factor
is the sensors on the front and rear
so you're going to be much less likely
to crash it into things.
I mean you still can crash into things
so you need to be careful.
You can do some gardening if you want to,
but these sensors can definitely be helpful,
especially when you're flying backwards.
Another huge factor is the way it flies.
As much fun as the Mavic Mini is, it's not as powerful
and as fast as the Mavic Air 2, not even close.
So let's say you're trying to use a drone to chase cars
or boats or anything that's moving fairly fast,
then this Mavic Mini might not be able to keep up.
Also, if you fly in high wind conditions, the Mavic Air,
you're going to feel so much more comfortable
with this thing because the Mavic Mini,
it can get blown around a little bit with strong winds.
In Hawaii, I went to go grab a few shots and I was trying
to have it fly back to me,
but then a huge gust of wind came
and it just pushed the drone way further away from me.
I swear I thought I lost the drone after that,
but a few minutes later it started to come back
and it landed, so, that was scary.
But with the Air,
I've been able to hit speeds like 40 miles per hour
with a little bit of a tailwind.
So, if it's a bit windy,
you can feel a little bit less paranoid.
That is why I would recommend the Air
to a majority of people.
Now, this video isn't sponsored or anything like that.
I actually paid full price for this Mavic Air 2,
but I asked my buddies over at DJI
if they would be willing to do a giveaway with one
of these and they said yeah.
All you gotta do to enter to win,
drop a comment down below
letting me know the first place you would go
and fly this thing if you won.
The winner will be chosen within the first 24 hours
of this video going live, so good luck.
And finally, the Mavic 2 Pro,
and again there's going to be another leap in price,
almost double the price of the Mavic Air 2.
And honestly, the differences in image quality
was a lot less than I had anticipated.
I still think there is a difference, so if I want to go out
and get the best image quality,
I'm probably still going to take this.
But at the same time,
the Air 2 is so much more comfortable to fly.
I think a lot of it is psychological.
Because even when I'm flying this Mavic Air 2,
I'm like, that's an expensive thing
that I'm flying around
and then this is like double that expensive thing.
And everything from the way it flies to the app,
to the control.
Everything just feels like it's been updated.
And there's also a level of simplicity.
You know, you don't have to worry about focus.
There's less options that you have to go and dial through.
It's just a very easy, simple, fun drone.
Did I mention that it can do 240 frames per second in HD?
What?
The image quality isn't the best thing I've ever seen
at 240, but, you know, it still has it as an option.
Honestly, I think the Mavic Air 2 is going to be the drone
that I carry around with me on a daily basis
and I really only pull out the Mavic 2 Pro for
if I'm going to go to a spectacular location,
I really want the best footage.
(phone ringing)
And, that just ruined my, hold on, I gotta get this.
All right, guess where we're at, again.
I'm pulling up comments from the last video
and it's been two weeks since I've posted a video.
- Oh no.
- I've been slackin'.
I've been slackin'.
Sorry.
- You moved.
- Yes, we've moved and it's been very hectic.
We will forever think of Linus
whenever a Youtuber needs storage.
Call in Linus to make you a storage cluster
and name it Potatonator.
Jellyfish is too expensive.
Linus.
Everyone is Linus.
Linus, Linus. - Who's Linus?
Besides, he's not the Peanuts guy.
- Linus is like a huge Youtuber who goes around
and he helps other huge Youtubers figure out how
to storage all their data.
But I think you have to be pretty big
for him to actually help you.
I'm still a little small french fry.
Okay, I need to become the world's biggest potato
to make that happen.
So, subscribe if you haven't already,
to make that happen.
When Gene is reading the comments in his next video
and only finds comments about Linus tech-tips.
Yes!
- [Man] You're a Youtuber, right?
- Hey, what's goin' on man?
- Potatojet?
- Yeah, yeah, what's up?
We're making a video right now.
You wanna be in it?
You wanna say what's up?
- What's up guys?
That's crazy.
- Anyways, I think we're gonna wrap it up here.
I think we're gonna go walk the dogs a little bit more.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, all right.
See you guys later.
Peace.
(calming music)