DJI Mavic Air Review – Janine Kilroe

 

As you know I regularly welcome guest bloggers and writers to write reviews of new pieces of kit. This has taken a bit longer than I planned to post.  This post is written by Janine Kilroe she has created images for the last 30 years, initially as an Editorial Advertising Photographer commissioned by many international blue chip companies and for the past 9 years she has focused on creating a truly unique one off style of hand painted fine art photography. Her work is available in galleries throughout the UK. We are honoured to have her write her thoughts for the blog as she has also exhibited her work at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and The Saatchi Gallery, London.

Over to Janine, for her first impressions of the DJI Mavic Air.

Why does a professional PFCO photographer videographer buy a Mavic Air?

I do a far bit of travelling abroad (images shot with the Mavic Air in Southern Spain) and taking my Phantom 4 Pro isn’t easy, its bulky and also heavy with the 5 batteries. I have not had any problems flying with it as carry on but each time I have been through security on the return leg home I have either been asked questions and had bag swabbed on one occasion. I have been waiting for a drone that was small enough but had a decent quality to its images and video. Hence my Mavic Air Combo purchase.

 

 

Positives

It’s so compact and light.  The ease and speed of setting up to getting in the air. The ability to take other equipment as it takes up nowhere near as much space as the P4Pro carry on bag. Good quality 4 K images and video perfect for Vloging, Blogs and commercial jobs where the image does not have to be massively enlarged. Video Storage Bitrate 100mbps. The 3-axis gimbal is better protected tucked within its body rather than the Mavic Pro. I know I will be much more likely to take and use my Mavic Air with me tucked into a small rucksack for travel and those difficult to get to locations that needs a long walk in rather than the P4Pro.

Negatives

Noisier than I expected but I’m sure DJI are on the case re quieter props.

No side sensors that nearly got me into trouble only because I’m used to having them on the P4Pro and had momentarily forgotten the Mavic Air doesn’t!

Having flown in cold weather 0 c with a wind of 15 mph I discovered flying into the wind the battery was short of power. When temperature rose the battery had plenty of power to fight the wind so be warned if trying to fly into the wind in cold temps. To be fair DJI do warn you about this but I was surprised at the actual effect it gave.

Regarding the shaking people were reporting at take off in cold conditions I personally didn’t experience this. It seems that DJI took this customer feedback on board and to my knowledge have sorted it out with the last Firmware update. So no longer a negative.

Shorter Battery life 20 mins not a deal breaker just makes you even more aware of planning your shot before take off to max the time available. I changed my default low battery warning from 20% to 30% (giving me 15 mins flight time) as the default at 20% just left 3 mins to return which in my book is simply not enough safety margin to allow for the unexpected etc.

Who is it for?

Anyone who wants a well made small light compact drone that produces a good quality image and video. Like anything the more experience you have with correct camera, video settings plus post processing the better your final images and video will be. This comes with practice and then more practice…….

My personal conclusions

As in life we cannot have everything and no the Mavic Air is not of course as good as my P4Pro I never expected it to be. The Mavic Pro has a bigger sensor but has the exposed gimbal and doesn’t have a Video Storage Bitrate of 100mbps. Plus is bigger. What I would like to see is a side-by-side comparison of the Mavic Pro and Mavic Air RAW images. Maybe a project for me to do?

So I’m I happy with the Mavic Air?

Yes very happy actually it literally “fits” the bill. Its small compact and fits into any bag. Interestingly when going through security at the airports as hand luggage no one was interested. It does the job with providing you don’t want to be producing massive images and you know what you are doing re camera video settings and how to get the best out of your images in Post Processing stage. It’s very quick and easy to assemble and get up in the air. I have used it with my iPhone which is fine but my tip would be to always turn your phone onto Airplane mode to stop distracting phone calls, notices etc. I however want to see as much as I can so have bought a mini iPad adapter holder to use. Yes it makes it a bit heavier but the good thing is there is flexibility to which viewing method you want to use. The other Tip is get yourself a decent set of Neutral Density filters they are essential I have Polar Pro ND filters for all my drones and Osmo Pro etc. You must be able to control your shutter speed and with the fixed aperture it’s even more essential.

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Drone components for flight

There is a drone in flight, you may need to look closely!

The more you know about how drones take flight and stay in the air will make you a better remote pilot and a greater understanding these basic principles it will make flight safer, smoother and by  better flying this will equal better aerial footage.

In the previous blog post I explained, very basic technology and components.  So now I am going to go further into the technology behind these amazing flying machines.

The platform frame contains the technology to give the flight and this will include an onboard computer the IMU, a gyroscope and an accelerometer, along with GPS.

The gyroscope and accelerometer are a key part of how the multi-rotor drone can stay stable and fly.

Think of the drone as being a plate balancing on top of a very, very tall stick. The accelerometer tells the drone how fast it is falling off the stick, and the gyro tells the drone which way it is tipping over. The drone then applies just the right amount of power to the motors spinning the rotors to balance the drone. All of this happens several hundred times a second processed by the IMU. Obviously there is no stick this is just an image for explanation.

IMU (inertial measurement unit) is an electronic device that measures and reports the force, angular rate, using a combination of the accelerometer and gyroscope,  IMUs are typically used to manoeuvre the drone.   In consumer drones like the DJI products use  IMU-enabled GPS devices. An IMU allows a GPS receiver to work when GPS-signals are unavailable, such as in tunnels or inside buildings.

Props,  are typically made of plastic but can also be made from carbon fibre.  One of the simple but critical factors that keep multi-rotor UAVs airborne is to have opposing motors spinning clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW). Without this, the drone will  ‘roll over’ straight into the mud.  Don’t underestimate how important the props are, if the props are damaged, in any way. You need to replace these, they are classed as a consumable item.  If your props are damaged and you fly this could make your flight unsafe as it will no longer be balanced.

The engineers have taken great care to make sure the props are balanced to give you rock-steady stability.  When you buy your drone buy some extra props, and always carry spares. Buy the official props don’t buy some cheap ones they won’t be balanced!

Next Blog post will be about the principles of flight, about the right kind of wind and lift!