We told you it was happening and yesterday, DJI made it official. Meet the newest drone on their inventory: the Mavic Air 2S or simply the Air 2S. This is a step up from last year’s Mavic Air 2 but sits in-between that and the Mavic 2 Pro/Zoom. This is a $999 drone coming less than a year of the arrival of the Air 2.
The Air 2S has a 3-axis mechanical gimbal that houses a larger 1inch f/2.8 CMOS sensor for better detail, overall image quality, & low-light capabilities. This also makes for a wider 22mm focal length as opposed to the 24 or 28mm usually on DJI drones. You got 8GB of internal storage obviously expandable via microSD and a 3500 mAh battery that gives you a 31-minute flight time.
You got a few features for taking photos here like Timed Photo, AEB, Panoramas, & SmartPhoto mode. The last option is probably the most versatile as it utilizes HDR (merges different apertures/versions into one image), Hyperlight (for low-light), & Scene Recognition (automatically makes adjustments based on the scene).
The optics can shoot 5.4K up to 30fps, 4K up to 60fps, & 1080p up to 120fps. Keep in mind anything over 30fps will crop the video BTW. You got 3 color profiles for video w/ an 8-bit normal, a 10-bit D-Log, and a 10-bit HLG as well as you can record in H.2564 or H.265. You can also pull off 4x digital zoom when recording in 4K@30fps, 6x zoom for 2.7K + 1080 @60fps, and you can go up to 8x zoom for 1080@30fps.
You still have obstacle sensors, 4 of them in total as they have been updated as well. There are 2 new cameras that handle binocular zooming to recognize subjects both close/far at fast speeds. You got OcuSync 3.0 for 1080p video transmission for up to 7.5miles away. Then there are smart flight modes like Spotlight 2.0, ActiveTrack 4.0, & Point of Interest 3.0 to give you an automatic cinematic feel to it. And last but not least, a new MasterShot feature that meshes pre-programmed flight paths w/ smart auto-editing.
DJI’s newest Mavic Air 2S drone is out now starting at $999 as well as the Fly More Combo that includes 3 batteries, ND filters, a charging hub, & a shoulder bag for $1,299. Will this be your next drone purchase or is it too many drones in a short amount of time?
