DJI’s drones dominate the market to such an extent that you just barely hear another manufacturers talked about. They’re not fairly competing with themselves, however the DJI Air 3 does fill a spot between the professional-grade Mavic sequence and the pocket-size Mini vary. It’s the primary new Air mannequin since 2021’s Air 2S, and DJI has finished it once more, with a drone that gives enhanced video efficiency and mercifully stress-free flying.
I’ve been flying the DJI Air 3 for the previous few months, evaluating it with a spread of different drones, together with its predominant competitor, the very good Air 2S. The greatest enchancment over its older cousin is a multi-camera setup beforehand unique to the a lot pricier Mavic fashions, however there are notable boosts to battery life and flight security too.
Twice as Nice
The headline characteristic for the DJI Air 3 is the 2 cameras mounted on its entrance gimbal. There’s a “standard” wide-angle digicam providing a 24-mm-equivalent discipline of view (broadly just like the digicam on the Air 2S) and a medium-telephoto digicam providing a 70-mm-equivalent discipline of view. The latter provides the drone a brand-new inventive choice, with the angle permitting for a narrower framing of smaller topics and the flexibility to isolate them towards the background in an all-new, dramatic method. A tighter discipline of view won’t sound all that thrilling, however in observe it’s a major improve.
Photograph: DJI
Both cameras use a 1/1.3-inch Quad Bayer CMOS sensor with 48-megapixel decision. What I like about these sensors is that they each seize video on the identical high quality, making it simpler to present footage a unified, harmonious look when enhancing, regardless of which components have been captured by which digicam.
The DJI Air 2S had a single 1-inch 20-megapixel sensor, which could make the Air 3’s smaller 1/1.3-inch sensors sound slightly disappointing. But it doesn’t really feel like an excessive amount of of a loss. I perceive DJI’s justification; two bigger sensors would add weight and take up house. But all informed, I believe the picture high quality is best on the Air 3, with wider dynamic vary and fewer noise.
The Air 3 does lose the flexibility to document video at a 5.7K decision, being restricted to 4K on each cameras, however in all honesty, I don’t assume anyone will thoughts all that a lot. For nearly all of informal customers, 4K shall be greater than sufficient element.
4K could be captured at as much as 60 frames per second in the usual video mode, 100 fps in slow-motion mode, and 30 fps within the new evening mode, which ekes out additional element after the solar goes down. I discovered the flat D Log M shade profile a pleasure too, because it let me do my very own shade grading and correction in postproduction and obtain the outcomes I needed.
Photos (which could be captured in JPEG or DNG RAW) look wonderful too, and whereas the Air 3 can’t match the WIRED-recommended Mavic 3’s Four Thirds Hasselblad digicam, it’s not far off, whereas being smaller and considerably cheaper.
Fly Safer for Longer
Buzzing across the seashores and headlands of Britain’s southeast coast, I discovered the Air 3 to be much more forgiving and satisfying to fly than its (already forgiving and satisfying) predecessor. This is due to a much bigger battery (46 minutes versus the Air 2S’s 31—though real-world use numbers are marginally decrease for each drones) and a full omnidirectional anti-collision sensor setup that makes crashes not possible. The Air 3 now has sensors dealing with forwards, backwards, upwards, downwards, and laterally on each the left and proper sides, and in good gentle these will spot hazards and cease your drone from careering into them. These sensors turn out to be much less dependable the darker the situations are, but it surely’s a useful characteristic that might save your blushes and financial institution stability.
Like all DJI drones, the Air 3’s flight controls are splendidly intuitive and loaded with sensible automated capabilities. For occasion, you may faucet a button on the controller to take off, and one other to deliver the drone again from wherever it’s and land. You may also outline waypoints for absolutely automated flight, and set the Air 3 to trace a static or transferring topic, protecting its cameras educated on it always.
