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DJI Air 3

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JT26

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I didn’t know this was coming out, I guess it’s about time but what a disappointing announcement. Using what looks like the same 1/1.3 inch 48mp sensor as the Mini 3 Pro! Which is the drone I currently have.

A real shame it’s not a 1 inch sensor at least. The Mini 3 pro replaced my Mavic 2 Pro and I’m not overly happy with it. My 2 Pro was a gem, really well built, good images etc. The new mini 3 pro isn’t the best in terms of image quality. At 100% it’s a little shaky and has some artifacts in high contrast. Thankfully Adobe AI de noise or Dxo fixes this somewhat. The built quality sucks, though, but to be expected given the weight and price.

Id love a higher quality air 3 but not with that same sensor. Real deal breaker for me
 
I'm kind of in the same boat as you. Still using my Mavic 2 Pro, but on the lookout for a replacement given it is not looking likely to be made Remote-ID compliant in the USA.

I'd really hoped the wide camera would have the 1" sensor from the previous model.

Mini 3 Pro has also been on my list, but hearing mixed things about the image quality. It sounds like the 12MP / pseudo-48MP images are just OK, vs those 20MP sensors!

I do take some video, which I think looks great from most of these drones, but really looking for good photo quality.

Lastly--why does DJI refuse to add that little joystick back from the M2P controller? I always use that thing for aperture and EV adjustments!
 
Just watched a review and I am thinking about adding to my mini 3 pro.

Two cameras. Still a quad layered sensor, but a real optical focal length increase. Not digital zoom, which is garbage. Just cropping.

But 360 degrees of obstacle avoidance.

Faster and more stable on windy days.

Longer range using 6 antennas on drone and 4 on controller. 12.4 mile.

Light on bottom for landing in dark .

Longer standard battery 46 minutes. I have to buy the 90 dollar batteries for my mini 3 pro to get that.

New charger allows pulling power from lower charged batteries to charge up highest one. Too cool.

Looks more robust.

Haven't used portrait camera on my MP 3 pro yet, but I would prefer over cropping the landscape . Still it is rated well. I believe I would have held off on buying my MP3 pro had I known this was coming out.

--
A purist at heart to protect the art
 
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Yes I agree. I can confirm though, it is a real 48 megapixel sensor, its not fakery. Unfortunately a lot of the tech reviewers have no clue about sensors and photography... And get confused. Its a native 48mp sensor, its just not amazing IQ due to 1. The tiny photo sites. And 2. The lack of AI / computational imaging like an iPhone etc.

But it's there. Just not the best.

However the new DJI Controller with the screen I can confirm is amazing. And the setup speed of the Mini 3 Pro is so fast compared to the M2Pro.

What I want. Is a 30 ish megapixel 1 or 4/3 inch sensor in the size of the Air 3.

Here is a full size Mini 3 Pro with the AI noise reduction in adobe, really aint bad. Just never satisfied :)



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John Spaar said:
Just watched a review and I am thinking about adding to my mini 3 pro.

Two cameras. Still a quad layered sensor, but a real optical focal length increase. Not digital zoom, which is garbage. Just cropping.

But 360 degrees of obstacle avoidance.

Faster and more stable on windy days.

Longer range using 6 antennas on drone and 4 on controller. 12.4 mile.

Light on bottom for landing in dark .

Longer standard battery 46 minutes. I have to buy the 90 dollar batteries for my mini 3 pro to get that.

New charger allows pulling power from lower charged batteries to charge up highest one. Too cool.

Looks more robust.

Haven't used portrait camera on my MP 3 pro yet, but I would prefer over cropping the landscape . Still it is rated well. I believe I would have held off on buying my MP3 pro had I known this was coming out.
Click to expand...
The zoom it cool if you use it yes, I don't think I ever would. It's certainly a nice drone, I just can't spend that money to get the same image quality. I am more tempted by the Mavic 3 Classic I think. I have the controller so could just buy the drone.

Might look into it...

I think if there was an auto panorama function with RAW file saving I would go for it.
 
Nice photo. Did use use a ND filtering?

I recently bought a variable ND for my long exposure shots.

It is my understanding that they are layering 4 12 MP shots over a single sensor to get the equivalent of 48 MP.

--
A purist at heart to protect the art
 
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Agreed, even the M2P only output panoramas in JPG, which is frustrating! Not to hard to combine in photoshop, but the convenience of having it done on the drone is nice.
 
JT26 said:
I didn’t know this was coming out, I guess it’s about time but what a disappointing announcement. Using what looks like the same 1/1.3 inch 48mp sensor as the Mini 3 Pro! Which is the drone I currently have.

A real shame it’s not a 1 inch sensor at least. The Mini 3 pro replaced my Mavic 2 Pro and I’m not overly happy with it. My 2 Pro was a gem, really well built, good images etc. The new mini 3 pro isn’t the best in terms of image quality. At 100% it’s a little shaky and has some artifacts in high contrast. Thankfully Adobe AI de noise or Dxo fixes this somewhat. The built quality sucks, though, but to be expected given the weight and price.

Id love a higher quality air 3 but not with that same sensor. Real deal breaker for me
Click to expand...
 
Looks like the way points were off for the nighttime repeat flight and it resulted in a crash
 
Thanks for your image! Yah, the jury is still out for me!
 
John Spaar said:
Nice photo. Did use use a ND filtering?

I recently bought a variable ND for my long exposure shots.

It is my understanding that they are layering 4 12 MP shots over a single sensor to get the equivalent of 48 MP.
Click to expand...
my understanding is the opposite: it is a real 48mp sensor, but usually it uses binning to shoot 12mp image (4 pixels binned into 1), unless you tell it to shoot in 48mp mode. Same as many modern phones have like 108mp sensors that shoot 12mp images (9 pixels binned) unless you tell them otherwise.

I'd be surprised if achieving 48mp by shooting 4 12mp images would look ok given the vibrations of a drone...

I may be wrong of course
 
Lol. When you ask me a question let me answer.
nothing like fake dof. Surely useless in a drone.

I want computational raw images. Like the iPhone pro raw. Or Google’s Smart raw or something like that.

Combines a tonne of images with different exposures. Long exposes like a second for noise reduction and outputs a raw image that contains data in shadows highlights and well balanced.

Iphones pro raw is exceptional. Limited but it’s really good
 
JT26 said:
I didn’t know this was coming out, I guess it’s about time but what a disappointing announcement. Using what looks like the same 1/1.3 inch 48mp sensor as the Mini 3 Pro! Which is the drone I currently have.

A real shame it’s not a 1 inch sensor at least. The Mini 3 pro replaced my Mavic 2 Pro and I’m not overly happy with it. My 2 Pro was a gem, really well built, good images etc. The new mini 3 pro isn’t the best in terms of image quality. At 100% it’s a little shaky and has some artifacts in high contrast. Thankfully Adobe AI de noise or Dxo fixes this somewhat. The built quality sucks, though, but to be expected given the weight and price.

Id love a higher quality air 3 but not with that same sensor. Real deal breaker for me
Click to expand...
I guess the 1'' sensor will be in a future Air 3 S?

The drone body looks great: full obstacle avoidance, powerful, long battery life. I am very intrigued by the possibilities offered by the 70mm lens (same reason why I lust after a Mavic 3 Pro). But yes I was hoping for a 1'' sensor as well.

I was waiting for this announcement to decide but, if you care for image quality I think Mavic 3 is the way to go. Consider that we'd be going over 250g in any case...

Incidentally I may be interested in upgrading the remote from RC to RC 2 if the reviews will show better transmission performance. The brighter screen is a plus.
 
Yes that is right. It’s a 48mo sensor but using a different rgb structure. It means when using 12 mp you get good noise performance but when using 48 it’s not quite as good as a 48mp sensor with bayer rgb. As it has to interpolate more
 
I think it’s a prosumer’ video drone really. Yes I may look at the mavic 3 again.
 
The crucial difference in the Air 3 is that it has a short telephoto lens with the same sensor and quality as the wide angle. It actually looks to be the most useful short telephoto aside from the Inspire.

Not everyone wants a short telephoto, but if you do, this looks very interesting.

I want it to capture human subjects without the distortion of wide angle, the ability to limit the background, and without the distraction and safety considerations of flying very close to human subjects.
 
I did have a tought that 70mm at height will product some great panoramic images at around 40-50mm equiv. However I dont really want to end up with 100mp plus images.

Looks a superb drone to be honest, just a damn shame its not 1 inch.

I am going to wait for the 24mp Mavic 4...
 
Good for inspection purposes too. Keeps you further back from obstacles. Plus omi directional obstacle avoidance. Yes
 
Dilemma for me is: buy the Air 3 now or wait for the Air 3S with 1” sensor? If the Air 2 and 2S are any indication…
 
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