I’ve had a Mini 4 Pro for a year, and really enjoy using it for landscape photography.
It would be good to have a drone that can withstand higher wind speeds, and have even better camera(s).
The Air 3s would be an obvious upgrade, but I have seen various posts about the quality of stills not being as good as hoped, also the gimbal doesn’t rotate which I do find useful on the Mini 4 Pro.
How are people finding the Air 3s for stills? Are the issues I’ve read about overblown?
Of course I could also look at the Mavic 3 Pro or even the Mavic 4 Pro.. though that’s quite the jump in price.. I assume that both of those are much better for stills than the Air 3s?
All this is purely hobby, not commercial. I also don’t have my A2cofc ( I could get it), but almost exclusively fly over open countryside or the sea.
I guess it depends on where you want to fly your drone and your intended subject matter.
When comparing the Air 3s with the Mavoc 3 Pro the latter has a larger 4/3 CMOS Hasselblad sensor and adjustable aperture lens, which provides superior image quality, especially in low light and for professional post-production.
Whilst the Mavic 3 Pro no doubt has the ability to create professional-grade stills and video, the Air 3S is still a major upgrade on the mini 4 Pro and is arguably a more well-rounded, portable, and value-focused drone.
If your using the drone as a hobby, I doubt you will be disappointed with the Air 3s. From January you will be able to use it in the UK in the same manner as your mini 4 Pro, whereas the Mavic 3 Pro is too heavy for this. However, if you exclusively use your drone in open countryside then this perhaps is less of a consideration.
I have an Air 3s and a mini 4 pro and am delighted with both TBH. However, I’ve been dabbling with the free pano mode in the Air 3s, and find it an amazing tool.
From my POV, the ability to fly over people in industrial, and recreational areas, as well as rural and coastal areas without restriction, is the overiding factor.
The mini 4 pro is still great, you could try if not all ready shoot in raw format with the mini 4 pro or play with nd filters. Might be less expensive way, Also if you are not printing the image you should be ok quality wise, but if you are printing you still should be able to get decent A3 prints, this also depends on the printer you are using. I have the mini 4 pro and i am tempted with the air 3s aswell, in my case, it is more to do with wind and the locations i fly near. All the best
Yep the mini 4 pro is very good, and I’m pretty happy with photos from it. I generally shoot AEB RAWs and stack & hdr merge and edit in LR. I don’t yet print, but am looking to next month, along with photos from my Fuji X-T5.
A new drone having multiple focal lengths is very appealing (not just crop zoom), as is a drone that’s usable in higher wind speeds.
A few recent drone pics I’ve taken, I just want more options available
Hi @Yezzer, I’m also primarily interested in landscape photography, rather than creating videos, and I have an Air 3S. What criticisms have you heard about stills from it? They say a lot of things, and some of them who are lauding the Mini 5 Pro are disappointed with the 3S - despite them having the same camera!
Of course, the main camera on the Air 3S is really a 12 MP pretending to be 50 MP one, whilst the Mavic 3 Pro does genuinely have a 20 MP one with a larger sensor. (They do share the same medium tele camera, though.) But would one notice any difference between the two wide cameras, if shot in raw, in half decent light, and printed at A3 size? I doubt it very much - and the same is possibly true for the Mini 4 Pro as well!
I’m not disappointed with the results from the 3S, and I love the free pano mode. That, the tele camera, and the greater wind resistance are the key benefits for me.
I did consider the Mavic, but it is older technology compared with the Air 3S, and I thought it likely to not be supported for as long, going forwards.
I am very happy with the prints up to A2 and have sold some to happy customers for £100 a go; I don’t print myself I get Giclée prints from Redcliffe of Bristol.
Looking at getting a new (to me) drone have been toying with Air 3 S or mini 5 pro however do either of these have variable aperture or do I need to stick to Mavic pro series for this feature?
