Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-07-18)

49

Photography and videography

The gimbal-mounted camera has a 24mm-

equivalent f/2.8 lens and exposure can be set

automatically or manually, but the aperture is

fi xed. Sensitivity can be set in the range ISO

100-6400 for stills or video, but with an

aperture of f/2.8 there’s not much need to

push the value up in normal fl ying conditions.

Although the sensor is a 12MP device,

there’sahigh-resolutionmodethatcreates

48MPimages.Ittakesfewsecondstocreate

theimages(youcancapturebothrawand

JPEGfiles),buttheresultsareworthit.

Whileyoucantakefullcontrolovertheflight

oftheMavicAir2,there’sacollectionof

easy-to-useQuickShotmodes(Dronie,Circle,

DJIhasimprovedjustabouteveryaspectof

theMavicAirfortheMavicAir2,givingthe

aircraftandthecontrolleramuchmore

robustfeel.Witha1/2-inchtypesensor,the

MavicAir 2 can’tmatchaDSLRor

mirrorless camera for image quality, but the

results are remarkably good and the

stabilisation is excellent. It’s also very easy to

fl y with the Quick Shot modes enabling even

novice pilots to shoot great videos. The only

downside is that the Mavic Air 2 won’t be

categorised under the incoming new

regulations (now set for 31 December

2020), so unless you

have an operational

permission, you will have

to fl y it at least 150m

away from residential,

commercial, industrial or

recreational areas.

Abuttononthecontrollerenablesyouto

switchtheMavicAir 2 betweenstillsand

movieshooting,whileanotherontherear

edge,whichfallsconvenientlyunderyour

rightindexfingeractsastheshutter

button.Overontheleftside,underyourleft

indexfinger,there’sacontrolwheelto

adjustthecameraanglevertically.Double-

pressingacustombuttoneitherre-centres

thegimbalorpointsthecameradirectly

downdependingupontheoptionselected

intheDJIFlyapp.Theappalsogives

controlovertheexposure,whitebalance

andcoloursettings.

Ourverdict

Camera

controls

Helix, Rocket, Boomerang and Asteroid) that

enable you to capture great-looking smooth

footage automatically. FocusTrack, which

comprises Active Track 3.0, Spotlight 2.0 and

Point of Interest (POI) 3.0 also help to keep your

subject in the frame and they work brilliantly.

Both the stills and video from the Mavic Air 2

show an improvement over the results from

the original Mavic Air. The 4K footage looks

great,buttheD-Cinelikeprofileisusefulifyou

wanttogradefootage.Meanwhile,thestills

haveagoodlevelofdetailalthoughthe

JPEGslookoversharpenedatclosequarters.

It’salsoimportanttokeepaneyeonthe

positionofthesunastherecanbesome

strongflareartefacts.

Recommended

Folding

Arms

LiketheoriginalMavic

Air,thearmsfoldawayto

maketheMavicAir 2

easiertotransport

Your smartphone clips onto the controller to

act as a viewfinder for the camera

© ANGELA NICHOLSON

Thanks to its larger sensor, the

Mavic Air 2 offers improved

image quality over the original

1/250sec at f/2.8, ISO 100