Do you want a full-fledged drone with a professional camera without much drone experience? Then take a look at the DJI Air 2S.
The rules for flying drones have become stricter in recent years. For example, you need an A1 drone certificate if you want to fly a drone that weighs more than 250 g and is equipped with a camera. With a weight of 595 g, the DJI Air 2S also falls under this rule.
Fortunately, obtaining the drone certificate is not very difficult or expensive, around a hundred euros, and you can do it online. This is nothing compared to the price of this drone, at the end of October 2022 around € 950.
DJI Air 2S camera giant leap forward
The most attractive thing about the DJI Air 2S is its amazingly large sensor. This one is 1″ in size. That’s bigger than even the best smartphones and means you’re assured of a high-quality image. In this case, that means an image resolution of 5400 pixels at 30 frames per second (20 megapixels), which even exceeds 4K cinema-quality images. The disadvantage is that the aperture of 1/2.8 can only be changed manually, so not in the air.
Fast drone with 18 km range
The flight time of the DJI Air 2S is in practice just under 30 minutes. In this time you can fly with this fast drone, with a maximum speed of 68 km/h, up to 12 km before you get out of range of the transmitter. In total you can cover a maximum of 18 km or 5 km with this drone.
Fortunately, the drone comes with two extra batteries, so you can use the device for an hour and a half. Do you opt for the Fly More Combo (€300 extra)? Then you get three extra batteries, quite a few spare propellers, a company that you, your ND filters and a charging hub. Handy and highly recommended if you want to continue working professionally.
Useful functions, even for beginners
The DJI Air 2S is equipped with useful functions such as Active Track 4.0. Do you turn it on? Then the drone automatically follows you. A useful feature for vloggers who want to film themselves while walking or cycling. Another useful feature is the FPV mode. The camera gimbal then behaves like an airplane, causing the horizon to tilt when the drone makes a turn.
Are you not that handy with drones yet? Then you will be very happy with APAS 4.0, with which the dream avoids obstacles. This makes the chance of landing in, for example, a tree or in the water a lot smaller.
Finally, SmartPhoto and MasterShot offer the novice photographer a good way to get good or fast photos without any photography experience.
Recurring features of previous models are the Cinematic mode and the Sport mode, with which you can film slow, smooth panoramic images or action images.
Conclusion DJI Air 2S
This is an ideal device, especially for novice drone pilots. The cameras are very good and offer all kinds of useful functions to make beautiful pictures, even if you have little photography or film experience. This also applies to the functions that make it easier to control the drone.
The DJI Air 2S is in itself well suited for professional use. More experienced professional users may turn to a more expensive, more powerful device that is more tailored to their needs.