Name: What the uninspiring DJI Air 3 says about the drone industry
Uploaded: 2025-01-13T10:25:26.000Z
Duration: 10 min 20 s
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We've gotten so many DJI drones in the last couple of years, and here's the new one.

It has two cameras, 46 minutes of battery life, improved connectivity and range with OcuSync 4, new controller, brand new design, and I don't mean to be a downer, but did any of this make you just jump out of your chair, like really, really excited?

And listen, before you all get mad at me for this hot take, let's set the record straight.

It's reliable, it's versatile, it is a well-capable drone that improves on a few things from its predecessor, arguably takes away a few things too, but above all, it got me thinking about one thing.

Is DJI getting boring, and if it is, who's going to make drones exciting again?

So, this is my review of the Air 3, but also, this is your status update on drones.

And yes, it is summer, it is hot, I'm summer very beautiful, and spoilers, this video might make you envious.

With the Air 3, DJI decided to shrink the main sensor, but in return gave us a second 3x telephoto lens.

At first I was worried about the smaller sensor, but looking back at my clips, I think that was premature.

This footage looks great, both lenses are capable of capturing stunning imagery.

I do prefer taking photos with a larger sensor, I think it just handles noise better, but I think this compromise was worth it.

The aperture on the main lens is larger than it was on the Air 2S, enabling better low-light performance, which is a big plus.

And if you use the Mini 3 Pro, it'll all look very similar, same sensor size, same aperture as well.

The second lens is a 70mm lens, with a smaller aperture than the lens below it.

It is the same telephoto lens that you'll find on the Mavic 3 Pro that came out not too long ago.

And it is a fine lens, but at maximum aperture of 2.8, footage can sometimes look a little bit flat.

There is some, but not a lot of separation between the foreground and the background.

That said, I'll take a dedicated lens over digitally punching in any day of the week.

Just for the compression alone, and the parallax effect, it's pretty great.

I love the ability to use the second lens, but that lens also sort of complicates things.

As someone who desperately wants to extract the best possible image quality from any of my cameras, I'm aiming to film at the lowest ISO possible, with proper shutter speeds as well.

But using an ND filter on the Air 3 is a little bit of a hassle.

So, once you switch from a main lens with 1.7 aperture to the 2.8 tele lens, you'll likely have to raise ISO, which will increase the noise introduced, and just the whole process becomes a bit cumbersome and kind of takes away from that flying experience.

I know, I know, it is a small complaint, but smaller sensors do struggle with degrading image quality at higher ISO.

What I'd love to see is for some aftermarket ND filters which can compensate for that aperture difference, and make switching between the two lenses seamless.

Or even better, something we've all been wanting for a long time, built-in ND filters.

And outside of just talking about these two lenses, there really isn't much else to discuss here.

There's a new controller, and it's just as good as the last one, except it has visible antennas which I don't mind.

OcuSync is upgraded, but I haven't had any major connection issues in years, and the range is rated for 20km or 12 miles, but in practice and legally, you will not be able to take advantage of that.

Battery life is pretty much the same across the whole lineup now, which is to say that it's about 45 minutes, give or take, and I think that's fair, that's great.

All in all, a great drone, but without any new or fresh ideas really.

Okay, so let's just go quickly through a list of things that I noticed while reviewing this drone.

D-Log is gone, and it is replaced by something called D-Log M, also something that was introduced recently.

It is not as flat, and it doesn't hold as much dynamic range as the traditional D-Log.

This drone is not too loud, it's rated at 81 decibels, and it has like a nice bassy propeller sound, big fan of that.

Slow motion is up to 100 frames per second, and there's no cropping here.

Batteries and charging dock are substantially larger.

There's night mode here, it basically allows you to film at higher ISO, slower shutter speeds, and it does apply some in-noise camera reduction, and it really kind of lowers the darker parts of the image.

And we can end the video here, but let's talk about why I feel like things are slowing down.

Back in the heady days of 2018, DJI was the clear market dominator, nearly untouchable.

Even before the Mavic 2 Pro, their Phantom line has made DJI synonymous with the word drone.

And it was an exciting time, drones were getting better and smaller, DJI grew, bought Hasselblad, the legendary camera company to improve its color science.

There were competitors out there like Unique, 3DR, Verizon, Skyward.

Some made it, most collapsed, some never even shipped a product.

The point is, the whole market just felt alive.

No one was playing at the level of DJI, and the Mavic 2 Pro, to me, kind of proved that.

But the success of the Mavic 2 Pro had a side effect, DJI kind of got complacent.

Its market share was a commanding 74% in 2018, but it started to drop, and DJI reacted.

It took a page from Apple's playbook and started releasing the S and SE and Pro and Cine models at a much faster refresh cycle.

I mean, just look at this product list now, just in the last couple of years we had more than 10 drones.

There have never been more options for someone who wants a new DJI drone, but making that choice is actually not easy.

Even if you look at the Air 3 and the Mini 3 Pro, right?

The main cameras are pretty much the same.

No, seriously, can you actually tell which drone filmed the shot here?

But now you have to choose between wanting an extra lens on the Air 3 or the ability to film vertically on the Mini 3, and I just wish we could have both.

So there is a dedicated vertical mode, which basically works as if you were filming open gate, meaning it's a bit taller than just cropping horizontal footage vertically, but it is not full 4K, it is capped at 2.7K, but I think it looks pretty good, it'll work in a pinch.

But for all those shiny new models, really the only new features are the lenses.

And don't get me wrong, I like the new lenses, but it feels like DJI is setting us up for years of quick product refreshes and small, frankly, sort of boring updates.

There's not a whole lot to get excited about this phone.

And in the meantime, a few other companies have been doing genuinely exciting things.

When the Skydio R1 came out, it showcased some truly mind-blowing tech.

Its autonomous flying was hard to comprehend.

We all assumed that DJI would work overtime to match Skydio's tech, but that hasn't happened yet.

DJI's own autonomous flying has been largely unchanged.

Meanwhile, Autel was the first to offer large apertures in drones, something drone pilots have been asking for for a long time.

They were the first ones to have an 8K drone, although some argue that 8K wasn't actually great and I haven't had a chance to test it myself, but you know, resolution is not everything.

DJI's own OcuSync used to be the differentiating factor between DJI and other companies, and with the Air 3, DJI introduced OcuSync 4, but in my testing, again, it's just as good as OcuSync 3 and OcuSync 3 Plus.

But this year at CES, Autel went a step further and introduced something that is a mesh networking system, meaning that each Autel drone can basically extend the range and piggyback off of each other to create super reliable and longer connectivity.

In theory, it can even help you get connection around obstacles like buildings and such.

A different approach to DJI's OcuSync, and I haven't tested it, but I'm really intrigued by it.

So yeah, that's the Air 3, still a very capable drone that does many things right, but also just a little bit uninspiring.

At $1549 with the brand new controller, it slots in nicely between the Mini and the expensive Mavic 3s.

But now it's up to you, the viewer, to decide if you want a sub-250 gram drone with vertical filming like the Mini, and a lot more portable drone too, or do you want the stellar Micro 4 third sensor on the Mavic 3, or if you really need that second tele lens.

And listen, lastly, DJI, big fan, but you're kind of killing me with these incremental changes.

No pun intended there, but let's see something new.

Some built-in NDs, maybe a backwards camera, what about 360 cameras?

It's about time for something new and exciting.

Thank you for watching, curious if you agree, are we reaching a point of just diminishing returns?