DJI Air 2S - Using Active Track While Skiing (Good or Bad Idea?)

[@crosses101]

This review is gold. I've never seen this drone tested in this way before. Great job.

[@Stone1108]

With the incline and height maintaining issue I can only think it’s the sensors struggling with the light blown out on the snow, lack of contrast. Great test, thanks for the trouble that you went to. About to set out on my drone journey with this model, mind you snow isn’t going to be much of an issue here in the UK! 👏

[@garrett_RL]

Ah, what a journey you're about to embark on! Enjoy it - glad you appreciated the review.

[@paranormalskeptic3893]

Skydio 2 is the drone you need for those solo ski shots.

[@djolic94]

Great video! This is what plenty of ppl are searching for - how good drones are when it comes to tracking while skiing. For me i was interested how mini 3 pro would do it, but couldn't find something similar. Now seeing even more powerful drone not being able to accomplish what i have imagined - putting it in active track mode and just going for skiing, i know the answer. Keep doing great job! Looking for more videos!

[@fuori_piste]

Perfect video for what I was looking for. Thank you!

[@garrett_RL]

glad this video is still of use, 2 years later!

[@fuori_piste]

@@garrett_RL looking for a relatively cheaper drone for some ski tour shots. Wonderful review. Thanks again

[@forestweston5055]

Active Track only works well (for active sports) if you use it in “spotlight” mode and pilot the drone manually while the camera tracks the subject.

[@WayNorthDrones]

Great looking video, very nicely done drone shots from up above. Keep up the flying, it looks good. Thank you for sharing and have a good day

[@bryanschneller4190]

Awesome, love you climbing the tree!

[@dave20thmay]

In ski boots. Must be a nightmare.

[@targadave]

Great review. I’ve owned a Mavic Pro, a Staaker and a Skydio2. Self tracking over water for kitefoiling and wingfoiling has been my specific niche use, though I’ve done some typical overland tracking. Active track (object recognition) has always had significant limitations even with the Skydio2. Precision beacon (gps) tracking is really one of the best methods for subject following and Skydio2 has a beacon option for that reason. The only problem is that the Skydio2 beacon is still a bit limited and tends to compete with the visual object tracking function resulting in some wonky tracking behavior. Skiing with significant altitude change and lots of tall trees has big challenges. Something like kiteboarding doesn’t involve much altitude change but does require a very reliable auto-return-to-home function since you can’t bring a controller with you and even if you could you be challenged to use it in rough windy conditions with a full wetsuit. My crude 4 yr old Staaker drone (no optical avoidance at all) has been the best overwater tracking tracking drone I’ve owned to date. Hoping the Mavic 3 with Active track5 might be worthy for my niche use……(?)

[@erbartlett]

what have you found for kiting and windfoiling? im using it for kiting and trying to figure out a solution.

[@targadave]

@@erbartlett I think Skydio2 + with the latest updates is probably the best solution for kiteboarding, kitefoiling, or in my case wing foiling. My earlier version of Skydio2 still had some issues. Of course I’m saying this based on what I read since I don’t own the latest Skydio 2+ drone right now. I’d really have to try it out again to see how it works. Not in the budget right at the moment…..

[@erbartlett]

@@targadave i understand the budget constraints :) kiting and drones are not cheap. what issues did you run into with the skydio you have and kiting?

[@Paner835]

Good idea, as long as you do not crash it on any of the trees 😄 Brilliant footage - well done!

[@AussieAdventurer]

Hmmm 🤔 Great video to get an understanding of the Air2s active track / obstacle avoidance capabilities…. This was one of the main factors of deciding on buying this Drone, as I wanted to do the same thing but in the dessert walking around detecting etc… Now I am disappointed and have to go back to see what happens in the future. The Mini 3 Pro was the other choice but as the obstacle avoidance in it, lacks the additional sensor the Air2s has ….so for now I haven’t bought either 🤷‍♂️ ( Skydo is not on my list due to much poorer image quality and some other stuff) So i guess I either buy the Mini 3 Pro for the time being and see how this technology develops over the next year or so. Thank you for helping me on this subject- amazingly I watched a video of the Air 2s with a guy walking through a scrubby forrest area and obstacle avoidance and tracking performs excellent there …which makes me wonder why not in your video 🤔 However the altitude thing is something interesting and DJI should be made aware..maybe they can do a firmware update to correct that issue?? Just a few thoughts …

[@SportNut1]

Thank you for the video! I am thinking of getting a drone for shooting ski footage and this is great great info. I guess the technology is just not there yet and for now we just have to stick with a 360 camera on a stick

[@jasonjahnkeinla]

Hey!! 😍 Merry Christmas 🎁 to you & the family ❤️ I love my Air2s.

[@malikcarpenter579]

skydio 2 is what you need for active track

[@MontagoDK]

You should try making waypoints down the mountain filming upwards and then following it..

[@coloradomallcrawlers]

Thanks man for covering this! I wanted to bring skiing content back into my channel so this is what I needed. Skydio2 is the way for solo skiing I think.

[@harmonyaquarian9210]

Excellent video, as a ballet skier, I was considering taking my Air 2S for a slide, after my bionic knees settle in. You saved me some time, and here in NZ, all the skiing is above the tree line (weird, huh.) I did crash once, night flying, because you have to fly line of sight, and when I thought my little friend was facing me, I was incorrect. Going right was actually going left, etc. Should have shut off the sideways flight mode. A few dings in the props, will work as spares.

[@garrett_RL]

Happy I could help! also, I'm glad your drone survived :)

[@DRTYRiceguy]

Awesome video! Glad you made this because I am thinking of getting a drone specifically for ski videography. I liked the test

[@garrett_RL]

Thank you! I'm glad you say that, I was hoping that this review would be useful for people such as yourself.

[@federikus2928]

I do active track videos while skiing too but without trees, usually it works very well

[@coolgiga]

Great Video! 🥂🍾🇬🇪⛷

[@dyamimc]

Solid video dude, like A+ quality. Just got mine and it’s nice seeing it’s tracking capabilities until I’m able to get out and do some myself

[@garrett_RL]

Thanks boss! glad the video was helpful for you.

[@jacquesbonifay]

Great Video. I have actually reached the same conclusion with Mavic Air 2 and Mavic 2 pro Zoom. The Mavic 2 is given, to work between -10°C and +40°C and does work below 0°C. The spec of Mavic 2 S is 0°C to 40°C. Did it work fine bellow 0°C ? Skydio seam better on the snow .. but I never tried

[@Grizzwald720]

I can't wait for the day one of these can follow me on a full speed tree run. Until then we'll just have to get sweet videos of our buddies. Great video testing out exactly what I was wondering about.

[@garrett_RL]

glad I could help!

[@mcunhabr]

Skydio 2 is the right drone for this

[@jaybird1012]

i agree

[@lp9280]

Great review... and kind of sad, because I was thinking to get the drone just specifically for snowboarding and it seems tracking technology is not there yet when it comes to following the slope to really allow completely automated following. I reckon for snowboarding it would be even worse as it requires turning more often on steeper bits... on top of that I would not be comfortable leaving it to follow me in the ski resort (it should follow closer to avoid tangling into something or somebody), I definitely not in position to have mountain for myself. As well it would be cool if they could do tracking from the front, where drone basically get's away from you when you come closer to it (which obviously will require some combination of following when drone inevitably predicts the turn wrong, or it has to get set with planned route before hand). Anyhow... it is getting there just maybe need to wait few more years. That said it seems like it is not really long before we have this available. It seems drones just needs to integrate few existing technologies (so no real development) and it will be good: 1. they need a tag (like the ones photographers use for weddings to help with autofocus) and that should take care of not losing the target. I mean sure AI could be developed further, but why spend time developing AI when simple and existing tag technology could be used. It is not expensive, it has like 100m range and just needs to be integrated. 2. laser range finder for altitude (or some sort of device so that drone can follow the slope)... I tend to think this already exist in some commercial DJI drones where they could maintain altitude or track altitude, meaning perhaps having 2 laser finders - one for ground clearance so that they can stay set-altitude above the ground and don't need to stop themselves with proximity warnings and secondly (but optionally) have rangefinder at target... so they can stay consistent distance from target they are tracking (I guess it could be done without second laser as I am sure if focusing tag is properly implemented distance could be worked out from the tag as it is known anyway for autofocus to work).

[@SuperFeist]

Thanks - till now I was regretting that my Mini2 doesn't have active track, thought that would be nice for skiing. But given the overall weak perfomance of it's bigger brother here, I don't seem to miss out much.

[@garrett_RL]

Totally! I am excited to test the lock-on feature in combination with manually adjusting altitude - I think that will make for some awesome ski footage. But as far as fully automated ski tracking - you're definitely right, not missing out on anything. Thanks for watching :)

[@GaryP747]

You need to double up to the Mavic 3 for skiing! 😂

[@eNeVeFamily]

The 2S is a beast...

[@GaryP747]

Great review & thanks for sharing, you need all direction detection for skiing obviously. Lots of fishermen will make a bid for your Air 2S to put toward your Mavik 3! Peace Bro. >👍

[@markf9915]

Great job, saved me buying a drone that wouldn't follow me skiing, Thanks

[@DB_-jj7wd]

Active track on this drone is a definite improvement on the Mavic Air 2 - But you have definitely exposed one of it’s weaknesses - it’s the Altitude change that I doesn’t like -The speed and direction changes just happen to occur at the time of descent - So it’s more coincidence that it stops rather than it being a contributing factor - Great video and you’ve some balls to climb that tree and retrieve your drone - Keep up the great work 👍😊

[@garrett_RL]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and of course, for watching! The way I thought about it in the moment was that if someone came up to me and offered me $1,300 to climb the tree, I would probably do it. The only difference was that that I'd already spent that money in this real life scenario :)

[@lukemckee9772]

Great video saw this after I bought one, the active track isn't the greatest but it's cool

[@javierpons2646]

Garrett I know is old and maybe this question came already, did you had apas on bypass /stop or hover? because seeing the video to me look that the drone was not properly set . When being on bypass should solve some issues.i used it for snowboarding ,the mavic air 2 and now the air 2s no problems on this regard. I know when climbing the height issue might come but bypass solves a bit , you can also encounter the same issue if you fly free without follow modes and you climb, the drones always tends to go down that's air dynamics nothing to do with this model, if a drone speed up in a slope always will go down. Nice content though!

[@osmanertorer]

excellent work

[@garrett_RL]

Thanks for the visit!

[@thomasshelbyy5260]

Hi one question and what about a recording on a hill with full of people ? Is the track be able track only you for example by the colors of your clothes or it is usefull only when you are alone ... you know what i mean.

[@garrett_RL]

Hi! Unfortunately I can't answer that too well. All of the resorts near me don't allow drones OR are in a national park... which don't allow drones. I'll let you know tho if I encounter this scenario in the back country!

[@thomasshelbyy5260]

@@garrett_RL ok thx - and there is something like software blocking using a location ? Like if i am somewhere where i cannot record coz its dont allowed there by state i cannot record in this place ? Hm i must read about this before i buy my own drone coz thats a problem. Maybe the best for me will be the selfie stick with stabilizer and friend who will record me for example...

[@garrett_RL]

@@thomasshelbyy5260 Depends! Airports may not let your drone take off, but you'd likely be able to take off at ski resorts. I don't recommend it, because if the hill doesn't allow drones they will at the least pull your pass for the day or at worst ban you from the hill. Make sure you investigate the rules and laws around any area before you fly, professionally or recreationally! I recommend you check out Air Map. Their app allows you to clearly see what federal/state restrictions you may encounter.

[@Solomevich]

У меня такие же проблемы, спасибо за видео

[@dynamicfpv]

Yep Skydio 2. I have the Air2S and I never use the active track. It's just not good enough for the cost of losing it.

[@Jonathantuba]

I had my Air 2S stuck up in a tree the first time I tried out the tracking, in my case following my car. It has got its limitations, like only track through trees at slow speed like walking pace. Otherwise very risky. Good to know about can’t follow on steep incline - I did not know that

[@BalintGulyas]

Nice save mate😜😜👍 lucky you could recover it😜

[@garrett_RL]

Tell me about it :o

[@8CHULEE]

👍👍

[@LutClassiChfi]

Aren't you supposed to use it under subzero temperature?

[@TJ-po9ol]

Try active track 5.0 when you can, interested if it does better

[@jeffhudson1744]

there are different apps like drone link that the drone follows controller through gps and on objects such as yourself.

[@dvdza]

Sweet video!. How tall is the mountain and drone height?

[@garrett_RL]

I think Oliver Peak is just short of 9,000 feet! Can't recall precisely how high the drone was flying. Thanks for watching :)

[@bigT591]

Very interesting - where did you put the controller & smartphone when you skied down, can it be in your backpack or do you have to have the app open?

[@garrett_RL]

great question - I tried strapping it to my waist with my waist strap but that would inevitably jostle the joysticks when I would ski. I then put it in my pack while I skied, with the caveat that I couldn't quickly assume control if the drone threatened to crash.

[@bigT591]

​@@garrett_RL Thank you for the fast reply - seems to be the tricky part when skiing. Can you turn the controller & smartphone off/put it in a mode where the drone is not affected by any controller movement? Even in the backpack I still see a big risk of unintended movement of joysticks.

[@garrett_RL]

@@bigT591 I forgot to mention - I'd unscrew the joysticks when I stashed the controller in my bag! I haven't tested turning off the controller while flying. I'm fairly certain that if a DJI drone loses signal from the controller for more than 3 seconds, the drone will then return to the home point. If you're looking for a completely autonomous drone, Skydio offers drone that would be closer to what you're looking for.

[@bernardgombault]

Very good video!

[@Outdoorsyshoresy]

Gotta take it out on the water for water skiing or boating

[@EdgarSnowSki]

Nice review. I think best is to use it as flying tripod.

[@timmerjared]

what temp would you be comfortable using the Air 2S? below freezing?

[@garrett_RL]

hmmm... good question! Definitely between 25-32 degrees Fahrenheit - I haven't flow it in subzero conditions (yet) but I certainly plan to!

[@timmerjared]

@@garrett_RL right on. Just picked one up for skiing mt Baker. Thanks for the quick response brotha. Subbed 🤙🏽

[@yinshantang]

I tried this with both Mavic 2 Pro and Air 2. M2P tracked me fine but not the Air 2. It seemed Air 2 wouldn't do down the hill and stooped far away while I was skiing down. Haven't tried my new Air 2S

[@garrett_RL]

Oh, word! maybe I invested in the wrong drone... the size is still a super important factor for me. Thanks for the info!

[@BalintGulyas]

Let's try with Air 2s pls. Interesting. ( I'm never ever use the follow mode but interesting..)

[@hellomihai]

What you want is a skydio

[@santiagoarango5164]

Try zooming in while using active track.

[@Tyler-sv4sw]

Can this track in front of you? Going towards the drone?

[@garrett_RL]

Unfortunately (or fortunately) it cannot - it only follows (trace mode) or flies out to the side of you (parallel mode). Parallel mode is less reliable as the drone lacks obstacle avoidance sensors on the sides.

[@Tyler-sv4sw]

@@garrett_RL now there is the 3

[@liveloose]

Great stuff! So glad I found this video. I've been this close 👌🏼to pulling the trigger on the Air 2S for a while now but 95% of what I'd use it for would be solo shooting downhill mountain biking and I've been wondering how well the tracking would do at speed. This has pretty much answered that question, so I think I'll give it a miss for now and invest in some more lenses for my camera instead. Thanks man!

[@garrett_RL]

very glad I could help :)

[@wormrose01]

If your drone gets stuck in a tree - and no one is around to see it - do you still lose your drone? 🙂

[@Drone_All]

Air 2 would work

[@hellomihai]

Activetrack works ok on track but not parallel

[@MrPolleke1949]

DJI did a wonderful job on the obstacle avoidance feature.🤬

[@garrett_RL]

the lack of side sensors is ... killer.

[@bluegizmo1983]

DJI drones just are not drones to use Active Tracking without an operator constantly watching it. Really, there are NO drones truly capable of this, not even the Skydio drones! Skydio loves to advertise their hands free tracking, but there are TONS of crash videos of Skydio drones where they shouldn't have crashed, and Skydio is horrible with honoring warranty claims.

[@TheProCut17]

it is disappointing active track won't handle altitude adjustments

[@garrett_RL]

agreed - I'm going to conduct some more tests! One comment has hypothesized that it was the snow interfering with the downward facing sensor - I don't think this is the case, as the downward sensors are a mix of stereo vision/infrared and ultrasonic.... BUT I'm happy for the excuse to do more tests :)

[@patfish3291]

But wait!... I think this bumpy elevation problem and crazy following has really something to do with the snow and its lack of texture. My guess it can't detect the distance with the vision sensors and gets overruled time to time by the down facing infrared sensors. On a mountain bike (without this fast turns) + textured environment it works way better!: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmXGmWZ7oNN-Z6c It sounds like you are also a moutainbiker ... I would love to see you try :-)

[@garrett_RL]

Hmmm - I bet you're right! I wouldn't be surprised if the ultra-reflective surface (snow) makes the sensors freak out a little big. Thanks for sharing that video, I'll have to scout out some MTB trails that are open, the ones I live near are all in pretty dense forests, and after this test, I'm reluctant to trust this drone in tight trees again :) Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!