In-Depth DJI Mavic Air Camera side by side comparison Shootout! VS Phantom 4 Pro, Mavic Pro, Spark

[@raysena8679]

Best >real< side by side quality comparison of the air vs pro I have seen thus far, very insightful!

[@CineChopper]

Ray sena thanks! Feel free to share!

[@jaypers232]

This is the best breakdown i've come across. THANK YOU!

[@theemauuuri]

Man, I’ve been looking for a video that make this kind of VS for so long and you did it. Thanks! 🙏🏻 Please, could you make a deep review between P4P and Mavic Air?

[@TAPPChannel]

thanks for that.... Just replaced my P4 for P4P yesterday and was wondering if Mavic Air wasn't a better option... Looks like you just answered my question

[@Helikot]

Thanks for AIR comparison, it's beast what I found, good job!

[@thomastrautwein2054]

the best comparison for me so far. Everybody should take a look at one of the three drones.

[@TreneiroVlog]

The best test! Thanks a lot!

[@CineChopper]

Thanks for watching man!

[@samshanksamshank]

Fantastic video! Best video comparing the drones on KZbin. Thanks!

[@lpskywalk]

Perfect! Absolutely the best comparison out there!! Keep up the good work.

[@SteveSmith-tp4mn]

I own the P4P and it's just an amazing tool for photography and video, but I would love to have a simple and quick drone that I can pull out of the bag and get better or equal to photo and video quality. Unfortunately, there isn't one yet even though the Mavic Air is a very close comparison, I think I'll wait for the Mavic Pro 2 and pray that it gets a 1" sensor - 100 mbps along with aperture control. Albeit, Autel, DJI, Yuneec or whomever gets these specs first in a portable drone wins my purchase.

[@JeremyDoyle]

Thanks for the link to the test footage. I was really surprised how far you can push the color grade.

[@CineChopper]

I was impressed!

[@tonsukekoma5293]

Thanks millions for nice video. This is the best comparison of Air, Pro, P4P and Spark so far.

[@CineChopper]

Thanks!

[@calebstopa]

Thank you sooo much, Chris! I was wondering if I should get the Mavic Air and this has confirmed that it's worth investing in. Again thank you and thanks to Devin for letting you borrow his drone! Saw the Mavic Pro in bottom right corner of the sample downlode fotage Lol.

[@Infosmercial]

This is probably the most important video to watch when considering which drone to get. Range and battery are big pluses for the Mavic Pro, but I am thoroughly surprised how well the Mavic Air held its own against even the P4P! That and the Mavic Air image looks substantially better than the pro. One thing I noticed in the low light test though was that the mavic pro looked like it was focus hunting. I suspect that is why it may have looked muddier than it probably should have (it didn’t or couldn’t lock focus). I could be wrong about that though and the image may have in fact been that bad in low light. Cheers man! I’m subbed.

[@CineChopper]

Thanks for your comment! Yeah it was muddy because it doesn't have high enough bitrate.

[@johnb2572]

I dont have full faith in this video. Higher bitrate from same sensor size will not do wonders and sounds like more of a gimmick. Did you receive the drone from DJI?

[@Infosmercial]

Razvan C well it can render much better results, but not because of the sensor. What would make the difference would be the image processor where the video is actually compressed. This could have been switched out for a better processor or at the very least, tweak the existing one to support the new bitrate, which they would have to do. Either way, it’s very possible for an increase in quality that came along with the new bitrate, even with the same sensor.

[@johnb2572]

Either way they really have to do something about the Mavic Pro's bitrate. I think the Mavic Pro looks and feels better as a drone. Its downside is the bitrate and that noise/dynamic range.

[@Infosmercial]

Razvan C yeah I’ll certainly agree with that. It is certainly time for an update. I’m sure the MP 2 is gonna trounce the air and current MP when it’s released. Most likely have a one inch sensor I would imagine too.

[@3lementa1]

Finally a good comparison video! Couldn't decide between Air and Pro v1. I think the camera quality beats the range of the Pro for me. I will never go even half the maximum range for the Mavic Air and always where I can see it.

[@ReviewDetective]

Loved the video! Can't wait to get my hand on the mavic air and test it out

[@TayHam24]

Love it. Great video and great comparison. Keep up the great work man!

[@MrSteppp]

Cool thanx man! Nice work

[@stoimendimitrov]

oh boy, that was a very good comparison! Thanks for sharing! Do you happened to have any high hills around you (like the mountain sunset shot in this video), where you could maybe fly your Air round to check how the wifi signal performs when drone separated from remote by an obstacle? That'd be great to see. We all have see tons of tests with the pro and the phantom in similar cases, but no one has done one with the air yet. Just a suggestion!

[@mattefg720s]

Very good works, thanks a lot man

[@MagicBelieveInMagic]

Can you fly the Mavic Air without Internet Connection?

[@LouisLuzuka]

*subbed* wanted to ask because i'm not sure what to buy for my first drone but the phantom 4 is half the price of the mavic air and the spark is 1/3 of the price what should i do!?

[@carltontattoo]

Wow! Thank you so much for doing this! My air will be here in the morning. Can't wait!

[@Harish]

Joshua Carlton hey did you get it? I'm contemplating between getting a Pro or an Air and very confused on what to get. I will only fly about a mile away but do you think the remote and battery life are good? Should I get the pro or the air. Main thing I'm looking for is photo and video quality.

[@CineChopper]

Get the air if you want much better video quality.

[@timoeugster7809]

nice video... and thanks but "the mavic 4 pro" ?

[@nachtfuchs321]

Very cool comparison! Thanks for that! It really helped me and brought me one step further to a decision ;) Maybe you can also give us a few thoughts on the framerate on your next video about the mavic air? Sometimes it seems to me as if the clips which are shot at 4k 30fps are not so smooth (even when downloaded as original footage). I wonder whether the mavic air can produce smooth clips in 4k. I would appreciate to hear your thoughts to that. Thanks and greetings from Germany!

[@pranulistadas]

A really nice comparison! Thinking of getting into the drone world! But I've noticed you've mentioned how sensor size determines the color of the video. I do believe that for this bit depth is responsible and not the sensor size. It does get more light, not more colors. No? :) Might be quite confusing for others.

[@tomersi]

You're awesome! Thanks for doing this. Great vid!

[@2cool0]

hey does the air have the ability shoot raw videos? I forgot the name for it.

[@SK-ps1mo]

Did you shoot in raw ?? I only shoot in manual mode

[@modernweddingvideos3702]

I am considering buying a drone in the near future ... thanks for the comparison ... very good clip ... probably it will be Mavic Air;) It is light, handy and enough for me ... and you can always hire someone for more demanding productions :) Great movie, thanks.

[@EscobarTV45]

I would like to see them compared to a GoPro 6.

[@jsrkingrealestate]

Hey! Thank you very much for this video. I own a phantom 4 (Not the Pro) and a friend gave me a Mavic air for test. I found the mavic air to be not as sharp as the phantom 4. Not even close!!!

[@NDprototyping]

Great work, thanks! Also nice to see some Utah footage as I lived in SLC from 1993-2001. Comparison tests towards Antelope Island? Utah sunsets are legendary :)

[@mbnyus]

Wow, thank you so much..!! this is the best review in the net about these drones. The samples are a great tool also to compare IQ. Any chance that you can share some RAW files from these drones so we can compare and print to test the IQ? Already subscribed.

[@myfpv6813]

really nice comparsion, thx

[@hakonhalldorsson6673]

What sharpness setting did you use? I had that muddy washed out image on the Mavic Pro before I fixed the sharpness settings. They aren't going to behave the same between the platforms.

[@CineChopper]

Hákon Halldórsson they were all set at 0,0,0 across the board

[@hakonhalldorsson6673]

Ok, that's what I thought. Because of how the default Mavic Pro zero sharpness setting employs a rather substantial amount of noise reduction, you're not really comparing the optimum quality of each camera system but rather their default settings. It's a shame that the MP has such a bad default setting and a bigger shame that this is becoming the go-to video to compare each drones camera. It gives a skewed result and there are even current MP owners here feeling like their drones are sub par because of this. I could even see the MP had autofocus on in your nightshot as it was constantly trying to lock on, with brief moments where it was clear. It's very easy to get the image quality to be comparable to the Mavic Air. See here: mavicpilots.com/threads/setting-sharpness-to-1.14982/

[@mharro88]

Hákon Halldórsson the fact you have to change the mavic pro sharpness says enough. The bitrate is garbage

[@justuslm]

In the first test, the Mavic Pro image was slightly overexposed (and I mean that the building is brighter), I know you matched the setings, but since it has an f-stop of 2.2, unlike the Mavic Air and P4p with 2.8 and the Spark with 2.6), that doesn't really work, you should have set different shutter speeds to get equal exposure. This would have reduced the loss of information on the Spark by a tiny bit, but a lot on the Mavic Pro. Then, I am guessing your style was set to 0,0,0 for the sharpness and detail test, and I think by now we all know about the Mavic pro's terribel noise reduction that gets disabled at sharpness +1. Granted, this obviously increases noise in the image, but those bricks would have been visible. The blow-out test and the zoomed-in detail test suffer from the noise reduction, too, the bitrate is not the issue, here. For the night test, I am guessing the noise reduction did strike again to a certain point, but as Infosmercial pointed out, the autofocus seems to have trouble finding the focus (I've seen the same problem happen in night shots with my own Mavic). This is, of course, a valid negative point, but for the sake of comparing the cameras using manual focus to get it right would have been useful and fair. That would also have shown more noise, at least with noise reduction off. In colour correction, I am guessing the terrible noise reduction strikes again. Don't get this as "the Mavic Air is terrible, Pro is so much better" because quite obviously, bad noise reduction is a problem of its own, and turning it of by setting sharpness to +1 can result in noticeably high sharpness that you have to reduce in post and also introduces noise. But still, you kinda have to try both settings to make it fair (and account for different f-stops).

[@TelemetryOverlay]

Absolutely correct. I think the blow-out and colour correction tests would have shown differences based on the different bitrates, but in this case noise reduction is the culprit. It should have been turned off for the comparison, as most people know about the issue and don't film that way. (sharpness +1)

[@HaaaaCollectif]

Thank you a lot, I’m waiting this video about image quality! It’s the most import for me too :) | Nicolas

[@robbo580]

Hi love this channel! Quick question for you and the folks in the comments section.... which drone from DJI is the best in super high wind at the beach?? 🌴 🌴 thank you!

[@CineChopper]

illBeets mavic and p4p will do great. Mavic air would probably be good too.

[@robbo580]

Drone Pro Academy okay thanks.. makes sense the air might be small and slightly less stable. Also the new gimbal is a bit weird?

[@johnlohk2010]

from the video, i know the sharpness setting on mavic pro must be set to 0 and it is not good for comparison, although you want to compare all the drone in default setting. the noise reduction on mavic pro is terrible and makes all the footage blurry, try to compare with sharpness setting +1 on mavic pro to get a fair compare with mavic air. also, please compare the low light condition in a more professional way. if you know mavic pro well, you must know you have to use manual focus for mavic pro at night time shooting.

[@omega4711]

Exactly this! I immediately saw that too, which renders the whole comparison moot.

[@lebcedars2009]

I watched the video and got my answer at 4:30 ☺️. I want high res images photos, and not videos, so I guess I can go for the mavic air. Although I would have loved to see the spark in photo action and save myself a couple bucks

[@Glockodile]

On the videos that you graded what color profile did you use?

[@CineChopper]

Jordan Rathbone cinelike and 0 0 0

[@CAPTAINDRONE798]

Good examples. Of course some people will take these results to make a buying decision but they should realize that in the world of DJI Drones, the SPARK, MAVIC AIR and MAVIC PRO camera qualities are NOT night and day... they are pretty much all the same. The Phantom 4 Pro is on another level for good reason. For some reason your results appear to be significant yet they are minor. You're out of focus Mavic Pro video is concerning as that is not what should appear. Also your low light images do not appear correct (as per my tests)... The MAVIC AIR and MAVIC PRO have much grain in the image in low light at high ISO. On another note, from a camera perspective, the Mavic Pro actually has a higher quality lens than the Mavic Air, and the same sensor, yet a 40% less bit rate which is only applicable to Video (not Photo). In the world of videography such a bit rate difference should be negligible due to the video format DJI uses (we're not talking anything professional quality here). One thing to note is that the color saturation/contrast differences you see are due to DJI software/compression tuned for each lens/camera per drone which can make something appear pleasing to one person and not so pleasing to another. Of interest is that the Sparks bit rate is massively low, yet the output is very much acceptable to the masses, since the majority of DJI Drone owners have grown up in the cell phone point and shoot camera age. As you noted, if you're just posting video to KZbin, it really won't make much of a difference with any of these drones. You may wish to consider just a straight PHOTO test. This way the max sensor is used (in video the max sensor is not used) and you may see different conclusions (all depends on the day, the light, the subject, the colors, the settings).

[@GarrettDespainVlog]

Nice Vid Chris - great insight brotha.

[@ElGringoRojo]

Really great video. I now have a resource to give when people ask what drone to buy!Quick question: do you ever do a full compare with DJI and other brands?I started off using Yuneec but have switched to DJI. I don’t want to keep buying DJI just because I am comfortable with it. Gracias!

[@PilotSmart]

NICE COMPARE

[@thisishowwebingham]

Wow, super surprised by the Mavic Air’s performance. Had zero desire to pick one up (perfectly satisfied with my Mavic Pro), but now... 🤔

[@hakonhalldorsson6673]

Relax, their sharpness settings on the Mavic pro are clearly off. While it makes it look like a fair comparison to leave the settings the same, everyone knows the Mavic's sharpness setting behaves differently from the norm or P4. In reality, with the right settings, you're not going to see much difference.

[@omega4711]

It's sad the maker of this video doesn't acknowledge that... Probably because he shot all this beautiful scenery for nothing. I would be mad also :D

[@danielvilliers612]

People should understand that the higher bitrate makes a huge difference, it is just not in camera sharpness, 100 mbs is considered basic minimum for 4k.

[@Rinoo_CW]

Thank you so much for doing this!

[@CineChopper]

Thanks for watching!

[@RickysGadgets]

I own a phantom 4 didn't realise the mavic air was so good

[@wildwedding]

I'm picturing this black box in your kitchen that you go into when you vlog. Anyways, thanks for making this video!!

[@CineChopper]

Adam Grumbo lol.

[@ExtremeVideoStudio]

cool help! Thank you

[@redappletv222]

Nice

[@JaroslavJerryHyll]

How can you compare 1inch sensors with smaller in mavic air. Phantom 4 pro is on the different level then the othre 3. Little bit unfair.

[@timrenner9864]

I don't get why you would do a low-light test with the same ISO and compare on noise rather than exposure O_o

[@jd2086]

Turn off aa filter on the mavic pro, is something about the noise levels and compression on that sensor that the mavic pro needs that anti aliasing filter but it can clearly give you more sharp images, is clear that the air haves a huge advantage but you can avoid the mushier look on the mavic pro

[@ranini.c]

thanks a lot

[@DDL-n2u]

So I appreciate the work that went into this, but there is no way the Mavic Pro is this soft in comparison. Touch Focus may be the issue, but the spec alone isn’t matching the mountain images. I’ve seen insanely crisp MP video and this looks way off

[@ptt1404]

at 3:46 is long beach ?

[@CineChopper]

Phong HO Utah

[@AntonisAnastassiades]

Nice vid

[@o0RexOo]

It's really really nice to watch this kind of comparison. Thats what i am looking for. But I guess the night comparison was really unfair, you didn't focus right with the mavic, so of course the quality looks muddy and washed out. :D :D

[@CineChopper]

o0RexOo naw it focused eventually. It’s only at 60mbps on a small sensor so low light just isn’t its thing.

[@didg9566]

Interesting goal, but some of the footages are not done with the sames parameters, the blur on montains with mavic and especially during night footage are produce by a bad focusing, and surely not by bitrate differences...

[@CineChopper]

Didier Gr the mountains were all shot at the exact same moment, same settings. Sure it was focusing on the night time but it locked on, but was still muddy.

[@HennTech]

Mcvic Pro seems to be out of focus.

[@clifftotten7609]

The Mavic Pro uses a HORRIBLE and old Ambarella image processor. It has a terrible temporal noise reduction algorithm AND Amberella adds too WAY too much of it into the image. That noise reduction process is scrubbing out the details. Next, add this image to a lousy 60mbp/s Ambarella h.264 encoder and you have a nice recipe for split-pea soup. The Mavic's Air's noise reduction is far more sophisticated and efficient. This allows the Air to use LESS noise reduction and preserve more detail. Sending this to the 100mbp/s CODEC helps save allot more detail. DJI has stated that the Air uses the same Phantom 4 Pro image processor....which is spectacular and gets the most out of that tiny 1/2.3 sensor. Thank God DJI dumped that old Ambarella chipset. You will never see 60mbp/s UHD in a DJI drone ever again.

[@CineChopper]

Cliff Totten thanks for the insight! It was bad! I do see noise in the mavic air, more than the mavic Pro because everything is muddy haha.

[@clifftotten7609]

The signal to noise ratio on this Sony 1/2.3 sensor is the same for both Mavics. But,...the Air image processor is so MUCH better tuned. Yes, I will take more noise being let back in as long as I dont get the "smearing" artifacts. This is the classic "water color" painting side affect that we always talk about. I have done enough detailed noise reduction work to spot this 10 miles away. I have screwed up plenty of my own videos by doing this same Ambarella problem with bad noise sampling and settings that were too aggressive.. When you see "blocks" and heavy "bands" or "clusters" that drag along in a frame in patterns, that is your h.264 compression stressing out and macroblocking (pixel clustering and value averaging) itself to keep under the bitrate cap. This is a great video. You beat me to it! I'm doing one next week that is going to nerd out on this exact topic pretty hard. GR8 work!

[@TelemetryOverlay]

Set sharpness to +1 to disable noise reduction and it's collateral watercolour effect. Artificial sharpness is ugly but can be worked with in post, as opposed to muddyness.

[@hans_____]

NICE BOOTH

[@CineChopper]

hans thanks my office is so noisy, this does an amazing job.

[@gyrex]

You do realise that bitrate is only referring to video yeh? You keep mentioning the bitrate in stills which has no relevance. Stills are measured in resolution or pixel count.

[@StephaneP]

👍

[@fisher27]

3:53 Mavic 4 pro 😂

[@mattball7341]

Not a bad review, but not really as good as a camera comparison as some others. Captain Drone does a very good side by side camera review for video and photo. See this video demo for camera comparisons: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6Osi6SQoq6Hh6c So many things to consider here that were not. MA, Spark, MP and PP all have different focusing, especially the MP and with it's 1 2/3 sensor, it's not quite the point and shoot infinite focus you get with others. MP focus is tap to focus. You can focus on any subject you wish. Naturally, that can blur other areas like a DSLR would. MP infinite focus even ranges beyond the Air, or the Spark. MP manual focus has a very wide range compared to the others. Mavic Air and Spark mostly run on infinite focus where everything is always focused. That can be good or bad. Depends on what the video subject is doing and its distance to the MP. For simplicity, the Air is a great unit. If you need the more DSLR type features, then the MP and PP lines are going to be much better. People are rating one spec so high on the Air but they don't see the major differences in these products. Air stretches the images to compensate for the lens distortion. None on the MP, or PP. MP is a bit more touch in its optimal settings for video vs photos. The changes made for video do not always apply to photos. Same as a DSLR where exposures will be somewhat different among the modes. MP does this, Air and Spark do not. If you use drone for photography and video, then the most DSLR like option is the PP or MP. Air and Spark are more or less flying Point and Shoot cameras. A lot of people like that too. If you do real estate, cinematic, pro commercial work or would like to, then the Air or Spark are not as optimal with such "fixed" limitations. For 4K point and shoot video, Air is a great unit. Also consider many are not quite jumping on 4K video just yet. By time that comes around, new MP's and Air and PPro units will be running even higher bit rates. I just don't see where this demo illustrates the major differences in how MP achieves the best it can be. Tons of awesome noise free 4K video of MP on the web. Very good demos of camera comparisons in both the app use, comparisons of MP's nealy full step difference in aperture which can certainly accommodate for changes in br and overall performance. More videos of MP low light capability showing it doing 1000x better than this demo. It's not the MP users are sore about anything. New products replace old products, and newer ones should improve. The problem here is more MP users that know what they are doing are calling these demos like yours out because there is too much information not being identified. The comparisons are really bad, because imo some of the MP footage you have can be as bad as toy grade quads. I think that is what ticks off the MP groups. It is NOT a point and shoot drone, you have to work the settings like any pro non point and shoot camera. Coming from Inspires and PP series drones, you should have easily been aware of those differences in the others. OTOH, you said you are more a video guy, so I can see where you don't have the experience with the MP is most regards to its usage as other demos have illustrated. It's also really hard to gauge a video comparison of cameras when the drone is moving. Simple drift for that millisecond will yield very different results.

[@hotchi1566]

My poor Mavic Pro.

[@JamesRailProductions.]

“Magic 4 pro”

[@TheShakeyshane]

You start a review then drop one of the drones because someone can't operate it? Sure the Spark won't perform above a phantom but come on!... At least compare it if you advertise it as part of your review.

[@CineChopper]

TheShakeyshane hindsight is 20/20 for sure. At the time we only have a few minutes of good light left and the spark takes more one to coneect to the app via WiFi and our phones were starting to stop working because of the cold. Did the best with what I could do. Banks for watching.

[@TheShakeyshane]

Drone Pro Academy... fair enough, your review is good just hoped the spark would have a better chance as everyone seems to have forgotten it. I don't own a drone [yet] and all efforts into reviewing these items are appreciated.

[@pedrovespermann4599]

Mavic Pro was out of focus

[@Vasiliy_Zaytsev]

I think youve got some money from djis to promote Air. Cause it is wellknown that sharpness of Pros lenses much better than Air. Not fair comparison

[@terryandteresa]

I disagree and sense a hatred for the Mavic pro. Were you paid to promote the Air?

[@CineChopper]

I own the mavic pro and I was not paid to promote the air. I'm used to 100bit rate and REd, inspire 2 raw footage I have a hard time accepting anything less. The drone feels more solide but the picture quailty isnt what I feel it should be. Though for most people the mavic pro is perfect. I come from a video background so I expect more I guess.

[@sammadonline]

Come on man he is trying to compare 4 drones from the same company. Just because the one you liked didnt measure up you blatantly accused him of corruption. People like you undermine the hard work that goes into making these videos with your pointless non-constructive blame game.

[@mharro88]

Mavic pro users just salty