DJI FPV & Air 2S: Which One’s Right For You?
Updated: Aug 21, 2021
Let’s talk about drones. More specifically, two of the newest drones from DJI, the FPV and the Air 2S. The reason we’re pairing these two together is because they’re around the same price point, and if you’re in the market for a drone, you’re thinking: “Maybe I want to do some acrobatic shots, I want to do something really cool; should I go for the FPV or do I go for something a little bit more cinematic with the Air 2S?”
We’re gonna compare the footage and see which one might be right for you. So the first drone we’ll be talking about is the FPV. We’ve never really flown an FPV drone before, and it was a little nerve-wracking. It’s exciting, it’s fun because you get to put on the goggles and it feels like you’re playing a video game, but this can go up to 140 kilometers per hour or 87 miles per hour. We’re going to fly it in normal and sport mode and that’s about it.
In terms of video quality, you do get 4k 60 but this is a much smaller sensor than the one in the Air 2S. You get a total flight time of around 20 minutes in normal mode, and around 10 minutes in sport mode, so you’re going to need a few batteries. Unfortunately we only have one for this review, so this will be a one flight test.
In terms of design, this is a much more refined FPV drone than we’re used to seeing out there. It’s really well-built, the battery is quite hefty and it does make u p majority of the weight on this, but we love the design and the sound it makes when it starts up is crazy cool. Anyway, enough about the design, let’s fly this thing. Before we kick things off, you do need to know a little bit about the setup if you’ve never set this up before. Iit is a little convoluted; there is no FPV drone icon in the DJI Fly app, you have to sync via the goggles and you have to plug that into your phone, then the app will recognize the drone and then you can set it up from there. After that though, you’re pretty much reliant on the goggles because you’re not using the phone to fly it. You either use the normal controller or the hand controller which we don’t have with us, so just take note of that.
You can check out the video above for some footage, but both the video and photo quality of this is absolutely beautiful.
We tried out the sport mode, and for people with motion sickness, this mode could get a little bit dizzy. All the sensors are turned off and you’ll be able to make the drone fly really fast in sport mode.
There’s not a lot of flight time in this FPV, that’s why you want to get multiple batteries, but sport mode is a lot of fun, obviously.
There is obstacle avoidance, so even if you’re new to flying drones, you get some safety precautions built-in. The drone slows down when you are in normal mode and near trees and the likes. Normal mode is probably good enough for a lot of people out there, to be frank.
Let’s move on to the Air 2S. So, one of the attributes of the Air 2S of course is 5.4K footage at 30fps, that one inch sensor, and you can shoot in DLog so this is much more of a cinematographer’s drone. There’s also MasterShots so the drone will automatically take a series of shots to give you that cinematic look, and we’ll actually try that throughout this flight test here.
This drone is really all about that cinematic look. Although the Air 2S can shoot 5.4K footage, MasterShots seems to be filmed in 1080p and it’s a great option for newbies out there to put together a quick little edit.
Final thoughts on these two drones? The footage out of the Air 2S to us is breathtakingly beautiful and we’re just doing some basic shots. But having said that, the FPV is a lot of fun; the controls are very intuitive and it feels almost like you’re playing a video game.
DJI’s been doing some great things with their drone cameras as of late over the last couple of years, and this is sort of a culmination of all that into a very consumer-oriented device. For a lot of you out there, we think the Air 2S is going to be the more user-friendly one and of course, better battery life. If you want something that’s really going to give you some fun and some excitement, we would go for the FPV. Of course, with the FPV, you only get one battery with it. You do get the goggles and the controller but you’re gonna have to invest in getting a few extra batteries.
If you get the Fly More combo with the Air 2S, you’re gonna have a few of the batteries, but if you have a Mavic Air 2 or any other drone that has the same batteries, you can put them in this Air 2S with no issues at all.
All in all, these are great drones, but the average consumer might find themselves better suited to the Air 2S. The FPV is great for getting really cool shots but it does require more experience to handle.
Content by Bobby Tonelli