I'm not new to the drone world, but I am new to DJI. I started buildig my own years ago then got caught up in a new career and all my birds went into the closet. Technology has passed me by and I now want to re-enter the market.

I've just about decided on the Mavic Air over the Mavic Pro. I have the money for either, in fact money isn't really a factor in this decision. Portability is a huge factor, but both seem ultra portable.

What would I lose by going with the air over the pro?

Pros and cons pros and cons. Go for mavic2pro, prob got a longer life, read all reviews and comments in this forum.

I have both. And if I had to choose one I’d go with Pro. Longer flight time, stability with the wind seems a lot better, two real compasses which gives added advantage of avoiding a flyaway. There is a reason they named it Pro. Just my two cents.

I say go with the pro. It's not as loud as the air, the flight time is better, range is better and the list goes on.

But if money is not an issue, I say go with the Mavic 2 series.

Hi, we're sure that our valued  DJI Forum members would provide the recommendation that you may need with regard to these two drones. However, you could also check our drone comparison to check the differences between this Mavic Air and Mavic Pro. If you would like to check the comparison, please click the link. Thank you for your support.

https://www.dji.com/products/comparison-consumer-drones

Hello and good day Jeff Dillard. Thank you for reaching out. I will be posting a link where in you can compare the DJI Mavic Air to the DJI Mavic 2 Pro. This link will show the specifications and the difference between the 2 DJI Drones. Hope this can help you. Thank you.

https://www.dji.com/products/com ... ndsite&from=nav

dronepilotbob Posted at 10-5 04:17
I have both. And if I had to choose one I’d go with Pro. Longer flight time, stability with the wind seems a lot better, two real compasses which gives added advantage of avoiding a flyaway. There is a reason they named it Pro. Just my two cents.

How much more stable in wind would you say?

I think I'm sold on the Pro. If you were buying for the first time, what accessories/packages would you look at?

Jeff Dillard Posted at 10-5 07:36
How much more stable in wind would you say?

35-40km gusts for example I feel the air drift a bit, whereas Pro seems to hold its position steady.

Another thing I forgot to mention which for me would be a deal breaker. The remote control on the Pro is by far superior to the Air. You can honestly fly without a display with Pro.  And the range with the remote on the Pro kills my Air.

I chose the pro (1). Fly more combo.
Pretty cheap right now and awesome flight time.
(I know, you can buy more batteries, but they need to be swapped, so you need to fly back and loose even more time)
Better connection
More redundancy in the sensors
More flight modes (not my main reason, but nice to have)

What you loose with the Pro(1)
- Decent gimbal design
- 100MB bitrate (although i love the 2K output from the Pro1)

If you can afford it, the mavic 2 zoom would be my drone of choice right now.
All the good stuff that the Pro1 and the air have + the ability to zoom!

(of course there are other differences, but these are my main points)

Thank you for all of the responses. They have helped tremendously.

I work for the local news, doing geek stuff. When I shoot, I do so in 4K because my final product has to be 1080 and I love the room 4k gives me in editing. The majority of my stuff is feel good packages or entertainment packs. I need something for quick aerials if I have the time or need. It looks like the Mavic 2 Pro will grow with me as I do more complicated shots. I doubt I would gain anything from the zoom in my work. With 4K, I do my zooms in post

i'm assuming mavic pro (1st gen) vs Mavic air.    i would definitely suggest going Pro.   

air is good little drone but too compromised in reality.  some people pointing out Air has 100mbps video vs pro only having 60mbps however one commonly overlooked issue, the mavic air camera is known for having len distortion issues as well as weird image signal processing tendencies like "color eating".. in reality with cameras themselves i would rate them equally. both either usable for vlogging/youtube or total garbage depending what your wanting.

Wifi is too limiting, not just in distance but link quality too, i can break connection with a large tree between me and mavic air

battery life is better than spark but well short of a pro.realistically on a normal day..avg of 16 mins of flight time is pretty common as well the battery likes to draw faster and faster, once below 50% it starts dropping quicker then first half by a noticeable amount..battery feels undersized.

stability in wind, yes it is true that the air can fly faster into a wind vs the mavic pro, however it will bob and bounce around a whole lot more as well.

gimbal of mavic air maybe more protected by design but also more limited in range of movements meaning easy to hit the ends of the gimbal in aggressive chase flights or in large wind, specially sideways.

mavic air is definitely louder drone as well in flight thank to he pitch of audio the mavic air's props give off. this may seem like pointless point to make however, plenty of times where i rather have put up a mavic pro to draw less attention to me flying somewhere.  sometimes u wanna be as quiet as possible for animals, sometimes to avoid attention with crowds or people, sometimes just for your own sake not having a screaming drone buzzing around.  

Jeff Dillard Posted at 10-5 11:29
Thank you for all of the responses. They have helped tremendously.

I work for the local news, doing geek stuff. When I shoot, I do so in 4K because my final product has to be 1080 and I love the room 4k gives me in editing. The majority of my stuff is feel good packages or entertainment packs. I need something for quick aerials if I have the time or need. It looks like the Mavic 2 Pro will grow with me as I do more complicated shots. I doubt I would gain anything from the zoom in my work. With 4K, I do my zooms in post

Having used and owned both and still using them, for me it’s about what you want, mavic air has newer technology is much better in Rth flying into the wind , it’s footage to me anyways always looks sharper better also photos to my eye look far superior, mavic pro has one thing that puts it ahead of MA and that’s ocusync transmission, and it will give better signal at further distance, but if you want to be able to see where your drone is (keep within the law) then signal won’t be a problem.
Mavic air is much more portable, but lacks in battery life although you will find 17 minutes in the sky is more than enough .
My choice would be mavic air .