The Air 2 is out of my price range for now. So between the Mavic Pro and the Mavic Air what is the better buy? I'm torn between the two after watching many reviews of both...

I like that the Pro is much quieter. Longer battery life also. But in terms of pics/video quality what is better?

Hi from the UK, I have no experience of the mavic air but my mavic Pro that I have had for 18 months has never had any issues at all, it has been rock solid, the go 4 app has only crashed 4 times in the time I have had the drone. It was bought from a friends son in law. I don't try to fly to the other side of Yorkshire and not in what I think is a bit windy. Maybe I have been lucky but I don't read a lot of problem's with the original mavic Pro.The models that have come after (if you read and believe everything on here) do not seem as reliable and predictable.
Anyway I'm happy with it. Keep safe.

So between the Mavic Pro and the Mavic Air what is the better buy?
Which is better, a Mustang or a Mack truck?
It depends of what you want to use it for.

Labroides Posted at 8-4 22:35
So between the Mavic Pro and the Mavic Air what is the better buy?
Which is better, a Mustang or a Mack truck?
It depends of what you want to use it for.

I’m going to take photos and videos. It’s not apples and oranges, they are similar drones with pros and cons with each. I just want to make sure I am right in choosing a pro over an air. Why would you buy one over the other? That is what I want to know.

Hello there. Thank you for reaching out and for choosing DJI. I hope that you will get the best information from our fellow DJI co pilots who have purchased the DJI Mavic Pro and the DJI Mavic Air and can give out there own insight on both drones. In addition, I will post a link where in you can compare both the DJI Mavic Pro to the DJI Mavic Air and to other DJI consumer drones as well ( https://www.dji.com/products/com ... ndsite&from=nav ). Thank you and please stay safe always.

It really depends on what you are using them for. I understand for photos
and videos, but that's not really saying much. Fun videos are much different
than commercial. So ask yourself what am I going to use this for and make
your decision then.

Absolutely - it depends entirely on your needs.

Woe Posted at 8-5 06:01
It really depends on what you are using them for. I understand for photos
and videos, but that's not really saying much. Fun videos are much different
than commercial. So ask yourself what am I going to use this for and make

Not commercial but professional looking images and footage. From what I have seen the footage and photos are very similar so i'm a bit confused as to what you are suggesting. Is the air not capable of professional looking footage? I have a Mavic Mini so I want to take a step up and get something with RAW photo capability and 4k video.

22340179 Posted at 8-5 13:21
Not commercial but professional looking images and footage. From what I have seen the footage and photos are very similar so i'm a bit confused as to what you are suggesting. Is the air not capable of professional looking footage? I have a Mavic Mini so I want to take a step up and get something with RAW photo capability and 4k video.

The air is definitely capable of professional looking footage. Both the pro and the air take 12 megapixel photos, and they have the same size sensor. The mavic are has a much higher bitrate (MA = 100 mbps MP =60 mbps) hope this helps

as a person who had both of them, I can say Mavic Air and Pro are both great drones (which definitely doesn't help you decide which one to buy) but each of them has its pros and cons.
Let me sum it up quickly:

Mavic Air:
PROS
- 100 MBit video (60MBit video on Mavic Pro)
- weight and dimensions (450 grams for Mavic Air and about 750 grams for Mavic Pro)
- camera is nicely protected by drone body and provides stable footage (on Mavic Pro the camera is actually very open and the horizon tends to be not exactly level in some cases).
- Air has backwards obstacle avoidance (Mavic Pro doesn't)
- has few more quickshot modes like asteroid and boomerang
- it's a newer product so the accessories and parts will be easier to find

CONS
- much lower flight time even with brand new battery - longest flight I had with Air was around 18 minutes until battery reached 25%. After 40-50 charges, the battery average flight time dropped to 15-16 minutes.
- pretty frequent Remote Controller calibration issues (mostly solvable just by sending to DJI for service or replacement).
- compass calibration issue - some Mavic Air units tend to ask for compass calibration before almost each flight which is caused by badly shielded compass unit inside drone (only solvable by sending to DJI for service or replacement).
- it's definitely not the quietest drone on the market. This can be partially solved by purchasing aftermarket propellers from Master Airscrew.
- connection between drone and remote is pretty much average. Air uses proportional WiFi connection which isn't so bad if no obstacles like tree branches or anything gets between drone and remote controller. If it does, the signal stability goes down pretty quickly.
- noisy images and video on low light conditions - caused partially by tiny camera sensor or by camera software.
- batteries tend to get swollen pretty frequently after 40-50 charge cycles when not treated properly.

Mavic Pro:
PROS:
- much longer flight time than Air (on Mavic Pro Platinum I've had a few flights easily over 23 minutes)
- definitely more stable connection between drone and remote - Mavic Pro uses DJI OcuSync system which is far more stable than proportional WiFi used by Air.
- definitely quieter flight than Mavic Air even with stock propellers. On Mavic Pro it's possible to get original low noise propellers that make the drone even quieter. Mavic Pro Platinum also has upgraded ESCs together with low noise propellers coming in stock, so it's even a bit quieter. Look for noise comparison on youtube.
- camera has autofocus and gimbal has bigger operating range and supports rotating the image by 90 degrees to take full resolution portrait shots without cropping from standard 4:3 format.
- Mavic Pro supports the DJI Goggles (VR headset) natively without any cable connection to the controller (everything works wirelessly and provides up to 1080p image transmission).
- remote controller has its own LCD display showing flight telemetry and other info in case the phone gets disconnected during flight.
- more flight modes like Terrain Follow, Course lock, Home lock, Waypoints
- definitely less noise in low light conditions even with same sensor size as the Air has.

CONS:
- camera seems not to be fixed so well to the drone body compared to Mavic Air and in sport mode in rough windy conditions, it tends to shake sometimes
- video offers a lower bitrate of 60MBit/s which can lack some details in difficult scenes compared to Mavic Air. However, overall video quality difference between Pro and Air is barely noticeable.
- sometimes the side USB port of remote controller causes connection issues so the bottom full size USB-A is recommended for use.
- pretty strong lens flare when the sun is low. Sometimes it's pretty hard to work with it but when you know how to shoot, it can actually be an advantage as well.

That's all I can think out right now. Ask anything if you want.

cjr888 Posted at 8-5 21:37
as a person who had both of them, I can say Mavic Air and Pro are both great drones (which definitely doesn't help you decide which one to buy) but each of them has its pros and cons.
Let me sum it up quickly:

Both are great drones, one thing you missed in your list is the MA has intrrnal storage which i find realy useful. I personally haven't had any range problems with the MA and have flowen behind lots of obstacles and it doesn't really  affect the signal, but again it realy depends where you live.

cjr888 Posted at 8-5 21:37
as a person who had both of them, I can say Mavic Air and Pro are both great drones (which definitely doesn't help you decide which one to buy) but each of them has its pros and cons.
Let me sum it up quickly:

Thanks a lot for your detailed post.

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-9 01:12
I would suggest saving up for the Mavic Air 2 but, if that isn't an option, here are my thoughts on Mavic Pro vs. Mavic Air...

In terms of features, the Mavic Air has some intelligent flight modes not available on the Mavic Pro.  Personally, I never use them.  The Air adds rear obstacle avoidance sensors.  Again, I don't use OA.  I'll give the Air a point each for speed & durability in a crash.

Yes, I think I will sell my mini and put the money towards an air 2. Thanks for your post.