Hello guys & gals!

I've owned 2 DJI Phantom 4 Pro over the last 4 years shooting various projects (weddings, small business/church projects, etc...) and have loved the image quality at 4k. I decided to decommission my phantoms and upgrade to something new. Image quality is king and beats out every other feature, balanced with costs of course

Because of that, I decided it would either be the Mavic 2 Pro ro the Air 2S because they seem to have the better cameras, 1" sensors and high Mbps recording abilities, much like the Phantom 4 Pro. Ultimately, I decided on the Air 2S.

To my surprise, I can see the video image quality might be just a a bit less on stationary or slowly moving shots, but very much so on pan shots. The pan shots turn out pretty blurry compared to the Phantom.

I've tried the following (all in bright sunlight):

• Using DLOG vs normal (ensuring most data)
• H.264 vs H.265 (compression algorithms)
• Low vs high vs very high frame rates and shutter speeds to get things as sharp as possible with as little motion blur as possible
• Recording in 1920x1080 vs 4k vs 5.4 k (to record as much detail as possible), 1920x1080 looked really bad even in bright light.
  

My memory cards are the ones I always use with my phantom (64 GB SanDisk Extreme U3) and have no glitches in the video.

No matter what I do, it's pretty blurry on the pan, even in a slow pan.

Has anyone else gone from the Phantom 4 Pro to the Air 2S and experienced anything different or is this the same for everyone? Perhaps I'm simply missing something or even have a defective new drone?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chuck

Hello there Chuck. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. May we know if the said DJI Air 2S is on its latest firmware and kindly please post a short sample video showing the said issue for us to see and assist you further? Thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 6-14 20:04
Hello there Chuck. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. May we know if the said DJI Air 2S is on its latest firmware and kindly please post a short sample video showing the said issue for us to see and assist you further? Thank you.

Sure, here's a quick video comparing the two. They're not the same shot but hopefully should present a very good sampling of the issue.

Both videos were captured on similar weather days and while the distance is a bit different (again not the same shot), the objects in the Phantom shot are much further away and the Phantom pan is much quicker which arguably should mean less clarity, however, it's much sharper.

Video Comparison: https://youtu.be/FvdVqFtfV2U

Chuck M Posted at 6-15 04:59
Sure, here's a quick video comparing the two. They're not the same shot but hopefully should present a very good sampling of the issue.

Both videos were captured on similar weather days and while the distance is a bit different (again not the same shot), the objects in the Phantom shot are much further away and the Phantom pan is much quicker which arguably should mean less clarity, however, it's much sharper.

Oh, also forgot to mention, this is a brand new unit with the latest upgrades.

To me it looked as though the air 2s video is still in motion with the still, while the Pro 4 looks stopped already. This would cause a big difference.

Silly question, are you using ND filters on the Air2s? if not and its sunny your going to have a super high shutter speed thats going to give you this effect.  If i'm teaching you to suck eggs no then sorry just a silly suggestion.

videoeditman Posted at 6-15 06:09
To me it looked as though the air 2s video is still in motion with the still, while the Pro 4 looks stopped already. This would cause a big difference.

That's incorrect, both were in the course of panning. Thanks though!

Captain Dangerous Posted at 6-15 06:25
Silly question, are you using ND filters on the Air2s? if not and its sunny your going to have a super high shutter speed thats going to give you this effect.  If i'm teaching you to suck eggs no then sorry just a silly suggestion.

Definitely not silly

Yes, I had the 32 that came with the Air S2 on. I know they're not the highest grade but they seem to be clear enough when still so I'm guessing they don't have any great affect on the overall clarity.
On the phantom, I believe I had the 8.

Also, I have tried many a different shutter speeds (and frame rates) to try for a more clear picture to no avail

Chuck M Posted at 6-15 07:46
Definitely not silly

Yes, I had the 32 that came with the Air S2 on. I know they're not the highest grade but they seem to be clear enough when still so I'm guessing they don't have any great affect on the overall clarity.

ND filters will cause motion blur. Remove the filter, adjust levels otherwise and then compare!

videoeditman Posted at 6-15 09:53
ND filters will cause motion blur. Remove the filter, adjust levels otherwise and then compare!

Hello videoeditman! Yeah, I know they do, but generally not to a great degree depending on the filters you use. If I crack the shutter speed up on the Air 2S to an INSANE degree, I can get a clearer picture, but I've never done that on my Phantom 4 Pro to this degree and I always use manual settings.

I suppose I'll have to accept this as the way the Air works compared to the Phantom and I do want to keep the Air. I'll play with it some more to see what all I can do, some really nice features on the drone.

Thanks for your help!

Chuck M Posted at 6-15 10:33
Hello videoeditman! Yeah, I know they do, but generally not to a great degree depending on the filters you use. If I crack the shutter speed up on the Air 2S to an INSANE degree, I can get a clearer picture, but I've never done that on my Phantom 4 Pro to this degree and I always use manual settings.

I suppose I'll have to accept this as the way the Air works compared to the Phantom and I do want to keep the Air. I'll play with it some more to see what all I can do, some really nice features on the drone.

See if an ND 8 from the kit reduces the blur effect. I haven't used them myself yet so I don't know if it is cheap ND's or as the filter level increases so does the blur?

videoeditman Posted at 6-15 12:39
See if an ND 8 from the kit reduces the blur effect. I haven't used them myself yet so I don't know if it is cheap ND's or as the filter level increases so does the blur?

I actually went to the clear lens and jacked the shutter speed WAY up and it finally matched (more or less) the clarity of the Phantom 4 Pro. So I'll attribute it to shutter speed but it seems it has to be higher on the Air 2S to match that on a lower shutter speed for the Phantom.

I can't do a side by side of exact settings, as I don't currently have a functional Phantom but hope to have one soon and then I'll compare. If I find anything interesting, I'll post.

As long as I can get close to what I'm used to seeing in the Phantom, I'm good!

Thanks again!

Chuck M Posted at 6-15 12:53
I actually went to the clear lens and jacked the shutter speed WAY up and it finally matched (more or less) the clarity of the Phantom 4 Pro. So I'll attribute it to shutter speed but it seems it has to be higher on the Air 2S to match that on a lower shutter speed for the Phantom.

I can't do a side by side of exact settings, as I don't currently have a functional Phantom but hope to have one soon and then I'll compare. If I find anything interesting, I'll post.

You made the right choice btw on getting an Air2S instead of the 3 year old M2P. Video on the M2P is pixel-binned (it doesn't use the entire 1 inch sensor on video) so video looks way too soft and blurry. The Air2S has very, very close to Phantom 4 Pro video and photo quality. Which makes me excited for the successor to the Mavic 2 Pro!

DaanFPV Posted at 6-15 14:30
You made the right choice btw on getting an Air2S instead of the 3 year old M2P. Video on the M2P is pixel-binned (it doesn't use the entire 1 inch sensor on video) so video looks way too soft and blurry. The Air2S has very, very close to Phantom 4 Pro video and photo quality. Which makes me excited for the successor to the Mavic 2 Pro!

Yeah, I'm super excited to see what this drone is capable of!