DJI Mini 3 Pro vs Air 2S In Depth Comparison

foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign what is Up Guys in this video we're going to be comparing the DJI Mini 3 Pro to the older and bigger air 2s to help you decide which drone is right for you and the reason we're comparing my Mini 3 Pro to the air 2s instead of to the older minis is because it would beat the older mini drones in basically every category and the Mini 3 Pro is actually priced closer to the air 2s than it is to the older mini drones so it makes more sense to compare these two and quick note DJI doesn't pay me to make these comparisons I bought both of these drones with my own money so there shouldn't be any bias I'm just giving you my honest thoughts after using both of these drones for several months so let's go right ahead and jump into the comparison first up we have price the Mini 3 Pro with the regular remote and fly more kit comes in about 350 dollars cheaper than the air 2s fly more combo with basically the same accessories and even if you upgrade the Mini 3 Pro to the djirc with the built-in screen and the longer flight time batteries it still comes in about 150 dollars cheaper than the air 2s so the Mini 3 Pro wins on price next up we have weight inside the Mini 3 Pro weighs in at just 249 grams or 8.8 ounces and the air 2s comes in over twice as heavy at 559 grams or 1.3 pounds the fact that the Mini 3 Pro is under 249 grams makes it so you have to deal with a lot less restrictions in most countries and here in the US you won't have to register it for recreational use although if you want to make money with your drone you will still have to register it and get part 107 license regardless of the weight both drones have a pretty similar footprint but the mini 3 Pro folds up to be much smaller than the air 2s making it much easier to fit into a backpack or even into a pocket and next we have image sensor size the Mini 3 pro has a 1 over 1.3 inch sensor whereas the air 2s has a 1 inch sensor which is about 60 percent larger than the Mini 3 Pro and that should give us cleaner images and better dynamic range but we're going to test these things just to make sure so point to the air 2s for a larger sensor size next up is the focal length of the cameras the camera on the mini 3 has a focal length of 24 millimeter whereas the Air 2 is slightly wider at 22 millimeter plus the air 2s has a cropped in 4k 60 mode that doesn't lose any quality and that is equivalent to a focal length of about 35 millimeter I really like having a wider field of view for sweeping Landscapes as well as a tighter option for accentuating Parallax so the air 2s wins this category for having more flexible focal length options now let's talk about the performance of these two drones first up flight time the Mini 3 Pro is rated at 34 minutes of flight time versus 31 minutes on the air 2s so the Mini 3 pro has a slight Advantage here plus you can get upgraded batteries for the Mini 3 that are rated at 47 minutes of flight time although that will put the weight of the drone over 250 grams now in actually using both drones I don't feel like the Mini 3 Pro with the standard batteries last much longer than the air 2s but I haven't done controlled tests so point the Mini 3 for a longer rated flight time and the option to get larger batteries next is top speed the air 2s claims 42 miles per hour in sport mode with 13 mile per hour is sent in decent speed while the Mini 3 Pro claims 35 miles per hour in sport mode with 11 miles per hour ascent and descent and in real life there is a pretty significant difference in how fast I could get from point A to point B with these drones next is wind resistance both of these drones claim to be able to handle winds up to 23 miles per hour but in real life I found that the Mini 3 struggles with high winds a lot more and it even made me worried that I might lose the Drone a couple of times whereas the air 2s with its higher weight and more powerful Motors handles wind a lot better and I've even flown it comfortably with the high wind warning showing in winds I'm pretty sure were higher than 23 miles per hour so again point to the air 2s next up is Maxim control range both drones are rated at seven and a half miles but when I tested them against each other in pretty challenging conditions I got a maximum range of 5 600 feet on the air 2s versus only 4 100 feet on the mini 3 Pro and the video feed from the Mini 3 Pro started to lag much sooner than the air 2s which was solid right up until I had almost lost connection now keep in mind that in better conditions you will get longer control range with both of these drones but Point goes to the air 2s for better range and Signal stability next is obstacle avoidance the Mini 3 has forward backward and downward obstacle avoidance while the air 2s has forward backward and downward as well as upward obstacle avoidance both of these drones do a great job avoiding obstacles but the air 2s seems to detect obstacles from further away and plan a route around them whereas the Mini 3 Pro doesn't seem to sense obstacles until it's closer and then sometimes it gets kind of hung up trying to figure out a way around them so the air 2s wins this category four more directions of obstacle avoidance and doing a smoother job getting around obstacles now as good as obstacle avoidance has gotten in recent drones it's not perfect I've crashed my air 2s multiple times including while testing the obstacle avoidance for this video so don't trust it too much and speaking of crashes next up is durability and build quality as I mentioned I've crashed the air 2s quite a few times sometimes pretty hard and it's never been damaged Beyond broken props now that's not to say it's unbreakable but the air 2s's durability has really impressed me especially compared to older drones like the original mavic now I haven't crashed the Mini 3 Pro yet but just from the build quality it doesn't feel quite as durable the air 2s has a metal bottom and internal frame and arms are made of heavy plastic whereas the Mini 3 Pro is made of pretty light plastic and it just doesn't feel quite as solid next test is active track both drones do a decent job following the subject but the air 2s does a much smoother job navigating around obstacles and reacting to the subject's movement whereas the Mini 3 Pro tends to get stuck and have to stop and think and then quickly try to catch up and then suddenly slow back down and it all just doesn't make a very smooth video in Spotlight mode both drones were able to switch from visual tracking to a GPS point when I flew too far away from the subject but the air 2s regained visual tracking once it came closer again whereas the Mini 3 Pro couldn't find me so all in all the air 2s seems to have a more robust tracking system next test is prop I measured the sound levels from a couple feet away and the Mini 3 Pro came in at around 50 decibels while the air 2s measured around 60 decibels and the difference is pretty noticeable when you're flying them so point to the Mini 3 Pro for being quieter next is controller options you can purchase the Mini 3 Pro with either the basic rcn1 remote or with the DJI RC with a built-in screen for 150 dollars more the air 2s is also compatible with the djirc but it can currently only be purchased with the basic RC so if you want the djirc you'll have to pay an extra 309 dollars to get one separately the air 2s is also compatible with the DJI RC Pro while the Mini 3 is not but the RC Pro costs more than either of these drones so to me it's not really a viable option on the other hand after initially being skeptical I'd say the DJI RC is one of the best upgrades you can get for just about any DJI drone because you don't have to hassle around with your phone each time you want to fly as well as having a brighter screen than most phones more controls on the remote and higher quality control troll sticks in my opinion the djirc is 100 worth it for either drones so point to the Mini 3 for letting you upgrade for half as much next up is slow motion both drones can shoot 120 frames per second at 1080p full HD but neither of them is good enough quality that I would actually end up using it but the mini 3 Pro is slightly less soft than their 2s next up is internal storage both of these drones do come with internal storage but the mini 3 Pro only has 1.2 gigabytes of storage whereas the air 2s has 8 gigabytes of internal storage neither is going to let you record for very long you're going to want to use SD cards in either drone but Point goes to the air 2s for letting you record for longer if you forget an SD card next we have gimbal modes the air 2s has just the normal modes that most DJI drones have but the mini 3 pro has a couple extra features first of all you can tilt the gimbal up 60 degrees above horizontal versus only 30 degrees on the air 2s which lets you see above the Drone and get shots that you couldn't get with other drones and it also keeps the camera from getting pushed down in sport mode and the Mini 3 also has a vertical shooting mode that lets you flip the camera 90 degrees so you can shoot vertical videos and vertical photo using the full width of the sensor which is a great feature if you create a lot of content for social media so point to the Mini 3 for adding new gimbal modes and speaking of the gimbal next up is gimbal stability both of these drones produce very smooth and stable footage but for whatever reason the Mini 3 Pro lets the Horizon drift during longer shots sometimes quite severely which becomes noticeable when you speed the footage up whereas the air 2s stays locked on Rock Solid so point to the air 2s for getting rid of the gimbal drift that affects many drones and speaking of the camera next up we have photos both drones take great photos the air 2s shoots 20 megapixel photos whereas the Mini 3 Pro can only do 12 megapixels 12 megapixels is about the lowest I can comfortably go and still have a high quality photo so I can't really crop into the photos from the Mini 3 Pro without losing detail whereas the 20 megapixels of the Air 2 s gives much more flexibility to adjust the composition in post and produces higher quality photos overall the Mini 3 Pro does have a 48 megapixel super resolution mode that splits up each pixel on the sensor but if you zoom in on the 48 megapixel photos it looks like it's almost digitally creating fake detail so I never really use that mode so point to the air 2s for having higher quality photos and now moving on to video tests which for me is one of the most important things first up we have resolution and frame rate the Mini 3 Pro maxes out at 4K at 60 frames per second while the air 2s can shoot 5.4 K video at 30 frames per second along with 4K up to 60 frames per second now both drones do have some limitations at 60 frames per second in 4k as I mentioned the air 2s has a significant crop in the 4k60 mode and the Mini 3 pro disables HDR at 60 frames per second but neither of these is real deal breaker for me since I rarely shoot drone video at 60 frames per second anyway and I end up speeding up drone shots more often than slowing down the 5.4 K option on the air 2s gives you significantly better sharpness and detail than the Mini 3 Pro and it lets you crop into the images in post without losing quality so point to the air 2s for higher resolution and more detail next up is log or flat color profile options the air 2s has a 10-bit d-log m color profile along with hybrid log gamma while the Mini 3 pro has a 10-bit desinalike flat color profile both flat color profiles give you great color grading flexibility and neither is necessarily better per se d-log m is a flatter more true log color profile that is a more professional feature and should be easier to match to other high-end cameras that shoot log but it can be harder to grade on the other hand the decent like on the mini 3 Pro isn't as flat but it still has great color flexibility it might not be quite as good as D log M but it is very close and in my experience it usually takes less work to get pleasing natural colors compared to d-log the air 2s also has a log assist option that will add contrast and saturation into the video feed on your phone while it records logged to the SD card which is a feature that's missing from the Mini 3 Pro so I would say that neither necessarily wins this category they each have their strengths and weaknesses next question is which drone has more pleasing and natural colors in both log and normal color profile after a quick basic grade of Vlog footage the colors from the Mini 3 Pro look much more cinematic whereas the colors from the air 2s aren't more raw and unprocessed you can get the same colors from the air 2s as with the Mini 3 Pro but it will take more work in post-processing so point to the Mini 3 Pro for better log colors and if you don't want to color grade your footage you just want to use the normal color profile which drone has better straight out of camera colors I don't love the straight out of camera colors from either drone the Mini 3 pro has somewhat of a greenish cast while the air 2s has somewhat of a magenta cast so neither is particularly accurate but I do like the colors from the air 2s a little bit better than the colors from the Mini 3 Pro moving on to dynamic range the Mini 3 Pro sensor has a dual gain HDR mode that is active up to 30 frames per second so I was curious how it would stack up against the largest sensor on the air 2s and after doing some controlled Studio tests I found that the dynamic range is almost identical between the two drones now in 4k60 without the dual gain HDR active the Mini 3 does take a hit to dynamic range but it's still reasonably close to the r2s so we'll call this one a tie and finally which drone does better in low light again with the air 2s having a larger sensor I expected it to do better than the Mini 3 Pro in low light but again the Mini 3 Pro surprised me with both drones set to ISO 1600 the Mini 3 Pro is much cleaner than the air 2s but it also has much less detail which means it is applying very heavy noise reduction in camera even though the air 2s footage is noisier straight out of the camera if you run some light post noise reduction on it you can get rid of most of the noise while also retaining far more detail than the Mini 3 Pro so I'd say it's a tie they both do very well in low light it just depends if you want cleaner straight out of camera footage or more detailed footage with some post processing so overall video quality which is better they're very similar but they each have their strengths and weaknesses it just depends on which features are most important to you but both drones can shoot high quality professional video so now for my final thoughts which drone is overall better according to the scoreboard the air 2s wins in more categories than the Mini 3 Pro but both are great drones and it depends on what your needs are and how you plan to use the Drone if I didn't have either drone and had to pick just one of them I would probably have to go with the air 2s because it's more powerful can fly faster has better signal range has a higher quality camera with more Pro features like true d-log and the ability to crop in for a second high quality focal length has more robust obstacle avoidance and active track and overall is a more robust pro quality drone now the Mini 3 Pro is an awesome drone as well it was my only drone for about a month during a trip to Europe this fall and it can produce beautiful cinematic footage I'm quite amazed with just how many high quality Pro features DJI has managed to cram into a drone that is under 249 grams if you travel a lot or live in a country where the 249 gram limit makes a big difference in where you can fly or just want a small light fun drone that shoots great quality video then the Mini 3 Pro is probably going to be the better option for you and no matter what drone you get if you don't have the right skills you won't be getting epic cinematic shots like what you see in the DJI commercials and all the YouTube videos and so that's why I put together my drone video course to take you beyond just owning a drone and knowing how to fly it to mastering all the skills of camera settings composition lighting editing color grading and so much more so you can create professional cinematic videos and you can check that out by going to flyingfilmakerpro.com or if you aren't ready to dive into the full course I have a completely free 45-minute drone filmmaking training where I share my top 10 secrets to creating cinematic drone videos and links to both are in the description and if you've gotten value out of this video you can click or tap the screen to watch another one of our videos and make sure to gently tap the like button subscribe to our Channel and turn on notifications so you don't miss future videos just like this as always feel free to let me know if you have any questions and we'll see you in the next video

Channel: Flying Filmmaker

Views: 99,837

Keywords: dji mini 3 pro, dji air 2s, mini 3 pro vs air 2s, mini 3 pro vs air 2s video quality, mini 3 pro vs air 2s photography, air 2s vs mini 3 pro, air2s vs mini 3 pro camera, air 2s vs mini 3 pro low light, air 2s vs mini 3 pro photography, air 2s vs mini 3 pro wind resistance, air 2s vs mini 3 pro noise, dji mini 3 versus dji air 2s comparison, air 2s vs mini 3 pro dynamic range, dji mini 3 pro vs air 2s active track, dji air 2s vs mini 3 pro obstacle avoidance

Id: GmiHIIHtchk

Length: 15min 51sec (951 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 12 2023