DJI AIR 3 FOR REAL ESTATE

When we first started our business and getting into aerial photography and video 5 years ago, the drone landscape was just taking off. Starting with a Mavic Air 2 and then an Air2s we thought it could not get any better for real estate media. The Air2s featured a full 1 inch sensor, 20 mp photos and 5.4k video. On a drone that size was amazing and simply still is. But then we crashed it! 5 years in without an accident and we were forced to upgrade same day as we had multiple appointments scheduled in the same week. Which leads to us to now owning and operating the Air3.

A sad day for our Air2s. We since have sent it to DJI and had it repaired to use and keep as a backup.

FORWARD AND A BIT OF BACKWARDS

We felt compelled to write this for anyone who might have been on the fence like us about using the Air3 in real estate media creation (or any media creation really). Before we proceed I will get this out of the way now. This thing is fantastic for video and produces excellent photos as well, but there are some things to know going into it.

On paper the DJI Air 3 promises to be a huge improvement over the Air2 and Air2s. We were slightly concerned about that being true in the optics department learning it features a 1 1/3 inch sensor. Going down from a 1-inch sensor seems counter intuitive, but to our surprise this is a step in the right direction. Both the 24mm and 70mm produce excellent images through and through.

Whatever DJI has done here with its new stacked sensor is some sort of magic that trades blow’s with the more expensive Mavic 3 pro. We always opt out of using our Mavic 3 Classic for real estate work as it is much larger, and more of a liability to use on these type of jobs due to its replacement cost. The Air 3 fits the middle ground nicely for being smaller, easier to maneuver all while still trading blows with its more expensive brother.

Having the addition of the 70mm telephoto lens is a game changer for being able to get in nice and tight on a property or subject without having to get in close and attract attention. The fact that we are getting features like this on affordable drones is a blessing. The 70mm is the exact same lens found on the Mavic 3 Pro. I feel like from here on out the Air series will need to stick with this configuration instead of reverting back to just a single set up. Hoping they can accomplish this when it moves to a 1 inch sensor. Also to note each lens shoots in RAW and D-LOGM. This makes workflow so much easier when you mix and match different shots from each.

If we had to gripe on a small thing about this is each lens saves whatever your last setting was when you used it. So if you are shooting auto on the 24mm and manual on the 70mm, when you switch those settings will still be present, which we sort of found to be tedious after we just dialed something in only to switch and have to dial in again. Another problem to be mindful is the 70 is an f2.8 and the 24 is an f1.7, so that adds another layer of more things to dial in. There are several companies now making split ND Filters to offset this. We use the Freewell all day kit, but they are not split so we have to adjust to switching each focal length.

MEGAPIXELS SCHMEGAPIXELS

Another thing to note on the photography side of things is the Air3 is a 12 megapixel camera with a 48 megapixel mode using pixel binning. While 12 megapixels is more than enough for stuff going on social media or Zillow. The 48 megapixel mode will give you that extra boost in crispness if you feel the 12mp is not cutting it for you. We did notice when shooting 48 there at times were some odd reflection and color shifts going on with surfaces such as solar panels and anything reflective so keep that in mind. All and all the photos that come out of the Air3 are color accurate and very high quality. While the extra megapixels on the Air2s may have a slight edge in sharpness due to its 20 megapixels we always noticed pink fringing on bright sunny days, even when setting auto white balance. This always applied to video as well. DJI somehow found a way to improve the smaller sensor over its predecessor. If they eventually come out with an Air3s I feel like moving all this to a 1 inch will be insanely good.

MORE TECH MUMBO JUMBO

I don’t want this to be a long review of the Air3s tech so I will just drop the remaining improvements over the Air2s here and move on. The new RC2 remote is fantastic and features occusync 4 which is a nice improvement over occusync 3. It is instantly noticeable how much stronger the connection is. The additional flight time of 46 minutes compared to the Air2s 31 minutes. In reality it is more like 35 to 40 minutes from the Air3 and 26 minutes from the Air2s.

INTELLIGENT FLIGHT FEATURES

The DJI Air 3 offers all intelligent flight modes as its big brother the Mavic Pro 3. From ActiveTrack 5.0, which allows the drone to lock on and follow subjects while avoiding obstacles, to Point of Interest 3.0, which circles a selected area for cinematic shots, these features empower users to capture professional-quality footage with ease. The inclusion of obstacle sensors on all sides enhances safety and control, making flights more secure and reducing the risk of accidents. Coming from the Air2s with the standard remote which has you attach your cell phone as the remotes screen we thought was cool, we quickly learned having the screen on the remote makes things so much easier and fluent. The screen is nice and bright for even the sunniest days and the FULL HD stream from the drone is nice and crisp without any lag. On the back is two extra custom buttons that you can use to set any feature that you use most to each one. It simplifies things so much and cuts down on menu diving.

Coming from the Air2s with the standard remote which has you attach your cell phone as the remotes screen we thought was cool, we quickly learned having the screen on the remote makes things so much easier and fluent. The screen is nice and bright for even the sunniest days and the FULL HD stream from the drone is nice and crisp without any lag. On the back is two extra custom buttons that you can use to set any feature that you use most to each one. It simplifies things so much and cuts down on menu diving.

All in All

We cannot recommend the DJI Air 3 enough for real estate work.  Colors are accurate and vibrant.  Photo’s and video look amazing and this thing is just so easy and safe to fly.  Like we said the Mavic Pro 3 outclasses its camera setup with its 4/3 Hasselblad sensor and two additional zoom lenses, but when it comes to portability and less risk the Air3 gets the job done with ease.