How We Selected
To pick the best drones, we relied on our own previous knowledge and coverage. I got my first drone shortly after DJI released the Phantom 2, in 2014. Since then I’ve flown many models from a lot of brands that no longer exist, or that exist in other guises, such as 3-D Robotics. My first interest—and still my primary one—was in aerial photography. As an avid shooter who sometimes supports his freelance journalism with still and video, having a different view changed how I capture the world for professional work.
We also recruited a few pros to help with the
selection process, since they spend thousands of hours a year flying and
testing every drone they can get their hands on. “Knowing what’s coming
next is really part of my job,” says Matt Sloane, CEO of Skyfire
Consulting in Atlanta. Sloane began his company seven years ago to help
firefighters and emergency ops use drones as tools to get more “eyes on
the situation.” Sloane says most SWAT teams, for instance, would happily
(and wisely) risk a drone rather than an officer, and Sloane himself
not only has commercial drone licensing, he also has his commercial
license to fly manned aircraft. We also tapped Billy Kyle’s knowledge.
Kyle is founder of Atmos Aerial services outside Philadelphia, a
professional surveying company that he says mostly entails flying
delicately around construction sites, conducting aerial mapping for
farmers, as well as for real estate firms. Kyle also reviews drones and
offers quick guidance through instructional videos, and has about 100,000 followers on Youtube.
Camera: 4K at 60 fps, 48 MP + 12 MP | Flight time: 34 minutes
Top speed: 42.3 mph | Range: 6.2 miles
Kyle thinks the Mavic Air 2 is the perfect “tweener drone,” because it gives you some of the higher level camera capabilities of the most expensive Autel and Mavic 2 Pro drones, as well as more advanced sensing technology, without an eye-watering price tag. Among the key camera features are the ability to shoot 240 fps slow motion video and 8K hyper lapse—the latter is time-lapse video, but do note that’s a battery-intensive mode that mostly you’re going to launch, fly, record, and then immediately land. Likewise, 48 MP image capture is essentially a digital trick that takes multiple images at once. It doesn’t replicate the crystal-clear photography you get from the larger sensor on DJI’s Mavic 2 Pro. Still, the feature set of the Air 2 is excellent. For instance, modes like Point of Interest 3.0 allows creation of an automated flight path around an object (think: 360 degrees around a boat in the water); Spotlight 2.0 lets you tap an object, like a person, in the viewfinder and the camera stays fixed on that subject, so you can focus on flying while the subject moves. Advanced Pilot Assistance System (APAS) 3.0. also lets you focus on capturing video, and if you’re flying toward an obstacle, the drone will re-route automatically to prevent a collision. Speaking of which, Mavic Air 2 also has forward, backward, and downward sensing, distinguishing it from almost no sensing on the Mavic Mini 2.
Camera: 4K at 30 fps, 12 MP | Flight time: 31 minutes
Top speed: 35 mph | Range: 6 miles