The DJI Air 3S is one of the more popular and most recommended drones from us for pilots to purchase. It’s a great overall drone that offers enough professional features while not entirely breaking the bank. But when do you know it’s time to upgrade to something bigger and better?
Above the Air 3S are both the Mavic 3 and 4 and the much higher-end Inspire 3. We won’t talk about when you should upgrade to an Inspire because really that drone exists for professional studios rather than independent drone pilots.
The reason why we also steer everyone towards purchasing a DJI Air line drone is that it’s almost always the best bang for your buck drone. The camera specs are usually solid, the flight time and obstacle avoidance are good, and it typically receives plenty of new features before the Mavic series.
However, the Mavic series drones almost always see the best specs overall, the best cameras, best codecs, best everything. That does come with a heftier price tag. A fully built-out combo for a Mavic 4 Pro could cost you nearly $5,000.
You need more resolution
Both DJI’s Mini 4 Pro and the Air 3S sport 4K resolution on their cameras. For most things anyone needs, 4K should be enough. However, we’re inching closer and closer towards the need for higher resolution, and that is what the Mavic’s offer.
The Mavic 4 Pro‘s main camera can do a staggering 6K video. You’ll still need to get around the two zoom cameras on both models, which only shoot 4K video, but if you’re in a situation where more than 4K is required, you’re pretty limited in your options.
Really, if you’re in a spot where 5-6K resolution is a requirement, then you’re also likely in a business that could afford an Inspire 3 rental. That way, you get the resolution boost you require, with the benefit of interchangeable lenses for more reach if you need it.
You need better video codecs
The Air 3S will get you pretty far with your basic H.264 and H.265 video formats, but even in smaller productions, having a raw video format could be useful. Like raw photo formats, such as DNG found in all DJI drones, raw video codecs like Apple ProRes on the Mavic 3 Pro Cine and ALL-I on the Mavic 4 Pro give you more data to work with in post-processing.
D.Log is an option on almost every DJI drone and can really help if you know how to edit it yourself. However, if you’re in a spot where you’re hiring a professional video editor, giving them all the data you can will yield a better output in the end.
What you may want but not need
There are plenty of other reasons to want to buy the biggest and best camera drone DJI makes (if you can find them). Features like longer flight time, variable aperture, three cameras, and larger onboard storage are great, but not something that should really warrant the spending of thousands of dollars for.
Purchasing new camera equipment at this level should be a business decision: How much more money will you make by buying this drone? If the answer is none, then it likely isn’t time to upgrade. If the answer is plenty, then it likely is a good time to upgrade.
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