360 Camera Accessories

Mavic Air 2 captures HDR aerial 360 photos

DJI has launched the Mavic Air 2, a consumer-friendly drone that features a slightly larger 1/2-inch sensor (compared to the 1/2.3-inch sensor of the Mavic Air).  It can capture 48mp photos and 4K 60fps videos.  How is it for aerial 360 photos?

Here’s a product video:

The current Mavic Air takes 12mp photos and can take aerial 360 photos of 32 megapixels, so it might seem that the Mavic Air 2 should be able to take aerial 360 photos of 128 megapixels.  UPDATE: It can take 200mp or 688mp photos.

According to the specs, its spherical panoramas have a resolution of 8192 x 4096 (33.5 megapixels), less than a single shot from its still photo mode.  That’s because the Mavic Air’s 48mp photos are produced through supersampling.  The Mavic Air 2 takes multiple photos, stabilized with its gimbal, and the photos are combined to increase the apparent resolution to 48mp.

This method has worked well for cameras such as Olympus E-M5 Mk II, which takes multiple photos while using its sensor stabilization to shift the sensor with sub-pixel accuracy with each shot.  The combined photo does produce significantly higher resolution.  The difference here is that the Mavic Air’s photos will not be moved with sub-pixel accuracy.  However, DPReview has a sample photo that does appear to show incredible detail.  On the other hand, the photo is one where details could easily be filled in by AI or similar techniques.  I’d like to see how it fares with a more complex scene, with non-repetitive elements.

In any case, it appears that the Mavic Air 2 cannot use supersampling for its aerial 360 photos, which have less resolution than even one of its supersampled photos.  On the other hand, it appears that it is able to take multiple photos and combine them into HDR panoramas, and this appears to include its spherical panoramas.

mavic air 2 360 photo resolution
mavic air 2 360 photo resolution

If so, that would be a significant improvement from the Mavic Air.  I’ll update this post when I get sample aerial 360 photos from the Mavic Air 2.

Meanwhile, an alternative option for capturing high resolution HDR aerial 360 photos is to use an XPhase Pro S, which can capture 135-megapixel 6-shot HDR photos, without ghosting.

WHERE TO BUY

If you’d like to get the Mavic Air 2, you can order direct from DJI.  Thanks for using these links to support 360 Rumors at no additional cost to you so I can do more tests and reviews.x

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Mic Ty

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  • Excellent! I was searching all the web just to know if it was going to be able to do a massive size panorama.
    But it seems it was way too good to be true.

      • What do you mean? On my spark i get 360 panoramas that are 18600×9300 that is aprox 173 mega pixels.

        • I think the 32mp is based on the 360 photo stitched by the DJI app. I don’t know the resolution if stitched using a 3rd party stitcher.

          Best regards,
          Mic

    • Thanks Marton. Here’s what DP Review said: “On the stills front, the Mavic Air 2 can capture 12MP stills with a special 48MP supersampling option that uses the drone’s three-axis gimbal to help compensate for movement in-between frames.”

      • I think they might be wrong on that. I believe it samples down the 48mp sensor output to a cleaner 12mp image. Or you can use the full 48mp if you have plenty of light.

  • I contacted DJI Support and ask their if Air 2 can shoot HDR Spherical Photo, they answer me that don’t know.

    But an Italian Youtuber that try this new drone a week ago, tell me that is not possible to shoot HDR Spherical Photos.
    I hope in an update implementation!

    • Thanks Davide. I’m just posting the specs which say that it can shoot spherical pano. If it’s not in the app yet, then yes I hope they add it.