I’ve got an Air 3 right now, and before that, I was using the Air 2S (which, honestly, I think has the best sensor). When I upgraded from the Air 2S to the Air 3, I was a bit let down by the photo quality—it just didn’t seem as sharp as the 1-inch sensor on the Air 2S.
So, I’m curious… does the image quality on the Air 3S feel more like the Air 2S? If it does, I’d definitely consider upgrading!
You should check out this video, it might help you decide. Spoiler alert: the image quality on the Air 3S is almost as good as the Mavic 3’s 4/3 sensor.
Riley said:
You should check out this video, it might help you decide. Spoiler alert: the image quality on the Air 3S is almost as good as the Mavic 3’s 4/3 sensor.
The Air 3S has a quad-Bayer sensor, so you’ll have to pick between 12 MP and 50 MP for photo resolution, which is different from the Mavic’s 20 MP.
I recently upgraded from the Air 3 to the 3S, but haven’t had a lot of chances to test it out on different subjects yet. That said, I noticed the corner sharpness is definitely better on the Air 3S than it was on the Air 3. The Air 3 had some issues with blurry corners compared to the Mini 3 Pro, which was sharp all the way to the edges (though this wasn’t a problem for video).
The Air 3 was already a step up in quality from the Mini 3 Pro (way fewer Bayer artifacts). With the Air 3S, I usually shoot at 50 MP, then process the RAW files in Capture One Pro, and use Topaz Photo AI or Denoise AI to reduce noise and sharpen the image before downscaling to around 6,000 pixels on the long side.
The telephoto camera, which is the same on both the Air 3 and 3S (1/1.3" sensor), is super sharp from corner to corner. Depending on the subject, I sometimes downscale those images to 7,000 pixels. I haven’t done enough shooting with the Air 3S yet to say for sure how much of an improvement it is over the Air 3, and I don’t have a direct comparison to the Air 2S.