so ive had the Air 3 since last spring and honestly love it, no real complaints. but the Air 3S keeps showing up in my youtube feed and now im second guessing myself like always lol. the main thing that caught my eye was the bigger sensor and the low light stuff. i do a lot of early morning coastal shoots, sunrise over the water that kind of thing, so low light performance is genuinely relevant to me.

the thing is i already have the fly more combo for the Air 3, extra batteries, the ND filter set, the whole deal. so switching would basically mean starting over or hoping some of that carries over which i doubt. anyone actually made that jump or compared them side by side? is the image quality difference something you can really see or is it more of a spec sheet thing that doesnt matter much in real world shooting

I made the jump about two months ago, came from the Air 3 as well. Honestly the low light difference is real and not subtle - I was surprised. Shot some stuff at golden hour going into dusk and the Air 3S just handles it so much more cleanly, way less noise in the shadows. For coastal sunrise work I think you'd notice it.

That said, the ND filters don't carry over, batteries don't carry over, and yeah it stings a bit to basically re-buy everything. I sold my Air 3 kit and that helped offset it but I still spent more than I wanted to. Whether it's worth it really depends on how much the image quality actually matters to you vs just flying for fun. If you're selling footage or printing large, probably yes. If it's mostly for yourself and your Air 3 shots already look great to you, maybe just hold the money.

dont do it yet imo, wait and see if there's a sale around the holidays. the Air 3 is still a really capable drone and unless you're shooting professionally i think the difference is gonna be hard to justify. thats just me though