so i picked up the avata 2 a few months back because i wanted to try fpv and all the videos made it look like the most fun thing ever. and it is fun dont get me wrong, learning to fly it in manual mode is genuinely a blast and the immersive goggles experience is unlike anything ive done with my mini

but im starting to realize that for actual usable footage - like stuff i want to keep and show people - its just not quite there compared to my old air 2s. the image quality is decent but the stabilization in manual mode is pretty demanding to get right and i spent a lot of time getting shots that were just slightly too shaky to use. horizon tilts, overcorrections, stuff like that. maybe thats just skill issue and i need more stick time

i guess i went in thinking i could replace my regular drone with it and thats just not realistic. they do completely different things. the avata is incredible for certain shots, like flying through a gap or low fast passes over water, but for just getting clean establishing shots of a landscape its kind of annoying to use compared to a normal drone where you just hover and let the gimbal do the work

anyone else made this comparison? or switched back to a traditional drone after trying fpv? not trying to trash the avata 2 at all, more just recalibrating my expectations

yeah this is a really common thing people run into. fpv and cinematic camera drones are just different tools and marketing kind of blurs that line a lot. the avata sits in this weird middle ground where its more approachable than a true fpv build but it still rewards actual fpv flying style to get the good stuff out of it. if youre using it like a regular drone youre fighting against what it wants to do

the stablization thing gets way better with time, like noticeably better, but it does take a while. id say stick with it for the shots its actually designed for and keep the air 2s for everything else. theres no reason you cant have both doing different jobs

honestly i think the avata 2 in normal mode with the horizon leveling on is actually pretty decent for less intense stuff? not the same as a proper 3 axis gimbal obviously but it handles okay if you keep things smooth. i use mine in a kind of hybrid way, manual for the fun flying and then switch modes when i want something more controlled. might be worth messing with the settings more if you havent already dug into all that