so ive had the Air 3 for about a year now and honestly love it, no real complaints. but ever since the Air 3S dropped ive been going back and forth on whether to sell and upgrade. the medium tele lens on the Air 3 already gets used way more than i expected and i mostly just fly trails, coastlines, that kind of thing. nothing commercial.

from what ive read the sensor on the 3S is bigger and low light is supposedly way better, but i dont really shoot much at dawn or dusk. most of my stuff is midday or late afternoon. so im wondering if anyone who actually made the jump feels like it was worth it or if i woud basically be paying a lot of money to get results that look basically the same in good light

honestly? for pure midday sunny footage the difference is going to be subtle at best. ive used both and yeah the 3S files have a bit more latitude in post but if youre not pixel peeping or doing any serious color grading its not going to blow your mind. the bigger deal for me was the improved obstacle avoidance, felt a little more confident flying closer to trees with it. but if you're happy with the Air 3 and you're not shooting in tricky light, i'd just put that money toward a ND filter set or a better bag and keep flying.

i went from the Air 2S to the Air 3 and skipped the 3S for exactly this reason, at some point the incremental upgrades start feeling like a treadmill you know? like every year theres a new thing that's 15% better and you can always justify it but the footage from my Air 3 already looks better than anything i could have imagined a few years ago. just my two cents but i think people underestimate how much the gear they already have can do