so i've been flying a Mini 2 for about two years and kept telling myself i didn't need to upgrade but then my buddy let me borrow his Air 3 for a weekend trip and yeah that was a mistake because now i own one lol

the dual camera thing is honestly what sold me. being able to switch between the 24mm and the 70mm equivalent mid-flight without landing is something i didnt realize i needed until i had it. shot some stuff up in the mountains last week and the medium tele lens just changes what you can do compositionally, like you can actually compress backgrounds and get interesting shots instead of everything looking like a wide angle gopro clip

one thing that surprised me is how much better the obstacle avoidance feels compared to the mini. obviously the mini 2 has none so that's a low bar but still, the Air 3 sensors actually inspire some confidence flying in tighter spots. i'm not gonna say i fully trust it around trees but it's made me less anxious

only gripe so far is battery life is shorter than i expected in real world use. i get maybe 22-24 minutes when it's windy which is fine but not the 46 minutes they advertise. anyone else finding that? also curious what ND filters people are running, i grabbed a cheap set off amazon and not sure if i should've gone polar pro or similar

yeah the advertised flight times are always in like zero wind no aggressive movement conditions so 22-24 in real use sounds about right honestly. i think i average around 25-28 on calm days with my Air 3 so you're in the normal range don't worry about it

on the ND filters ? i tried a cheap set first too and they were fine honestly, the main thing to check is whether the coating causes any weird color cast in your footage. held mine up to a light and you could see a slight green tint which showed up in LOG footage. ended up going Freewell which are like half the price of polar pro and i cant tell a difference. polar pro are great but hard to justify the cost unless you're doing paid work

i just got an Air 3 too and omg the dual camera is so good i totally agree. i'm still figuring out all the settings though, do you shoot in D-Log M or just the normal color profile? i've been too scared to mess with log footage because i dont really know how to color grade yet but everyone says you should use it