ok so context ? ive been flying a mavic air 2 for about two years and its been great but the variable aperture thing on the Autel Evo Lite+ has me genuinely curious. i shoot a lot in mixed lighting conditions, golden hour stuff where the sky is bright and the ground is still pretty dark, and i feel like having actual aperture control instead of just relying on ND filters could be a real workflow improvement

but then i start reading about Autels app being kind of rough compared to DJI fly and the obstacle avoidance not being as reliable and i get cold feet again. also finding repair centers for Autel near me is basically impossible, DJI at least has some infrastructure for that

anyone actually switched from DJI to Autel and can give me an honest take? not looking for the "competition is good for consumers" speech just want to know if the camera is as good as the specs suggest and whether the software has gotten any better in the last year or so

the variable aperture is genuinely useful, i wont pretend otherwise. but the app was a real adjustment coming from DJI and some of the automated shooting modes feel like an afterthought compared to what youre probably used to. i used mine pretty heavily for about 8 months and the image quality out of that sensor is legitimately impressive, especially in that tricky golden hour lighting you mentioned. low light overall is better than what i was getting from my old mavic air 2.

that said i did eventually drift back to DJI just because the ecosystem is so much more developed and i got tired of workarounds. if the camera is your absolute top priority and your okay tinkering a bit its probably worth it. if you want everything to just work smoothly out of the box maybe not

wait does the evo lite+ not have front obstacle sensors or am i thinking of a differnt model? i feel like i read something about that being an issue