DJI Avata 360 vs. DJI Avata 2: Which FPV Drone Should You Buy?

Good day, folks. Shawn here from Air Photography. A good question I’ve been asked in the last couple of weeks with the release of the Avata 360 is from people who are perhaps going to be purchasing their first DJI FPV style drone, and they’re not sure whether to go with something like the Avata 360, the latest in the Avata series, or something like the Avata 2. It’s a good question because they’re both excellent drones, but depending on what you’re going to be doing with it, one of these drones might be better suited for you.

Although the Avata 360 is the latest in the Avata series, and the Avata 2 is going on two years old now, for some people this two-year-old drone might be the best choice. So in this video we’re going to talk about which one might be best suited for different types of creators.

I’m not going to do any direct side-by-side comparisons just because these camera systems are completely different. It wouldn’t really make sense, but I will be playing lots of sample footage captured on both drones.

Why You Might Choose the DJI Avata 2

I’m going to start with the DJI Avata 2 just because this is the easiest to kind of explain. There are really only two definite reasons why you would pick something like the Avata 2 over the Avata 360 in my opinion. The first is video quality. Just due to the way 360 lenses work when you’re capturing spherical video, although you can export in 4K, you’re going to get much better image quality from your Avata 2 and its fixed lens camera.

Even though the Avata 360 does have a single lens mode, the quality is still going to be much higher on your Avata 2. The Avata 360 video quality is actually pretty good, but you’re going to really notice it on the edges of your video. It’s not going to be quite as sharp, and for some people that is going to be the deciding factor. They don’t really care so much about some of the features and capabilities of the Avata 360, which we’ll talk about here coming up in a minute.

They’re more concerned about video quality, and if that is the case for you, then definitely you’re going to want to choose the Avata 2.

Full FPV Support on the Avata 2

The other reason why you may want to choose the Avata 2 over the Avata 360 is that you do have full FPV support. You can fly this more like a traditional FPV drone.

The Avata 360 does have some FPV capabilities, and you are going to have an immersive flight when flying it with goggles and an FPV controller, but if you want a full acro flight without any restrictions, then something like the Avata 2 is going to be your best choice.

For some people that’s not going to be a big deal because they have no plans on flying their Avata in full manual, but that is just something to keep in mind.

Advanced Safety Features on the Avata 360

For a lot of people the Avata 360 might be the best choice, and that’s for a few different reasons. Not only is it because it’s the latest technology, but there are a lot of features built into the Avata 360 that are extremely useful. The Avata 360 has more advanced safety features.

It’s the first in the Avata series to have full 360° omnidirectional obstacle avoidance. It even has lidar built right into the front, and on top of that it features an advanced return to home where it can navigate safely even in complex environments all by itself. So if you happen to lose connection and you’re flying in and around a lot of obstacles under a tree canopy, it can navigate safely back to the home point.

It’s going to build its own real-time map on its outbound flight, so it’s going to have a really good understanding of the environment, and when it comes in for a fail-safe return to home, it’ll be able to navigate with no issue. Whereas your Avata 2 does not have that capability.

Flexibility in How You Fly the Avata 360

The other nice feature of the Avata 360 is flexibility in how you fly it. Not only can you fly it as an immersive flight with goggles and a motion controller or the FPV 3 controller, this is the first in the Avata series that you can fly with a standard controller. So a lot of people might like that compared to the Avata 2 where you’re limited to just goggles and an FPV style controller.

The other nice thing about the Avata 360, again because it is capturing in spherical mode, spherical video, is that you’re capturing in every direction. So when it comes time to editing, you have full control. You can export multiple different angles from one flight. You don’t have to redo a flight if you want to capture different angles. You still have to have framing in mind while flying, but it’s not quite as important because you can change the perspective, the framing later on while editing. A lot of people like that. You can get really creative and you can get some really interesting shots.

Because of the way it captures spherical video, it makes it great for those who are going to be uploading to multiple platforms and different aspects. You can easily crop it to 16 by 9 for platforms such as YouTube. And then if you want to create a short style video with that same footage, you can easily set the crop right in the software. So it’s extremely flexible for multiple platforms.

Really, this is one of the only drones in which you can set your field of view later on. You can get some really beautiful shots with an extremely wide field of view. It is going to introduce some distortion, but for some scenarios, that’s quite all right. Unlike a traditional drone, the field of view, what you have is what you have. But with the Avata 360, you can get a little bit creative when it comes to your field of view.

FocusTrack and Tracking Capabilities

I think one of the most important reasons why some people may want to choose the Avata 360 over the Avata 2 is the ability for tracking. You can get some really technical shots with your Avata 360 — shots that are really, really difficult to do on a traditional FPV drone, if not impossible. With traditional FPV, you can’t really fly backwards, so to get some reverse shots can be really tricky.

But with the Avata 360, whether you’re flying with a controller or with goggles, you can use FocusTrack to select an object on the screen, you can just now fly around, and the camera is going to remain locked on the subject that you have selected. That’s going to make it a lot safer because you’re going to have full view in the direction in which you’re flying.

You get a little secondary window showing you what you’re capturing. That allows you to get some really dynamic shots, shots that are really hard to get on a traditional FPV drone. Not everybody needs tracking. Some people don’t do a lot of tracking, but if you’re going to be filming races or you’re making social media content of people hiking, that tracking feature is going to save you a lot of time and allow you to capture some really beautiful content. Personally, that’s one of my favorite features of the Avata 360 — the new tracking capabilities.

The Trade-Offs of Choosing the Avata 360

As mentioned, there are a few negatives if you do choose the Avata 360 over the Avata 2. First, as we’ve already mentioned, is the quality of video. It’s not going to be quite as sharp as the Avata 2, but in my opinion, it still looks really good, and especially if you’re only capturing for social media, that’s not quite as important. You’re limited to the FPV style flight, as mentioned, and on top of that, there is some extra work processing the footage.

With something like your Avata 2, once you capture, it’s already in a usable format. You can just pull the memory card out and upload it to an editor of your choice or share it directly to social media.

With the Avata 360, when capturing in spherical mode, the footage does have to be processed. It does have to be downloaded from the drone and converted to a flat video that can be used. DJI does have some tools in there to make it a little bit easier. They have something called perspective view, which essentially doesn’t even require you to do any type of editing, but you still have to bring it into the app in order to export that perspective view. So that is something to keep in mind as well. There are a few extra steps to process your 360 footage.

Final Thoughts

So those are my thoughts on the Avata 360 and when you would want to choose one over the other. I’m really curious what your thoughts are. If there’s something that you think I missed that’s really important for a new perspective buyer, please share that down in the comments.

Hopefully you enjoyed this video and found it of value. Thanks a lot for watching and we’ll see you in the next one.

For more in-depth drone reviews, tutorials, and comparisons, be sure to subscribe to the Air Photography YouTube channel, and check out my other articles on my DroneXL author page.