Autel Robotics’ new EVO Lite+ drone combines a 1-inch 20-megapixel sensor with a variable aperture to shoot detailed, wealthy photographs. The corporate may not be a family identify like DJI, however the EVO Lite+ deserves your consideration.
Design
The drone is available in in three colours — orange, white, and grey — with white solely out there within the Normal bundle and grey solely out there within the Premium bundle.
I took a have a look at the Premium bundle for this assessment, which has 5 further pairs of propellers, three flight batteries, a battery charging hub, 4 strengths of ND filters, and a shoulder bag along with the necessities for working the drone. As compared, the Normal bundle comes with three further propeller pairs, a single flight battery, no battery charging hub (simply the one battery charger), and no carrying bag.
Able to fly with a battery and 4 propellers hooked up, the EVO Lite+ weighs one pound 14.5 ounces (866 grams). This is a bit more than half a pound heavier than the DJI Air 2S and the heft doesn’t go unnoticed. Its footprint for storing away in a bag additionally compares extra to a Mavic 3 than it does a DJI Air. It measures 8.3 inches (21.1 centimeters) in size and is about 4.5 inches (11.4 centimeters) broad and three.5 inches (8.9 centimeters) tall. General, it’s greater and heavier than I might suspect primarily based on its “Lite” branding.
The 4 foldable propeller arms are comprised of carbon fiber and really feel inflexible and hard. After flying with the drone for the previous couple of months and folding out and in the arms for storage, none of them have developed any wobble on the connection level. Thoughtfully, the propellers join and disconnect from the arms with a easy push and twist, and no instruments are required to maintain readily available.
Controller
The controller for the EVO Lite+ is pretty strong and weighs 14.6 ounces (413 grams). I like the texture of the tightly knurled rubber used within the grip areas and total there’s a very good tactile expertise with the knobs and buttons.
On the high of the controller is the spring-loaded smartphone clamp which does the job properly sufficient and in addition homes the antennas, however it doesn’t go above and past. First, it’s cumbersome and doesn’t collapse down right into a smaller form. There’s additionally nowhere on the controller to retailer the smartphone connection twine elegantly, and for those who depart it within the high slot, it will get pinched from the smartphone cradle when it closes down.
The controller is a typical two joystick setup for transferring the plane round plus a gimbal pitch dial on the highest left that controls the angle of the digicam.
The joysticks are detachable, however there may be nowhere on the controller to retailer them for safekeeping for those who had been to take them off. Extra controls embody the facility button, a fly-to-home button, a pause button, one programmable perform button, and the shutter button for taking pictures and recording video.
The one perform button is a pleasant addition so as to add no less than a bit of little bit of customization to the controller, however the choices of what it may well do are restricted. A single press can change the drone’s pace mode, lock the auto publicity, set the gimbal pitch to 90 levels, or toggle the map and digicam views. A double-press of the button may be set to a distinct beforehand listed perform.
On the backside is one USB-C port for charging the controller and one empty port that I surmise is a spot to retailer an finish of the smartphone twine if it’s Lightning or Micro-USB and never USB-C, however once more it’s not a chic answer to tuck it out of the best way.
The battery lifetime of the controller is admittedly good, and relying on how typically you fly you would in all probability go per week or longer with out charging it. I discovered myself topping it off at my leisure each from time to time, however by no means as a result of I had ever absolutely drained it.
Ease of Use
Getting the drone arrange for flying and pairing it with the Autel Sky app is easy. As soon as within the air, the drone is secure and maintains its composure fairly properly even in stronger winds. There are sensors positioned within the entrance, backside, and rear, however not on the highest. All through testing, I’d discover that the sensors work so properly to the purpose the place I might typically wish to be in “Ludicrous” mode simply to disable them from a number of over-correction, and when it got here to touchdown I virtually all the time needed to disable the sensors to get it located in the suitable spot to come back down.
Utilizing the Autel Sky app is a little bit of a multitude, however I assume there’s solely a lot that may be completed to show all of the totally different modes and settings cleanly with out eliminating them and simplifying. With that in thoughts, it could be good to pick out and toggle off the digicam modes that I don’t use, particularly as a result of the app makes me faucet by way of them separately simply to get to the one I would like. That is notably annoying once I’m capturing pictures or movies in an automated mode and wish to change to “Professional” mode with handbook digicam changes, however it’s in a completely totally different place within the app and requires a number of tapping to get there.
One of many more unusual design selections is that the Professional mode can’t shoot in log gamma for video, however the auto-exposure video mode can. Likewise for pictures, the place Professional photograph mode can’t select between single body, burst capturing, shutter timer delay, and publicity bracketing, however the auto-exposure photograph mode can. That is backwards from what is sensible, in fact, and at this level they need to be choices in each modes.
There are additionally some hidden gestures constructed into the app that shouldn’t be. For instance, swiping up removes all of the overlay info. Have you learnt what number of occasions I needed to all of a sudden fly with out flight knowledge in midair earlier than figuring this one out? Lots of the settings are managed by swiping up and down and have small contact targets, so I’m continuously hiding the data accidentally.
One other factor to concentrate on when utilizing the app is that evidently firmware updates wipe out set person preferences comparable to capturing RAW as a substitute of JPEG, so you must keep in mind to return and make these changes each time you replace the drone.
Picture High quality
Outfitted with a 1-inch, 20-megapixel sensor, the EVO Lite+ has a competitively-sized imager for a prosumer drone in 2022 and has a typical ISO vary of 100 to six,400. In Evening Scene mode this may be expanded as much as ISO 64,000. The 29mm equal lens sits on a three-axis gimbal and has a variable aperture vary of f/2.8 to f/11 and might shoot with a shutter pace as much as 1/8,000 second. The digicam makes use of contrast-detect autofocus or handbook focus and might focus as shut as 1.6 toes (0.5 meters).
Picture information may be recorded as both 8-bit JPEGs or 10-bit DNGs, and Autel claims to be bringing 12-bit in a future firmware replace. To my shock, the JPEGs coming off the digicam don’t look half dangerous and aren’t tormented by heavy oversharpening or wonky saturation. Nearly as good because the JPEGs look, the true photograph magic comes from the RAW DNGs, and these look actually good. Beneath is a pattern of testing the dynamic vary by way of spotlight and shadow restoration from a RAW file.
To check sharpness, I shot the sequence of pictures under at totally different apertures with the digicam pointed straight down. On the heart, pictures had been properly sharp with a wide-open aperture of f/2.8. At f/4, there’s a noticeable enchancment. By f/5.6, the pictures had been as sharp as they’ll get, however it may be laborious to inform the distinction from f/4 for those who’re not trying tremendous intently. Transferring into f/8 and past, there’s a hit to sharpness and stopped all the best way all the way down to f/11 the pictures are delicate compared, however I wouldn’t say fully unusable.
Wanting on the backside proper nook to peep sharpness right here, I used to be impressed. Autel might have been hiding lens corrections within the processed JPEG information, however seeing the corners of RAW information exhibits that the lens is definitely simply that good. There isn’t any radical drop-off of sharpness or smeary, heavy distortion on the corners.
To additional take a look at the sensor, I checked out how properly it handles noise all through the ISO vary. Beneath is a sequence of RAW pictures taken from ISO 100 by way of ISO 6,400 to check the outcomes. I stored the Adobe Digital camera RAW settings at their default, which isn’t any noise discount utilized and +25 shade noise discount utilized. To my eyes, the pictures maintain collectively properly as much as ISO 800, whereas at ISO 1,600 and past it descends right into a lack of picture high quality and shade constancy.
One drawback that did crop up is how the lens dealt with ghosting and flaring when capturing towards the solar when it was decrease within the sky. As seen within the video under, it may be fairly an intense impact that overpowers the recorded photographs and movies. For essentially the most half, I didn’t see such a powerful affect, however it may well occur when the capturing angles and solar path align below circumstances.
As we’re in all probability most acquainted with on our smartphones, the EVO Lite+ additionally has a Portrait mode which digitally blurs backgrounds round a topic. The results of utilizing this function may be hit or miss.
There isn’t any kind of depth map that’s being made to assist create extra lifelike outcomes, and which means the whole lot that’s not the topic will get the identical quantity of blur no matter the place on a focal aircraft it falls. Generally the setting will utterly blur my head as if it had been a part of the background and I can depend on it to all the time miss making use of a blur to the background between my legs. Though it has its points, it’s not a complete miss and the outcomes can typically be pleasing, particularly for a fast social media submit.
Video High quality
The EVO Lite+ can report as much as 6K decision at 30 frames per second, 4K as much as 60 frames per second, and 1080p as much as 120 frames per second. It’s capped at 8-bit recording, even when utilizing the log shade gamma. General impressions of the video high quality are that the 1-inch sensor is actually placing in work and makes essentially the most out of its extra restricted shade house. Scenes are often wealthy in shade and have good element, though the processing may end up in artificially oversharpened areas. Computerized publicity is fast to blow out highlights if I’m not cautious, so making use of the AE-hold perform or Professional video settings is useful to get used to.
For slow-motion recording, I noticed little to no high quality loss when capturing in 4K at 60 frames per second. Then again, capturing in 1080p at 120 frames per second provides essentially the most affect for slow-motion results, however the picture high quality is so degraded it’s nearly unusable.
There are 4 forms of pre-programmed cinematic “fast pictures” within the app. These embody Rocket, Orbit, Flick, and Fade Away. Beneath is an instance of Fade Away in motion. It’s a bit of bit jittery in locations and I’d want to chop round or stabilize the problems in a closing edit.
Observe Mode
There are two methods to make use of monitoring with the EVO Lite+. One mode makes the drone act as a video digicam on a fluid head tripod. It would keep stationary on the identical location, however monitor and comply with the topic anyplace it goes by panning and tilting the drone and gimbal digicam as proven within the video under. When it loses monitor of me strolling, you’ll be able to see it stutter and bounce round, however when the monitoring is nice it’s a clean expertise and doesn’t have very many jitters.
The opposite monitoring mode can comply with an individual as they transfer alongside. The drone will nonetheless use its sensors to maneuver round objects and keep away from collisions as seen within the second half of the video under the place I used to be strolling on a path below timber. It actually does desire to comply with the topic, and for those who as a substitute stroll in direction of the drone it’ll insist on flying round you to get to the bottom.
Autel tells me that this comply with monitoring function will probably be up to date in a future firmware launch in order that any object may be tracked, not simply people.
A Drone That’s Value Consideration
The Autel EVO Lite+ is a protected, competent flyer with good picture high quality and spectacular sharpness from the middle to the corners. The variable aperture permits me to cease down to attain optimum sharpness in my pictures, and it’s additionally an enormous assist for video capturing to take care of a decrease shutter pace whereas conserving right publicity.
My wishlist of enhancements to the EVO Lite+ could be a greater controller design that packs away extra neatly, 10-bit video with the flexibility to make use of log gamma in Professional mode, Autel Sky app enhancements to affix and clear up all of the scattered choices, smoothing out the tough areas whereas monitoring, and maybe including a corrective aspect to the lens design to higher management ghosting and flaring.
I’d be remiss to not point out someplace that I’ve been flying this drone for the previous two months. What was as soon as meant to be a two-week assessment grew to become prolonged as Autel stored dropping substantial firmware updates that will shortly date my experiences and opinions. I wish to credit score Autel with regularly including model new options and enhancing the EVO Lite+ at such a speedy tempo, even when it made reviewing the drone tougher.
Are There Options?
This drone is most appropriately in comparison with the DJI Air 2S. The Air 2S was launched in early 2021 and includes a spec-matching 20-megapixel 1-inch sensor and the flexibility to report 5K 30p and 4K 60p.
Nevertheless, the Air 2S can be about 10 ounces lighter, has an upward impediment sensor, can report video in 10-bit D-log with the next most bitrate, and due to the large value distinction in DJI’s favor — $1,000 versus $1,550 for normal packages — one can afford to step as much as the Fly Extra Combo package for $1,300 and nonetheless pay lower than what it could take to choose up Autel’s drone.
The EVO Lite+ does have some stable benefits in a few areas comparable to its variable aperture which permits far more freedom mid-flight to alter publicity settings relatively than take care of touchdown and switching out impartial density filters. Plus, the flight time for the Autel is about 8 minutes higher than what DJI guarantees. I additionally personally desire its tighter discipline of view which is the 35mm equal of 29mm versus the Air 2S’s 22mm.
Ought to You Purchase It?
Sure. For those who respect straight-out-of-camera outcomes, the Autel EVO Lite+ stands as much as scrutiny.
