BEST DJI Mavic Air Travel Accessories
The all-new 4K DJI Mavic Air just dropped, and already the DJI store has a pile of new accessories for it. Chances are you can’t buy them all, but you want the best accessories for your adventure travels. We’ve got your covered!
If you’re heading off on an adventure of a lifetime or maybe just a sunny family vacation in the south, our list of the Best DJI Mavic Air travel accessories has the top Mavic Air gear to get the most out of your travel.
Extra Mavic Air Intelligent Flight Battery
This goes without saying, but it’s always a great idea to have an extra battery or two (or three!). The Mavic Air Fly More Combo comes with 3 batteries in the combo, as well as the 4 battery Mavic Air Charging Hub. So it just makes sense to maximize your charging ability by filling all four slots with a battery.
Many drone owners are unaware that the Lithium Polymer batteries that power their drones are considered hazardous materials by airlines. LiPo batteries should never be put into your checked bags. Ever. And some airlines have restrictions on how many LiPo’s each passenger may carry with them in the cabin.
But aside from that, you also want to transport your batteries in the safest way possible, which means LiPo safes. The DJI ones are sized specifically for your drone and they’re super inexpensive as well.
Western Digital My Passport Wireless PRO
You can buy any portable hard drive to back up your PC or videos, but we think the Western Digital My Passport Wireless PRO is the only portable drive for travelling drone pilots and photographers. It only costs a few dollars more than your basic hard drive, but it comes with some really necessary features for travel.
First it has it’s own built-in 6400 mAh power bank that you can use to charge other devices or backup an SD card without needing to tether it to a laptop or PC. Second the Wireless PRO lets you insert an SD card into it and transfer your files to the hard drive without a PC. Thirdly, the Wireless PRO is also a wireless access point, which means you can access the devices control panel using your smartphone, tablet or computer wirelessly to manage files transfers.
The Western Digital My Passport Wireless PRO comes in 1 to 4 TB sizes, all of which are priced under $200 with FREE Prime Shipping.
Sandisk Extreme microSD Card 64GB
DJI Recommends the SanDisk Extreme 64GB microSD card in the specs for the Mavic Air. We’ve seen enough chatter in the forums to know that some pilots are using 128GB and 256GB as well. But considering that a 256GB microSD card holds almost 10 hours of 4K footage we think sticking with a medium sized storage card is best for a couple of reasons: First if the card is damaged or corrupted the lost images and video is limited to about 2.4 hours of video. Second, for almost the same reason, we think you’ll be overwhelmed dealing with almost 10 hours of footage in post-processing. And this card is a steal, less than $35 with PRIME free shipping.
Dell 4K XPS Ultra Thin & Light Touchscreen Laptop – 7th Gen i7
This laptop has the some of the best guts for processing 4K video and high resolution images. With a 7th Gen Core i7 Intel processor, you’ll be hard pressed to find something more powerful at this price point. The 4K screen allows you to truly see what you’re rendering with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX1050 video processor.
It’s 3.9lbs light and super thin for portability while travelling. Don’t let a salesperson at a tech store tell you a tablet can process 4K video…it can try, but it can’t execute with the speed and power of this Dell XPS 15.
Manfrotto Advanced Gear Backpack
If the photo above doesn’t completely sell you on this backpack, then how about the fact that every compartment is changeable and customizable into new shapes and combinations. Having that “one bag” that can safely hold all of the gear you would never put in a checked suitcase is amazing. But the fact that everything is still easily accessible is the icing on the cake. As a carry-on bag for great adventures the Manfrotto Advanced Gear Backpack is unbeatable. Literally.
DJI Mavic Air Neutral Density Filters
One of the main reasons people pick the Mavic Air is for the 4K video recording capability. And there’s no point in filming in 4K if you’re not going to get the framerate and the exposure perfect. We won’t go into what ND filters do (you can read about that here and here) but if you’re serious about video quality then ND filters are a must. And considering that this is an article for travel, there’s a high probability you’re heading somewhere bright and sunny.
The filters above are DJI’s own offering of 4/8/16 ND filters designed specifically for the Mavic Air. At $59 they’re fairly priced and do exactly what they’re designed to do: slow your framerate to capture buttery smooth cinematic video.
Mophie powerstation AC – 22,000mAh
This is one of those inexpensive, stealthy little devices that are a travel hack all to themselves. The Mophie powerstation AC is the perfect off-the-grid power management tool. With AC power up to 90watts and 2 usb charging ports (USB-A and USB-C) you can keep your laptop, tablet, smartphone and Mavic Air intelligent flight batteries fully charged. And with 22,000 mAh of power storage the Mophie is going to be able to do it all.
Okay, so the Osmo Mobile isn’t really a Mavic Air accessory. But it’s so inexpensive, and so practical for travel and capturing all of your ground based photos and videos that we had to include it.
The Osmo Mobile is a 3-axis smartphone gimbal designed (along with the DJI GO app) to help you
take your smartphone cinematography to the next level. And as an added bonus, you don’t even have to use your smartphone.
With battery life up to 4 hours on a single charge, and built-in image modes like motion time lapse and slow motion video, you’ll be blown away at what you can capture with the Osmo Mobile.
Inexpensive adapters (right) are also available on Amazon that let you use your GoPro HERO camera (because we all have a couple of those lying around) for capturing video that may be better than your smartphone. Note: there is no app for capturing the GoPro video via the Osmo Mobile so you’re just using it as a gimbal.
This is by no means a complete list of all the travel accessories you buy that would streamline or enhance your travel experience. New products seem to come out every day.
If you have a Mavic Air accessory that is ideal for travel, let us know in the comments!
