I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the still images produced by my Autel Evo II Pro, especially its low-light performance. There’s very little noise in the file and I’m impressed by range of tones I’m able to wrangle from a correctly exposed image. It’s a great piece of hardware.

It’s the EVO II’s software that could use a little help. Coming from the DJI platform, I had grown accustom to an interface that allowed for subtle but signifcant adjustments like smooth gimbal pitch rolls and style settings that don’t have to be reset every time the drone’s restarted, to name just two.

But for now, swapping nuanced software for outstanding image quality is a trade-off I’m willing to make.