My Favorite Accessories for the DJI Air 3S Drone

If you just bought a DJI Air 3S drone, I want to show you some of my favorite accessories for the Air 3S or pretty much any of the drones I fly. We’re going to start with ND Filters. These ND filters are from Freewell, and yes, they did send these to me to keep, but I have purchased a ton of Freewell ND filters in the past because I really like them. I like their quality, and when it comes to the Air 3 or the Air 3S in this case, they’re one of the few companies that make them in a split filter setting. What that means is, because you have a 1.8 aperture on one camera and a 2.8 aperture on the other, you need the ND filters to come in two different strengths. On this one, you can see that the top filter is a different strength than the bottom filter. This one is an ND32 for the main camera and ND64 on the bottom. What that enables you to do is set your proper settings so that you always get the correct light, no matter which camera you’re using. These are really well-made, super durable, and they clip on just like any other filters would or like the original UV filter that DJI made.

Why ND Filters Are Important

ND filters are important because you want to get proper motion blur. I made a whole video about it—it’ll be linked up in the corner here—but if you don’t get proper motion blur, it’s not going to look like we expect it to with our eyes. For example, if you’re doing this, you want to be able to see that your hands or fingers are blurry. It’s not right now because I’m shooting on a camera with a really high shutter speed since it’s so bright. Essentially, if you’re moving fast and you want the stuff in motion to feel like it’s moving quickly without a stuttery effect, ND filters will fix that for you.

They’ll also help you get proper exposure or allow you to do long-exposure photography if that’s your goal. For instance, with a proper shutter setting and ISO setting—say ISO 100, the lowest you can go, and a shutter speed of two times my frame rate, in this case, 1/60—the footage is completely blown out. It’s just white because I’m in a snowy area with a lot of bright sunlight. But if I put on the 64 and 128 combination filter, you can see the exposure is absolutely perfect, giving us that nice motion blur.

Motion Blur Examples and Preferences

Here’s an example of some footage without motion blur, and next to it, you can see footage with motion blur. Every movie you’ve ever seen and the way we process imagery—motion blur is the correct way. Now, I’m not saying you have to do it that way; you can do whatever you want. But to get your footage to look the way it should and the way it would if a professional drone pilot like me shot it, having motion blur is important—unless you’re doing VFX. If you want to know more about that, you’ll want to watch that other video.

Landing Pads for Practicality

I hand-launch and hand-takeoff with my drone a lot because sometimes that’s just the most practical thing. But one accessory I use very often when I’m out in dirty areas like this—snow, sand, mud, or anything similar—is a landing pad. While there are some really cheap ones on Amazon that sort of work, this one by Hoodman is by far the best I’ve found. It’s heavy enough that it won’t be blown away by the drone when you’re taking off and landing, which is a real problem with the cheap ones. It’s also waterproof, made from some great material, and it opens up and folds down really easily. It’s got a green side and an orange side. Hey, real quick—if you’re enjoying or getting value out of this video, consider subscribing. I go out and test and compare equipment in the most real-world conditions I can find here in Alaska, where I live, and I give you tips and tutorials on how to use it.

Extended Sticks for Precision with the DJI Air 3S Drone

Another thing I don’t use all the time but do use a lot are these extended sticks. All this stuff will be linked in the description. Sometimes I just run with the regular DJI sticks, but these extended sticks make a big difference. You can see the height difference between these two is huge. Because you have longer travel here versus shorter travel with the regular ones, it gives you more precise control over what the drone is doing. Especially if you’re a pinch controller like I am, it enables you to make bigger movements while having the drone respond less, so you can be more precise when trying to do really technical, complicated shots. I find the longer sticks help me quite a bit when I’m focused on flying a drone precisely and well. A lot of times, I just roll with the regular DJI sticks because they’re in the controller and I always have them with me. Occasionally, if I’m just doing something like Active Track, I’ll take off and use my thumbs to get the drone where I want it without even putting the sticks in. But if you’re going to do anything long and precise, these sticks will help quite a bit.

Screen Protectors for the DJI RC2

While we’re on the subject of controllers, if you got your Air 3S with the nice DJI RC2, which I absolutely love, I highly recommend getting a screen protector for it. It takes very little—like dropping something on it just the right way or having something fall on it—to crack the screen. A good screen protector is super inexpensive on Amazon and will save your controller screen if something hits it a little too hard or in just the wrong spot. They’re like 10 bucks, cost almost nothing, and are super worth it to make sure your controller screen is protected.

Keeping Batteries Warm in Cold Weather

If you operate in cold areas like I am today—where it’s single digits and quite cold, even though it looks nice—you’ve got to keep your drone batteries and controller battery warm. I use these Zippo electric hand warmers. They’re rechargeable and have a little USB out if you need to emergency charge something. I run them on the lowest setting to keep batteries and the drone warm while I’m hiking or out and about. This keeps my batteries warm so when I’m ready to fly, both the controller and the drone are warm enough to fly without needing to hover for a while to heat up.

Power Banks for Extra Juice

Another thing I take with me a lot to recharge controller batteries or the drone battery are these Anker power banks. They have a couple of USB-C outs, and I use these things a ton. There’s a larger and a smaller version—this is the 20,000 mAh one, and the 27,000 mAh one is also very good. Both will be linked in the description. You can recharge a drone battery with this or get a little more battery life out of your drone or controller if you need to. These go with me everywhere because they’re super valuable, especially when I’m limited on how many batteries or things I can take with me.

Wrapping Up

Next, you’re going to watch this video right here. I’ll see you over there. As always, if you have questions, you can ask me in the comments below or join my livestream, which happens most Wednesday nights at 4:00 p.m. Alaska time, 8:00 p.m. Eastern—at least when I’m not out in a place like this and have to hike a bunch of miles to get home. I’ll see you again soon in the next one. Cheers!