I had my 1st experience with a Mavic Air this past weekend. It is an amazing piece of tech and the vids are beautiful. I was unaware, however, of it's online requirement. It operated fine where no cell signal exists, so there must be a way to dark comm it. However, I wouldn't give them $ in the first place with such a requirement.

Too bad, I was considering one in lieu of a full frame dslr. Looks like hi-res, poorly shot photos are back on the menu.

Even their handheld video cameras require online activation. It’s madness.