Last year, DJI announced their first digital FPV system ecosystem which promised to provide the ultimate first-person view experience. DJI’s FPV system has 4 main parts: camera, VTX, goggles, and a remote controller. The biggest problem of their FPV Air Unit was its large size and weight, which makes it difficult to use it in smaller drones. While the CADDX VISTA HD is smaller, lighter, and $30 cheaper than the DJI FPV Air Unit, it provides about the same performance (range and latency).
Featuring the same DJI FPV camera with 1/3.2” CMOS image sensor and 2.1mm, it should be no difference, in terms of image quality, between CADDX VISTA HD and DJI FPV Air Unit.
CADDX VISTA HD vs DJI FPV Air Unit: In-Depth Comparison Guide
In the table below I will try to compare the most important specs of both FPV digital systems. I highlighted with red were the CADDX VISTA excels and with green were the DJI FPV Air Unit shines.
| CADDX VISTA HD | DJI FPV Air Unit | |
| Weight | Camera + VTX: 29 grams | Camera + VTX: 45.8 grams |
| Dimensions | Vista Kit: 30 × 29 × 13 mm Camera: 27.4 × 21.1 × 20.1 mm Coaxial Cable: 80 mm |
Air Unit: 44 × 37.8 × 14.4 mm Camera: 27.4 × 21.1 × 20.1 mm Coaxial Cable: 100 mm |
| Operating Frequency | 5.725-5.850 GHz | 5.725-5.850 GHz |
| Transmitter Power (EIRP) | FCC/SRRC: <30 dBm CE: <14 dBm |
FCC/SRRC: <30 dBm CE: <14 dBm |
| Max. Transmission Distance | FCC: <4 km CE: <0.7 km |
FCC: <4 km CE: <0.7 km |
| Channels | 8 | 8 |
| Min. Latency (end-to-end) | Low Latency Mode (720p/120fps): <28 ms High-Quality Mode (720p/60fps): <40 ms |
Low Latency Mode (720p/120fps): <28 ms High-Quality Mode (720p/60fps): <40 ms |
| Image sensor | 1/3.2” CMOS (4MP) | 1/3.2” CMOS (4MP) |
| Lens | 2.1 mm, f/2.1 | 2.1 mm, f/2.1 |
| FOV | 150°(D); 122°(H); 93°(V) | 150°(D); 122°(H); 93°(V) |
| Antenna inputs | 1 | 2 |
| On-board DVR | No | Yes |
| Input power | 7.4~26.4V | 7.4~17.6V |
| Price | $149.99 – Order from BG | $179 – Order from DJI |
Conclusions
One of the biggest downsides of the CADDX VISTA HD unit is the lack of on-board recording capability. It doesn’t have an SD card slot like the DJI Air unit. The only way to record footage with the Vista is with your DJI Goggles.
For sure, the biggest advantage of the CADDX VISTA HD over the DJI FPV Air Unit is the smaller size and lower weight. With 20×20/25.5×25.5 mounting holes can be used on smaller Toothpick and TinyWhoop style FPV drones.
Despite that the VISTA HD VTX has only one antenna input, it promises the same range as the DJI FPV Air Unit with two antennas.
Great comparison review. Thank you!
Great comparison post! I’m really torn between these two HD digital options for my first FPV drone. Both seem to have their pros and cons, and it’s hard to decide which one is the best fit for me. Can you elaborate on the differences in the video transmission range and quality between the two FPV systems?
Thanks for taking the time to include the comparison chart, very helpful.
Joshua Bardwell says that Caddx ends partnership with DJI. Vista vTX will be no longer supplied :(. Air UNIT also discontinued…
It is official:
Dear Pilots,
DJI decided to stop cooperating with CADDX, here we express our understanding of any their decision.
CADDXFPV and DJI cooperated at a very special circumstance, vista is a CADDX-defined product authorized by DJI. We are very grateful for the two years of cooperation with DJI and their support to us. The cooperation between CADDXFPV and DJI is a win-win process. Thanks to DJI for improving the brand influence of CADDXFPV, CADDXFPV has also made big effort to assist in promoting FPV HD digital system. In 2021, DJI stopped production of air unit cameras due to sanctions. CADDXFV, as a small company, took great risks and purchased 200000pcs sensor & IC from ON Semiconductor, packaged chips by ourselves, so as to continue production of air unit and vista kit, until now, we still have a large inventory of chips. At the same time, we helped to take over the millions of DJI’s inventory of material.
The exclusive agreement between CADDXFPV and DJI has already expired, and the market strategies of both companies are no longer restricted. DJI is free to bring in new agents, and CADDX is free to develop own product. As the production of the old generation of air unit products will be discontinued, and DJI’s new system no longer opened the camera to us, we could no longer do anything for the new DJI system, we decided to develop our own AVATAR system.
Caddxfpv has experienced great challenges through cooperation with large companies like DJI, and it is also in such challenges that we have grown a lot. In the past two years, we have encountered many out-of-stock situations, but what hurts us more is that we got many feedback and suggestions from pilots, however, the needs and suggestions of the pilots cannot be satisfied. Seeing the complaints and helplessness of the pilots, we can’t do anything.
We can fully understand the difficulty of handling any change as a large company like DJI, we also don’t want to see the needs of pilots ignored, that’s why we strengthened our determination to focus on FPV field. We understand that only by developing our own products and possessing our own core technology can we provide users with better products and services, and the feedback and opinions of customers can be truly adopted and the products can be continuously improved.
Therefore, Caddxfpv has been working hard to invest in research and development, although we already know that this choice will meet a lot of challenges, but we will firmly invest. Caddx will bring many excellent new products to the FPV community in the near future, such as the action camera which pilots want, and the 1S 1080p VTX, FPV 4K recording VTX etc, let’s looks forward together, we believe that our efforts will not let the FPV community disappointed.
Finally, thank you all for your support to CADDXFPV all the time, and hope that you can continue to support us. At this moment, your support is our motivation to move forward.
End of a beautiful marriage
FYI, Vistas were always made by DJI, only cameras were manufactured by Caddx
The Vista is good if you want somethin small and cheap, but the Air Unit is the way to go! Dual antenna, onboard recording and more!
I have flown my 5.8 analog with other guys running both air and vista. The air units play fine with analog pilots, but the vista stomp all over my video!!
Where can I find a Caddx Vista or a DJI Air Unit in Canada (Calgary)?
I bought an AU back in May from Visions electronics (web & shipped from Vancouver) and then they went out of stock. seems to be the last few of the DJI branded AU, Everything is out right now and closest you can get is a vista or AU with Caddx’s polar starlight camera which can only do 60fps and has a 16:9 which is not to my liking. I have 2 quads sitting & waiting for the Nebula Pro to come back but don’t think anytime soon – they can’t source the chip in the pro camera that does low latency mode. You can still buy the polar kit from Rotorlab FPV (Vancouver), Airblade UAV (Vancouver), and Rotorvillage (MB). All good shops domestically and i bought from all of them before. They should have this in stock at the moment.
P.S. I’m in YYC too. Do you know of anyone else locally into FPV? it’s such a small community so i fly alone most of the time, and most ppl from FB are photo drone ppl. Hit me up if you’d like to meet up.
Anthony
The 16:8 of DJI Air Unit and CADDX VISTA is just zoomed 4:3 ? or it actually gives a larger FOV?
Caddx knows about the Air 2? When they came up with a dual-band and more compact Vista?
It is called Air Unit Micro
Please give me your best reasons to go digital FPV (CADDX or DJI)
Compatibility if you already fly and have dji goggles and non-fpv dji remote then you can bnf all iflight hd or any air units
I’m trying to pairing the V2 goggles and Caddx Vista without luck. Any advice on how to make these two things work together.
DJI V2 Air Unit is coming next month!
That was a bad guess.
DJI AU is pretty big and heavy compared to Caddx Vista.
I’m about to start my FPV journey, and from research, the HD digital versions of everything seem so much better and efficient than 5.8G analogue, I’m going to get the Dji V2 goggles soon are these older DJI Air and Caddx Vista units 100% compatible with the new goggles?
Looks like we are going back to analogue. DJI stops selling the Air unit. If Caddx follows all ended here…
Anyone using the Caddx Vista in a ground platform (4×4 car) and having issues with overheating? Does DJI Air unit have the same problem? Or maybe the bigger size provides better heat dissipation?
you can install a tiny cooling fan
Shark Byte digital VTX is better than Caddx Vista and Dji Air Unit?
How is the signal stability of the Air Unit against the Vista? Mine loses sometimes the connection with the goggles :(
Good to know:
-Dji Air Unit is up to 4s only
-Vista can handle up to 6s
use an SBEC
Vista is best for small builds
Caddx Vista if you run a naked GoPro, DJI Air unit if you need recording on-board.