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Just over a year after its first official teaser, the Sony Airpeak drone is finally on sale – and the price is launching it firmly to professional filmmakers with studio budgets.
The Airpeak S1 is Sony’s first drone and is available to order for $ 8,999 in the US (around £ 6,760 / AU $ 12,670). The expedition is slated to begin on December 24, which means it could be missing stockings from the enthusiastic directors.
Still, it’s good to hear that the Airpeak will be out in the wild soon, given that the project was first announced in November 2020. Unlike DJI’s drones, which mostly have built-in cameras, the Sony Airpeak is designed to carry the entirety of Sony. frame mirrorless cameras, like the Sony A7S III and Sony FX3.
Mount a Sony A1 camera in the Airpeak and you will have a full frame drone capable of filming in 8K resolution. Although we’ve seen an 8K drone in the Autel Evo II before, this drone has a significantly smaller 1/2 inch sensor.
So what else do you get for your $ 9,000? Beyond the ability to carry full frame cameras, another advantage of the Airpeak’s size is its wind resistance – Sony claims it can stay stable in winds of 44.7 mph, which is roughly twice the wind resistance of one of its closest rivals, the DJI Inspire 2.
The Airpeak S1 can also reach top speeds of 55.9 mph, making it agile enough to chase cars in action scenes, while its combination of stereo cameras and a vision detection processor makes it capable of driving. gives real-time 3D spatial awareness, much like drones of the likes of DJI and Skydio.
You also get an RCR-VH1 controller, which allows you to control the drone, gimbal and camera, although there is also a dual operation mode which allows two people to independently control the aircraft and the camera. . This is probably the most common setup on professional shoots, especially with over $ 10,000 worth of equipment in the air.
A little more limiting, however, is the estimated flight time of 22 minutes – and that’s payload-free. Once you’ve got a camera on board, like the Sony A7S III with an FE 24mm f / 1.4 GM lens, that battery life drops to just 12 minutes. Even though you can hot-swap batteries without turning off the Airpeak, that means filmmakers will need to be very clear about the shot they want before take off.
Analysis: Sony flies into airspace vacated by DJI
The Sony Airpeak S1 may not be the direct DJI rival hobbyist pilots have hoped for, but it makes perfect sense as the first drone for the professional full-frame camera maker.
In recent years, DJI has focused more on making foldable and compact drones for filmmakers, recently packing its latest technology into the relatively small DJI Mavic 3. Although the latter weighs less than 900g, the Airpeak is 3.5 times heavier without any batteries – and is something of an albatross in terms of wingspan, too.
DJI has the Inspire 2 in its lineup, which is geared towards professional filmmakers as well, and supports cameras like the Zenmuse X5S for shooting 5.2K / 30p footage. But it’s now five years old, and DJI’s other big drones – like the slightly terrifying Matrice 300 series – are more designed for emergency services, aviation safety, and search and rescue teams.
It’s possible that DJI will respond with a rival Airpeak, but Sony’s integration of the drone with its full-frame cameras – not to mention studios like Sony Pictures – means it’s likely to be the aerial platform of choice for many professional filmmakers, especially those who already use Alpha cameras on the ground.
The question for amateur travelers is whether or not the Airpeak S1 will be the flagship drone in a series that will eventually include mainstream models, or if it is simply a one-off toy for directors. Our money is on Sony sticking to the high end business space, but that doesn’t mean we’re not also very keen on seeing a mini Sony Airpeak RX100.
