Sony announces “the world’s smallest drone able to be equipped with a full-frame α [Alpha] camera”
(Image credit: Sony)
Sony first unveiled its new commercial drone back in January 2021, but with little information and just a handful of images. We surmised it was designed for Sony Alpha mirrorless cameras and that’s now been confirmed by Sony’s latest announcements – together with many more details about its features, pricing and availability.
The Sony Airpeak S1 (ARS-S1) is designed as a commercial drone for professional users and is a big step up from the average consumer camera drone. Sony has not yet revealed its payload capacity, but the price, when it goes on sale in September 2021, will be 1,100,000 yen, including taxes, which is around $10,000 in US dollars. That’s in the same broad ballpark as other commercial drones, but a lot more than the DJI Matrice 600 Pro, for example.
• Proprietary motor, propellor, control system and sensing technology, with obstacle detection
• AirPeak Flight remote controller to operate the aircraft, camera and gimbal, with live view, iOS and iPadOS compatible
• Maximum speed 90km/h
• Maximum angular velocity 180°/s
• Maximum tilt angle 55°
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• Wind resistance of up to 20m/s
• 17-inch propellor and brushless motor with ESC (Electric Speed Controller)
• Stereo cameras in 5 locations (front, back, left, right, bottom), with Sony Vision Sensing Processor for stable flight even where GNSS reception may be affected or hindered.
• Integrated visual and sensor information including IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), direction, barometric pressure, infrared ranging.
• Designed for A7S series cameras, FX3, A7R and A9 series, plus the Sony A1.
• Automatic Flight Missions via web-based AirPeak Base app.
• AirPeak Plus cloud service and AirPeak Protect Plan to cover accidental damage.
The Sony AirPeak Flight remote controller, iOS and iPadOS compatible (Image credit: Sony)
Sony AirPeak S1 price and availability
Sony has quoted September 2021 as the date when the AirPeak S1 will become available, and while the official press release quotes an “Open Price”, it also estimates a price of 1,100,000 yen, or approximately $10,000.
Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com
