Sony announced its first drone Airpeak S1 at CES2021, and today announced its price, reaching $8999.99, and will start pre-sale this fall.
The entire Airpeak S1 system is composed of S1 drone, Gremsy T3 gimbal, camera and lens, remote control, Airpeak Flight mobile iOS application, Airpeak Base Web App and Airpeak Plus cloud service. US$8999.99 only includes the drone, 4 propellers, the remote control, 2 batteries, and charger. The gimbal, camera, and lens need to be purchased separately. Currently, only four Sony a1, a9 II, a7S III, A7R IV cameras, and FX3 cameras are supported.
Similar to the DJI Inspire series, the Sony Airpeak S1 is a four-axis drone with a folding design, but it is larger in size, with a diameter of 64.4 cm, a maximum speed of 55.9 mph, and an acceleration of 3.5 seconds from 0 to 50 mph. The pitch angle is 55 °, the wind resistance is 44.7 mph (20m/s), and the payload capacity is 5.58 lbs (2.53 kg). When using the A7S3 body and 24mm F1.4 GM lens, the battery life is only 12 minutes, which is less than that of half of Inspire 2. Since it does not contain a camera, the drone integrates 5 stereo cameras and 2 infrared rangefinder sensors for shooting front, bottom, left, right, and rear images in various directions, and uses Sony’s vision sensor processing. It supports two-person operation, one person is responsible for driving the drone, and the other person controls the camera.
I have to say that the price Sony Airpeak S1 is too expensive. Although it has a speed advantage, it is a price that does not include a gimbal and camera, and it only supports Sony’s own camera/camcorder. The battery life is only pitiful of 12 minutes. In contrast, the DJI Inspire 2 Advanced Kit with Zenmuse X7 Gimbal & 16mm/2.8 ASPH ND Lens set priced at only 9399 US dollars is simply cost-effective.
Jason 
Ken Cheng 
James Chow 