Introduction

Flying to supplant 2023’s Air 3 as DJI’s mid-range camera drone flagship product, the Air 3S is aimed at aerial imaging enthusiasts looking for a little more video and photo power than the ultra-light DJI Mini series can provide, but who aren’t willing to spend a lot money for one of DJI’s high-end Mavic drones. .

As Air 3 before it, the Air 3S came with a dual-camera setup, pairing a “standard” wide-angle camera with a specialized mid-telephoto lens. It also introduces a number of improvements, not only in terms of image quality, but also in terms of flight safety and onboard storage capabilities.

With introductory prices starting at US$1,099/£959, the DJI Air 3S looks like good value for money. I spent a week flying it to find out if it was the ideal mid-range camera drone or a worthwhile upgrade for current owners of a Mini or Air model.

Design and construction: weight limits

There’s one elephant in the room when it comes to the DJI Air 3S, and that’s its weight. Not that it looks in any way like a big, heavy drone, you understand: it folds up to a pleasantly portable size and, at 724g, can be stored in a small bag if you want to take it out for the day .

The problem with its weight is that, at over 250g, it is in a class of drone that is legally difficult to fly anywhere you would actually want to fly a drone, at least in the UK. The Civil Aviation Authority rules on drones are an overly complex and overly restrictive mess in my opinion, but put simply, you can fly a drone weighing less than 250g almost anywhere (provided you register as an operator, obtain an identity card and take a simple and free online test regarding the rules).

As soon as your drone becomes heavier, flight restrictions come into effect: you must stay 50m horizontally from uninvolved people, never fly above anyone, and stay 150m (again, horizontally) from sites residential, recreational, commercial and industrial. This is not just built-up areas, but also places like parks and beaches. So you can see how this would limit legal absconding in almost any town or even village in the UK.

If a drone owner undertakes and passes the A2 Certificate of Competence (CofC), which requires spending around £100 to complete a course and take a proctored online exam, they can fly the Air 3S in what is called subcategory A2 of the open category. meaning the 150m rule is removed – but they must still stay at least 50m away from people, or where people may appear. Please note that this only applies to recreational flying; If you want to make money from your Air 3S images or photos, you’ll have to jump through a bunch of other more expensive hoops.

So, the Air 3S is really reserved for drone enthusiasts. Casual users who want to fly it often and with minimal hassle or risk of breaking the law should opt for an ultralight drone like the DJI Mini 4Pro or the recently released DJI Neo.

That being said, I will say that the Air 3S is designed and built to DJI’s usual high standards. The only parts of the drone that seem slightly delicate are the propellers, as well as the camera and its gimbal; these latter bits can be protected by a hard plastic cover when not in use. I reviewed the Fly More Combo Pack which also included extra batteries, a battery charging hub, a set of ND filters, an RC 2 touchscreen controller, and a high-quality shoulder bag to store it all and, well While this obviously increases the price a bit, it makes it much easier to keep all the pieces together and in good condition.

Flight performance and functionality: safety first

The Air 3 was a safe aircraft, equipped with an omnidirectional vision-based sensor array that would prevent it from colliding with trees, walls, street lights and other obstacles. This has been improved slightly for the Air 3S, with the front of the array now using powerful LiDAR technology. This increases obstacle avoidance capabilities at night, but only forward, of course – the rest of the sensors remain vision-based and therefore much less effective after sunset.

Due to the aforementioned restrictions on flying the Air 3S, I wasn’t able to test this low-light avoidance technology to the extent I would have liked. That being said, every time I flew the drone, I noticed that the direction and proximity of potential obstacles were indicated on the controller’s screen. So it’s clear that the detection works, but I’d like to see how it performs when paired with autopilot modes such as ActiveTrack 360º, which will track and film a moving subject with the camera while performing various movements and bypassing detected obstacles.

From how I tested it for myself, I found the flight to be completely painless. The Air 3S is very wind-resistant (it will stay put in winds up to about 30 mph, in fact), responds quickly to commands, and comes with the usual quality-of-life features like automatic takeoff and return . -House. It also features the same excellent O4 transmission technology as the Air 3, meaning excellent control range (up to 10km in theory) and a clear, low-latency 1080p/60fps live stream transmitted from the drone camera to the controller screen.

Battery life is indeed very solid. The drone can fly for up to 45 minutes on a fully charged battery according to DJI and, although in reality this figure is slightly lower, the time spent in the air is still impressive.

Camera performance: twice as nice

As mentioned, DJI has made some improvements to the Air 3’s dual-camera setup here. But only slightly. The Air 3 used two 1/1.3-inch 48MP CMOS sensors; The Air 3S upgrades the wide-angle camera sensor to a 50MP 1in CMOS. The average remote sensor remains the same. There may be some other very minor tweaks to the imaging, but the main improvement is that the wide-angle camera is now better in low light and able to capture a wider dynamic range than it was on the Air 3.

The 70mm-equivalent telephoto camera is a great support for the 24mm-equivalent wide-angle camera, although it hasn’t been much improved over its predecessor. Having a telephoto lens has allowed me to compress the perspective of photos and especially videos to create a more dramatic look to a shot, or simply to get closer to a distant subject without having to physically bring the drone closer.

One thing I found disappointing is the fact that both cameras still have fixed apertures. This limits the user’s ability to adjust shutter speeds and means that installing ND filters is almost essential in bright sunlight – at least for users who want complete control over the appearance of their images.

The image quality of the Air 3S is excellent for the price and size of the drone. You can record 4K footage at up to 60fps (or 120fps in slow motion), using standard 8-bit and 10-bit color profiles or 10-bit HLG and 10-bit D-Log M profiles. I used the latter for the sample shots you see here, grading and correcting the images in DaVinci Resolve Studio to maximize dynamic range. As you can see, the drone performs very well at dusk, with low noise and sharp colors, especially with the wide-angle camera.

Photos can be shot at 12MP or 48/50MP and taken in JPEG or DNG RAW format. The sample photos you see here were taken in RAW and processed using Adobe Lightroom.

The DJI Air 3S verdict

While I loved reviewing the Air 3S and capturing images with its cameras, it’s a difficult drone to recommend to UK-based consumers. This is not DJI’s fault at all, but it is CAA’s responsibility. The body’s rules about where you can and can’t fly just seem too restrictive (even for pilots with a CofC A2) to the point that if you don’t live near the sea or have no access to private land, it seems pointless to own one. A sub-250g model from the DJI Mini line simply makes a lot more sense.

For those based elsewhere or willing to put up with additional paperwork, costs and ownership limitations, this is a fantastic buy for the money. It builds on the Air 3’s dual-camera capabilities (not to the point where Air 3 owners have to upgrade, mind you) and delivers excellent video and aerial photo quality while being easy to fly and to transport.

Technical specifications of the DJI Air 3S

Flight time	45 minutes
Cameras	1 x 50MP wide angle, 1 x 48MP medium tele
Video quality	4K/60p (120p slow motion)
Connectivity	42 GB internal and microSD card slot
Dimensions	214x101x89mm (folded), 724g