TL;DR
- Sony has announced the Airpeak drone.
- The new drone is capable of lugging your DSLR camera.
Sony Airpeak has won Android Authority‘s CES 2021 Top Picks Award for Best Camera Accessory. Check out all the awards here.
Sony teased the release of a drone late last year, and we’ve had a few rumors since, but things are finally official. If you were hoping for a new consumer-class quadcopter to compete with the popular DJI products on store shelves near you, you might be disappointed, however, if you are looking for a powerful professional drone, able to haul a full frame mirrorless DSLR into the sky, this may be the drone for you!
The Sony Airpeak drone was announced at CES 2021, digitally, of course. Sony did not shower us with details about the new machine, particularly with the official release set for later this spring, they’ve got time to make some changes before printing a spec sheet.
While we await concrete details, Sony makes it pretty clear that they are doing this for the passion of aerial photography, with a touch of AI robotics mixed in. The Airpeak is a single aircraft now, but they call this a “brand,” so we hope to see many more drones from the company as they gain experience in the sky.
The Airpeak aircraft is designed to carry Sony’s Alpha cameras. The promo images show the drone carrying an A7 in a 3-axis stabilized center-hanging gimbal. Other material shows the drone shooting 4K aerial video using the Alpha A7S III.
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Considering the size and caliber of drone we’re seeing, we must compare the new Sony Airpeak to machines such as the Intel Falcon 8+ and DJI M600 Pro. The Intel drone is designed to carry a Sony Alpha camera as well, and it has a starting price at about $42,000. The DJI M600 Pro can be had for less than that, and relies on the versatile Ronin camera rigs to attach the camera to the drone. Either way, Sony is competing in a high-end market with the Airpeak.
Are you a drone professional looking to get your hands on this drone before the public? Sony is accepting applications for collaborators to help finalize the specs and features of the Airpeak platform. If you are not a drone professional, with a proven drone business, you’ll have to wait until later in spring 2021 to get your hands on this flying machine. Hopefully we won’t have to wait that long to get more details about the airframe.
Stay tuned to our partners at Drone Rush if you would like more details on the new Sony Airpeak, or any other drone on the market.
