Latest Air Series Model Offers Expanded Features

Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technologies Ltd.—more widely known as Da Jiang Innovations, or simply DJI—is a Chinese state-backed designer and manufacturer of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). DJI drones are widely used in the music, television, and film industries. In 2021 DJI models accounted for approximately 76-percent of consumer drone sales.

On 25 July 2023, DJI debuted its Air 3 model, a formidable addition to the company’s Air Series featuring dual primary cameras—a wide-angle and a 3x medium tele-camera—of eminent usefulness to aerial photography enthusiasts.

The advanced and well-rounded Air 3 drone captures highly-detailed 48-Megapixel (MP) photos and 4K/60-Frames-Per-Second (FPS) videos, and is capable of remaining aloft for up to 46-minutes between charges. What’s more, the Air 3 model offers users omnidirectional obstacle sensing, DJI’s O4 HD Video Transmission System, and numerous additional flagship features.

DJI creative director Ferdinand Wolf stated: “The DJI Air 3 is the first drone of our Air Series which offers professional features like dual primary cameras and omnidirectional obstacle sensing and at the same time retaining its lightweight capabilities with a weight of just 720-grams for more freedom and flexibility. The drone is the perfect all-rounder for your outdoor adventures and offers you a more diverse camera language.”

DJI’s Air 3 features the Air Series’s first dual-primary camera system, which comprises a 1/1.3-inch Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) wide-angle camera and a 1/1.3-inch CMOS 3x medium tele-camera housed in a compact airframe. The two cameras share a common sensor size but have different focal-lengths—an arrangement that occasions more consistent image quality and more diverse camera language.

Sweeping landscapes can be captured more fully by the wide-angle camera’s 2.4-μm pixel size, 24-mm format equivalent and a F1.7 aperture. Conversely, the Air 3’s 3x medium tele-camera offers 2.4-μm pixel size, 70-mm format equivalent and a F2.8 aperture. The latter camera’s 3x optical zoom enables users to create strong senses of spatial compression and unique perspectives, thereby broadening the possibilities of aerial photography.

By virtue of the wide Field Of View (FOV) of the Air 3’s wide-angle camera, pilots may embrace entire landscapes or switch to the 3x medium tele-camera and capture subjects as bold focal points—with the landscape before and behind the subject seemingly within reach. Both cameras offer 48-MP photos and support post-cropping for ease of secondary composition.

The DJI Air 3 sports two 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensors that support dual native ISO for direct output of 4K/60-FPS HDR video at high frame rates and up to 4K/100-FPS maximum video specification. Both cameras support 10-bit D-Log M and 10-bit HLG color modes. Ten-bit D-Log M mode can retain more highlight and shadow details for more flexible post-production.

The DJI Air 3 is the first drone of the Air Series to support 2.7K vertical video shooting (9:16), which can be shared immediately on social-media.

The Air 3’s new battery charging hub features a power-accumulation function by which users may press and hold the function button to transfer the remaining power of multiple batteries to the battery with the highest remaining power-level. The feature affords pilots the freedom and flexibility to capture the best-possible images and video recordings.

The Air 3 is the first drone in DJI’s Air Series to include omnidirectional obstacle sensing—a feature that facilitates comprehensive environmental awareness and allows the drone to autonomously detect and avoid obstacles by way of forward, aft, and downward-facing fisheye lenses. Upon detecting an obstacle, the Air 3 can also utilize APAS 5.0 to actively avoid and smoothly bypass such.

The Air 3’s ActiveTrack function further frees pilots’ hands and works with Advanced RTH8 to achieve fully automatic flight as well as worry-free return-to-home.

Finally, DJI’s next generation O4 video transmission system allows the Air 3 to be assertively operated at transmission distances of up to twenty-kilometers.

The DJI Air 3 may be ordered via store.dji.com and authorized DJI retail partners. Prices range from:

• DJI Air 3 (DJI RC-N2), $1,099.
• DJI Air 3 Fly More Combo (DJI RC-N2), $1,349.
• DJI Air 3 Fly More Combo (DJI RC 2), $1,549.

Prospective buyers should note that the governments of numerous Western nations contend DJI operates in collaboration with the Chinese Communist Party—contentions lent credence by the fact Beijing is a direct investor in DJI and maintains broad control over the company’s operations.

In December 2021, concerns over drone features conducive to espionage compelled the U.S. government to add DJI to a Treasury Department blacklist. Furthermore, in April 2023, the Florida state legislature enacted a law prohibiting state governmental, police, and similarly-critical infrastructural agencies from utilizing DJI drones.

FMI: www.dji.com