CAMERA DRONE TEST: EXPERT OPINION ON THE LATEST KIT

The DJI Air 2S redefines what’s possible with drone photography, putting a one-inch sensor in a tiny package and surrounding it with sophisticated safety and compositional aids. On the other hand, it could be seen as just taking the already extremely capable DJI Air 2, and bumping the specs a bit.

- Adam Juniper

DJI AIR 2S

This drone packs a pro-sized camera into a compact frame

www.dji.com £899/$999

Key features

The Air 2S’s predecessor, the Air 2, sported a 48-megapixel camera with quad-Bayer filter, which many would see as effectively 12 megapixels at 1.6 microns. The new camera beats that with 5472 x 3648 pixels (20MP) at 2.4 microns – this is thanks to an upgrade in the image sensor size from half an inch to one inch.

The Air 2S’s aperture is fixed at f/2.8, but the lens design means that this is where you get the best results for drone-based shooting.

Turning to video, the bump to a maximum of 5.4K (5472 x 3078) would impress on any drone, even if it is at 30fps. Drop down to 4K (3840 x 2160), and not only ia the entire image zoomed quite significantly to match the crop, but frame rates rise to 60fps.

Build and handling

The Air 2S is clearly built on the Air 2’s frame, with different shell elements in order to accommodate the extra sensors top-front – depending on your taste, you may think it looks all the better for having a few more ‘eyes’.

The three-axis gimbal behaved without issue in our testing. Looking back at the room afforded to the gimbal on the Air 2, it seemed entirely plausible that DJI could build a model with a bigger camera, and though the overall weight climbs 25g to 595g, the drone feels just as nimble in the air. The loss of three minutes of flight time, to 31, doesn’t sound significant, but we were aware that we were able to get slightly less done in the air.

The controller is the same as the one introduced with the Air 2, which marked a significant improvement in terms of battery life and phone grip.

Performance