DJI Air 3S Review, a 1-Inch Main Camera and a 70mm Tele in a Folding Drone

The DJI Air 3S is the drone most photographers should look at first. It puts a 1-inch sensor on the main camera, keeps a 70mm tele camera next to it, and still folds into a small bag. DJI announced it on October 15, 2024 at $1,099 with the basic RC-N3 controller.

It sits between the Mini and the Mavic. At 724 grams it’s too heavy for the sub-250g exemptions, so you register it in the US and the UK, and in the EU it carries a C1 class label. In return you get a much bigger sensor than the older Minis, a second lens and up to 45 minutes of flight.

Video review: Billy Kyle

Two cameras, and the wide one got big

The wide camera is a 50MP 1-inch sensor behind a 24mm-equivalent f/1.8 lens. That’s the upgrade. The Air 3 had two small 1/1.3-inch sensors, and the bigger chip gives cleaner shadows at sunrise and raw files that hold up to heavy edits.

The second camera is the same 70mm f/2.8 tele the Air 3 had, with a 48MP 1/1.3-inch sensor. It compresses distance, so a castle and the hills behind it stack up in the frame, and you can frame a subject without flying right on top of it. Push past about 6x digital zoom and detail falls apart.

Both cameras record 4K up to 120fps and 1080p at 240fps. D-Log M and HLG give you 10-bit files to grade. Vertical 2.7K at up to 60fps covers Reels and Shorts without cropping a landscape frame.

Safer to fly than it looks

Obstacle sensing covers every direction, and a forward LiDAR helps with plain walls and dim light, where cameras alone struggle. DJI says the vision system now works down to 5 lux, so coming home after sunset is less nerve-racking. Sport mode switches avoidance off. Remember that.

O4 transmission is rated at 20 km under FCC rules and 10 km under CE. Wind resistance is 12 m/s. About 42GB of internal storage backs up the microSD card, handy when the card fills mid-flight.

What reviewers didn’t love

It’s a small step from the Air 3. The tele camera, motors and transmission carry over. Low-light footage still gets noisy, there’s no night mode, and the default sharpening looks overdone. A few reviewers saw odd flare from bright lights at night.

Price climbs fast, too. The Fly More combo with three batteries was $1,399 with the RC-N3 and $1,599 with the DJI RC 2 screen controller. You’ll want the extra batteries.

Who it’s for

Landscape and travel photographers who want real image quality without the bulk and price of the DJI Mavic 4 Pro. If you care more about weight rules than a second lens, the DJI Mini 5 Pro is the one to compare. For two cameras in a carry-on, the Air 3S is still the balanced pick. Add a set of ND filters if you shoot video in daylight.

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