I wasn't very surprised when I woke up to the news that Sony is discontinuing the Airpeak S1 drone. Even when it was first shown at CES 2021, the drone looked a little anachronistic compared to the exciting design of DJI's Inspire series – not the kind of thing you'd expect from the company that introduced the world to portable audio, via the Walkman, long before iPods and the best iPhones!
To be fair, Sony wasn't making a play anywhere near the consumer space, and looks weren't crucial. The Airpeak S1 is closer to broadcast equipment – another of Sony's fiefdoms – and even though DJI's drones also dominate here, the more adaptable Matrice series drones are not beautiful creatures either.
Where Sony made things weird was by making the product so hard to buy. Pricing at $8,999 in the US without a main camera or gimbal made it flexible, but put it well above even the Mavic 3 series – a capable drone for aerial shots which, even in its Cine edition, comes in at under half that.
Instead Sony was clearly expecting you to add a Sony camera – so, logically, you'd also be forking out the extra $2,200 for one of the two Gremsy gimbals Sony offered. That's right, Sony needed a partner just to attach a Sony camera to a Sony drone – all okay for pros happy with a bit of tinkering, but very alarming for some consumers looking for a high-end drone.
This compared especially badly to the DJI Inspire, which now feels a lot closer in price, since the gimbal / lens mount attaches directly to the bottom of the drone while Sony's solution – designed to hoist your Sony cameras and lenses – immediately looks like it's going to require calibration time.
Experienced drone operators like me also worry about promised battery times when more uncertainty goes into the overall weight – Sony said it could lift an A7S III and FE 24m F1.4 GM for 12 minutes (or, rather uselessly, 22 minutes without payload) but I got a lot longer from the Inspire 3 with lens in my reviews.
So, fair enough, the world wasn't set on fire by Sony's first drone, but it didn't fall out of the sky all over the place (hard stare at GoPro) – it was just a bit of an odd offering. Plus, Sony had done a lot of work establishing Airpeak Base (a web app) and Airpeak Flight (a flight control app). Why not just iterate?
Moreover, the drone market is no longer subject to simple market forces. In the USA, at least, a clampdown on Chinese drones in general – and DJI in particular – has manifested itself in ways that have already prevented government-connected services from acquiring DJI drones, and now even seem to be preventing the sale of consumer models through means like customs blocks stopping the Air 3S.
Sony, as a Japanese – not Chinese – company ought to be gearing up to take advantage of this political landscape.
Perhaps the decision was already made a while ago. The Sony ILX-LR1 – the company's extra-light 61MP drone-ready camera from 2023 – was not even made compatible with the Airpeak (and no new gimbal came). I asked about that when I held it at Drone X 2023 and received no comment.
Or perhaps sometimes Sony is just too big to communicate internally? Perhaps it has taken a more global outlook and failed to see the opportunities available in the US (unlike Skydio and the lobbying debate)?
All that is a shame – and while the Airpeak wasn't really one of the best non-DJI drones for most users, we live in volatile times. Many commentators feel the era of the GATT/WTO free trade consensus is crumbling (including the Bloomberg editorial board). In the world of drones, the barriers to trade that are emerging could be beneficial to Sony.
If Sony is quick, it might be able to take advantage of the lessons and come back with a range of more accessible products, ideally addressing some consumer and prosumer needs as well as the high-end. Otherwise American creators, at least, might really feel that their options are shrinking.
If the best DJI drones aren't right for you, check out the best camera drones from all manufacturers.
