DJI Air 3 Released – 24mm and 70mm Cameras with 4K 100FPS in D-Log M

Drone News

by Jakub HanJuly 25^th, 2023

DJI Air 3 brings a new dual-camera system with 24mm f/1.7 and 70mm f/2.8 lenses paired with 1/1.3″ 48MP sensors. Weighing 720g, the drone has multidirectional obstacle sensing, DJI O4 wireless transmission system, and it can fly for up to 46 minutes. There are also new DJI RC-N2 and RC 2 controllers. The Air 3 starts at $1,099.

The last drone from DJI’s Air series, the Air 2S, has been on the market since 2021. Now, the new generation has arrived. I had the chance to test the drone over a few days before its launch, so make sure to go check out my review article with the video. Now let’s quickly go over the specs and features of the new DJI Air 3.

DJI Air 3-24mm and 70mm dual cameras

First and foremost, the Air 3 now offers two cameras:

• 24mm (full-frame equivalent) f/1.7 1x camera
• 70mm (full-frame equivalent) f/2.8 3x camera

Both cameras are paired with DJI’s 1/1.3″ 48MP (8064 x 6048) 4:3 sensor with 2.4μm pixel size, and they are both capable of the same resolutions and framerates up to 4K UHD. In normal mode, 4K is available in 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, and 60fps. HDR video is also available at up to 4K 60fps.

In slow-motion mode, the drone can record 4K 100fps or FHD 200fps, and the footage is slowed down in the camera and saved as 25fps clips.

There are two color profiles available:

• normal – only 8-bit, and either H.264 or H.265
• D-Log M – 10-bit 4:2:0 in H.265

The video wrapper is MP4 and the bitrate is limited to a maximum of 150Mbps. The drone can also record vertical video at up to 2.7K 60fps and it uses the full height of the 4:3 sensor.

When it comes to still images, the drone can produce 48MP photos with both cameras. These can be saved as either JPEG or DNG raw. Or both. The drone has 8GB internal storage that can be expanded with microSD cards.

Drone body, battery

This is the heaviest drone of the Air series – the take-off weight is 720g. The body has a new design to match the Mavic 3 series. The drone has four sensors on all corners plus a few sensors at the bottom for omnidirectional sensing.

The new DJI O4 wireless transmission system can send a 1080p 60fps video signal further than previously. The maximum distance is 20km according to DJI (FCC, 10km in other regions) which makes the signal more robust. DJI additionally claims that for the frequency band in Europe, 5.1 GHz has been added to improve transmission performance. DJI RC 2 controller now features foldable antennas to take full advantage of the O4.

The new battery charging hub supports a power accumulation function that can (without plugging it in) concentrate power from all the batteries at once. The battery is quite large, and with its 4241mAh capacity, it keeps the drone in the air for up to 46 minutes.

Smart features

Of course, there are many smart features in the drone. A few of these are:

• FocusTrack for both cameras – Consisting of Spotlight 2.0, ActiveTrack 5.0, and Point of Interest 3.0
• QuickShots – DJI Air 3 can automatically perform camera movements like Rocket, Dronie, Circle, Helix, Boomerang, and Asteroid
• MasterShots – Allows the DJI Air 3 to automatically perform diverse camera movements, shoot multiple clips, edit the clips, and add music to automatically generate a video.
• Night Mode – By boosting noise reduction, the DJI Air 3 can capture up to 4K/30fps footage in low-light environments.
• Hyperlapse: Select from four sub-modes of Free, Circle, Course Lock, and Waypoint to shoot up to 4K horizontal or 2.7K vertical timelapse footage.

The LightCut app can create video edits automatically, after wirelessly transferring footage from the drone to the phone.

Waypoint Flight is available on the Air Series for the first time. The user can plan flight routes for the DJI Air 3 in advance to achieve camera movements like one-takes. Pilots can also save a flight route to repeat the exact same mission later, making it easy to create long-duration timelapse videos such as day to night or season to season.

Price and availability

The DJI Air 3 is available now with three different configurations:

• DJI Air 3 with RC-N2 costs $1,099 (around €1,099 with VAT in Europe)
• DJI Air 3 Fly More Combo with RC-N2 sells for $1,349 (around €1,349 with VAT in Europe)
• DJI Air 3 Fly More Combo with RC 2 sells for $1,549 (around €1,549 with VAT in Europe)

As always, there are a wide variety of accessories (such as ND filters, wide-angle lens adapter, car charger, etc.) that can all be purchased separately.

What do you think about the new DJI Air 3 drone? Is it a worthy successor of the “Air line”? Let us know in the comments section underneath the article.