DJI Air 3S Camera Drone Is Insane – It Is Still A BEAST 6 Months Later

The camera drone I’ve been exclusively using for the past six months is the DJI Air 3S. Since its release, I’ve reviewed a couple of others here on the channel, like the Neo and the Flip. Although those drones are in a completely different class from what the Air 3S offers, I’ve also used others like the Mavic 3 Pro and the Inspire 3 on specific projects that required those aircraft and their cameras. However, the Air 3S has been the drone I’ve used for most of my travels, personal projects, and client work when I have a say in the drone I can fly. After six months, this thing is still a beast.

There are many reasons this camer drone has become my favorite: long flight time, fast top speed, the best and newest obstacle avoidance technology, and a strong transmission system. I’ve really come to like using the RC2, but by far, my favorite thing about this drone is the camera.

Capturing Michigan’s Winter Beauty

Recently, I took a road trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was a way for me to unplug and reset because of how remote the area was, but I had to pull out a drone for some photos and videos of the snowy landscape and snowmobile adventures. A specific spot I wanted to fly was Taquamenon Falls, as Michigan allows drone flights in state parks under certain parameters. I used the opportunity of an empty park to take still images of the falls as they froze over. This specific angle was fun to play with; the elevated perspective makes for a perfect shot of my buddy Alex with the lower falls right behind him. The area where he stood was all ice, a couple of feet past the railing you’d usually stand behind to view the falls during spring or summer. Due to the snow and cold temperatures, there was a thick layer of ice you could walk on to get even closer to the falls. Of course, I had to replicate the same shot with a photo of myself.

Editing Air 3S Images

Now, I briefly want to bring you to my desktop to break down some images I’ve taken with the Air 3S, starting with the one I just mentioned—me on the snowbank. This is where I start to nerd out. When I get all the files into Lightroom and begin editing, the first thing I notice is how great the dynamic range is. This entire scene is pretty much backlit; the trees have no sun hitting them, and you can tell the sun is hitting my back as the main subject, with the shadow coming down toward the front of the image. Everything is backlit, yet the dynamic range holds this image together. Of course, this is edited, but if we show the original, there’s still a lot of detail to play with.

This is a 50-megapixel image, and if we zoom in on my face, you can see all the detail in my eyebrows, eyes, facial hair, blemishes like freckles, and the snow on my hat. You can perfectly read “CCM Hockey.” I sat here for a couple of minutes, zooming in and out on my face, marveling at the clarity of this camera. Clarity, dynamic range—everything is off the charts. I was really happy with many of the photographs I took at Taquamenon Falls. It was a difficult scene to capture due to the exposure differences and the brightness of the snow, but I still walked away with what I believe are great photos.

More Stunning Shots

Moving on, I have a couple of other photos to share, like some I grabbed at Long Beach Island with the 3x camera. Just wow—there’s so much great color in this image. The “before” looked okay—a typical raw photograph—but when you can push and pull and edit the image to bring out its best, that’s where you mark what a good camera is. I’ve got other great photographs from Streamsong, where I played some golf. One image turned into a panorama; I got three individual images of the middle section and, with 50 megapixels, created a nice panorama for my social media. There’s so much detail and clarity to play with—you could zoom in on the back building and still see individual tables and golf carts.

I also mentioned some photos I took in Utah of the flag; these turned out great too. Another throwback is some of the first images I took with the Air 3S—of the Ferris wheel at Wonderland in Ocean City, which is unfortunately being torn down. This is a neutral scene that would be easy to photograph with any drone. However, using the 3x camera compressed the image, so you have the whole Wonderland Pier in the front and the Ferris wheel in the background. With the 1x camera, the Ferris wheel looks much farther back. It’s cool to compress the image, get some water in the scene, show off the pier, boardwalk, and the big Ferris wheel. Overall, 10 out of 10—this camera is a pleasure to shoot with, and I love editing the files.

Video Capabilities of the Air 3S Camera Drone

On the video side, one of my favorite projects with the Air 3S camera was a collaboration with the Weber County Search and Rescue team in Utah. They hung the world’s largest free-hanging American flag between two mountains for Veterans Day—one of the most epic sights I’ve seen. If you haven’t seen that full video, go watch it; the story behind why they hang this flag and how it’s done is impressive. This was a drone-heavy project, and the Air 3S was the best way to capture the flag and everyone involved. With the sun low behind the mountains, one side of the canyon got no sun, posing a challenge for the camera’s dynamic range. But I was happy with the shots—the colors and clarity are great, and the Air 3S’s benefits made this video a joy to create.

I’ve also used this drone for vertical-oriented projects. Though it doesn’t have a camera and gimbal like the Mini 4 Pro that rotates vertically for true portrait photos or videos, it gives a 2.7K crop from the middle of the sensor. This provides more room on the top and bottom because of the 4:3 image it captures, cutting off the sides for a higher-resolution vertical output than if you shot in 4K and cropped the sides in post. Most of these clips were for my Instagram page—things like a big snowstorm in Philly or the devastating plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia. An Air Jet had issues after takeoff and crashed into the ground, causing unimaginable damage. It happened overnight, so I went out early during golden hour, and the colors and dynamic range held together nicely.

Chasing Sunsets and Fall Colors

I’ve chased many sunsets down the shore with this camera drone. Sometimes, unless you have a crazy sunset filling the sky, it can look underwhelming with the wide camera because it captures too much landscape. But flipping to the medium telephoto lens—the 3x 70mm camera—makes it look way better than it actually is. Everything about these clips looks good: the colors, contrast, clarity, and detail. Shooting 4K at 60 FPS, I was happy to have the Air 3S for these shots—it handled the heavy wind off the ocean well. This is also the drone I took to New Brunswick and Maine to chase fall colors at the end of 2024. I shared many of those images in my initial review video of this drone. I won’t share them all again, but I uploaded some as test files for you to download from that video. I’ll repost the link below—check them out on your computer. You’ll be pleased with the images as you edit them; the clarity, contrast, and latitude to adjust exposure and colors make these files a joy to edit, whether you’re a photographer or videographer.

Why the Air 3S Stands Out

I could gush about the Air 3S’s camera for hours and share more photo and video examples from recent personal travel and client projects, but I think you get the point. The hardware is great, the image processing pipeline is top-notch, and it’s the newest and best software DJI has put into their drones. You probably know from working with the files—whether from my test files or if you own this drone—that there’s so much flexibility to edit the images, whether photos or videos. The colors, clarity, image quality, and dynamic range—everything about this camera is great.

Here’s the thing: the camera on a drone is only as good as the airframe that carries it. In this case, the Air 3S is the best flying camera drone DJI has made to date—better than the Mavic 3 Pro and Inspire 3, and I stand firmly behind that take. When I first got the Air 3S, I put it through a heavy comparison against the Mavic 3 Pro. For a full day, I flew both drones back-to-back in similar scenarios and immediately noticed the Air 3S flew way better. On paper, it’s the better drone: faster top speed, quicker ascent and descent, better range, and a superior image transmission system. But you can feel it when flying—it’s more responsive, quicker, and smoother. DJI has put their most up-to-date flight controller and flight systems in this drone. So, I fully stand behind it as DJI’s best flying camera drone, making capturing video even easier.

A Nod to the Camera Drone Itself

I wanted this video to focus on the Air 3S’s camera system, but I couldn’t do so without shouting out the drone itself—it’s truly great. If you want to learn more about the whole drone, check out my full review video. I’ll leave the link in the top corner and description.

Exploring Drone Camera Systems

For the second half of this video, I want to step back and look at camera systems on drones as a whole—from the Air 3S to the Inspire 3 to the Mini 4 Pro—all the different types of cameras we see on drones. The technology is moving in an interesting direction. When the first DJI drones came out, they had one camera; the sensor kept getting bigger, improving image quality, color science, and frame rates. But in 2021, when the Mavic 3 released, DJI added a second camera for a longer focal length, zooming up to seven times optically. They took it further with the Mavic 3 Pro in 2023 by adding a lens in the middle, giving a 1x, 3x, and 7x camera.

The Mavic 3 isn’t technically the first DJI drone with multiple cameras—many of their Enterprise drones, like the M350, have had different payloads with cameras for years. Their newest commercial drone, the Matrice 4T, has a camera that looks like it came from an alien ship. These multiple sensors allow regular wide-angle photos and videos, zooming far to capture distant details, and some even have thermal sensors to detect heat anomalies. The Mavic 3, though, brought multiple sensors to the masses—more people bought it or the Mavic 3 Pro than would purchase an Enterprise drone, which costs more due to its technology and applications.

Multiple camera systems have been popularized by smartphones for years. When space is limited, instead of optical zoom, different cameras with various focal lengths make sense. What doesn’t make sense to me is that DJI fit a camera with optical zoom on the older Mavic 2 Zoom, which zoomed from 24mm to 48mm—a two-times optical zoom. This gave the same quality photos and videos at all zoom ranges because the hardware was zooming, not digitally. The Mavic 3 Pro, on the other hand, has fixed focal lengths at 1x, 3x, and 7x. You can zoom between them, but it’s digital, reducing quality.

Other Camera Types

For completeness, I’ll bring the Inspire 3 into the mix, which uses the Zenmuse X9-8K Air with a massive full-frame sensor and an interchangeable lens system using DJI’s DL Mount lenses. There’s also the camera system introduced on the Mini 3 Pro, trickled down to the Mini 3, and made its way to the Mini 4 Pro—a gimbal that rotates the camera vertically to capture portrait photos and videos in native resolution instead of cropping the sides. This is exclusive to those three drones: Mini 3 Pro, Mini 3, and Mini 4 Pro.

To lay it out, there are four types of camera systems on DJI drones:

1. A single camera with a fixed focal length—the traditional format.
2. A vertical rotating camera, specific to the Mini 3 Pro, Mini 3, and Mini 4 Pro.
3. A multiple camera system, like the Air 3S, with different cameras on one payload for various focal lengths and zooms (including thermal on Enterprise drones).
4. Interchangeable lenses, specific to the Inspire series (Inspire 2 with Zenmuse X5 and X7, Inspire 3 with Zenmuse X9-8K Air) and some Enterprise drones like the P1 for high-quality mapping.

Choosing the Right Camera System

The type of camera system is a big factor in choosing a drone. A single fixed focal length camera suits those who prioritize weight—smaller drones like the Flip, Neo, Avata 2, and Mini series have fixed cameras with some digital zoom but no multiple cameras for optical zoom due to size constraints. If you care about social content, the Mini 3 Pro, Mini 3, or Mini 4 Pro are ideal—the only drones with a camera that rotates for true vertical photos and videos. Many with higher-end drones like the Mavic 3 Pro buy a Mini 4 Pro just for vertical video.

If you want a larger, more professional drone that handles wind better and has a superior camera, you’ll likely choose one with multiple cameras. DJI’s recent high-end drones—like the Air 3S, Air 3, Mavic 3, and Mavic 3 Pro—all have multiple cameras. The next step up is the Inspire 3 with interchangeable lenses for the best image quality.

The Future of Drone Cameras

Looking back at the Mavic 2 Zoom with its optical zoom from 24mm to 48mm, I think that’s the perfect future. You don’t get the most range, but you get the highest quality zoom and can snap to popular focal lengths (24mm, 35mm, 50mm) without losing quality. With the Mavic 3 Pro, you’re limited to 24mm, 70mm, or 166mm—anything in between is a digital crop. Switching cameras also means dealing with different color sciences in post, which can be a pain. The Inspire 3’s interchangeable lenses offer top-notch quality, but switching lenses mid-flight is inconvenient—you must land, swap lenses, power off to avoid damaging the gimbal, and take off again.

All these systems have pros and cons. A single camera gives a lightweight drone; a vertical shooting camera is great but limited to one focal length due to the delicate gimbal; multiple cameras are flexible on the fly but restricted to set focal lengths; interchangeable lenses offer the best quality but are a hassle to switch. My ideal system is a drone with optical zoom from 1x to 3x—24mm to 70mm with full quality anywhere in between, plus some digital zoom for extra reach. This would allow zooming on the fly with consistent color science from one camera.

What do you think about the Air 3S’s camera? And what’s your dream camera setup for a camera drone? Let me know in the comments! As always, I’ll talk to you later. Peace!