Sony wants a piece of the drone cake: At the CES, Sony presented the Airpeak drone, which carries an alpha system camera from the manufacturer. According to Sony, it is the smallest drone for an alpha camera. Other manufacturers such as DJI have been selling drone carrying systems for years to which Sony Alpha systems can be coupled.

In the case of the virtual one The Airpeak drone shown on video at CES is a quadrocopter design with two landing skids that fold up after takeoff – so that they cannot be seen in the video recordings.

With retractable landing gear: Sony’s Airpeak drone (Source: Sony) Probably expensive Although Sony doesn’t put a price on it named the drone, one can assume that it will be a rather expensive device. The manufacturer is initially aimed at professional drone pilots who are also supposed to beta tests: Sony is looking for “Professional Collaborators” on the Airpeak website, but so far only in Japan and the USA. In the press photos, a Sony a7S is hanging on the drone – the camera in the a7S-III version including lens costs at least 5000 euros. Obviously, cheaper devices can also be attached to the drone; Sony generally speaks of “alpha cameras”.

The Airpeak drone is not Sony’s first attempt to gain a foothold in the drone market. Already 2015 the company showed a drone prototype that Sony developed together with the Japanese robot manufacturer ZMP. The joint venture was called Aerosense.

DJI posted The consumer drone market is dominated by the Chinese company DJI. Among other things, the US camera manufacturer Gopro 2016 tried to enter the market with the Karma drone, but this failed not only because of technical problems . 2018 GoPro completely stopped the drone business. Since DJI is now on the US export ban list, competitors (like Sony) now seem to see a chance to break DJI’s dominance.

(jkj)