DJI & Hasselblad create first medium format 50 megapixel drone
Last year when I heard DJI had bought a minority stake in Hasselblad, I knew great things were on the horizon. A few days ago that promise has come to pass. The Swedish camera manufacturer is best known for its medium-format cameras, which are widely used in commercial shoots, often because of their high resolution and print size. DJI is best known as creators of the Phantom quadcopter. The fruit of this union is the Matrice 600 Drone coupled with the Hasselblad A5D, creating the world's first medium format drone package in the process. The package is built around the Hasselblad A5D, a camera designed specifically for aerial photography, with no internal moving parts that could be affected by aircraft vibrations. Attached to the 50-megapixel body is a modified version of Hasselblad's HC 3.5/50mm-II lens. Focus is locked on infinity, and the whole rig is attached to a Ronin-MX gimbal. With its image sensor specially selected to provide the flatness required for applications such as advanced mapping, the new A5D is the ideal camera for aerial photography. The A5D also features positive locking of both the digital capture unit and lens. This solution is designed to prevent any unintentional movement that may occur due to aircraft vibration and to ensure that camera calibration remains unchanged. The digital capture unit’s single locking screw and reinforced bottom support completely eliminate play and movement during flight. The camera also features special firmware that activates the camera, closes the shutter and aperture when power is supplied. Power can be supplied to the camera via a LEMO connector which requires 12-30 VDC.
In digital photography, the advantages of medium format cameras have become even more obvious. The basic 6 × 4.5 cm design allows the A5D to use one of the largest image sensors currently available in digital photography. Consequently the sensor holds more and larger pixels, which deliver the highest possible image quality in terms of moiré-free colour rendering without gradation break-ups in even the finest lit surfaces.
Utilising a GPS antenna attached to the FMS, all images captured are tagged with GPS coordinates, time and altitude. This data provides the key to a number of future applications involving image archiving and retrieval. One example is the direct mapping of images in Phocus software to the Google Earth application. ‘Combining best-in-class aerial optics with the world’s most powerful aerial platform is a natural development for DJI and Hasselblad. We are delighted to provide this unique bundle to professional photographers, surveyors and mappers’, said Perry Oosting, CEO of Hasselblad.’ “Hasselblad and DJI share a passion to provide creative people with cutting-edge, inventive technology to help them take visual storytelling to the next level,” said DJI CEO Frank Wang. The two companies will continue to market and maintain their own product lines, but it’s likely that DJI will lean on Hasselblad’s 70 years of camera making experience going forward, Its also quite an announcement considering Hasselblad has never taken an outside investment since being founded in 1941.
