DJI Ramps Up Camera Competition

Last week GoPro offered a sneak peek of their new drone, and this week DJI has announced a partnership with Swedish camera company Hasselblad, upping their game in aerial imaging.  Chinese company DJI has acquired a minority stake in Hasselblad Group, joining their board of directors and allowing close collaboration with two of the world’s largest imaging companies.

In a statement released today, the companies said that “the partnership will allow opportunities and new ways of combining the technical knowledge and inventive spirit of the two industry leaders in their respective fields.  ‘We are honored to be partnering with DJI, the clear technology and market leader in its segment,’ said Perry Oosting, Hasselblad’s CEO. ‘DJI and Hasselblad are equally enthusiastic about creativity and excellence, and we are looking forward to sharing technical expertise and paving the way for future innovations.'”

The stakes are high, as the multi-billion dollar consumer drone market coalesces around aerial imaging.  In their concept video for the Phantom X, released yesterday, DJI focused on the drone as a “tool for creative expression.”  That creative expression is GoPro‘s wheelhouse, as a leader in action imaging and “versatile cameras.”  Despite DJI’s protests that manufacturing drones isn’t as easy as it looks, and it’s not worried about GoPro joining the marketplace, the partnership with Hasselblad may show concern that a GoPro drone could find fast traction in the US.

DJI has recently launched a modular camera system, Zenmuse, which includes the Zenmuse X5 Pro and the Zenmuse X5 Raw which they call “the world’s first Micro-Four-Thirds camera optimized for moving in space.”  Hasselblad has been moving into the aerial photography arena for several years, most famously working with NASA on photography from space.

DJI and Hasselblad have created a sampling of high-resolution photos to show off their combined technology.