You must be wondering who in the world would do that? Well, apparently, Canon Japan is doing just that. But no, Canon Japan did not actually made the drone. According to a report, the drone is developed by a Japanese drone maker called ProDrone which Canon has invested back in 2016. ProDrone, if your recall, is the same company that makes the creepy robotic arm-equipped drone and the wall-clinging drone, and so, there should be no question about the flying rig’s track records. However, unlike specialty maker like DJI, the Japanese imaging equipment company has other target in mind. The company’s first imaging drone (technically, it is not the company’s), PD6E2000-AW-CJ1, is an industrial application drone designed to carry out search and rescue operations.
As one would have expect from a heavy duty drone, PD6E2000-AW-CJ1 is multi-rotor – six of them, actually – to afford it the horsepower to lug along Canon’s very own crazy ISO ME20F-SH camera. Little is known about this drone in terms of specifications, except for the fact that it comes standard with a 2-axis gimbal mounted to enable shooting stabilization and it has a payload of 22 pounds (10 kilograms). And oh, it is also waterproof, because search and rescue. So why the drone? Obviously, that’s where the money is moving forward but rather than plonking money on R&D to develop one, it makes perfect sense to leave it to the pros who having been making a living from it?
What we see here is Canon’s desire for a slice of the imaging drone pie and in this instance, an attempt to sell a very expensive camera with attention drawn to the shooter’s low-light imaging capabilities – a feature that will prove invaluable to any search and rescue operation. Anywho, that’s not to say that the drone is a giveaway with the camera because, as it turns out, the drone cost as much as the camera itself, which means it commands a price tag of around 20 grand. So you can’t really argue that Canon is not trying to sell a $20k camera with a $20k drone, can you?
Image: screengrab from YouTube video.
via PetaPixel.
