DEFINITION May 2018

52 AERIAL DJI REVIEW

DJI ZENMUSE X7 Ever since DJI bought Hasselblad we’ve been waiting for bigger sensors for the drone market. Now here’s the Zenmuse X7 camera WORDS LEC PARK IMAGES LEC PARK / DJI

Straight out of the box you can tell that the Zenmuse X7 is a beautifully engineered piece of kit, but perhaps better than that is the new glass. This is a big step up from the X5S camera, which used third- party and rebranded glass. These new lenses are DJI’s own. The move closes DJI’s ecosystem as the D mount is its own innovation. This makes perfect sense; support now is easier as they are not trying to reconcile working with and supporting other brands. The four new lenses – all primes: 16mm, 24mm, 35mm and 50mm – are designed to work perfectly with the camera, both optically and balance wise, which eliminates many problems. If you work with lens adapters, you’ll run into all sorts of problems that DJI’s support can help with.

JI’s is an amazing story: becoming a powerhouse of innovation that has just about taken over the drone world,

save the heavy-lift part that embeds separate cinematic cameras. In fact, from the heavy-lift drone point of view, it was this seeming lack of true cinematic imagery that was used as a stick with which to beat DJI. The company’s purchase of Hasselblad in 2016 caught everyone’s attention as it opened up a world of larger sensors and respected lenses for the drone company. Dealing with DJI can be frustrating or abrasive, especially if you want to be first to a certain product. Some of the problems are teething ones while others are quality control, but you work around these things.

DEFINITION MAY 2018

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