Canon is arguably the biggest name in photography, but the Japanese company has managed to stay out of the aerial photography game so far. That’s about to change with the extremely pricey (and very elegantly named) PD6E2000-AW-CJ1 six-rotor drone, designed to carry the company’s ultra high-end ME20F-SH camera into search and rescue situations.
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The drone platform doesn’t look too different from existing pro-level equipment like DJI’s modular M600 system, but it does offer the incredibly high 4 million ISO that makes the ME20F-SH the perfect camera for extremely dark situations. The drone is weather proof and the two-axis gimbal can carry up to 10 kilograms, but other than that the main selling point seems to be the camera it carries. That kind of light sensitivity doesn’t come cheap though: according to Canon Rumors, the drone costs a whopping $20,000, which reportedly does not include the $20,000 price tag on the camera itself.
At that price, Canon’s drone is unlikely to appeal to anyone but the most well-funded emergency services or die-hard Canon filmmakers. DJI’s M600 hit a much more reasonable $4,599 price point last year and the company’s new, industrial-grade M200 platform is expected to debut sometime this quarter.
