Phase One Industrial's iXU 180: Compact 80MP Drone Camera

Phase One Industrial is coming out with a new camera, the iXU 180, specifically designed for to be mounted on drones and aircraft. So, you could even mount it on an awesome Star Wars themed drone like this. The camera has an 80 megapixel CCD sensor, allowing it to gather huge amounts of information from a single shot. The camera body weighs 2 pounds and measures in at 97.4 x 93 x 110mm. Phase One is claiming that the iXU 180 is the world's smallest medium format 80 megapixel aerial camera.

The iXU 180's small size is designed to impress. It's designed to be easily mounted into an ultralight plane, gyrocopter, or basic drone without interfering with the flight process. The camera's small size and image stabilization are designed to take smooth photographs without blurs or jitters from the aircraft.

The camera can use an array of Schneider-Kreuznach lenses ranging from 28mm to 240mm in diameter. This versatility allows the iXU 180 to serve many functions from wide-angle shots of an urban city sprawl to finely tuned, detailed, telescopic photos of wildlife.

In aerial photography, medium format cameras are becoming more popular for their ability to create high-resolution cityscapes that can be used to create 3D models. An all-over trend in digital photography has been "smaller is better", and the iXU 180 fits that mold rather well. By packing massive megapixels into a small package, this aerial camera is opening up new possibilities that are sky-high.

Source: DP Review