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Photokina 2016: Panasonic unveils stripped-down GH4 4K drone camera prototype

Panasonic, like many other hardware manufacturers, is constantly exploring the market and trying to find out where there is demand for specific products. Tucked away in a corner of their Photokina 2016 booth was a tiny, stripped-down GH4 that’s designed to be used on drones — and it was even mounted on their own custom 3-axis gimbal.

Panasonic Drone Camera and GH4 at Photokina 2016
The Panasonic drone camera next to the GH4.

This drone camera features essentially the same specs as the GH4 (with 4K up to 30fps and 1080p up to 60fps at 200Mbps), but just in a much smaller body. To be more exact, here are the body specs:

Panasonic Drone Camera Size-Weight Photokina 2016

And the full video specs:

Panasonic Drone Camera Specs Photokina 2016

It’s interesting that there are now other drone cameras (like those from DJI) that actually use the Micro 4/3 mount, the mount that Panasonic championed and made popular. As they said in the video, however, competition isn’t necessarily bad, and they’d like people to be as familiar as possible with the Micro 4/3 mount — which in turn should be a benefit to Panasonic.

Panasonic Drone Camera on Custom Gimbal - Photokina 2016
Panasonic 4K drone camera on their custom gimbal.

At the moment Panasonic does not have plans to bring this product to the market, but if there is enough demand and they feel like there would be enough people wanting a lighter and leaner GH4 for drones, they could have it out to the public within a year.

Panasonic Drone Camera and DJI Inspire Photokina 2016
Panasonic drone camera on gimbal and DJI Inspire drone.

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