DJI is best known for drones like the incoming DJI Neo, but it’s also been quietly disrupting other camera spaces. And now some new rumors are predicting that it could soon make its biggest splash yet, with its first dedicated mirrorless camera.
The rumors come from Andrea Pizzini at Sony Alpha Rumors, who has previously been a reliable source for Sony-related launches. He says that “two trusted sources” have told him that DJI is planning to “launch something big in September” and that the most likely scenario is a “new mirrorless product that will compete more directly against Sony, Canon and Nikon.”
These rumors come with a couple of caveats. Firstly, the sources aren’t from inside DJI but from insiders at unnamed Japanese camera manufacturers who are apparently bracing themselves for a big DJI bombshell in September. Also, there’s been no specific leak hinting at what kind of product DJI apparently has in store, so talk that it’s a mirrorless camera (for stills and video) remains speculative.
That said, a DJI mirrorless camera wouldn’t be a huge surprise given its recent history – and it could genuinely justify the oft-used ‘game-changer’ label. For a start, a mirrorless camera would sit neatly in DJI’s current lineup. On one hand, DJI already makes non-mirrorless cameras – the DJI Pocket 3, for example, which currently tops our list of the best vlogging cameras you can buy right now.
On the other hand, DJI also owns Hasselblad, which makes niche medium-format cameras like the Hasselblad X2D 100C (above). These rumors are predicting something that sits somewhere between the two – a DJI-branded mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses. That’s why the rumors refer to it as a “more direct competitor to the Japanese manufacturers” that currently dominate the camera world.
Unfortunately, those “trusted sources” haven’t specified whether DJI might be prepping a video camera or hybrid camera, nor what lens mount it might use. But if the rumors are true, there are plenty of hints within DJI’s existing products that give us an idea of the most likely scenario – and a DJI camera that would theoretically be a major deal for non-professionals…
Why it could be a game-changer for cameras
The world’s best cameras are incredible image-making tools, but they’re also nearly all hampered by some legacy issues (usability, connectivity, convoluted menus) that the Japanese giants haven’t been in a huge rush to fix.
If DJI combined the existing tech from across its Ronin, Pocket, and Hasselblad lines, it could instantly raise the usability bar and make hybrid cameras feel like they’re actually from the same era as our phones.
Firstly, there are camera menus. While models like the Sony A7C II have improved the situation, most of the best mirrorless cameras are still more approachable for pros than amateurs. As we discovered in our Hasselblad X2D 100C review, its minimalist Scandinavian menus are a joy to use and feel “more in line with smartphones than most other camera touchscreens.” Despite its tiny size, even the DJI Pocket 3 is more intuitive than many cameras.
Then there’s connectivity. Most cameras are still relics from a pre-smartphone era when photos were stored on SD cards and laboriously transferred to laptops. Sending photos to your phone remains a glacial experience in most cases, but DJI could easily replicate the Leica SL3, which uses a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi MIMO tech to send full-size DNGs to your phone in a few seconds.
Like Leica, which for some reason remains an outlier in the camera world, DJI could also make an interchangeable lens camera with internal storage. The Leica M11, for example, has 64GB of internal storage, while drones like the DJI Mavic 3 offer up to 1TB of internal storage. DJI could quite easily put that into an actually affordable camera and make it a mainstream feature.
Fourthly, as Sony Alpha Rumors has speculated, DJI could theoretically add an e-SIM to its camera to make a truly modern mirrorless hybrid. That could potentially let you wirelessly back up photos from an internal SSD for peace of mind. While that would be nice in theory, DJI hasn’t really done that with its drones aside from pro models like the Matrice series. So we think this feature, plus the idea of third-party apps on cameras, could be ones to file under ‘wishful thinking.’
Lastly, a more realistic shake-up for mirrorless cameras from a new DJI player would be lenses. The DJI Ronin 4D, which we called “the Hollywood Steadicam for (nearly) everyone,” has an interchangeable mount that works not only with DJI’s DL lenses but also with L-Mount, E-mount, and M-mount glass. If a DJI mirrorless camera could do the same for a much lower price, it could be a versatile new player.
What’s actually realistic?
These DJI mirrorless camera rumors have sparked a lot of wishful thinking about what new features the drone giant could bring to mirrorless cameras – some of it realistic, some a bit more far-fetched.
The more important question is arguably why DJI might want to make a traditional interchangeable lens camera. Aside from film-like compacts like the Fujifilm X100VI, the growth area in cameras is video, and this is one of DJI’s strengths.
That’s why a larger version of something like a DJI Pocket 3 with interchangeable lenses (or a smaller version of the DJI Ronin 4D) is arguably more realistic than a hybrid rival to the Nikon Z6 III or Sony A7 IV. Another potential strike against a hybrid camera, as opposed to a video-focused one, is DJI’s ownership of Hasselblad, which it’s previously referred to as its home for stills-shooting cameras.
Also, while the looming DJI drone ban in the US only affects its flying cameras, it could also have a chilling effect on a more ambitious launch, given the size of the US camera market.
So while these DJI mirrorless camera rumors are exciting, we’re approaching them with caution – and are anticipating a camera that has a closer genetic resemblance to DJI’s existing Pocket or Ronin lineup than the Canon-destroying revolutionary that many are hoping for.
