[RobA_Oz]

Scots-Irish. Scotch is a drink

…and Scots is a language.

[Kunzite]

I recall that going pretty badly, all things considered. Ricoh really saved the brand.

Started badly, too - with a hostile takeover.

[RonHendriks1966]

I recall that going pretty badly, all things considered. Ricoh really saved the brand.

Hoya also saved the Pentax brand.

[RobA_Oz]

Hoya also saved the Pentax brand.

True. They put the camera division on minimal life support, while they asset-stripped the rest of the company. A warm body, after all, was worth more than a corpse.

[mikeSF]

True. They put the camera division on minimal life support, while they asset-stripped the rest of the company. A warm body, after all, was worth more than a corpse.

haha

[Racer X 69]

Haha, a flying 6x6! Cool!!!

DJI have a lot of work ahead, they have to design a larger drone capable of carrying an MF system. I look forward to MF photos from the sky, awesome.

Well, actually, not 6x6. The X1D is a crop sensor camera. More like 4.4x3.3.

Certainly not full frame medium format.

The X1D will ship with the tried and tested 50MP CMOS sensor. The 44 x 33mm chip . . . . . .

[redrockcoulee]

I think we unfairly associate China with Walmart cheap, which isn't really true any more. Volvo engineers, for instance, have been delighted with new Chinese owners Geely, who have given them money, support, freedom and money, unlike desperate, penny-pinching Ford. According to Car and Driver the new XC90 is a revelatory offering. I'm looking but my wife is aghast. Even though we have a Japanese/American Honda, a Japanese/American Subaru and a German/British (BMW) MINI, she can't imagine owning a Chinese/Swedish Volvo.

I pointed out that her original baby hauler was a Swedish/Canadian Volvo 240 Wagon. Didn't help.

Greely are quite common in Havana, along with French, German, Korean and Japanese brands, and the Mini

[SpecialK]

The drone industry is supposed to be expanding greatly in the next few years, so maybe it will all work out.

[RobA_Oz]

The drone industry is supposed to be expanding greatly in the next few years, so maybe it will all work out.

God help us all – the bloody things will be everywhere, and "drone" will be descriptive of both the device and the acoustic environment it will create.

The fundamental issue will be how DJI see Hasselblad fitting with their company, ie whether they see it surviving as a separate entity, with DJI providing the capital necessary to resource an agreed business development plan (so Hasselblad becomes a sort of "halo" product for them), or whether they plan to pull it closer into the company, to share technologies and resources.

Which way it goes probably depends on whether or not DJI plans to expand its scope of product lines beyond what both companies were doing before the takeover.

I suspect they will be looking to build a broader range of imaging products, but time will tell.

[niceshot]

• Hasselblad Acquired By DJI - Luminous Landscape

Guess that is the End of the Line for them. Seriously a drone maker, now I have heard it all.

---------- Post added 01-07-17 at 08:41 AM ----------

Hoya also saved the Pentax brand.

Yeah but they were in that field kind of. Big difference

[Kunzite]

It might be better than being owned by a private equity company. It was a similar company - Sparx - that killed Pentax Corporation just for money.

[SpecialK]

God help us all – the bloody things will be everywhere, and "drone" will be descriptive of both the device and the acoustic environment it will create.

Well, there is that. However...

"Drones will soon be boosting crop yields, verifying insurance claims, and assisting in future Hollywood blockbusters in a business that’s due to boom by more than 6,000 percent by the end of the decade.

The global market for commercial applications of drone technology, currently estimated at about $2 billion, will balloon to as much as $127 billion by 2020, consulting group PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in a report published on Monday."

I've flown RC airplanes and have a drone simulator, but I'm not quite ready to invest in a pro set up.

[RonHendriks1966]

Just since a few months we have in The Netherlands an official Drone Training Centre that is connected to the Technical University of Twente. Lots of regulation up in the air in Europe.

https://www.thehaguesecuritydelta.com/news/newsitem/444-drone-development-tr...ntre-in-twente

[wildman]

"Drones will soon be boosting crop yields, verifying insurance claims, and assisting in future Hollywood blockbusters in a business that’s due to boom by more than 6,000 percent by the end of the decade.

The global market for commercial applications of drone technology, currently estimated at about $2 billion, will balloon to as much as $127 billion by 2020, consulting group PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in a report published on Monday."

That's very comforting - I can't imagine what I was concerned about.

[pete-tarmigan]

Weren't there recent media reports that suggested that the drone market, at least the consumer portion, has reached saturation and that the novelty has worn off? That doesn't bode well for drone manufacturers unless the commercial part of the market expands substantially.