The New Old: Photokina 2016 Takeaways

Faced with a shrinking consumer market, camera companies have to find various ways to thrive. But Photokina 2016 showed that coming up with something new doesn’t necessarily have to mean reinventing the wheel completely.

- Marcus Wong

FINDING A NICHE

While image stabilization (be it in-body or in-lens) is not new, DJI rocked the photography industry last year with the Osmo – a gimbal and camera combination small enough to be operated handheld via a control stick that gives stabilized photos and video in an incredibly tiny package.

By taking the knowledge gained from building cameras for their flying drones and applying it to an opening in the film-making community, DJI not only created a new product line, but also proved the commercial viability of such a product to the industry.

EVOLVING INNOVATION

One year later, companies like Removu and Feiyu Tech have essentially taken the same concept, added twists of their own, and put them up on display. Whether it’s weatherproofing or the ability to work the camera in both portrait and landscape modes, both companies have added just enough to their products for them to stand as distinct competitors to the Osmo. And that’s without taking price into consideration!

GoPro even went one step further, creating a drone (the GoPro Karma) with a removable stabilizer system that you can transfer to a control stick. The system of course supports their latest Hero 5 and Hero 5 Session cameras, and the drone has the advantage of folding down small enough to fit into a backpack, thus making it more portable.

MAINTAINING THE ADVANTAGE