Phase One

Phase One is a Danish digital imaging company headquartered in Copenhagen and founded in 1994. It develops medium-format camera systems and imaging software, and its industrial business supplies high-resolution cameras for aerial mapping, uncrewed aircraft, industrial inspection, cultural heritage digitization and space. The company also lists a regional office in Denver, United States. For the drone supply chain Phase One is a payload and sensor supplier: it does not build aircraft, but makes metric cameras that integrators and survey operators mount on multirotor, fixed-wing and VTOL drones.

Its UAV range currently has two products. The P3 is a gimbal-stabilised payload built around an iXM medium-format camera, offered with either the 100-megapixel iXM-100 rolling-shutter sensor or the 120-megapixel iXM-GS120 electronic global-shutter sensor. It combines a 3-axis gimbal, a laser range finder with roughly 90 m effective range that drives autofocus, IP53 sealing on the camera and interchangeable RSM lenses of 35, 80 and 150 mm, at 2.5 kg without mount. A DJI variant connects through Skyport to the DJI M300, M350 and M400, while a MAVLink/Auterion variant targets Cube Orange and PixHawk-based aircraft and works with QGroundControl and Mission Planner. The P5 is a lighter fixed camera for mini fixed-wing and VTOL drones: 128 megapixels on a 3.45 micron pixel CMOS sensor with electronic global shutter, under 700 g with lens, 4 frames per second, Ethernet with MAVLink, Auterion and IQP protocols, and storage on CFexpress cards of up to 2 TB. The company describes the P5 as NDAA compliant and ITAR free and tested it on a Quantum Systems Trinity Pro at the UAS Denmark Test Center in 2023.

Outside drones, the geospatial line includes the PAS TRANA aerial system and the iXM-RS250 and iXM-FS130 cameras for crewed survey aircraft, and the iXM-SP150 camera for low Earth orbit. The heritage line includes the iXH 250MP and V-Twin digitization systems, and the photographic line continues medium-format cameras. In 2009 Phase One took a major stake in Japanese camera maker Mamiya.

Ownership has changed twice. UK private equity firm Silverfleet Capital acquired a majority stake in 2014, and in June 2019 agreed to sell the company to funds managed by the Danish investment firm Axcel, which public sources list as its current owner. At the time of the 2019 sale the company had operations in Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan and the United States in addition to Denmark.