been going back and forth on this for a while. i've got a mid-range hexacopter that can technically handle around 800g of payload and right now im running a fairly light mirrorless on a single-axis stabilizer which honestly doesnt cut it for the kind of smooth cinematic stuff i want. the footage is fine but fine isnt what im after.

the setup ive been looking at is a 3-axis brushless gimbal with something like a Sony a6600 or maybe even pushing toward a micro four thirds body. the weight difference is significant though and im not sure how much the extra mass is going to kill my flight time or affect how the whole thing handles in any kind of wind. also just worried that the image quality jump might not be as dramatic as i'm expecting once you account for the fact that smaller sensors on a proper 3-axis gimbal might actually look better than a larger sensor on a mediocre single axis mount.

has anyone actually done this kind of upgrade and do you think the IQ difference justified the hassle and the weight penalty

honestly the single-axis thing is probably your bigger problem than the sensor size. ive seen footage from a well-tuned 3-axis gimbal with a crop sensor that looked better than stuff shot on a full frame on a sloppy 2-axis mount. stabilization quality matters so much more than people give it credit for when you're actually watching the final edit rather than pixel peeping stills.

that said if youre already going to rebuild the payload i'd probably just commit to the MFT body over the a6600 personally. the lens ecosystem is better for aerial work in my opinion and the Panasonic bodies especially tend to play nicely with most 3rd party gimbals ive tried. flight time hit is real though, i dropped almost 4 mins off my average when i went heavier so factor that in for your battery budget.

i did something similar about a year ago, went from a gopro-style cam on a cheap 3-axis to an actual cinema-grade payload. the footage difference is real but so is everything else ? setup time, calibration headaches, repair costs when something inevitably goes wrong on landing. just make sure you actually need that quality level for what you're shooting because a lot of people do this upgrade and then realize 90% of their work ends up on youtube compressed to death anyway