Are we happy with the Zenmuse X7?

tweaker · Jan 27, 2018

5kdigitalfilm said:
You have to make sure in the morning when prepping the equipment. I had to drive once for 30 mins or more to get a signal to sign in, we misssed the light and I was very irritated indeed. Lucky it's not so often that you have to newly sign in..

So you sign in once when you purchase it and thats it. A bit like if you dont want to update firnware you can still fly it? Or do you HAVE to connect and sign in for EVERY flight?

Paul Nordin · Jan 27, 2018

tweaker said:
So you sign in once when you purchase it and thats it. A bit like if you dont want to update firnware you can still fly it? Or do you HAVE to connect and sign in for EVERY flight?

At a minimum, You have to be connected to sign into DJI in DJI Go 4 after each firmware update

tweaker · Jan 27, 2018

So what do you do on an expexition in the wilderness with no internet activity.

The last internet signal you could connect to is 3days travel away.....

Paul Nordin · Jan 27, 2018

tweaker said:
So what do you do on an expexition in the wilderness with no internet activity.

The last internet signal you could connect to is 3days travel away.....

Work with a closed system. Don’t allow any updates to the DJI Go 4 app and don’t do any firmware updates. If you use an iPad or Crystalsky, keep them in airplane mode.

tweaker · Jan 27, 2018

Paul Nordin said:
Work with a closed system. Don’t allow any updates to the DJI Go 4 app and don’t do any firmware updates. If you use an iPad or Crystalsky, keep them in airplane mode.

Great stuff -Thanks just wondering if DJI wanted you to sign for every flight!
Just about to make jumo to I2 platform would make jump if that was th ecase.

Exactly what I do with I1- once i was happy with updates i do noy update and do not connect to internet-got really un happy with updates being a PITA!!
What NLE are you using to edit with? Currently I use FCP and Adobe. Whats your preference?
Thanks again-stay lucky

HaydenS · Feb 1, 2018

5kdigitalfilm said:
Like many things, it’s easy to see the negative side of how things just don’t quite measure up to expectations. I am no different, I like a good moan. It’s a great release for the daily trials of life.

If you work daily with highly advanced technology then this can quickly become a permanent condition when confronted by no end of problems, bugs, software crashes and so forth.

Let’s not forget what the inspire 2 and the X7 actually are.

It’s a helicopter and Alexa that fit into your rucksack that you can take to the top of the mountain and shoot footage that would have cost the equivalent to a small family car 5 years ago.

There is of course some room for improvement, like wobbly props or driving to get a connection to sign in (very irritating) or maybe slow lenses or the odd magenta tinge to your footage. However, I have fallen for this bird, despite its rough edges, I have a need to fire her up and see what I can get out of her. I have used it intensely on 2 projects in the last 2 months, and although it never worked 100% all the time (lets be honest that you can only expect from a Sony camera) I love it.

Over the Wilderness I have already posted

But here is something different, Shot from the hand in dark dark conditions.

Beautiful work!!

Can I ask how you graded this footage?

Did you use a specific LUT? Did you use lumetri?

I also have an X7 and so far its been great. Apart from many software issues and 'no signal' error messages when desperately needing to film, it's been great.

Do you have a preferred lens for the x7?

Thanks so much!

5kdigitalfilm · Feb 7, 2018

We only shot and delivered on this project, but I'm sure it was graded in resolve by a professional. I don't have a preferred lens, I just use the lens I need to get the shot, generally speaking the 16, 24mm are on more often than the longer focal lengths but the others come in very handy for getting a different feel to that classic drone footage.

White Airwolf · Feb 9, 2018

5kdigitalfilm said:
Like many things, it’s easy to see the negative side of how things just don’t quite measure up to expectations. I am no different, I like a good moan. It’s a great release for the daily trials of life.

If you work daily with highly advanced technology then this can quickly become a permanent condition when confronted by no end of problems, bugs, software crashes and so forth.

Let’s not forget what the inspire 2 and the X7 actually are.

It’s a helicopter and Alexa that fit into your rucksack that you can take to the top of the mountain and shoot footage that would have cost the equivalent to a small family car 5 years ago.

There is of course some room for improvement, like wobbly props or driving to get a connection to sign in (very irritating) or maybe slow lenses or the odd magenta tinge to your footage. However, I have fallen for this bird, despite its rough edges, I have a need to fire her up and see what I can get out of her. I have used it intensely on 2 projects in the last 2 months, and although it never worked 100% all the time (lets be honest that you can only expect from a Sony camera) I love it.

Over the Wilderness I have already posted

But here is something different, Shot from the hand in dark dark conditions.

Please don't complain about Sony cameras. They are the industry standard in the broadcast world! Most of the other brands use their sensors too!

White Airwolf · Feb 9, 2018

Steve@AerialImagesPro said:
That's awesome work! Great grading too. I'm not in love with over saturated stuff that gets over used these days (of which I'm guilty of sometimes). The grading was perfect for the 'feel' of the message (imo, and hopefully you did intentional grading or I just don't know what I'm talking about..lol).

Question, for videos like this that I see with x7 (and x5), is the clarity of the video ALL in the camera and lens'? Or do you (and others with quality like this) do anything special for rendering (other than bit rate on the higher side)?

To me, Vimeo seems MUCH better with it's streaming conversions, but sometimes I still don't get great output after uploading to Vimeo. I'm still on an i1 with x3 (don't tell anyone) but I DO get some decent looking footage when running local, but after uploading it's just not that great. I usually export using 50 Mbps bit rate (seems going any higher doesn't really help much since x3 source is lower than that anyway I believe). And I also know that rendering (especially for streaming) is almost an art form (and there's an industry career just for that). But was just wondering if there are any render settings (in Premiere) that may be better or 'best practice'.

I also know I'm not going to get x3 footage to look like that, but I've seen some pretty outstanding x3 footage.

The Inspire 1 with an X3 camera was used on all the stock aerial shots of the TV Show "Quantico' when it was filmed in Montreal! Yes, the X7 and X5S are nice but the X3 is still an excellent option!

5kdigitalfilm · Feb 10, 2018

White Airwolf said:
Please don't complain about Sony cameras. They are the industry standard in the broadcast world! Most of the other brands use their sensors too!

If you read my post carefully you will see that my reference to Sony cameras referred to them as being the standard that is 100% reliable unlike other makes.

White Airwolf · Feb 10, 2018

5kdigitalfilm said:
If you read my post carefully you will see that my reference to Sony cameras referred to them as being the standard that is 100% reliable unlike other makes.

No need to get aggressive here!

5kdigitalfilm · Feb 11, 2018

I apologize if you feel attacked, I was merely correcting you.

goodbiscuit · Feb 14, 2018

Looked like a total fool on a pretty serious production set last week... only one out of my 4 lenses worked. It was a tiny (hardware) tweak that took me hours to figure out, that fixed it. Considered sending it back, but I have 3 X7's and it was the same on all of them, so I'm wondering.... has anyone else run into the issue of "lens disconnected" and not being able to manipulate any camera settings? Stuck on "F1" which isn't even possible..

Paul Nordin · Feb 15, 2018

goodbiscuit said:
has anyone else run into the issue of "lens disconnected" and not being able to manipulate any camera settings? Stuck on "F1" which isn't even possible..

I have seen the message once, but after remounting the lens it did not come back. Can you share what hardware tweak you needed to apply? It would be good to know if I should find myself in a similar predicament.

Cheers

ajgrattan · May 21, 2018

5kdigitalfilm said:
No we shot in Prores 4444HQ

Just curious does the prores recording still suffer from the lack of lens compensation? ie on wider lens does it still suffer from a slight curvature on the horizon?

Steve@AerialImagesPro · May 21, 2018

Why would a codec compensate for lens distortion? Isn't lens correction done in post? Or with the hardware if fixed lens?

ajgrattan · May 21, 2018

easy .... just asking the question ... mp4 and dng options dont suffer from this ... prores does and yes of course I process it in post...

Steve@AerialImagesPro · May 21, 2018

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was questioning you, I was more questioning the codec creators and why they would build lens correction into the codec.. I suppose it's possible since I believe the camera knows what lens is connected, but it seems like a lot for a 'professional' codec to do especially when most professionals would correct in post anyway.

Is the prores creating a new distortion? Or is it not compensating? Reason I'm asking is because I may have to upgrade soon and am looking at x7.

ajgrattan · May 21, 2018

No worries...

i have been using the x5s for over a year now and while I much prefer the prores recording option both for image quality and easy of editing, however the distortion when using the 12mm Olympus lens is annoying.

I read somewhere that its a problem of the cinecore processing power. I have attached two images, one using the 12mm and one the 45mm.

I was curious if the x7 was also having this problem, although I suspect its the cinecore.

I was informed on another forum that the DNG did not suffer from this.

12mm

45mm

White Airwolf · May 21, 2018

I wish DJI would adopt XAVC, the new standard in broadcast compression. Same quality as prores but half the file size! Prores in the tv industry is passe!