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Demo X7 From Florida Drone Supply

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Happy Thanksgiving to all of the USA members here. I am fortunate enough to have an X7 with a 35mm lens as a demo from Michael at @Florida Drone Supply. I did not have any other lenses with this demo. I live close by and was able to meet Michael and pick it up for a couple of days. Of course it was dark when I received it tonight so no flying. I hope to get it in the air before we travel tomorrow morning to visit family a couple hours north of us for Thanksgiving Day.

I did do some weight measurements, here are my findings, nothing scientific here.

X5S with an Olympus 45mm lens, no filter, shade or cap came to 448 grams.

X7 with a 35mm lens, no filter, shade or cap came to 599 grams.

Let me know if I can answer any questions.

X5S:X7.JPG
 
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I had a hold of one of these last week, One in for repair...already haha. Its quite a lump to hold so i understand why the lenses are so light. They feel like toilet roll tubes to hold haha but the whole unit is similar to the x5 etc.
 
Happy Thanksgiving to all of the USA members here. I am fortunate enough to have an X7 with a 35mm lens as a demo from Michael at @Florida Drone Supply. I did not have any other lenses with this demo. I live close by and was able to meet Michael and pick it up for a couple of days. Of course it was dark when I received it tonight so no flying. I hope to get it in the air before we travel tomorrow morning to visit family a couple hours north of us for Thanksgiving Day.

I did do some weight measurements, here are my findings, nothing scientific here.

X5S with an Olympus 45mm lens, no filter, shade or cap came to 448 grams.

X7 with a 35mm lens, no filter, shade or cap came to 599 grams.

Let me know if I can answer any questions.

View attachment 17000
SanCap, can you report on the balance of the lenses on the gimbal, when the drone is off? I have just purchased a full X7 set, and every single lens is back heavy on the gimbal. And I mean SERIOUSLY back heavy. I have scoured the internet for screenshots of others setting up the X7 with the drone off, and it seems others are having the same problem. I checked to confirm the included balancing ring was attached on all my lenses, and it was. Mine won't balance unless I take off the lens hood and add an extra 2 balancing rings (for a total of 3). It's also impossible to add extra balancing rings with the lens hood on, it only fits the stock one that comes with it.

The motor seems fine when I turn it on, but there will certainly be extra wear on the gimbal with this imbalance in the long run. I also worry about smoothness of panning when the motor is working hard to make up for the imbalance. What say ye?
 
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SanCap, can you report on the balance of the lenses on the gimbal, when the drone is off? I have just purchased a full X7 set from Advexure, and every single lens is back heavy on the gimbal. And I mean SERIOUSLY back heavy. I have scoured the internet for screenshots of others setting up the X7 with the drone off, and it seems others are having the same problem. I checked to confirm the included balancing ring was attached on all my lenses, and it was. Mine won't balance unless I take off the lens hood and add an extra 2 balancing rings (for a total of 3). It's also impossible to add extra balancing rings with the lens hood on, it only fits the stock one that comes with it.

The motor seems fine when I turn it on, but there will certainly be extra wear on the gimbal with this imbalance in the long run. I also worry about smoothness of panning when the motor is working hard to make up for the imbalance. What say ye?

I am seeing the same as you are, rear heavy. With the lens cap on including the shade and balancing ring the camera/gimbal are level. I weighed the stock balancing ring and shade, they came in at 21 grams. With the lens cap and balancing ring removed I added a B+W 46mm UV-Haze filter (20 grams) plus the lens shade and the camera/gimbal are perfectly balanced. The B+W ND filters are similar in weight and would be a good choice when using the lens hood. If you didn't want to use the lens hood you could add the stock balancing ring to the B+W UV filter to achieve balance. I hope this helps.
 
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I am seeing the same as you are, rear heavy. With the lens cap on including the shade and balancing ring the camera/gimbal are level. I weighed the stock balancing ring and shade, they came in at 21 grams. With the lens cap and balancing ring removed I added a B+W 46mm UV-Haze filter (20 grams) plus the lens shade and the camera/gimbal are perfectly balanced. The B+W ND filters are similar in weight and would be a good choice when using the lens hood. If you didn't want to use the lens hood you could add the stock balancing ring to the B+W UV filter to achieve balance. I hope this helps.

Thanks, that’s good to know. I have the Polar Pro filter set and when I replaced the stock balancing ring for a PolarPro ND filter, it was still unbalanced. The Polar Pros must be too light still, so I’ll order a set of the B+Ws.

Just to clarify, you mentioned the B+W UV filter, but have you tried it with their B+W ND’s as well? That way I can be sure they will balance before I order. I usually only use an ND4, ND8, or ND16, and their associated polarized variations. Your help is SO appreciated. I have a critical Film shoot in a week and I was pullin out my hair, worried I’d have to find a replacement.
 
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Thanks, that’s good to know. I have the Polar Pro filter set and when I replaced the stock balancing ring for a PolarPro ND filter, I was still unbalanced. The Polar Pros must be too light still so I’ll order a set of the B+Ws.

Just to clarify, you mentioned the B+W UV filter, but have you tried it with their B+W ND’s as well? That way I can be sure they will balance before I order. I usually only use an ND4, ND8, or ND16, and their associated polarized variations. Your help is SO appreciated. I have a critical Film shoot in a week and I was pullin out my hair, worried I’d have to find a replacement.

I will check it shortly and get back to you.
 
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Thanks, that’s good to know. I have the Polar Pro filter set and when I replaced the stock balancing ring for a PolarPro ND filter, it was still unbalanced. The Polar Pros must be too light still, so I’ll order a set of the B+Ws.

Just to clarify, you mentioned the B+W UV filter, but have you tried it with their B+W ND’s as well? That way I can be sure they will balance before I order. I usually only use an ND4, ND8, or ND16, and their associated polarized variations. Your help is SO appreciated. I have a critical Film shoot in a week and I was pullin out my hair, worried I’d have to find a replacement.

My B+W F-Pro 103 ND .9 and F-Pro 106 ND 1.8 balance perfectly on the DJI X7 35mm with the lens hood on. I wish I had more lenses to test.
 
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Thank for posting samples.
Would it be possible for you to take longer video with X7 hovering of the moving traffic, daytime and night?
Appreciate it
 
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Thank you, SanCap. I’m traveling and could not download the video. The DNGs however in my opinion do not demonstrate a significant difference.

What is your impression?

Thanks

Barry
 
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Thank you, SanCap. I’m traveling and could not download the video. The DNGs however in my opinion do not demonstrate a significant difference.

What is your impression?

Thanks

Barry

You are welcome Barry, I am not a big pixel peeper and could not see a big difference also. I did notice better colors and better shadow detail. On the Inspire 2 RCG forum, someone I respect and who has been a photo editor for years posted this regarding the samples I provided.

Barry Goyette said...

"Thanks for posting these. They confirm what I was seeing in Ian's charts. The 35mm is the best of the DL lens set in my opinion. Compared to the 25, we see improved detail and incredibly well controlled chromatic aberration. Your shots confirm also the improved color saturation in the shadow areas, again something super important to the cinema guys, but also to anyone playing in the still HDR realm.

Finally, these shots just about confirm to me that DJI is applying NR to the x7 image either in raw encoding or in the built-in profile that ACR sees. I really wish they wouldn't do that. I'll need to run these through raw therapee and see if that changes things."
 
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Thank you. The real question is whether or not to move to a system with proprietary lenses. If DJI upgrades the X7 in a year or so, the lenses will likely be incompatible with a larger sensor.

Frankly I’m pleased with the X5S and ProRes I have the quality dialed in. Thank you again for testing and sharing the results.

Barry
 
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Thank you. The real question is whether or not to move to a system with proprietary lenses. If DJI upgrades the X7 in a year or so, the lenses will likely be incompatible with a larger sensor.

Frankly I’m pleased with the X5S and ProRes I have the quality dialed in. Thank you again for testing and sharing the results.

Barry

It would appear that DJI has found a camera mounting platform that they can live with. One would think that with the investment they have in the X7 they might stay with it till at least Inspire 2.75 :) If I could mount my X5S on an M600 Pro I would be tickled pink for quite a while.
 
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Agreed. The problem trying to develop a full frame sensor camera on the I2 platform is going to be the weight of the lenses. I certainly hope you are right.
If you read the DJI specs carefully, they claim that all of the X7 lenses -except the 25mm will support a full frame sensor. So there is some degree of futue proofing there
 

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