Inspire 2 wishlist

Bryan Conover · Oct 15, 2016

Not to hurt anyone's feelings but I am having my doubts DJI will release the Inspire 2. As of now there are no known leaked images like the P4 and Mavic. On the other hand, the Matrice 100 has taken over the role of the Inspire 1 with less moving parts, longer flight times and has object avoidance options. Factor in a migration to smaller more compact devices (Mavic) and this middle weight with marginal (X3) camera abilities over a P4 might not survive. Anything that attaches to a Inspire 1 can be attached to Matrice.

DrMrdalj · Oct 15, 2016

RaptorMan said:
To add another item to the list I'd like to see a dedicated FPV camera for the pilot so the pilot can fly with that camera and the camera operator can do whatever the hell he/she wants. I see that dual stream is something the LB2 is supposed to have and don't know how Ocusync figures into the equation. Ultimately, having a dedicated forward looking camera the pilot can use to fly the bird while the camera operator controls the payload would make the Inspire an even better option.

But, the Inspire is in a weird slot as it's too big relative to the Pantom and Mavic models but not big enough to handle the pro cameras etc. It may be that the Inspire fills a niche market between pro work and just foolin around but limited to just about what it's now capable of doing. That is, the Inspire may well wind up as a dead end. With really small drones like the Mavic offering almost all of the capabilities of the Inspire at 1/3 the cost and 1/4 the weight it will be hard to justify the added cost for the limited increase in capability. The M43 camera, on paper, seems to make the Inspire a true pro system, but the low bit rate and processor performance cripple much of the advantage it should have.

Perhaps the I2 will improve on that and I did have that as an item on my wishlist, but, frankly, it appears to me that DJI is more interested in the vastly larger market of smaller drones like the Phantom and Mavic and in the pro drones like the Matrice 600 and S-series drones for true pro work. It kind of feels like the Inspire is the odd man out...

Brian

Matrice600 is still highly unreliable and uncomplete platform - beside its odd 6 battery concept, and US banned short range wireless for RoninMX to work, there is no way to make controll of any third party camera (as controller and Go App do not support any third party wiring - so you end up with three RC controllers: aircraft, gimbal, camera!)
S1000 is fair airframe, but Lightbridge2 limits its use as well, in same way... Beside that there are no proper pro gimbals for S1000, as Z15 is pretty dated by now.
For real pro machine - look at Freefly Alta or Kopterworx Hammer system (15k$ per aircraft) or some Gryphon airframe...

RaptorMan · Oct 15, 2016

DrMrdalj said:
Matrice600 is still highly unreliable and uncomplete platform - beside its odd 6 battery concept, and US banned short range wireless for RoninMX to work, there is no way to make controll of any third party camera (as controller and Go App do not support any third party wiring - so you end up with three RC controllers: aircraft, gimbal, camera!)
S1000 is fair airframe, but Lightbridge2 limits its use as well, in same way... Beside that there are no proper pro gimbals for S1000, as Z15 is pretty dated by now.
For real pro machine - look at Freefly Alta or Kopterworx Hammer system (15k$ per aircraft) or some Gryphon airframe...

Regarding your previous post first, I'm not seeing the transmission problems you are but them I'm i the USA so we are permitted the more powerful transmitters. In my experience I've had signal loss as close as less than 100m but have also had rock solid comm at a remote location where I was able to test at 1.7 miles without a problem. So, when flying in built up areas with a sea of RF with cellular and wifi and other stuff polluting the airwaves the i1 can have issues even at close range while in remote locations the signal is usually solid well beyond a practical range limit. My guess is the problems you are having are a combination of RF noisy environment and the reduced transmitter power imposed upon you.

DJI, although the world leader in small drones, hasn't demonstrated mastery of the pro market and the tools they need. The X5/X5R are nice but too limiting. I don't see DJI dumping there cameras for Panasonic or Sony as they are pretty obvious in there desire to be players in the camera business. I hope they can up the bitrate to 100Mbps or higher and for me, the biggest improvement would be the elimination of the pulsing/breathing effect in the shadow detail particularly after you make an editing adjustment with curves or other contrast stretching tool. I have had to adapt by not using as much contrast adjustment as I'd like to limit the flickering effect. I'm not 100% sure what causes the flickering, but my guess is a combination of inadequate processing power and insufficient bitrate is the culprit though it could be more simply bad coding.

The higher end drones you mentioned are out of the reach for me at this point and until I turn pro that wont change.

Brian

Mad_angler1 · Oct 15, 2016

DrMrdalj said:
For a start I would like "no image transmission" issues to be solved!!! My I1 is almost useless now, due to changes DJI made in image transmission protocols and transmission power (I work in Europe)! Not to mention complicated and time consuming NFZ unlock procedures for "prohibitet red zones", despite I own pro. certificate and ATC clearance...
I invested heavily in I1 ecosystem (aircrafts, cameras, batteries, lenses, controllers - aprox 10.000 EUR) which now have transmission glitches even when flying at 20m range in open remote field!!!
Comparing to its price and to other mirrorless cameras X5 and X5R are just plain unreliable, unfinished after whole year of product life.
Therefore I really hesitate to believe in any of I2 promises, and in general I am not sure would I believe in DJI anymore...

No, I do not need obstacle avoidance sensors, bells and whistles. These sensor can not see wire in the sky, while I can see tree or building myself.

Yes, I need reliable battery for 15 minutes (without software performance limits when flying X5 on cold day), reliable video transmission on 500m range (without frequent suden transmission losses) , reliable horizon hold of gimbal (without camera heavy tilting in plain sideway flight)... Such problems must be solved for platform to be considered as pro solution!

Regarding the camera - please DJI, just license some Panasonic or Sony or Canon tech and make it fly - that is at least 100Mbps bitrate for 4K@30p, pro level color science and codec without strong compression artifacts, sensor which has at least native ISO 400 or 800 with pro gain controll (X5/X5R have native ISO100 and very noisy shadows, while both X3/X5 have so many H264 artifacts due to poor compression implementation - they are all just in GoPro league at best)

That would make production value - anything else is just gimmick which would hide lack of basic functionalities!

This is not normal in any region and I would suggest sending it into DJI as I have had 2 CE Inspire models and get no breakup at all.

As for your other wishes you have to remember the I1 is two years old now and whilst very capable the P3 and P4 have moved things along flight time and camera wise compared to the X3, the X5 gave some added benefits and the R have been shown to be outstanding in correct hands.

I think DJI will please with what comes next.

DrMrdalj · Oct 15, 2016

Mad_angler1 said:
This is not normal in any region and I would suggest sending it into DJI as I have had 2 CE Inspire models and get no breakup at all.

As for your other wishes you have to remember the I1 is two years old now and whilst very capable the P3 and P4 have moved things along flight time and camera wise compared to the X3, the X5 gave some added benefits and the R have been shown to be outstanding in correct hands.

I think DJI will please with what comes next.

I sincerely thank you for your support...

I did not have any transmission problems either up to the last set of AC/RC fw upgrades - I was happy flyer so I invested based on that first year experience...There ware some issues which I accepted (hirizon drift in strait sideways flight) but I strongly preffered I1 over other options. As regular GH4 user (Z15 on S900) I was delighted with X5/X5R announcement...

Honestly, my second year experience was not so great - I was disatisfied with X5 and X5R in many ways, I strugled thru many fw iterations which messed some basic camera parameters (shadow pulsing and H264 compression was strongly artefacted, manual WB was broken, D-Log was muddy in one and noisy in other fw, usable ISO is limited to 400, focusing controls changed thru fw iterations, and so on - comparing to Canon 70D and 5D, Sony A7, GH4 and even cheaper Panasonic models that was frustrating)... Finaly after mandatory fw upgrade (1.8 and 1.9 for AC, 1.6 and 1.7 for RC) I stucked with image transmission problems on two aircrafts with different cameras, as well as my colegue on third aircraft!??

I understand that P4 and Mavic are very nice machines - but I can not uderstand why Mavic is labeled "Pro"?! Such promotional tactics, as well as regular pushing of unfinished products to market, which eventually get sorted out (or messed up) in several fw iterrations - that is all what I do not expect from real professional equipment...

DJI is for sure market leader in many ways, but I feel that in their effort to broaden market they focus on newbies more then on their faithfull customers...

DrMrdalj · Oct 15, 2016

RaptorMan said:
Regarding your previous post first, I'm not seeing the transmission problems you are but them I'm i the USA so we are permitted the more powerful transmitters. In my experience I've had signal loss as close as less than 100m but have also had rock solid comm at a remote location where I was able to test at 1.7 miles without a problem. So, when flying in built up areas with a sea of RF with cellular and wifi and other stuff polluting the airwaves the i1 can have issues even at close range while in remote locations the signal is usually solid well beyond a practical range limit. My guess is the problems you are having are a combination of RF noisy environment and the reduced transmitter power imposed upon you.

DJI, although the world leader in small drones, hasn't demonstrated mastery of the pro market and the tools they need. The X5/X5R are nice but too limiting. I don't see DJI dumping there cameras for Panasonic or Sony as they are pretty obvious in there desire to be players in the camera business. I hope they can up the bitrate to 100Mbps or higher and for me, the biggest improvement would be the elimination of the pulsing/breathing effect in the shadow detail particularly after you make an editing adjustment with curves or other contrast stretching tool. I have had to adapt by not using as much contrast adjustment as I'd like to limit the flickering effect. I'm not 100% sure what causes the flickering, but my guess is a combination of inadequate processing power and insufficient bitrate is the culprit though it could be more simply bad coding.

The higher end drones you mentioned are out of the reach for me at this point and until I turn pro that wont change.

Brian

You are right in so many ways...

Mr Phantom · Oct 16, 2016

1. Better camera, higher bitrate, optical zoom etc. 2, collision avoidance that works good and can detect smaller / thinner obstacles. 3, A second camera for the pilot. 4, Longer flight times. 5, redundancy. 6, Improved video transmission system, i.e. more stable signal etc.

The question is how much DJI are going to invest in the Inspire series, if there will even be a next Inspire? It feels as DJI is starting to look towards the people that are not normally interested in drones and who are not videographers or photographers, but more for the masses, now with the Mawic.
But the thing that makes me think that they will invest in the Inspire is the several different cameras that they have released for the Inspire, why would they continue to release these if they are not going to continue investing in the Inspire?

gencoimports · Oct 16, 2016

A nose camera for the pilot. The pilot needs his own camera when second controller is being operated by a photographer.

Burlingtonfilms · Oct 19, 2016

gencoimports said:
A nose camera for the pilot. The pilot needs his own camera when second controller is being operated by a photographer.

+1

nicopter · Oct 20, 2016

Hi gruvpix,
you say "usable 1080p60" : because you think it is too soft?

about inspire V2:
- shorten time to flight: now it is "Switch ON, set from Travel Mode to Flight Mode, Switch OFF, install gimbal, switch ON...."
- SD card -accessible-
- FW updates you could rely on, even before pro missions
- keep cameras settings when you change battery
- continuous AF, or hyperfocal informations

ge0se · Oct 20, 2016

RaptorMan said:
To add another item to the list I'd like to see a dedicated FPV camera for the pilot so the pilot can fly with that camera and the camera operator can do whatever the hell he/she wants. I see that dual stream is something the LB2 is supposed to have and don't know how Ocusync figures into the equation. Ultimately, having a dedicated forward looking camera the pilot can use to fly the bird while the camera operator controls the payload would make the Inspire an even better option.

Brian

Agree with your statement here, low-latency forward facing, stabilized camera which adopts quickly to different lighting conditions is so critical to have on this drone.

Burlingtonfilms · Oct 21, 2016

nicopter said:
Hi gruvpix,
you say "usable 1080p60" : because you think it is too soft?

about inspire V2:
- shorten time to flight: now it is "Switch ON, set from Travel Mode to Flight Mode, Switch OFF, install gimbal, switch ON...."
- SD card -accessible-
- FW updates you could rely on, even before pro missions
- keep cameras settings when you change battery
- continuous AF, or hyperfocal informations

60fps at 1080p is softer? Any sample videos online or is this a rumor?

Inspire 2 wishlist

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