My X5R Has Arrived

Finally, someone agrees with me about the x5R!
You don't need the x5R for regular tv work. You don't need the x5 for regular tv work either. Both the x3 and x5 record an unsatisfactory 60 mb/sec bit rate but it's good enough for tv or web use.
Unless you are making a movie for theatrical release, the x3 is still an excellent camera for tv shows or web use.
The x5 is a waste of money period for the little improvement you would get such as sensitivity and sdof.
My suggestion is to go big and splurge on the x5R so you can shoot a high end production in RAW at 1.7 Gb/sec and this unit can compete with the high end Alexa and Sony F55's etc.
Some of you talk about the Red as well but they are on their way out anyway as Alexa is king of the motion picture industry. You would be able to use an x5R as an aerial platform in RAW and it will blend in very nicely with an Alexa or F55.

Keep in mind also that the big Octos are becoming a dinosaur as production companies are dumping them in droves because of the cost and most importantly, the dangers inherent with flying such a beast. Not to mention high insurance premiums.
One of the original makers of big drones, Mikrokopter, is feeling the heat from DJI for sure.
Look at the crash video of that big octo in France on that ski hill earlier this year.
My next acquisition will be the x5R kit for my Inspire 1 .
I'll benefit from a fast bit rate, lens interchangeability, shallow depth of field, although for the life of me cannot see why on earth I would need it at 109 feet up unless I'm shooting close ups of a pole or tree or someone on a mountain.
But at the moment, very happy with my X3.
Congrats to DJI for capturing this niche market for professionals with the X5R!
 
Reactions: slim.slamma
^^ Well I've only had a few practice runs with the X5, but it does seem a very big step up from the X3.
IQ generally is much better...
As is CA and especially Moire.
None, or very little jello or suchlike
Where you want it, subject isolation can be incredibly better..... although bokeh is, shall we say, rather disappointing, which is odd as it is OK on a stills camera with same lenses.
Interchangeable lenses - 45mm has real potential, but does, admittedly require good 'control'.
I can fly, at a push without ND's so can take stills as well as video, this was impossible with the X3. Yes you get some softening due to diffraction F13+ but really, on today's result, the main problem is noise on the shadows, you won't notice on video, but stills, yes.
Lens calibration thing, infinity focus - hyperfocal not, just didn't work for me at anything less than about F8. Touch autofocus worked tack on every time. I think that you really need to weigh up your scene and prefocus at a suitable hyperfocal and then refocus at points which are likely to be cuts. Once I went to autofocus - prefocusing, everything worked well.

Video was easy enough to liven up in PP, although I'm not sure I could grade against a 5D3 or 1DX. Having said that, it should be possible to get a fairly close to acceptable match.
Video doesn't crop too well though, but not had time to play with that.

I think the 25mm Olympus will probably be my 'goto' lens, the Olly 12mm is just too wide. The Panasonic 15mm, yes I can see some uses for that - and I found the Panny's IQ on the X5 much better than the Olly 12 (which is for sale I think).

The X5 is the compromise, X5R, yes if doing a multi-million shoot, X3, well really just wasn't good enough for anything. X5 is OK.
 
Packed up with everything (!) ready for flight. Spent the day testing and updating.

X5R, 5 modified TB48's, 5 sets of aux lipos, dual controllers with pilots RC mod and aux antenna, dual harnesses, two iPad Air 2's (well one shown, the 2nd finishing charging), 2 sets of CF props, SSD, extra lens and filters, two PadHat iPad hoods, landing mode with X5R installed with 12mm and UV filter installed and ready to fly.

I love that the MrAx case fits all that AND it's 64 linear inches around, avoiding oversize fees on most airlines.

 
Last edited:
Reactions: NRR, AndersE, Michael Worley and 3 others

Looking forward to seeing some footage! BTW, just upgraded both my controllers to DBS so I can eliminate the second controller reception issues. So far, so good but now have to figure out how to get them in my case without taking them apart. Fortunately, it's a landing mode case, so there's depth.
 
Reactions: damoncooper and slim.slamma
Omg if I had your hands
I'd cut mine off
 

I have pilot RC modded with DBS above. I just pop the antenna off and lay it horizontally on the slots for the Inspire arms as you see above (my DBS is painted black above)
 
The X3 is still very good. I figure DJI will come out with the X3A soon which will have a better bit rate and more sensitivity.
Price wise, it will be much more affordable than the X5 and more expensive than the X3.
Keep in mind that the X3 and X5 both share a mediocre 60 mb/sec bit rate.
 
^^ On reflection, with what else is available on small UAVs, yes I agree the X3 is still much better than most, and yes, 'relatively' very good. X5 is up a big notch though.
Fkn bit rate. Yes. I wasn't interested in 4K so 60 should have been fine, but finding I'm actually getting better results on 2.7K and downscaling to 1080. Not tried 1080 on latest FW though.
 
 
Thanks a lot! I see still some noise in the shadows but it looks way better than my X5 footage.
Would be interesting to see if the noise level is lower with Iso 200.
 
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