ZENMUSE X5

Steven Powter · Sep 11, 2015

Well i just took the plunge and ordered the new camera... i also ordered extra bracket's for my other Inspire's.. the original bracket are to narrow... (bad design)... this new bracket will stop the camera wobble ... who else has ordered the new camera ?

SRH · Sep 11, 2015

I took the plunge also... The reason I upgraded to the Inspire was because I thought they would upgrade the camera. The flight platform is great and will last many more years but camera quality always improves. Now to wait 30-40 days!!!

nickruss_wales · Sep 11, 2015

ThIs is great news and I will order one today! A game changer for my application - 3D mapping.

Nick (Wales, UK)

Cyclops · Sep 11, 2015

nickruss_wales said:
ThIs is great news and I will order one today! A game changer for my application - 3D mapping.

Nick (Wales, UK)

Yes - this takes the the Inspire 1 from a prosumer to a professional bit of kit. The X5R is too big a step up for me but might be something to look at in the future.

I've ordered the X5 and the new DJI Lens although there is not a lot of information about that yet. I'm sure this new camera will reduce flight times but we will have to find out what impact it will have.

The new camera and lens matches or exceeds the Inspire 1 in cost but will make the Inspire 1 a viable commercial tool.

Scotflieger · Sep 11, 2015

This is good news. My back up camera system is the Olympus OM-D EM-1 micro four-thirds for which I have a range of lens. It is disappointing that only 3 mirco four-thirds lens are listed as compatible. I would love to be able to use my excellent Olympus 45mm lens. It would useful to see the weight and size constraints placed on lens and the gimbal.

UAV Man · Sep 11, 2015

Bit disappointed they didn't off an optical zoom... Would have become the PERFECT package. Going to hold off for a little and see where this all goes.

Simon Torkington · Sep 11, 2015

I have just ordered one. I already have two of the compatible lenses so it makes sense.

I am thinking of buying a couple of X5s and a couple of X5Rs when they are released with a view to renting them out to professionals with PFAW tickets. Who would be interested in a rental service (UK based), especially for the X5R?

Solid · Sep 11, 2015

I'm not ordering one just yet, looks like an awesome product but I want to see more on it before I drop 2500€, because thats really close to what I paid for the hole inspire 1 in the first place.

Any idea if this will fit on the handheld gimbal system? because that would be the dog's bollocks, I would literally use it instead of a glidecam or something like that

SimonMW · Sep 11, 2015

I would want to see drastically improved compression before buying the X5. It still uses 60Mbps encoding, the same that causes the mushiness in the picture from the X3. Yes, it is a much bigger sensor, but that won't mean diddly unless the compression is better. So I will be holding off until I can see some results from it.

Richard Hurst · Sep 11, 2015

Just put a holding deposit down on one rather than paying the full upfront amount and waiting till end of October. Gives me a bit of time to do some wheeling and dealing

Kilrah · Sep 11, 2015

SimonMW said:
I would want to see drastically improved compression before buying the X5. It still uses 60Mbps encoding, the same that causes the mushiness in the picture from the X3. Yes, it is a much bigger sensor, but that won't mean diddly unless the compression is better. So I will be holding off until I can see some results from it.

This already gives a good idea about what to expect:
DJI Inspire 1 Micro Four Thirds Reel Video | DJI Inspire Forum

andreyblanco · Sep 11, 2015

60Mbps is really a joke for 4K aerial platform way too low. The only real issue I have with actual Inspire 1 camera is compression artifacts rather than video quality (RAW Pictures are great problem is compression algorism and bitrate) I honestly willing to pay $1000 for an upgraded in the actual camera codec rather than buying another lower bitrate camera.

Kilrah · Sep 11, 2015

Bitrate is only a small factor in resulting quality.
Whatever the sensor puts out, how it's processed, how it's encoded etc all play a role.
You can have awful video at 60Mbps and great video at 30.

InterMurph · Sep 11, 2015

Scotflieger said:
This is good news. My back up camera system is the Olympus OM-D EM-1 micro four-thirds for which I have a range of lens. It is disappointing that only 3 mirco four-thirds lens are listed as compatible. I would love to be able to use my excellent Olympus 45mm lens. It would useful to see the weight and size constraints placed on lens and the gimbal.

That Olympus 45mm lens is 56mm x 46mm and weighs 116 grams.
My Olympus 12mm lens, which is on the approved list, is 56mm x 43mm, and weighs 130 grams.

Unless there is a huge difference in weight distribution, I would imagine that you could fly your 45mm lens also.

Edit: From the CNet article:

Lens support is limited because in order to keep the camera stable in flight, the 3-axis gimbal reads the lens profile and uses the information to adjust the motors for the weight and center of gravity along with a lens hood weighted to help keep balance.

Sounds like the firmware has a table of weight/center of gravity data, and that the table currently has 3 entries (DJI 15mm, Panasonic 15mm, Olympus 12mm). I don't see any reason why your 45mm camera couldn't be added to that table in the future. And hopefully, the firmware has an intelligent default that would allow your lens to work well before that.

Scotflieger · Sep 11, 2015

InterMurph said:
That Olympus 45mm lens is 56mm x 46mm and weighs 116 grams.
My Olympus 12mm lens, which is on the approved list, is 56mm x 43mm, and weighs 130 grams.

Unless there is a huge difference in weight distribution, I would imagine that you could fly your 45mm lens also.

My thoughts exactly. The question is whether the firmware locks out non-approved lenses.

SimonMW · Sep 11, 2015

Kilrah said:
Bitrate is only a small factor in resulting quality.
Whatever the sensor puts out, how it's processed, how it's encoded etc all play a role.
You can have awful video at 60Mbps and great video at 30.

Only to a point. A big selling point of the X5 is the 13 stop dynamic range. For this to be suitable for any sort of serious grading 60Mbps in 8-bit colour just isn't good enough.

InterMurph · Sep 11, 2015

Panasonic has proven with the GH4 that 100Mbps at 8 bits is good enough. I just wish they had chosen an SDXC card slot, instead of MicroSD. There are plenty of SDXC cards that support this data rate, but to date, no MicroSD cards do.

rmb · Sep 11, 2015

andreyblanco said:
Sorry guys I don't agree, X5's 60Mbps is really a joke for 4K aerial platform way too low. The only real issue I have with actual Inspire 1 camera is compression artifacts rather than video quality (RAW Pictures are great problem is compression algorism and bitrate) I honestly willing to pay $1000 for an upgraded in the actual camera codec rather than buying another lower bitrate camera.

Both you and Richard are right. There is not a big marketable difference or advantage in the professional video market for the 5x. My clients wouldn't pay me a penny more for it. The 5xr however is a different story. As a guy that shoots a lot of pro video for the commercial market, raw = true cinematic quality and could pay of the $5,800 upgrade price with a 2 day shoot. Really looking forward to this release.

Fly safely, r

Scotflieger · Sep 11, 2015

NOTICE - The moderators have set up a complete sub-forum for the ZENMUSE X5 here.

InterMurph · Sep 11, 2015

At the 1:21 mark of this video, a DJI guy talks about the interchangeable lenses, and says, "we're building out different profiles for different lenses."