- Joined
- Sep 28, 2015
- Messages
- 158
- Reaction score
- 80
- Location
- Wyoming, USA
- Website
- www.talonsixaerial.com
I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get the Zenmuse Z3, so I ordered mine the day they were announced and it arrived early this week. I finally got a chance to go out and fly it today. I didn't spend a lot of time in post editing these; I apologize for the quality.
First off, while the Z3 looks like the X3, it's about 40% bigger.
As you can see I don't yet have the new X5-style vibration dampening board, but that is going to be my next purchase. I went through the gimbal calibration routine and noticed that the software now calibrates for roll. The camera wobbled all over the place thanks to the little X3 vibration dampener, hence why I want to go with the new dampening board.
For the flight test, I had my controller hooked up via HDMI to a Lilliput 7" studio monitor. I shoot in RAW with D-Log color, so I prefer to use the Lilliput to get a sense of how things will look in post since it can apply some rudimentary LUTs realtime.
Here's where I found the first software issue: the HDMI image freezes when the Z3 is put into video mode. I wanted to have the Lilliput image fill the screen, so I switched to video mode. The image was still streaming perfectly on my iPad, but the external image was completely frozen. To verify that this was indeed a Z3-unique software issue, I reinstalled the X3 and was able to go back and forth between photo and video modes and still have the live HD image in the appropriate aspect ratio on the Liilput, so hopefully DJI fixes this soon.
The zoom feature is pretty impressive and will be excellent for inspections. Here's a power line support zoomed all the way out:
...and zoomed in at 3x:
Here's the second thing I discovered about the software: the 2.5x digital zoom DJI advertises is only on the iPad and any connected monitors. The actual recorded image is only at max optical zoom and its up to you to further enhance the image in post.
The camera zoom controls are on the iPad screen and curiously are not like the X5's controls:
Right now there's no way to use C1 or C2 to control the zoom, which would be nice (again since I like to use an external monitor), but I'm sure that will come in future software releases.
Here's a cell tower all the way zoomed out:
And zoomed in:
The Z3 comes in an X5-style hard case and sits with the SD card facing up, so there's no digging the camera out of the case just to retrieve the card, which is a nice feature.
I have an Inspak case for my Inspire, which is great for keeping the X3 mounted and the aircraft in landing mode for transport. Unfortunately the Z3 is too big to fit, so I'm going to have to get a new hard case when I'm going to be using the Z3.
Overall, I'm happy with the purchase and think that the Z3 will do very nicely for any sort of aerial inspection task (especially live with a client standing next to you). Sending up an inspire with the Z3 is more economical and less risky than doing so using an X5 with a zoom lens, but at the expense of picture quality. I strongly recommend upgrading the vibration dampening board if you're like me and have a D model or earlier Inspire.
- T6
First off, while the Z3 looks like the X3, it's about 40% bigger.
As you can see I don't yet have the new X5-style vibration dampening board, but that is going to be my next purchase. I went through the gimbal calibration routine and noticed that the software now calibrates for roll. The camera wobbled all over the place thanks to the little X3 vibration dampener, hence why I want to go with the new dampening board.
For the flight test, I had my controller hooked up via HDMI to a Lilliput 7" studio monitor. I shoot in RAW with D-Log color, so I prefer to use the Lilliput to get a sense of how things will look in post since it can apply some rudimentary LUTs realtime.
Here's where I found the first software issue: the HDMI image freezes when the Z3 is put into video mode. I wanted to have the Lilliput image fill the screen, so I switched to video mode. The image was still streaming perfectly on my iPad, but the external image was completely frozen. To verify that this was indeed a Z3-unique software issue, I reinstalled the X3 and was able to go back and forth between photo and video modes and still have the live HD image in the appropriate aspect ratio on the Liilput, so hopefully DJI fixes this soon.
The zoom feature is pretty impressive and will be excellent for inspections. Here's a power line support zoomed all the way out:
...and zoomed in at 3x:
Here's the second thing I discovered about the software: the 2.5x digital zoom DJI advertises is only on the iPad and any connected monitors. The actual recorded image is only at max optical zoom and its up to you to further enhance the image in post.
The camera zoom controls are on the iPad screen and curiously are not like the X5's controls:
Right now there's no way to use C1 or C2 to control the zoom, which would be nice (again since I like to use an external monitor), but I'm sure that will come in future software releases.
Here's a cell tower all the way zoomed out:
And zoomed in:
The Z3 comes in an X5-style hard case and sits with the SD card facing up, so there's no digging the camera out of the case just to retrieve the card, which is a nice feature.
I have an Inspak case for my Inspire, which is great for keeping the X3 mounted and the aircraft in landing mode for transport. Unfortunately the Z3 is too big to fit, so I'm going to have to get a new hard case when I'm going to be using the Z3.
Overall, I'm happy with the purchase and think that the Z3 will do very nicely for any sort of aerial inspection task (especially live with a client standing next to you). Sending up an inspire with the Z3 is more economical and less risky than doing so using an X5 with a zoom lens, but at the expense of picture quality. I strongly recommend upgrading the vibration dampening board if you're like me and have a D model or earlier Inspire.
- T6
