Zenmuse Z3 - first photos and impressions

[Mad_angler1]

Nowhere are there figures quoted for the maximum bitrate for the Z3 (DJI seem to be purposely omitting this important information now!).
Has anyone inspected the files coming off the Z3 to determine where the bitrate tops out at?
My guess is it will still be pegged at a poor 60mbps.

Yea something is a little off with this, the fair number of reports of lag and blocking as well as not responding is odd, I can understand the thing not coming to life in its storage position and rotating it 90 degrees before turning on is not a big deal.

But to ship is like this is a bit strange, it's meant to be based on the X3 so we assume Sony Exmoor and Amba A9 again but May be not ? Perhaps there is something else lurking in their

We need a tear down [emoji14]

DJI will get on top of it but it's a huge shame for owners who buy it and find it's unusable, would think they would hang got passed this by now.


Also new Go App out today so will be interesting to see if this helps at all

Curious: What is the effective difference between the Z3 ($899) and the Osmo+ with the Z3 on it? ($649)??

I suspect very little unless the Z3 does have a few secrets , it's likely they are balancing the profit and loss across the two products.

The handheld gimbal market would not be able to sustain a £900 OSMO so I suspect they are taking a hit on one and making up for it on the aerial side as prices are much higher anyway.

They make little on the OSMO side but make up for the manufacturing and R and D costs on the aerial side.

 

[Mizamook]

Yea something is a little off with this, the fair number of reports of lag and blocking as well as not responding is odd, I can understand the thing not coming to life in its storage position and rotating it 90 degrees before turning on is not a big deal.

But to ship is like this is a bit strange, it's meant to be based on the X3 so we assume Sony Exmoor and Amba A9 again but May be not ? Perhaps there is something else lurking in their

We need a tear down [emoji14]

DJI will get on top of it but it's a huge shame for owners who buy it and find it's unusable, would think they would hang got passed this by now.


Also new Go App out today so will be interesting to see if this helps at all

I suspect very little unless the Z3 does have a few secrets , it's likely they are balancing the profit and loss across the two products.

The handheld gimbal market would not be able to sustain a £900 OSMO so I suspect they are taking a hit on one and making up for it on the aerial side as prices are much higher anyway.

They make little on the OSMO side but make up for the manufacturing and R and D costs on the aerial side.

Interesting ... so, let's say I'm looking to put together an independent system for mounting on other vehicles, (airplane/car/boat) and wanted a Z3 ... could I buy the Osmo+ and stick its Z3 onto my system, and sell the silly handle thingy?

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Won't work. The head of the of the Osmo+ won't work on the Inspire, or so we're being told. Interestingly, DJI says the Z3 won't work on the Osmo handle either, though field results from testing are showing mixed results.

 

[Mizamook]

Won't work. The head of the of the Osmo+ won't work on the Inspire, or so we're being told. Interestingly, DJI says the Z3 won't work on the Osmo handle either, though field results from testing are showing mixed results.

Thanks for the info!

So what is the consensus? Seems that half the people hate it, the other half love it (the Z3).

Is it "as good as" the X3 as far as image? I know that is relative, as I kinda hated the X3, but ... one of the reasons I hated it is that horizons had that weird camel bump in the middle ... is that gone? The other reason I hated the X3 was the flickery compression ... I'm assuming that's the same, since the sensor is the same .... but, if the optical quality of the lens is actually a little better, then some of the loathing would go away. The flicker? Well, avoid forests and gravel/detailed areas ...

Am I missing anything? Any info helpful!

 

[Richard M]

Experimented with the Z3 on a flare inspection for a client today.

Drone is 65 feet away from, and elevated 70 feet above the top of the flare. Total linear distance 95 feet. No zoom applied. Image resized to 33% to reduce file size:


This one is from the same position as above but zoomed in optical 3.5x. Image resized to 33% to reduce file size: (edit - just realized there was no digital zoom since my video setting was 4K at the time)


This is the exact zoomed-in image as above but with the subject cropped out and shown at the actual resolution captured:

 

[Bryan Conover]

Yea something is a little off with this, the fair number of reports of lag and blocking as well as not responding is odd, I can understand the thing not coming to life in its storage position and rotating it 90 degrees before turning on is not a big deal.

But to ship is like this is a bit strange, it's meant to be based on the X3 so we assume Sony Exmoor and Amba A9 again but May be not ? Perhaps there is something else lurking in their

We need a tear down [emoji14]

DJI will get on top of it but it's a huge shame for owners who buy it and find it's unusable, would think they would hang got passed this by now.


Also new Go App out today so will be interesting to see if this helps at all

I suspect very little unless the Z3 does have a few secrets , it's likely they are balancing the profit and loss across the two products.

The handheld gimbal market would not be able to sustain a £900 OSMO so I suspect they are taking a hit on one and making up for it on the aerial side as prices are much higher anyway.

They make little on the OSMO side but make up for the manufacturing and R and D costs on the aerial side.

The rumor is that the motors in the Inspire Z3 are stronger to copen sate for wind turbulence when flying. The OSMO+ has lighter motors. Either way, DJI locked the firmware.

 

[BCF]

Ordered my Z3 this morning - will in my hands tomorrow. Can't wait.

 

[brad90631]

I am into the second week of having my z3. the first weekend everything went great no issues zoom was a little delayed but was workable.

this weekend I could not get a video signal. craft was connected and I could move the camara and had complete control however no video. when I would get video it had a 5 second delay from movement until I would see it on the screen. I am using a Nvidia shield.

any body else seeing any issues like this?

 

[The Editor]

I am into the second week of having my z3. the first weekend everything went great no issues zoom was a little delayed but was workable.

this weekend I could not get a video signal. craft was connected and I could move the camara and had complete control however no video. when I would get video it had a 5 second delay from movement until I would see it on the screen. I am using a Nvidia shield.

any body else seeing any issues like this?

Currently a known issue with no timeline as yet when a fix will be released.

 

[Mizamook]

Currently a known issue with no timeline as yet when a fix will be released.

Is this a known issue with the Shield, or will all Android? Or all both Android and iOS?

Is it a known issue with particular firmware? I have an X3 and A3+LB2 coming, and I'd like to make it work ... and soon!

Thanks

 

[BCF]

Won't work. The head of the of the Osmo+ won't work on the Inspire, or so we're being told. Interestingly, DJI says the Z3 won't work on the Osmo handle either, though field results from testing are showing mixed results.

Tried to install my Z3 on my Osmo - physically went on the mount but was totally unresponsive.

 

[BCF]

I am into the second week of having my z3. the first weekend everything went great no issues zoom was a little delayed but was workable.

this weekend I could not get a video signal. craft was connected and I could move the camara and had complete control however no video. when I would get video it had a 5 second delay from movement until I would see it on the screen. I am using a Nvidia shield.

any body else seeing any issues like this?

Took my Inspire 1 and both X3 and Z3 cameras out yesterday for the first time since buying the Z3 (been very windy recently).

The X3 performed faultlessly but the Z3 was inconsistent. At times there was significant lag and distorted banding across the screen (Samsung S2 8") both during recording and also when not. At other times it was as smooth as silk and distortion free.

In a way I hope The Editor is correct and my issue is part of the known problem and a fix is on the way very soon. I'm only grateful that I'm not a pro relying on this lens for commercial work. I'll give it a couple of more weeks and if it's not resolved then back it goes to the retailer for a refund.

 

[AeroVisionz]

Took my Inspire 1 and both X3 and Z3 cameras out yesterday for the first time since buying the Z3 (been very windy recently).

The X3 performed faultlessly but the Z3 was inconsistent. At times there was significant lag and distorted banding across the screen (Samsung S2 8") both during recording and also when not. At other times it was as smooth as silk and distortion free.

In a way I hope The Editor is correct and my issue is part of the known problem and a fix is on the way very soon. I'm only grateful that I'm not a pro relying on this lens for commercial work. I'll give it a couple of more weeks and if it's not resolved then back it goes to the retailer for a refund.

I'm having similar symptoms as you. Also, when I perform the auto gimbal cal through the app it would stop halfway (camera facing to the back) and an error pops up on the screen saying gimbal has reached its maximum rotation or something to that effect. I have read elsewhere that the gimbal has to be pretty level when starting up. Will have to try that.

 

[BCF]

I sent mine back to the dealer for testing on their Inspire 1 running 1.8 firmware and it was apparently perfect until they upped the firmware to 1.9 and there was the lag and image break up. So they are sending it back to me, I'll downgrade to 1.8 and run the Inspire on that until DJI send out a firmware correcting this issue. Fingers crossed for that to happen soon.

 

[AeroVisionz]

I sent mine back to the dealer for testing on their Inspire 1 running 1.8 firmware and it was apparently perfect until they upped the firmware to 1.9 and there was the lag and image break up. So they are sending it back to me, I'll downgrade to 1.8 and run the Inspire on that until DJI send out a firmware correcting this issue. Fingers crossed for that to happen soon.

What Inspire model do you have ? Also check this vid out, I am getting pretty much the same stuff. I still have to try the 'level gimbal before powerup' suggestion. Also shooting in 4K seems to cause the video lag, 2.7K or even better 1080p is the one to choose till they fix the FW problem.

 

[BCF]

I'm running the Inspire 1 v2.

 

[CCTPREZ]

So I'm by NO MEANS a professional photographer. I do have 3-versions of the Phantom (2,2+,&4), the Inspire 1, flamewheels 450 & 550 (converted to 650mm). So I'm very familiar with drones, etc. Just not well versed in camera settings. I fly more for the sheer fun of flying, and ameateur videos of different places of travel.

I received the Z3 a couple weeks ago. Was initially not displaying any picture on the screen, although I could move it etc. I found a pin was somehow bent on the gimbal side, and instead of trying to bend it back into shape/place, ordered a new mount.

I updated my iPad to the latest version, than uninstalled/re-installed the GO-app, to which it ended up being a lot different than what I thought to have been the most updated version b4 reinstalling it.

After getting the new Z3 all mounted up and fiddling with the controls on the ground, I took it up and was truly impressed with the new abilities of the Z3! It wasn't anything different than the x3 at first, but after zooming in, I was very pleasantly surprised!

I was NOT able to control the zoom function via the remote, HOWEVER, using the Go-App, I had no issue zooming in 3.5 optical, followed by 2X digital by holding down the "T" bar on the screen/app. This was done IN 4K, and in one long hold of the "T" (T or W), to which it really REALLY zoomed in!

Fast forward a week, and I brought the I-1 (first released version "B", but upgraded with Lyhn Phans prop locks, and T-motor props. I did NOT install the X5 dampers, and had zero shake, or any noticeable delays, or anything perculiar. The problem I did have though, is that my iPad screen was somehow damaged on the plane ride from US to Jamaica, and therefore I lost my brightness ability, as well as the entire right/bottom (diagonally) picture on the screen, so I had a heck of a time making some adjustments. I would also MANY times somehow lock the gimbal to a "follow-me" type mode when trying to zoom in/out, and couldn't read the screen to get out of it.

All of the videos/pictures I shot (today actually) were shot exactly as I later watched from the SD card (I don't even have a post-video somftware), and only flown using a 16-ND filter. I'm going to try to post some of the video of the area, oceans, dolphins etc. tonight, but have very limited access to do any video editing at all. So assuming I get them up soon excuse all of the random spinning of the camera to catch back up to the orientation of the drone (unwinding), as I could not see certain aspects of my settings, and while in flight, my view was terrible due to no brightness and super sunny out, so again, very hard to see what I was doing on-screen, but the videos came out great for what I ha to work with. Stay tuned!

 

[AeroVisionz]

So I'm by NO MEANS a professional photographer. I do have 3-versions of the Phantom (2,2+,&4), the Inspire 1, flamewheels 450 & 550 (converted to 650mm). So I'm very familiar with drones, etc. Just not well versed in camera settings. I fly more for the sheer fun of flying, and ameateur videos of different places of travel.

I was NOT able to control the zoom function via the remote, HOWEVER, using the Go-App, I had no issue zooming in 3.5 optical, followed by 2X digital by holding down the "T" bar on the screen/app. This was done IN 4K, and in one long hold of the "T" (T or W), to which it really REALLY zoomed in!


To zoom in and out try holding in the C2 button in and hold while using the left roller to control the zoom. Works for me.

 

[CCTPREZ]

I was WRONG! Was in 2.7K, always use 4K, but somehow got into 2.7K and is apparently why I could zoom all the way in. Sorry for the bad information! Just wanted to clarify b4 I got too many people confused (if any)... Thank You!

No issues with any shake with X3 dampers though.

 

[CCTPREZ]

Oh, and the C2 with left wheel worked FLAWLESSLY! Thank you for the advice!