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Inspire Pro and X5 - First video - Lens Tests

Joined
Nov 8, 2013
Messages
28
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Location
Santa Cruz
Website
www.phillima.com
I received an Inspire Pro package with an X5 on Thursday of last week and spent a couple days shooting and testing it as much as possible. I thought I'd share some of the results from my flights so people can see what the X5 is like in real world situations. I shot in situations that would push the camera in all ways, low light, high contrast and high detail.

Overall I'm extremely impressed with the X5, it's a massive step up from an X3 in a lot of ways. Just because the camera is more capable does not mean it's for everyone though. I shoot with a GH4/S1000 kit a lot and in my opinion, the X5 will replace that kit 90% of the time. For stills, the X5 is an improvement over flying a GH4. For video, I would say it is on par with the GH4 but having full manual control of the camera from the ground put it's up a massive level. What most people need to know is that this camera will not just make your photos/videos better. It's capable of making them better, but it requires extra effort and time to get the shots. If you're shooting style is to get as much as possible and fly all over and capture as much as possible, the X5 is not a good choice. If your shooting style is to walk the flight path, plan it out, do a couple test flights, play it back to see what could be improved and then do it again, and again. And once you've nailed it... Do a safety take, just incase... Then the X5 will be perfect. If you're willing to put the work in, the X5 will reward you with better looking shots. If your'e just going to take off and hit record, then the X3 might actually give you better results some of the time.

With that said, here is a quick video I put together from my test shoots over a day and a half. Enjoy!

 
Thanks laselvasurf got some great footage there and good advice on shooting regime.

Got to say Iam coming around to getting an X5 after seeing yours and others early footage.
The mid tone strobe effect is a lot better than the X3 which is great.

Was the glass the stock dji lens?
 
Thanks laselvasurf got some great footage there and good advice on shooting regime.

Got to say Iam coming around to getting an X5 after seeing yours and others early footage.
The mid tone strobe effect is a lot better than the X3 which is great.

Was the glass the stock dji lens?

Thanks. The mid-tone strobing seems be almost gone with the X5 compared to the X3.

This was shot with both the DJI lens and my olympus 12mm that I use on my GH4/S1000. The entire last bit at the beach was shot with just the DJI lens.
 
Very nice footage! Can I ask what you have as your gain settings? I'm having trouble getting my inspire pro to fly like my phantom 3 does.
 
Very nice footage! Can I ask what you have as your gain settings? I'm having trouble getting my inspire pro to fly like my phantom 3 does.
The gain is set to default settings. I have expo on the rudder at .3 and the sensitivity at 50, 90 and 100. I like it to fly much softer than most though, and I fly in ATTI mode about 90% of the time.
 
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The gain is set to default settings. I have expo on the rudder at .3 and the sensitivity at 50, 90 and 100. I like it to fly much softer than most though, and I fly in ATTI mode about 90% of the time.

Philip, I have my expos and sensitivity settings pretty much like yours, but I'm still getting a pretty twitchy lateral (yaw) movement in follow mode. Did you turn off "Gimbal Yaw synchronous follow" mode in advanced gimbal settings?
 
Very nice footage...how did you handle focus? I'm assuming there is a manual setting? Any advice about apeture settings? Did you use any filters? Again, nice footage! Well edited...tasteful.
 
Philip, I have my expos and sensitivity settings pretty much like yours, but I'm still getting a pretty twitchy lateral (yaw) movement in follow mode. Did you turn off "Gimbal Yaw synchronous follow" mode in advanced gimbal settings?
I did not turn off the setting you asked about. I honestly didn't know it was there. I find the yaw a bit more sensitive than with the X3 because of the tighter FOV, but I am still able to make slow pans without and issue.
 
Posted some Inspire Pro X5 test footage on YT here. If interested in downloading the file from my Dropbox account to bypass the YT 4K compression, it's available here.(2.1 GB file size) Let me know what you think. Out doing more tests today. Shot with DJI 15 mm and m.Zuiko 12 mm lenses and most clips used a B+W 0.9 ND and f/5.6 or f/8. Manual focus at 9 ft for hyperfocal range. Original footage shot in D-Log and custom style (-1, -1, -1). Processed in Premiere Pro CC.
 
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Looks great Quadpilot - But couldn't find anything on Dropbox seems the link has expired.
 
If your shooting style is to walk the flight path, plan it out, do a couple test flights, play it back to see what could be improved and then do it again, and again. And once you've nailed it... Do a safety take, just incase... Then the X5 will be perfect. If you're willing to put the work in, the X5 will reward you with better looking shots. If your'e just going to take off and hit record, then the X3 might actually give you better results some of the time.

With that said, here is a quick video I put together from my test shoots over a day and a half. Enjoy!


Love the shot of that pelican V formation.
....and a lot of other shots as well.

It's not only the X5, you have a good eye and your shots are well thought out, just like you mentioned in your post.
 
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Great video's so far, I've just seen this video showing the 25mm lens on an X5:


Is is interesting as it shows it may be able to work reasonably well out of the box with different lenses (within reason!) the 17mm and 25mm are both of real interest to me.
 
Posted some Inspire Pro X5 test footage on YT here. If interested in downloading the file from my Dropbox account to bypass the YT 4K compression, it's available here.(2.1 GB file size) Let me know what you think. Out doing more tests today. Shot with DJI 15 mm and m.Zuiko 12 mm lenses and most clips used a B+W 0.9 ND and f/5.6 or f/8. Manual focus at 9 ft for hyperfocal range. Original footage shot in D-Log and custom style (-1, -1, -1). Processed in Premiere Pro CC.

Hi how did you find using the B+W filters, they weren't too heavy for it?
 
I have flown several times with an Olympus M.Zuiko 12mm lens and the B+W 0.9 (3-stop) ND filter. I experienced no problems.
 
Hi how did you find using the B+W filters, they weren't too heavy for it?

Not as far as I could tell. The gimbal seemed pretty tolerant. I even put on an even heavier (app 40 grams) B+W CP filter without issues. This was on the DJI 15 mm lens, which is 15 grams lighter than the M.Zuiko 12 mm.
 

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