Pulled the trigger on X5R

[damoncooper]

Fyi, after carefully considering my non-DJI options I've ordered the X5R and OSMO.

Here's hoping the X5R ships in March or earlier, has 10-bit 4:4:4 and works with OSMO in the not too distant future.

 

[InterMurph]

Me too!

And me too.

 

[Richard Hurst]

I reckon based on past DJI lead times your going to be looking at end of April - middle of May on a "ships in March" statement

 

[damoncooper]

I reckon based on past DJI lead times your going to be looking at end of April - middle of May on a "ships in March" statement

Yeah maybe. Sigh. We'll see. I'm in the line now anyway and it's paid for.

 

[AJW]

yeah they dropped the price big time

 

[Kapil Gandhi]

where did you purchase/ BH?

 

[InterMurph]

I ordered mine from B&H.

 

[damoncooper]

Same

 

[Burlingtonfilms]

Wow I just saw the new price of the X5R! It dropped like 50%.

I can't wait to see the video IQ of the RAW and 10 bit ProRes files.

 

[damoncooper]

Wow I just saw the new price of the X5R! It dropped like 50%.

I can't wait to see the video IQ of the RAW and 10 bit ProRes files.

Yeah it was...inspiring.

I'm still learning but someone pointed out to me that the RAW video doesn't have chroma per se, but the encoder (desktop software) will be able to output 4:4:4, which I was happy to hear.

 

[damoncooper]

On the topic of the RAW format choice for the X5R, I think DJI made absolutely the right call.

To put the computing hardware in place plus the new firmware required to do all this crunching from censor to ProRes or even 100mbps as well as the GH4 does would have delayed the X5 "bigger brother" probably another full year and introduced yet another whole area where bugs and problems would be introduced and have to be fixed by DJI.

The obvious next gen SOC that might have the horsepower to process dual 100mbps backside plus 720p downlink simultaneously is the H1 Ambrella but I suspect GoPro has supply locked up for the foreseeable future for their next gen cameras.

Adding a second SOC would have theoretically done the trick but the increased power consumption, FW complexity etc with the problems DJI is having properly dialing in the X5 codecs world have been inferior to the current X5R approach of dump the RAW to storage in the air and encode separately on the desktop/laptop to ProRes etc.

Less power, less complexity, less headache and maintenance of air-side systems and faster time to market this way.

I think it was the right move.

 

[The Editor]

On the topic of the RAW format choice for the X5R, I think DJI made absolutely the right call.

To put the computing hardware in place plus the new firmware required to do all this crunching from censor to ProRes or even 100mbps as well as the GH4 does would have delayed the X5 "bigger brother" probably another full year and introduced yet another whole area where bugs and problems would be introduced and have to be fixed by DJI.

The obvious next gen SOC that might have the horsepower to process dual 100mbps backside plus 720p downlink simultaneously is the H1 Ambrella but I suspect GoPro has supply locked up for the foreseeable future for their next gen cameras.

Adding a second SOC would have theoretically done the trick but the increased power consumption, FW complexity etc with the problems DJI is having properly dialing in the X5 codecs world have been inferior to the current X5R approach of dump the RAW to storage in the air and encode separately on the desktop/laptop to ProRes etc.

Less power, less complexity, less headache and maintenance of air-side systems and faster time to market this way.

I think it was the right move.

Don't forget the X5 footage recorded to the SSD is still compressed.
It isn't uncompressed raw - they would need a lot more that 1.7gbps to deal with that at 4k!!!
It uses a Huffman encoding algorithm to compress the data to produce lossless compression.

 

[damoncooper]

Don't forget the X5 footage recorded to the SSD is still compressed.
It isn't uncompressed raw - they would need a lot more that 1.7gbps to deal with that at 4k!!!
It uses a Huffman encoding algorithm to compress the data to produce lossless compression.

Yes correct. Adobe originally authored the CinemaDNG format they're using and I think it's a fine choice.

Agreed on needing lossless compression

Which is also why I think the bantered about calculations of total capture time of about 40 min on the 512GB SSD are incorrect. Those calculations are based on the published RAW average bit rate of 1.7Gbps but that's not what will be put in disk.

Average savings with zip format compression will vary depending on what's being captured, but could be as high as 1.5:1.

Regardless, I do hope the SSD can be swapped with a spare relatively easily in the field. It would ease storage anxiety at least.

 

[The Editor]

Yes correct. Adobe originally authored the CinemaDNG format they're using and I think it's a fine choice.

Agreed on needing lossless compression

Which is also why I think the bantered about calculations of total capture time of about 40 min on the 512GB SSD are incorrect. Those calculations are based on the published RAW average bit rate of 1.7Gbps but that's not what will be put in disk.

Average savings with zip format compression will vary depending on what's being captured, but could be as high as 1.5:1.

Regardless, I do hope the SSD can be swapped with a spare relatively easily in the field. It would ease storage anxiety at least.

The SSD will be easily pluggable (not swappable) and are based on the microSATA (although proprietary in nature so no cheap after market alternatives at present)
Yeah 1.7gps is maxed out so using VBR the average certainly won't be that high.
Of course release is slated for March but....... When have you EVER known DJI to hit a release date yet?

 

[InterMurph]

Very important: the X5R records raw video. The video is raw; not a bit of it is discarded.

Less important: it is compressed to save disk space. This is less important because the compression is lossless; that is, no information is discarded during the compression.

In the end, you will have every bit of information that the sensor saw.

 

[damoncooper]

Very important: the X5R records raw video. The video is raw; not a bit of it is discarded.

Less important: it is compressed to save disk space. This is less important because the compression is lossless; that is, no information is discarded during the compression.

In the end, you will have every bit of information that the sensor saw.

Yeah just with regards to recording time, folks had done some math to compute a rough max of about 40min, but with compression, depending on what's being captured, I think it's more likely we'll see upwards of a 50-60min at 4K.

 

[damoncooper]

The SSD will be easily pluggable (not swappable) and are based on the microSATA (although proprietary in nature so no cheap after market alternatives at present)
Yeah 1.7gps is maxed out so using VBR the average certainly won't be that high.
Of course release is slated for March but....... When have you EVER known DJI to hit a release date yet?

Confirmed by an X5R beta tester:

"SSD can be swapped as quickly as an SD card."

 

[Fanti]

Ordered X5R but consider ThunderPower Lipos out of budget ??​

 

[damoncooper]

Ordered X5R but consider ThunderPower Lipos out of budget ??​

Priorities man

 

[Fanti]

Each one to his own I guess ;-)