X5 Firmware 1.2.0.50 List of Problems

[Casey Preston]

I just purchased an X5 and my first experience is with the updated firmware. I've searched of the forum, but I am wondering if I might have abad camera or whether the firmware might have problems. Any input would be appreciated.

1) My gimbal drifts slightly back and forth. It's not horrible and it is slow, but it is noticeable. Is this normal?
2) I can't set the 50hz/60hz in the anti-flicker menu. It resorts to 50hz even though I am in NTSC.
3) White balance doesn't work. AWB gets close, but manual white balance or incandescent or other settings just give me the wrong results. It's almost like the white balance is changing the tint rather than the actual white balance. Anybody know why?
4) Above about 800 ISO, I see really bad flicker in the shadows. I've never seen anything like it on any other camera. I've been shooting video for awhile and I understand the relationship between noise, iso, and various gammas and curves, but this makes me think there is something wrong with the gain controller or any noise reduction they might be doing on the sensor. I thought the newest firmware was supposed to help with this. Is it just my camera?

 

[FlyHighUSA]

Hello, this is just my thoughts, please don't take them as gospel. When you turn on you Inspire and it auto calibrates the gimbal, make sure you are on as level ground as possible, I know this sounds crazy but I have found that it helps with the drift you are talking about. Does it move in both left and Right directions? I use the auto wb feature and hold a white piece of paper in front of the camera and it seems to do great. I will agree the manual white balance seems some tweaking. I haven't had a problem with setting the flicker setting, it sounds like you have a bad firmware and need to redo or you could have a bad camera. There are some points for improvement but over all I am pretty happy with mine. Although I do from time to time have a few quirks. I am an authorized dealer for DJI and I will forward these concerns to my acct. manager. I will get back with you asap hopefully tomorrow. How long have you had your camera? You may need an RMA. I will try to help you find out what is going on. Talk to you soon.


Sincerely,

Ralph
FlyHighUSA

 

[MrDrone]

I have found similar issues with the AWB. I would love if DJI implements a way to select Kelvin Temperature for a more accurate WB. Then again another thing we need to worry about in post??

 

[Casey Preston]

Well, I have an Osmo with its own camera and the Inspire with the X1 and X5. The Inspire and X5 was bought used and I can send the X5 back if I think it has issues. I took some more time to test everything.
1) All of the gimbals drift slightly on both the Osmo and Inspire. I guess it is just the nature of the design. They tend to float around rather than keep going in one direction. If they are drifting in one direction, I can just reboot and it goes away. My Ronin is rock solid, which is why I was surprised by the drift.
2) Both the X3 and X5 wouldn't let me choose 60hz. I discovered that if I reset the camera while powered up on the Inspire and then tried to choose 60hz, I was fine.
3) Manual white balance on the X3 works correctly. Hopefully, DJI can get the X5 sorted out. AWB is horrible editing in video work when you are trying to match shots in my opinion.
4) I still can't understand why the noise is so poorly controlled on the X5.

 

[airdrone]

I just purchased an X5 and my first experience is with the updated firmware. I've searched of the forum, but I am wondering if I might have abad camera or whether the firmware might have problems. Any input would be appreciated.

1) My gimbal drifts slightly back and forth. It's not horrible and it is slow, but it is noticeable. Is this normal?
2) I can't set the 50hz/60hz in the anti-flicker menu. It resorts to 50hz even though I am in NTSC.
3) White balance doesn't work. AWB gets close, but manual white balance or incandescent or other settings just give me the wrong results. It's almost like the white balance is changing the tint rather than the actual white balance. Anybody know why?
4) Above about 800 ISO, I see really bad flicker in the shadows. I've never seen anything like it on any other camera. I've been shooting video for awhile and I understand the relationship between noise, iso, and various gammas and curves, but this makes me think there is something wrong with the gain controller or any noise reduction they might be doing on the sensor. I thought the newest firmware was supposed to help with this. Is it just my camera?

X5 Most Crappy Camera
DJI X5 is a **** camera mildly. Noise and flicker on all ISO, terrible in the dark. Sent in return my first camera. bought a new one x5 and with Olympus lens 25mm, get it tomorrow, then test. it's still flickering and noise I deliver it into that. Dji x5 inferior one X3. Those who bought DJI X5R will surely get the same problems, the camera is not worth the money. DJI should stop selling this crap camera. I think there are many who have not tested this camera in low light and seen the problems. I also use the latest firmware

 

[Scott Gold]

I have to agree. I've been pretty underwhelmed by the X5 camera.
Way soft in my opinion and still flickers in low light(sunset). The newest firmware seems to still have bad flicker issues.

 

[Casey Preston]

I think the X5 flickering should be fixable in some way. The X3 has horrible noise at 1600 ISO, but it is the normal blocky, colored digital noise that I've seen in other cameras and can be managed somewhat with a denoiser. The noise in the X5 starts flickering 10-20% IRE at 1600 ISO and makes the footage unusable if there is any blacks in the image. I guess you could crush the blacks into oblivion, but a denoiser isn't going to help. Therefore the X5 is less useable at high ISO than the X3. You gain a couple extra stops with glass and sensitivity, but I was expecting more.

Btw, the manual white balance is somewhat correct near daylight, it's just useless near tungsten.

 

[airdrone]

I think the X5 flickering should be fixable in some way. The X3 has horrible noise at 1600 ISO, but it is the normal blocky, colored digital noise that I've seen in other cameras and can be managed somewhat with a denoiser. The noise in the X5 starts flickering 10-20% IRE at 1600 ISO and makes the footage unusable if there is any blacks in the image. I guess you could crush the blacks into oblivion, but a denoiser isn't going to help. Therefore the X5 is less useable at high ISO than the X3. You gain a couple extra stops with glass and sensitivity, but I was expecting more.

Btw, the manual white balance is somewhat correct near daylight, it's just useless near tungsten.

DJI says that it shall be so, Nothing to do with it. The flickering can not do anything. All professional camera flicker at high ISO

 

[Casey Preston]

DJI says that it shall be so, Nothing to do with it. The flickering can not do anything. All professional camera flicker at high ISO

I don't understand what you are trying to say. I think you are trying to say that a rep at DJI told you that there would be not any future updates that help with flickering, but I'm not sure.

 

[airdrone]

I don't understand what you are trying to say. I think you are trying to say that a rep at DJI told you that there would be not any future updates that help with flickering, but I'm not sure.

They must have used an extremely poor and inexpensive sensor. Do not think that firmware upgrades solves this problem by flickering at high iso. Dji told there was no problem

 

[x5yo]

I went back to version WM610_FC550_FW_V01.00.00.30 its the best one IMO.
i'm getting some decent footage out of it with the ABOVE version, the noise you talk about is not evident in the version I mentioned.
It was when I upgraded. So I think they can solve it.

DJI need to make sure the next update is a good one though and they need to wring out some more power out of this thing in the new year, I don't care if they need to lower the res of lightbridge, or frame rate, or give short record times on video like sony did with the 4k on rx100 MK4.

I really need more bitrate out of this thing. Samsung upgraded the bitrate on my NX500 via firmware, so you never know.

 

[DennisR]

I have to agree. I've been pretty underwhelmed by the X5 camera.
Way soft in my opinion and still flickers in low light(sunset). The newest firmware seems to still have bad flicker issues.

I was not happy with my X5 and felt I had made the wrong choice due to it being soft and nothing sharp like my Phantom 3 Pro. then I updated the latest firmware and its like magic now. Im very happy.

 

[x5yo]

I would not judge the X5 too harshly yet, firmware is clearly all over the place, give its a month or two to settle in, at the very least its going to be better than the X3.
The X5 won't be what we all wanted and hoped till it has the new h1 chip and that will most likely be SEP 2016, so we're just going to have to hope it gets better and keep the pressure on DJI.

 

[DennisR]

I would not judge the X5 too harshly yet, firmware is clearly all over the place, give its a month or two to settle in, at the very least its going to be better than the X3.
The X5 won't be what we all wanted and hoped till it has the new h1 chip and that will most likely be SEP 2016, so we're just going to have to hope it gets better and keep the pressure on DJI.

Im quite happy with mine now. It doesn't have any jello and it takes wonderful photos. I use it for video and the new firmware was aa huge improvement. What is this h1 chip going to do?

 

[x5yo]

Im quite happy with mine now. It doesn't have any jello and it takes wonderful photos. I use it for video and the new firmware was aa huge improvement. What is this h1 chip going to do?

h1 chip is what's going in the new gopro 5, the X5 along with the hero 4, X3 I believe has the A9 chip, basically you should get higher bit rate with h1, and more recording modes.
Probably 4k at 60 FPS.
1080@120
100MBPS (each frame of video will look more solid and clear, and hold more info to get back in post processing)

possibly 10 bit colour or a new codec which all amount to a step up in video quality than what you have now.

 

[x5yo]

The is x5 is not better than the x3. For 520 cash it does just about everything the x5 can do except photo's.
Note the way the 5 is constructed land hard and that camera gone separate. Not a match made in heaven

The X5 should have cleaner (less flicker) video when its sorted out, and better low light capabilities, plus unlike the X3, the X5 should get better over the next month or two.

Its still too early to judge the X5 100% because its clearly still a beta product, if it wasn't these basic problems we been having with the firmware would not exist.
So what you see now from the X5, is not at its best.

X5 has bigger sensor, and most people are running optics that cost £500 alone, once DJi start properly optimizing video profiles for individual lenses beyond basics like balancing, I'm sure this thing will get better with each firmware.

I'm still running firmware from two versions ago and checking website everyday for that next big update that fixes stuff, the X5 will get better, and unlike the X3, DJi will need to improve it.

 

[FlyHighUSA]

Yes, the x5 is just the beginning of some great things to come. When I got my first demo model of the X5 when they were released, I hated it!!! I expected it to be like the x3 and just turn it on and click record or snapshot. That is definitely not the case with the x5. It has a finicky style of calibration, a lens that needs a little improvement, and some drifting issues. That being said, now I just love it and the footage is just amazing. I did change out my latest x5 lens with the olympus 12 mm which gives in my opinion a 75% better image. It is super sharp and in my opinion its just a better lens. The x5 is more of a photographer's lens, it works much better when used in manual mode. Set it and forget it!!!. DJI has flaws like every company in the world but I know they will work things out with the x5 camera. The best thing we can all do is report any problems or glitches we encounter and let the brainiacs at DJI sort them out. Again this is just my opinion, I am glad we have such nice birds to fly and i look forward to many new products down the line and also to our current problems being resolved. Let's all stick together and help each other. It's a great motto to have. Happy flying my friends

Ralph,
FlyHighUSA