X7 Gimbal Balance Problems

[Skylux Media]

Greetings. After purchasing a full X7 kit with all 4 lenses, I am finding significant gimbal imbalance problems with all 4 DL/DL-S lenses. With the lens, lens hood, and stock balancing ring attached, the gimbal is significantly back heavy. I've already spoken with a few other users who are seeing the same thing with their's as well. I would love to hear from any other X7 owners out there who can report on their systems.

DJI ships the DL/DL-S lenses with the 46mm balancing ring already attached to the lens, however they also include a 46mm clear glass haze/filter which is not attached. When I swap out the balancing ring for the included glass haze/filter, the lens also WILL NOT balance properly. I have also tried using my Polar Pro ND Filters and they DO NOT balance properly, which is unfortunate because I love their Polarizer ND's. Some users have reported that B+W filters WILL balance properly on the X7. I can understand DJI making this system so that it works with ND's. However, being a professional filmmaker, I don't always want/need filters in front of my lens (i.e. sunrise, sunset), in which case their included balancing ring should do the trick (but it doesn't). I can't help but feel a little disappointed that my $8,000 system won't balance out of the box. What say ye?

 

[SanCap]

I understand about not wanting to put extra glass in front of your lens and do that often. If you do not want or need the UV/Haze or ND filter you are going to have to be creative. My approach is not very pretty but is effective. Here is the 35mm with the balancing ring and lens hood attached plus a strip of blue tac easily purchased on Amazon Prime.

 

[SanCap]

There may also be heavier 46mm balancing rings available.

 

[AeroMirage]

I agree with the op.
For that much money you shouldn't have to do anything to balance it.
Another product rushed to market?

 

[ICarrascosa]

Well go the truth truth. I also do not understand why he says that the filters have to be of a maximum weight of 12g and then he lacks weight to be balanced, so they would have to be heavier. The distributors or DJI have to give the solution. You do not have to buy 20 filters and go testing.

 

[Skylux Media]

After reaching out to DJI, this is the answer they provided:

"We recommend to balance the gimbal by filter+ lens hood, balancing ring+lens hood or two filters without lens hood. The gimbal motor of X7 is strong enough to balance itself when power on. No worries"

It's almost as if they didn't even listen to my feedback. I told them the gimbal Does Not Balance, with the included balancing ring+lens hood. Thats the problem. And with years of experience using gimbals, I can most assuredly tell you that an imbalanced gimbal is a big problem.

I have now realized that what they are doing is shipping the X7 with the same balancing ring from the X5S, which is 10g too light for the X7. This helps them cut costs, but unfortunately they need to manufacture a separate heavier balancing ring for the X7.

 

[Dr. Ifly Drones]

Greetings. After purchasing a full X7 kit with all 4 lenses, I am finding significant gimbal imbalance problems with all 4 DL/DL-S lenses. With the lens, lens hood, and stock balancing ring attached, the gimbal is significantly back heavy. I've already spoken with a few other users who are seeing the same thing with their's as well. I would love to hear from any other X7 owners out there who can report on their systems.

DJI ships the DL/DL-S lenses with the 46mm balancing ring already attached to the lens, however they also include a 46mm clear glass haze/filter which is not attached. When I swap out the balancing ring for the included glass haze/filter, the lens WILL balance properly. I have also tried using my Polar Pro ND Filters and they DO NOT balance properly, which is unfortunate because I love their Polarizer ND's. Some users have reported that B+W filters WILL balance properly on the X7. I can understand DJI making this system so that it works with ND's. However, being a professional filmmaker, I don't always want/need filters in front of my lens (i.e. sunrise, sunset), in which case their included balancing ring should do the trick (but it doesn't). I can't help but feel a little disappointed that my $8,000 system won't balance out of the box. What say ye?

Just curious but, how does it do when powered up? Is this keeping it from functioning properly?

 

[Skylux Media]

Just curious but, how does it do when powered up? Is this keeping it from functioning properly?

Great question. I did some extensive testing yesterday and I was getting a "Lens Not Connected" error with the 16mm lens when not properly balanced. After switching out the filters, restarting, and balancing properly, the error went away. I was also getting jittery lag when panning up and down at full speed when the gimbal was imbalanced, but that disappeared after properly balancing. What's also worth noting is that the gimbal isn't just "slightly" imbalanced with the provided balancing ring, its a MAJOR imbalance. A 10g imbalance is a lot when we're talking about such a lightweight platform.

 

[TheGrumpster]

I too was dismayed to find the 35 was way too back-heavy at first. It's also annoying that their fruity little hood won't fit after you put their cheapo filter on there. I hate hoods because all they are good for is acting like a windsock, so I got rid of that right away. I then had to add an extra balance ring (that I stole off the DJI 15/1.7 for the X5S), so I ended up with 2 of these plus the filter and now it is slightly front heavy, but really close.
I'm guessing they expect you to need heavy ND filters on there if you are shooting video. As I only shoot stills, the last thing I want is something that steals light from me. And I too am not at all crazy about another piece of questionable-quality glass in front of an already less-than-stellar lens.
On the positive side, at least the sensor appears to be reasonably well aligned with the bayonet, unlike the situation on many of the early X5S cameras.

 

[giumick]

Who the hell botches up a brand new camera, get Dji to bloody sort it out. I must say when i had one in my hands minus lens it felt like a x5r body stuffed with lead so its no surprise you are having issues as the lens is as light as a toilet roll tube. Hope you all get it sorted.

 

[Dr. Ifly Drones]

Who the hell botches up a brand new camera, get Dji to bloody sort it out. I must say when i had one in my hands minus lens it felt like a x5r body stuffed with lead so its no surprise you are having issues as the lens is as light as a toilet roll tube. Hope you all get it sorted.

I agree with you but, this is exactly DJI's normal operating procedure. Push the beta out and let the consumer be the tester. And, while I won't get into the science of it, their approach makes statistical sense. But, it sure screws us whom by choice or necessity are early adopters of their products.

 

[giumick]

I agree with you but, this is exactly DJI's normal operating procedure. Push the beta out and let the consumer be the tester. And, while I won't get into the science of it, their approach makes statistical sense. But, it sure screws us whom by choice or necessity are early adopters of their products.

How does it make sense? If there was another drone company out there as good who did not do it everyone would tell them where to go and switch brand. That shows the immediate wrong in this way of doing things. Its absolute arrogance on their part.

Its complete irresponsible, shoddy and shameful. As an engineer myself it drives me nuts that they are not testing products thoroughly and their response is "well you mugs keep buying it, so well keep doing it"

Something needs to change and the first step is people accepting the fact they are been fools even allowing this practice to carry on.

How long is it before one of their issues causes unnecessary distraction and someone is hurt or killed.

I saw Mr bloom stroking Dji's leg all over social media last night with the x7 and thought what a sell out he is when he must know fine well the issues people face

 

[Skylux Media]

I too was dismayed to find the 35 was way too back-heavy at first. It's also annoying that their fruity little hood won't fit after you put their cheapo filter on there. I hate hoods because all they are good for is acting like a windsock, so I got rid of that right away. I then had to add an extra balance ring (that I stole off the DJI 15/1.7 for the X5S), so I ended up with 2 of these plus the filter and now it is slightly front heavy, but really close.
I'm guessing they expect you to need heavy ND filters on there if you are shooting video. As I only shoot stills, the last thing I want is something that steals light from me. And I too am not at all crazy about another piece of questionable-quality glass in front of an already less-than-stellar lens.
On the positive side, at least the sensor appears to be reasonably well aligned with the bayonet, unlike the situation on many of the early X5S cameras.

Yes, that adds a whole new variable to this problem that I discovered in my extensive tests today.

DJI did a good job of trying to get all the lenses to be the same weight as each other. HOWEVER, all 4 of the lenses have unique and different size/weight lens-hoods that are different from each other(something DJI mentions in the manual). So once you remove the lens-hoods from all the lenses, you now have 4 slightly different weighing lenses, that each require a slightly different balancing ring/filter setup.

I too thought I could just solve this problem on my own and remove the lens-hoods and put my ND's on to get all my lenses ready to go, but that's not quite the case. In some cases I need different counterweight values for each of the lenses to be balanced when not using the len-hoods. Using my scale, here is the breakdown of the lenses:

LENS WITH HOOD (No balancing rings or filters)
16mm - 167g
24mm - 167g
35mm - 168g
50mm - 171g

LENS WITHOUT HOOD (No balancing rings or filters)
16mm - 159g
24mm - 156g
35mm - 157g
50mm - 161g

As you can see, the lenses are pretty close to being the same weight WITH a lens hood, (except for the 50mm, which is much heavier). However, WITHOUT a lens hood, there's slightly more variation in weights.

I will be doing extensive testing today with all my B+W Filters, Polar Pro Filters, and Balancing Rings, to find the best solution for use with the X7. I will report back once I have all the data collected and organized.

 

[ICarrascosa]

[QUOTE = "Skylux Media, publicación: 168630, miembro: 37190"] Sí, eso agrega una variable completamente nueva a este problema que descubrí en mis extensas pruebas de hoy.

DJI hizo un buen trabajo intentando que todas las lentes tuvieran el mismo peso que la otra. Sin embargo, todos los 4 de las lentes tienen única y diferente tamaño / peso de lentes-campanas que son diferentes entre sí (algo DJI menciona en el manual). Por lo tanto, una vez que retire los cubreobjetos de todas las lentes, ahora tiene 4 lentes de peso ligeramente diferentes, cada una requiere una configuración de anillo / filtro de equilibrio ligeramente diferente.

Yo también pensé que podría resolver este problema por mi cuenta, quitar los lentes y poner mi ND en listo para llevar todas mis lentes, pero ese no es el caso. En algunos casos, necesito diferentes valores de contrapeso para que cada una de las lentes se equilibre cuando no se utilizan las lentes. Usando mi báscula, aquí está el desglose de las lentes:

LENTE CON CAPUCHA (Sin anillos de equilibrado ni filtros)
16 mm - 167 g
24 mm - 167 g
35 mm - 168 g
50 mm - 171 g

LENTE SIN CAMPANA (Sin anillos de equilibrado o filtros)
16 mm - 159 g
24 mm - 156 g
35 mm - 157 g
50 mm - 161 g

Como puede ver, las lentes están muy cerca de ser del mismo peso CON un parasol (excepto el de 50 mm, que es mucho más pesado). Sin embargo, SIN un parasol, hay un poco más de variación en los pesos.

Realizaré exhaustivas pruebas hoy con todos mis filtros B + W, filtros Polar Pro y anillos de equilibrio para encontrar la mejor solución para usar con el X7. Informaré una vez que tenga todos los datos recopilados y organizados. [/ QUOTE]

Thank you for your work,

You are doing the work that DJI should have done.

I thank you that when you tried them all, you specify specifically each filter model and its link.

Another option to try exactly is to put adesive counterweights on the lens to accurately test the weight you need.

 

[Dr. Ifly Drones]

How does it make sense? If there was another drone company out there as good who did not do it everyone would tell them where to go and switch brand. That shows the immediate wrong in this way of doing things. Its absolute arrogance on their part.

Its complete irresponsible, shoddy and shameful. As an engineer myself it drives me nuts that they are not testing products thoroughly and their response is "well you mugs keep buying it, so well keep doing it"

Something needs to change and the first step is people accepting the fact they are been fools even allowing this practice to carry on.

How long is it before one of their issues causes unnecessary distraction and someone is hurt or killed.

I saw Mr bloom stroking Dji's leg all over social media last night with the x7 and thought what a sell out he is when he must know fine well the issues people face

Certainly not implying it makes sense from an ethical standpoint but, businesses do this when companies, like DJI and Apple, are so dominant in the field they can afford to (no competition) and it's cheaper to let the customer beta test in real world and collect the data (and they do) and hush the relatively few vocal folks with replacement gear. I've actually been there with DJI.

 

[giumick]

Certainly not implying it makes sense from an ethical standpoint but, businesses do this when companies, like DJI and Apple, are so dominant in the field they can afford to (no competition) and it's cheaper to let the customer beta test in real world and collect the data (and they do) and hush the relatively few vocal folks with replacement gear. I've actually been there with DJI.

Coming from the hobby background i feel they really do need a harder time from everyone en masse to give them the hint enough is enough. As we speak there is probably hundreds of nuggets with Dji freebies singing their praises and glossing over what we discuss. God dam internet hipsters lol

 

[APost]

I understand about not wanting to put extra glass in front of your lens and do that often. If you do not want or need the UV/Haze or ND filter you are going to have to be creative. My approach is not very pretty but is effective. Here is the 35mm with the balancing ring and lens hood attached plus a strip of blue tac easily purchased on Amazon Prime.

Southern engineers of the world UNITE. It’s a quick and affordable if not unfortunately necessary work around

 

[ICarrascosa]

We have managed to calibrate the lenses of the Zenmuse X7 well?
I await your comments

 

[papaxiclas]

I have flown already with the stock "unbalances" and there is no problem with the gimbal stability or other issues!
Even doing 100km/h with the 50mm!!!!

 

[Jason Woodcock]

I have flown already with the stock "unbalances" and there is no problem with the gimbal stability or other issues!
Even doing 100km/h with the 50mm!!!!

Care to share what you did?