DJI Zenmuse X5S - 5.2K Raw & Prores - USD $1,899.00

Jarek Zabczynski said:
I think the "just get an Alta or Matrice for the same price" philosophy is silly. I have a Red Weapon, it's my main cam, I would never send my A Cam up in drone. If you have a second cam like a Scarlet or a Raven sure, but main cam? No way. And like it's been said, you don't shoot an entire project with "specialty gear" like drones, gimbals, etc. If I see another project shot completely on a Ronin just because...ugh...I digress.

For the amount of drone shots I cut together with my Red footage, my Phantom 4 has been working out "ok" but it could definitely benefit from RAW. And once the Osimo adapter comes along for the new Zenmuse camera, it'll make the Inspire 2 package all that much better. A 5k RAW flying platform for $10 grand and camera that you can use as a B Cam? Sign me up!
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Yeah, I'm with you. With an Alta or Matrice at around $10k, but then you're also putting a 10k to 100k camera and lens package in the air which is likely your A-cam (there aren't many cheap camera and lens combos that shoot 5.2k RAW). So say you have a 10k drone with a 30k camera setup in the air, so a 40k risk, compared to a 10k risk with the Inspire. Statistically speaking, is the Matrice or Alta really more than four times less likely to crash such that flying a 40k setup is less risky than flying a 10k setup?

Then there's also higher danger of seriously injuring someone in the event of a crash with a much larger drone setup, and I'd guess that the Matrice and Alta may need more experienced pilots, whereas an Inspire can be flown by a beginner pilot.

Having it as a separate camera also saves time on set from having to de-rig your A-camera for flight, and then re-rig it all with matte box, shoulder mount, etc.
 
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Eric Coughlin said:
Statistically speaking, is the Matrice or Alta really more than four times less likely to crash such that flying a 40k setup is less risky than flying a 10k setup?
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My logic tells me the more weight you try to get off the ground the more risk you have it will come crashing down...catastrophically. I'll admit I've taken a few tumbles when learning with my P4, but the lighter the drones definitely take a better beating. Not using this as an excuse by any means to be a s*%tty pilot, just saying how it is.

PS...board censorship...ugh...lol
 
Eric Coughlin said:
Statistically speaking, is the Matrice or Alta really more than four times less likely to crash such that flying a 40k setup is less risky than flying a 10k setup?
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Judging by the Inspire 1. Yes.

Then there's also higher danger of seriously injuring someone in the event of a crash with a much larger drone setup, and I'd guess that the Matrice and Alta may need more experienced pilots, whereas an Inspire can be flown by a beginner pilot.
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A "beginner pilot" shouldn't be flying anything bigger than a Phantom. Period. While an Inspire with all the auto stuff turned on is relatively easy to fly (and the P4/Mavic even more so), when you're flying around something that big you really need to have knowledge of what to do when those nifty auto features fail or don't work out like you'd expect.

BTW, a Matrice is nearly as easy to fly as the Inspire... and an Inspire landing on a person is going to seriously injure them as well. It's not like you're comparing a Blade Nano vs. a Matrice 600. Both the M600 and Inspire are going to cause damage when they crash.

This kind of attitude is one of the reasons I think the FAA should have made the Part 107 test a LOT harder. It's too easy to get them into the air so they're treated with less respect than they deserve as aircraft operating in the NAS.
 
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Jarek Zabczynski said:
My logic tells me the more weight you try to get off the ground the more risk you have it will come crashing down...catastrophically. I'll admit I've taken a few tumbles when learning with my P4, but the lighter the drones definitely take a better beating. Not using this as an excuse by any means to be a s*%tty pilot, just saying how it is.
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The toughness of the Phantom series is only partially related to the all-up weight. The other side of the coin is the construction. Phantoms are built very tough and they're made out of plastic... both of which make them more likely to survive a (minor) crash better than something that has less robust construction.

Something very light will tend to survive a crash better than something with more weight behind it, but more important is how it's made. A tubular carbon fiber framed copter is going to be more heavily damaged in a crash than a plastic-shelled copter like a Phantom even at the same weight.

The Inspire is NOT a tough airframe. They have pretty lousy crash survivability.
 
jbregar said:
Except the X5S is completely useless right now unless it's on an Inspire 2... because DJI put the processing pipeline for the camera in the Inspire's airframe rather than in the camera module where it belongs.
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Would love a pro version of DJI's Osmo that utilized the X5S camera, Focus Handwheel, & either of their CrystalSky monitors. Put the brain in the Handle, integrate the SSD Recorder into the Monitor, offer Video/Audio I/O ports, & hardwire the elements together for minimal lag. Eventually offer a version with motors & arms designed to stabilize lenses such as Olympus' 12-100mm.

"Is DJI going to stop at just dominating the drone market?"
http://www.redsharknews.com/busines...g-to-stop-at-just-dominating-the-drone-market
 
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Bern Caughey said:
"Is DJI going to stop at just dominating the drone market?" ...
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There are two basic ways for them to go -

a) off-the-shelf components at great prices (aka something like EM1 MKII at under $1K)

b) a partnership with a non-Japanese sensor company, that currently produces smartphone, security, automotive, military or medical sensors. Here, they can offer fixed lens products at all feasible price points. Insofar as the ILC's go, they'll have to chose either an "open format" MFT (which they used for the drone) or their own mount. The latter is fraught with danger and would have to be compatible with the dominant industry mounts (EF, F/G, E or even PL) via the auto-focus compatible adapters.

There's a small chance of them partnering up with Nikon or buying rights to use the F-mount.
 
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