Hi,

I bought an Inspire about a year ago and have not used it much.  I am much more interested in still photography than videos.  At the time, the camera on the Inspire was pretty bad for still photography.  My camera had horrible internal reflections.  Even on the demo videos by Inspire, I saw signs that all of them suffered from internal reflections.  There was at the time a promo video of horses running that showed very similar issues that were present in mine.

I'm wondering if anyone can give me a true honest opinion of the cameras for still photography available now on the Inspire and maybe even the Phantom 4.

I am vaguely looking at the bigger toys -- the M600 with the Ronin so I can mount a Canon 5Ds R but that is a huge amount of money.  I can't "justify" the cost.  All of this is for fine art photography which doesn't produce much income (for me) compared to the expenses.  Mostly I'm just exploring what is available on the market right now.

Thank you for your time,
Perry

Ok, so I'm with you. The x3 camera isn't to my liking for professional still imagery.  I have the x5.  It is definitely a step in the right direction. However, it won't compare to the 5d series cameras.  Just get that out of your head.  Shooting raw, will be the way to go, and your post processing from raw conversion to further adjustments in PS will take a bit of experimentation to see what works well, but in the end you can squeeze some decent imagery from it.  Be advised that the smaller sensor on the MFT and the 16mp res will limit you in quality compared to 35mm full frame and medium format.  That said, I'm making do right now, and hoping they'll come out with a x5 like camera with at least a 20mp full frame 35mm sensor on board.

I'm primarily a still shooter myself - As to what is on the market 'right now', your choices are:

'Go Pro' style small sensor cams (X3, Yuneec, Go Pro) on phantom and Inspire class platforms.
MFT sensor cams on Inspire, Matrice or GH4 and similar on larger hex / quad / Oct platforms. (M600, S1000/900, H920, Altura Zenith, others)
Full frame DSLR and gimbal on Octo rigs / M600 or similar.

No real options for still shooters on a budget - I personally wouldn't pay my own $$ for a X5 on an Inspire.
(Just IMHO, others will disagree - I don't believe that it's built strongly enough or that the Inspire is a suitable platform for a camera/lens of that sort of cost)

Farnk666 Posted at 2016-7-18 00:35
I'm primarily a still shooter myself - As to what is on the market 'right now', your choices are:

' ...

I have the X5 and have purchased the 12mm and (waiting patiently for it to show up) the 24mm Olympus.  I think the glass on those are a lot better than the stock DJI lens.  My main still camera is a Nikon D810 and yes,   there is no comparison between them, HOWEVER, if I can frame my photos so a minimal amount of cropping is required, I am pretty darn happy with the results.

I have just started playing with HDR (using Aurora and PhotoMatix) and when taking 5 AEB shots and letting the software do its magic combining them for HDR, I can get some really nice looking, sharp photos.  Feel free to go to http://www.brucel.com/Drone/ and download some of the images (they ARE large) and see what you think.

bruce

bruce@notalker. Posted at 2016-7-18 20:47
I have the X5 and have purchased the 12mm and (waiting patiently for it to show up) the 24mm Olymp ...

I'm with Bruce.
12mm lens are great but I also get good result from the standard 15mm and a 45mm.
45mm are trickier, specially at night.

If daylight shots of scenery or construction progress, like I do, the X3 still works fine.
Do some post work and it's all good.