Hey guys,
we've made at wetalkuav a very deep review about both cameras, comparing them, doing some tests and seeing if there's really a big difference. Hope you like it!

nice test, thanks for sharing.

Hi Alex,

Thank you for doing the tests and sharing your findings with us.

I would like to expressed some of my humble views on some of the findings which you and other Fellow Forum Members may take into consideration when interpreting the findings.

1) Diffraction abbreviation is the main reason why shutting down to f11 will result with less sharp photo in the sharpness tests.

2) When comparing flares, the sun was shot in the middle of the photo taken with the X4S, and was shot slight on the right hand side of the photo taken with the X5S. Any flare, if ever exist in the photo of the X4S, would definitely be also right in the middle of that photo, rendering it impossible to be distinguished from the bright image of the sun.

3) Great to know that the dynamic ranges of both cameras in low ISO are equally good, with the X5S slightly outperforms the X4S. The 1" sensor of the X4S closer in sizes to the M4/3 sensor could be the reason.

4) The findings on the details in low light video footages from both cameras are interesting - there are so many details revealed in the X5S footage, a lot more than those revealed in the X4S footage. It is difficult for me to understand the difference. It would be great if you can advise whether both were shot with the same CODEC (i.e. either H.264 or H.265) or the 2 cameras were shot with different CODEC (i.e. X4S with H.264 and X5S with H.265).

Many thanks again to you Alex, and hope you can further advise / given comment on my views.

Henry

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the test, it takes a huge amount of time and I really appreciate your effort.

I want to point out some aspects of your test that needs to be considered:

1. for the sharpness test you are not comparing the same field of view because one is 24mm equivalent the other 30mm, the bigger magnification will trick you in thinking that there are more details. In any case I would still think that the x5s will be sharper but probably not in this extent.

2. the flare test would have been better with a clear sky where the sun will flare even more. In the p4p camera you see big magenta spot in these conditions. Would have been cool to see how the x5s behave in such scenario.

3. comparing the dr and iso assuming that the exposure is the same because the settings are the same is tricky. No lens at 2.8 is really T2.8 so with different lenses you will get a bit more or less light. Also ISO level for different sensors will not be the same, so maybe at iso 100 one sensor is behaving ISO 90 and on e ISO 110... from the histogram they seems similar but 1/3 of a stop difference could be there.

4. Without details on the video settings the video comparison is hard to interpret. As Henry is point out already the CODEC can make a big difference. Also, at least in the p4p camera, 4k 60p is doing line skipping so it has a very visible drop in quality compared to 4k 30p. It would be super cool if you could compare both 4k 30 and 4k 60 from both cameras. If the x5s is not doing line skipping then the difference will be huge.

Thanks a lot for you test! It would be very helpful if you can do some more comparisons taking in to the account the mentioned points.

This was really helpful. I don't think the differences are big enough for me to buy the X5S right now. I think I'd rather put the money into the data cards and software first. I was going to buy the X5S gimbal and a couple of lenses but then I'd still need to buy the data cards and software licences. I don't shoot for movies or entertainment and most of my clients would never view the work anywhere other than on a computer or website. So, for now, I think I'll see how much I can get out of the X4S and good video grading. This video helped me make the decision.

Thank you.

RobH2 Posted at 2017-5-6 07:56
This was really helpful. I don't think the differences are big enough for me to buy the X5S right now. I think I'd rather put the money into the data cards and software first. I was going to buy the X5S gimbal and a couple of lenses but then I'd still need to buy the data cards and software licences. I don't shoot for movies or entertainment and most of my clients would never view the work anywhere other than on a computer or website. So, for now, I think I'll see how much I can get out of the X4S and good video grading. This video helped me make the decision.

Thank you.

There's no point having the SSD cards and software licenses for the X4s, it only records to the SD slot and can't do prores or RAW. Just wanted to clarify incase you thought you could use them with the X4s.

John.