Wow! What a system… finally, a big sensor on a quad!

I’ve been flying with the Phantom series for years, and I was so excited when I got a chance to try out this X5 system on an Inspire. This sensor is basically 8x the size of the regular sensor, which means you get a ton more light. Even better, it’s based on the Micro-Four-Thirds (most confusing standard name in history — they might as well call it “Small 1 + 1/3” ) system, which means it adheres to an open standard where many manufacturers contribute to the overall awesomeness. This means it’s an interchangeable lens system, which gives you maximum flexibility for photos and video.

See my DJI Inspire Review. I wrote this a few months ago before there was this even more awesome camera!

We used this for most of Trey’s Photo Walk Across the USA. I’ll include a few videos below where we used it… all the aerial footage was taken with the new camera.

Because I’m primarily into photography, here’s a photo that I took below. That Inspire is SO STEADY. When this was taken, there were actually 5 images, auto-bracketed. They were so steady, in fact, that I could have made an HDR, but I didn’t… this image below is just from one of the exposures. It was at 15mm, f/1.7, 1/15s, ISO 1600.

Anyway, how incredible is that? How cool is it just to be able to take your quad up hundreds of feet and take a photo? Actually, in the middle of the city, it’s hard. During the Photo Walk here in Dallas, we were staying at the Ritz-Carlton, and they were nice enough to connect us to the mayor, who ended up giving us special permission to fly. And, we thought, heck, if we only have one chance, we’re gonna use this kick-ass new camera!!!

It’s obviously great for video, but as you may know, gentle reader of the blog, I am more into the photography side. I love that it takes RAW photos, and the sensitivity range is selectable from ISO 100 all the way to ISO 25600. You can either let it automatically take photos, or you can go into full RAW mode. Being able to see the live image on my smartphone or iPad is supa-awesummmm.

I always get excited like a little kid when I see the image live on the screen. It always seems to attract other dudes too, who end up surrounding me in a socially awkward semi-circle. I call it the DJI semi-circle-jerk.

So, as you can assume, I LOVE this new camera on the Inspire. I feel like I can now get some of the most unique angles, any time of the day or night. I also get to meet a lot of dudes in the semi-circle-jerk.

Now, here are a few videos from the Photo Walks across the 13 cities. We have the big San Francisco Photo walk coming up next week when I get back from Papua New Guinea. Be sure to check out the Tour Website and you can join us in SF!

We’ll start with the Dallas video. I didn’t have any Grey Poupon to hand out of the Rolls, but I had some Nutella from New Zealand (not product placement haha).

And here’s Amazing San Antonio… check out those night time DJI Inspire Zenmuse shots!! Thanks again Ollie from Virtually Famous for grabbing such amazing video footage. And thanks to the entire crew for making all of this possible! Warning: When you watch this video, you’ll definitely want one of these toys!

A video review of the original DJI Inspire!

You guys know Kai from Digital Rev TV? Here’s a crazy video I made with him when reviewing the original Inspire. It’s quite silly and mega-awesome!