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DJI X5 Lens Test Olympus 14-42mm

yes i did , just went and swapped it over and now have all the functions.

is any one having it drift off to the left or right slowly by it self as well ???
 
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yes i did , just went and swapped it over and now have all the functions.

is any one having it drift off to the left or right slowly by it self as well ???
Well done on finding the correct pancake 14-42mm EZ lens. With the previous X5 firmware, 1.2.0.?, I was getting some odd yaw in the camera. I believe the latest 1.3.0.x addresses the yaw issue.
 
i am a bit nervous to do the update, the last one i did i lost everything no paired controllers or anything.
and after doing it , it still says now i need to update battery, camera and aircraft.
I have a really important job on the 27th a massive racing event and the last thing i need is an update going wrong and having no I1 to fly lol
 
i am a bit nervous to do the update, the last one i did i lost everything no paired controllers or anything.
and after doing it , it still says now i need to update battery, camera and aircraft.
I have a really important job on the 27th a massive racing event and the last thing i need is an update going wrong and having no I1 to fly lol
All I can say is that I have not experienced any of the update issues people report. I have discovered that if you are connected to the internet when you power up the aircraft then I do not get the update messages. These are informatory messages not mandates to do the update. The message should read '... update available' not '... required'.
 
thanks scot,
i did the update without any issues wow, lol
i unfortunately still have a slight jello in the video but over all to have the zoom in there is really great even for stills.
I have not put it in the air to test as yet, just doing all ground testing as you do, safety first for us I1 pilots.

did i read some where adding a filter should also stop the jello effect by way of extra weight for stabilization ?
also i seem to be a bit grainy in the video , is that to much iso or shutter speed doing this ?

cheers
 
thanks scot,
i did the update without any issues wow, lol
i unfortunately still have a slight jello in the video but over all to have the zoom in there is really great even for stills.
I have not put it in the air to test as yet, just doing all ground testing as you do, safety first for us I1 pilots.
did i read some where adding a filter should also stop the jello effect by way of extra weight for stabilization ?
also i seem to be a bit grainy in the video , is that to much iso or shutter speed doing this ?
The jello effect, as I understand, is when the shutter speed is set too high for the way the sensor is electronically read. Ideally, the shutter should be set to match the selected frame rate or a low multiple of it. For example, if you are shooting at 25fps the shutter should be 1/50s or 1/100s. With the fixed aperture (f2.8) lens of the X3 it is not possible to reduce the shutter speed in bright sunlight so those shooting video will add a neutral density (ND) filter to reduce the effect light and allow a lower shutter to be used. This works for video but also reduces the shutter to too slow for stills. With the X5 lens, smaller apertures can be used to have the same effect and, because of the larger MFT sensor, retain the useable depth of field. So unless you are shooting in very strong sunlight or are wanting a shallow depth of field, then the X5 user should not need any ND filters.
 
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ok great , thanks for that info, I just had my first flight and tried out that lens.
I am seriously impressed with how well the picture looks even when zoomed.
I might need to do some more reading on my pics and vids as i get it looking grainy and im sure there is a way to clear that up.

i didnt see any of the jello effect in that vid i just took. If i get 5 ill make a quick vid in prem pro and upload it .

cheers again mate.
 
The jello effect, as I understand, is when the shutter speed is set too high for the way the sensor is electronically read. Ideally, the shutter should be set to match the selected frame rate or a low multiple of it. For example, if you are shooting at 25fps the shutter should be 1/50s or 1/100s. With the fixed aperture (f2.8) lens of the X3 it is not possible to reduce the shutter speed in bright sunlight so those shooting video will add a neutral density (ND) filter to reduce the effect light and allow a lower shutter to be used. This works for video but also reduces the shutter to too slow for stills. With the X5 lens, smaller apertures can be used to have the same effect and, because of the larger MFT sensor, retain the useable depth of field. So unless you are shooting in very strong sunlight or are wanting a shallow depth of field, then the X5 user should not need any ND filters.

Given the sensor size and resolution you would probably want to keep the f/# at f/8 or lower to limit blurring due to diffraction. So, even with this lens it's desirable to use a ND filter in bright sun to avoid needing to push the aperture to really high f/#'s. Given the fact that most of our drone shots are at a distance to the closest object we don't have the need to using higher f/#'s to provide a greater DOF. Depending on the zoom setting the lowest f/# with this lens is f/3.5 to f/5.6 so even in bright sunlight you shouldn't need a 4-stop ND filter to keep the shutter speed within 2x of the frame rate.


Brian
 
Please excuse me if this is a stupid question (I don't have an X5 yet), but can you adjust the zoom while in flight or is it a case of landing, setting the zoom and then taking off again? If you can do it in flight, how?

[edit] Never mind, I found out the answer to my question. Yes you can.[/edit]
 
Please excuse me if this is a stupid question (I don't have an X5 yet), but can you adjust the zoom while in flight or is it a case of landing, setting the zoom and then taking off again? If you can do it in flight, how?

You can adjust it inflight, but it is far from smooth. I'f you were hoping to get a great zoom action in your videos, you'll be disappointed. But yes.. focal length is adjustable inflight.
 
You can adjust it inflight, but it is far from smooth. I'f you were hoping to get a great zoom action in your videos, you'll be disappointed. But yes.. focal length is adjustable inflight.

But only on zoom lenses that are designed to be zoomed electronically like the 14-42 EZ. Most of the other zoom lenses do not have this capability and the zoom setting must be changed manually by hand.

I do not have this lens and don't know that I'll get one but it is an interesting option that cover some decent focal lengths. I'm not sure if this has been asked already, but does this lens extend while zooming? That is, when I change the zoom setting does the lens extend or retract? If so that could throw off the balance of the lens and would, I think, suggest balancing at the mid point in the extension. But, I'm not sure you can manually zoom the lens with power off and you need power off to balance.


Brian
 
But only on zoom lenses that are designed to be zoomed electronically like the 14-42 EZ. Most of the other zoom lenses do not have this capability and the zoom setting must be changed manually by hand.

I do not have this lens and don't know that I'll get one but it is an interesting option that cover some decent focal lengths. I'm not sure if this has been asked already, but does this lens extend while zooming? That is, when I change the zoom setting does the lens extend or retract? If so that could throw off the balance of the lens and would, I think, suggest balancing at the mid point in the extension. But, I'm not sure you can manually zoom the lens with power off and you need power off to balance.


Brian

It extends slightly but does most of the lens zooming inside the barrel. It does make a difference to the balance. In my opinion, this is a lens that is best flown zoomed all the way out at 12mm (eff 24mm), and used zoomed in at 42mm (84mm) only for brief periods. For me it's most useful as a "scout" lens -- one to use to check out locations at various lengths, and then return home and fit the right lens
 
I wasn't planning on doing smooth zooms but the ability to change focal length in flight to frame a specific shot is ideal. I'm primarily a stills photographer.
This feature would make my S900 redundant as the only reason I am still flying it is because I have the ability to zoom my lenses with a servo zoom I rigged up to my gimbal.
Hmm. I think I better sell it and get myself an X5 asap and that lens.

Just to be sure, it's this lens right? 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ M.Zuiko EZ-M1442EZ Black Unboxed - Park Cameras Online
 
I wasn't planning on doing smooth zooms but the ability to change focal length in flight to frame a specific shot is ideal. I'm primarily a stills photographer.
This feature would make my S900 redundant as the only reason I am still flying it is because I have the ability to zoom my lenses with a servo zoom I rigged up to my gimbal.
Hmm. I think I better sell it and get myself an X5 asap and that lens.

Just to be sure, it's this lens right? 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ M.Zuiko EZ-M1442EZ Black Unboxed - Park Cameras Online

Yup, that's the one.
Interesting note: It'll only be in that pancake size until the first time you put it on the X5 and power it up. After that it'll stay in that extended state, even when you shut the X5 down. The only way you can get it to go back down to pancake size is to attach it to a MFT camera. Which is a drag since it takes up a lot of space in my lens box this way.
 
One issue with the 14-42 is the calibration. Partially, it's just hard to be sure about focus while calibrating due to the small aperture. Secondly, the X5 doesn't compensate for zooming for calibration. Therefore, if you calibrate at 42mm, it's not calibrated for the other focal lengths. Since it extends and retracts while zooming, 42mm and 14mm have about the same settings for infinity focus while calibrated. 24mm, however, has a completely different infinity focus. Focus at 24mm will be way past the hyper focal length at the calibrated infinity focus for 42mm and everything will be mushy if you set the lens to infinity. Best practice right now appears to be to calibrate at 42mm so that you can accommodate focusing at the limits and then refocus whenever the lens is zoomed.
AF on my 14-42 is really spotty as well.

It would be really nice if DJI would do some additional programming work with this lens and fix some of the issues.
 
One issue with the 14-42 is the calibration. Partially, it's just hard to be sure about focus while calibrating due to the small aperture. Secondly, the X5 doesn't compensate for zooming for calibration. Therefore, if you calibrate at 42mm, it's not calibrated for the other focal lengths. Since it extends and retracts while zooming, 42mm and 14mm have about the same settings for infinity focus while calibrated. 24mm, however, has a completely different infinity focus. Focus at 24mm will be way past the hyper focal length at the calibrated infinity focus for 42mm and everything will be mushy if you set the lens to infinity. Best practice right now appears to be to calibrate at 42mm so that you can accommodate focusing at the limits and then refocus whenever the lens is zoomed.
AF on my 14-42 is really spotty as well.

It would be really nice if DJI would do some additional programming work with this lens and fix some of the issues.

I agree... I'm less than impressed with this lens set-up. The DJI app zooms it very slowly with a lot of latency, so getting it to zoom to lengths in between 12 & 42mm is very hit and miss. Calibrating focus for 42mm doesn't seem to "keep". Add to that the balance issues, and I'm just not happy with it -- to the point that I've considered returning it. It's cheap enough to keep around and hope for software fixes with some of the issues, but I'll likely buy the 25mm for everyday shooting (I shoot stills), and land and mount the 45mm if I see something I want to revisit.

We're all dying for a nice, fluid and sharp zoom... but at least for now, this isn't it.
 
We're fighting a weight window that isn't very large so our lens choices are going to be limited. The weight window is less about the drones MTOW as it is balancing the gimbal. A zoom lens is going to weigh more than a fixed lens in a given focal length range so I suspect serious work will be entirely with fixed lenses. I think the mix of lenses we now have cover pretty much all the things we could wish for other than super closeup high magnification telephoto lenses and that task is similarly limited by the weight needed for long lenses.

I expect to order my I1 Pro within 10 days and in addition to the included 15mm lens I'll probably order the 12mm and 25mm at the same time and expect to order the 17mm and 45mm shortly thereafter. The only zoom lens I can imagine getting if it gets approved is the 35-100mm f/4-5.6. It weighs 135g and the lens is 50mm long so it should be possible to balance in the gimbal though it might require a counter weight at the back of the camera.


Brian
 
We're fighting a weight window that isn't very large so our lens choices are going to be limited. The weight window is less about the drones MTOW as it is balancing the gimbal. A zoom lens is going to weigh more than a fixed lens in a given focal length range so I suspect serious work will be entirely with fixed lenses. I think the mix of lenses we now have cover pretty much all the things we could wish for other than super closeup high magnification telephoto lenses and that task is similarly limited by the weight needed for long lenses.

I expect to order my I1 Pro within 10 days and in addition to the included 15mm lens I'll probably order the 12mm and 25mm at the same time and expect to order the 17mm and 45mm shortly thereafter. The only zoom lens I can imagine getting if it gets approved is the 35-100mm f/4-5.6. It weighs 135g and the lens is 50mm long so it should be possible to balance in the gimbal though it might require a counter weight at the back of the camera.


Brian

FYI Brian, the 12-42 is actually lighter than the DJI stock lens.
 

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