Looking to buy, but somewhat put off by workflow opinions

[Alistair]

Hi all,

I know this *another* workflow post, but I find it difficult to judge people’s current thoughts on a product when a topic has been going on for a while. So with the aim of asking all-new opinions, any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thing is, I really want to buy this camera (with Osmo handle set-up), but what I’ve read of people’s thoughts on the workflow has really put me off. It’s a very expensive product and I’ve read much about the SSD drive and the inability to delete until after export, etc

In the end I’ll be using Adobe Premier to edit my stuff together, so any input here is much appreciated.

Thank you,

Al.

 

[Wing Commander Smyth]

Hi Alistair

Its a great camera.

It reminds me a bit of the DSLR revolution in video. They were not ideal, no ND, no built it XLR sound, you need a rig etc etc but the picture......was amazing for the money.

Thats the X5R.

Yes, its a bit of a pain in the process to get a finished picture, but totally worth it!

I filmed recently for C4 and the £3k camera aerials looked better than the ground crew pictures!

Our workflow is...... ONLY hit record when you need it.

Then into Cinelight, export a PP DNG, into Resolve (free), export as ProRess 444 1920x1080 (for non 4K jobs), into FCPX and grade using ColorFinale.

My winter project is to learn Resolve so to skip the FCPX stage but as I've cut on FCP for many years I'm comfortable with it under deadline pressure!

Oh and you need muchos storage for the data wrangling, but a few 2TB thunderbolt (for mac) hard drives at £180 a go is hardly a deal breaker.

The end results are what its all about.

 

[Alistair]

Hi Wing Commander Smyth, thank you for your insightful reply!

I've decided, at the moment, to pass on the Zenmuse X5R as the whole process would have been far too expensive. Buying the camera/gimbal wasn't too much of an issue, but it was needing to completely upgrade my PC for the post workflow, which would have added another £1000 on top of the overall cost.

4K, it seems, is an expensive thing to buy in to. Both as a consumer and as a user of it. I am, after all, purely an amateur looking to make a small film project.

For now I have decided to film with my Nikon D810, with a Ninja 2 for uncompressed 1080p, and I've also taken the plunge and purchased a DJI Ronin M for steadicam filming!

Hopefully whenever the second version/upgrade of the Zenmuse X5R is released I'll be in a better position to buy one (and hopefully DJI will have improved certain aspects by then!).

 

[Wing Commander Smyth]

Hi Alistair

Happy to have helped.

As you say, the tech is moving soooooo fast, something completely new will be an option in 6 months, a year, like HDR......what new fun that will bring!

 

[Alistair]

Your reply was certainly much appreciated....it's great to get some insight!

I was toying with buying a Sony A7R II for a short while too, but in the end my D810 will have to do (and do very well it will, too!).

Thanks again.

 

[x5yo]

I want x5r too, but I would advise you hold off and see what DJI come up with before xmas.
I feel they are due a big announcement in this dept soon.

What puts me off X5R.

editing/rendering time.
so much money in the air, with no real redundancy.
expensive.
a fair few issues about reliability and as always customer service can lack and take ages.

If DJI have a new camera out soon, while it possibly won't not beat the X5R because of raw, it will probably come close to it, and be a lot cheaper and make everything easier, so taking a small hit on quality in exchange for addressing all the above 4 points is worth waiting a few weeks for IMO.

Its always about finding a balance. It would be foolish to buy an X5R right now. Keep your pennies for a bit longer.

 

[BrenC11]

I recently worked on a feature with the x5r, the footage was amazing. It had a professional grade and they used it for the opening shot in the film. To top it all it was a night shot of a house that they lit, we shot at 400 ISO with the 25mm olympus lens.

How a camera like that can keep up with an Alexa with cinema primes is beyond me. The workflow is a total nightmare, the DIT was pulling his hair out. Its like DJI run before they walk.

 

[Alistair]

Thanks for the reply, BrenMyster.

That's exactly what put me off the product - the workflow.

Truly brilliant piece of design/technology completely ruined by the post-processing side of things. For the price of the product you think they'd have made it as easy as possible to process the workflow.

They'd have had my money if it wasn't for that. As it happens, the Zenmuse X5R is not for me. Which is so disappointing for me to say.