I do love drones. I crave the aerial perspective and sense of being above it all to capture landscape imagery. I started with a Mavic and worked my way up through the Mavic 2 to the Inspire, then the Inspire 2. For my purposes here, I won’t get into my fondness for my Autel Evo 2.
I was very happy with the X5S camera on the Inspire 2. It gave a certain something to the images and video that was lacking in the folding drone series. That you could add various fast primes to it was a bonus. I really liked the view provided by the Panasonic 45mm 1.8, which on the X5S, gave a 90mm perspective. Very un-dronelike.
I was aware of the X7 camera and read the reviews. Those who had something to say commented on the slow lenses, softness etc.. After several mediocre adventures strapping my Sony a7r2 to the Inspire, I decided to check out the X7. I bought a used setup on ebay, and added a 50mm lens. The sensor on the X7 is basically a crop sensor, which is a step ahead of the 1″ sensors typically found on drone cameras. The 50mm lens would give a 75mm view. I also tried the Laowa 9mm wide angle manual lens but wasn’t really impressed. MF for me was hard to get right and getting the lens and camera to come together was challenging. Hot swapping was recommended. I’ll check back on it.
So the X7/50mm 2.8 lens combo became my quick favorite. Here are a few examples around Seattle of what I was able to capture. I felt like these were better than the x5s, but of course short of my GFX100s.

This was a dusk view of Seattle and Lake Union, DJI X7 and 50mm 2.8 lens.

This is a sunset view across Bellevue to Lake Washington and Seattle beyond. DJI X7 and 50mm 2.8 lens.


These are both DJI X7 50mm 2.8 lens panoramas, stitched in Lightroom. I found the 50 makes great pano panels and they sharpen up nicely in Topaz Sharpen AI.
More experimenting to come. I still keep my X5S and Panasonic 25mm 1.4 around for deep blue hour shots. I will keep pushing the X7 and its various lenses. So far, I’m glad I picked one up and made my own conclusions.

And now the Inspire 3 is out. Full frame, uses the same DL lenses as the X7. I’m not an early adopter and seldom buy new. But I do wonder if its quieter?