Zenmuse Mods

[animau]

did someone try the gh3 upgrade from secraft for the zenmuse?

 

[MombasaFlash]

Apparently not. Go and buy it and tell us if it works.

 

[animau]

Apparently not. Go and buy it and tell us if it works.

Haha i will. Today i'm in nyc and here To buy the gh3 in a couple of minutes. So yes i will take the upgrade for sure

 

[animau]

Hi guys!

I have a little problem with my out put video from the gh3
My zenmuse is a V3 hdmi board...my gh3 set to 1080i
And here what i got in the monitor
Do you know what could be the problem?

tks for helping me!
View attachment 12138

 

[MombasaFlash]

... So yes i will take the upgrade for sure.

Well I have installed the Secraft GH3 conversion kit. To my mind it is typical Secraft. A beautifully engineered poor design.

• A seemingly insignificant but annoying omission is the cable channel bottom rear to tidily and safely route the delicate HDMI cable.
• The biggest sin is the base plate which has not been made deeper to accommodate the extra dimensions of the porky GH3. This means the camera sits too far back and balance is a real issue.
• The standard 14mm pancake is too light to balance gimbal so you are obliged to use a heavier lens, e.g. the 14-42 compact (which has a narrower 14mm FOV than the 14mm pancake!!!).
• An aggravating aspect of the 14-42 compact is that the camera must be on for the whole Zen balancing process (approximately three days!) because the lens extends when on.
• Or else you turn the camera on so that the lens extends, remove the battery, switch off the camera, replace the battery and then mount it all in the Zen.
• The front vertical IMU brace could be wider with two screw holes of lateral adjustment available (like the original)
• This brace could be at least a whole 1mm thinner because it clashes directly with the front battery compartment bulge of the GH3.
• Without destructive surgery to the remote connector it is impossible to mount the GH3 with the standard remote cable attached. There is simply insufficient space.

The original Z15G places the camera lens smack in the centre of the Roll axis - where it should be. The porky GH3 has to sit with the lens off-centre to the left if it is going to stand any chance of balancing. This not something that Secraft can address but I do wonder if DJI has addressed this with the GH3 Zenmuse?

Balancing the Zen with GH3 takes about three days, because each time you do it you know you could do better. Unlike the relatively straight forward procedure of correcting a poorly setup Zen with GH2, the GH3 demands a TOTAL and DRASTIC adjustment of all three axes plus lateral, the most fiddly being the the angle of the two arms holding the Tilt tray because it moves when the difficult to access screws are tightened and messes up the state of balance. The pan axis cannot be balanced. There is insufficient adjustment travel. You can get pretty close with Tilt and Roll but it is nigh impossible to achieve perfect Tilt/Roll balance with the camera at all positions i.e. 0°, 45° and 90°.

All of this heartache is because the stupido's at Panasonic disabled the GH2 composite video output during record and then on top of that, they botched the HDMI output so that it reverted to a default 1080 setting. Tits, Tits, Tits.

 

[tombrown1]

Well I have installed the Secraft GH3 conversion kit. To my mind it is typical Secraft. A beautifully engineered poor design.

• A seemingly insignificant but annoying omission is the cable channel bottom rear to tidily and safely route the delicate HDMI cable.
• The biggest sin is the base plate which has not been made deeper to accommodate the extra dimensions of the porky GH3. This means the camera sits too far back and balance is a real issue.
• The standard 14mm pancake is too light to balance gimbal so you are obliged to use a heavier lens, e.g. the 14-42 compact (which has a narrower 14mm FOV than the 14mm pancake!!!).
• An aggravating aspect of the 14-42 compact is that the camera must be on for the whole Zen balancing process (approximately three days!) because the lens extends when on.
• Or else you turn the camera on so that the lens extends, remove the battery, switch off the camera, replace the battery and then mount it all in the Zen.
• The front vertical IMU brace could be wider with two screw holes of lateral adjustment available (like the original)
• This brace could be at least a whole 1mm thinner because it clashes directly with the front battery compartment bulge of the GH3.
• Without destructive surgery to the remote connector it is impossible to mount the GH3 with the standard remote cable attached. There is simply insufficient space.

The original Z15G places the camera lens smack in the centre of the Roll axis - where it should be. The porky GH3 has to sit with the lens off-centre to the left if it is going to stand any chance of balancing. This not something that Secraft can address but I do wonder if DJI has addressed this with the GH3 Zenmuse?

Balancing the Zen with GH3 takes about three days, because each time you do it you know you could do better. Unlike the relatively straight forward procedure of correcting a poorly setup Zen with GH2, the GH3 demands a TOTAL and DRASTIC adjustment of all three axes plus lateral, the most fiddly being the the angle of the two arms holding the Tilt tray because it moves when the difficult to access screws are tightened and messes up the state of balance. The pan axis cannot be balanced. There is insufficient adjustment travel. You can get pretty close with Tilt and Roll but it is nigh impossible to achieve perfect Tilt/Roll balance with the camera at all positions i.e. 0°, 45° and 90°.

All of this heartache is because the stupido's at Panasonic disabled the GH2 composite video output during record and then on top of that, they botched the HDMI output so that it reverted to a default 1080 setting. Tits, Tits, Tits.

Thanks for the review!

How are your results in flight?

Also, I'm a little confused - Can you record 1080p 60fps while using hdmi out?

Best,

Tom

 

[MombasaFlash]

Thanks for the review!...

Still waiting for definitive in flight results because I have been distracted by an intermittent retracts issue. However, first flight showed some vibration getting through to the GH3.

Another day spent on re-checking balance but will now wait for the vibration absorber kit for the bi-pod twist-grip fasteners.

Yes, you can record 1080p60 (or 1080p50) whilst using the HDMI out. In fact, unlike the GH2, all the record options are available whilst using HDMI out.

 

[hifidiaries]

Guys I have a GH3 conversion from secraft on my S800 and Zenmuse. So far , not good. I cant balance enough to get it to NOT vibrate. I swap back to my GH2 mount with GH2 and its SMOOOTH. I don't know if the motors can handle the extra weight. I am spending the night balancing it, if it still doesn't work, I'll be returning it to Kopterworx. There really should be some instruction. Kopterworz shows gorgeous footage with their GH3 and Zenmuse......

 

[MombasaFlash]

Guys I have a GH3 conversion from secraft on my S800 and Zenmuse. So far , not good...

Yeah, well, it takes about four days to balance. It is not easy because every single axis (including sideways) has to be altered. Also, the small vertical bracket is about 1mm too thick IMO and does not permit the GH3 to be mounted forward enough for Tilt balance. You just have to keep at it. It takes absolutely b****ing f***ing b***dy forever but it does work eventually.

Of course, with the Z-15G being designed for the smaller GH2 it is always going to be a compromise with the fat and heavier GH3 and one of the annoying features is that the GH3 cannot Tilt 360° if it is powered up because the 14-42 compact lens extends too far and collides with the horizontal Roll bar. Not that one wants to Tilt 360°, but you must remember to turn the camera off before restarting the Z15 otherwise it will not be able to initialise. Z-15 initialisation has to be with the camera off.

You will also have lots of fun with the shutter/record connector! But again, it will work.