bit of a niche question but figured this was the place to ask. we've been running Inspire 2s for a few years on film sets and the transition to Inspire 3 has been mostly smooth, the X9-8K is obviously incredible and the Rome ring system is clever for quick lens swaps. but we have a job coming up where the director wants to explore some non-DJI sensor options, specifically theres talk of rigging a small Zenmuse-compatible third party payload for some specialty infrared work.

the Inspire 3 payload capacity is listed at what, around 900g for the gimbal interface, but ive seen conflicting stuff about whether the gimbal port plays nice with anything outside DJIs ecosystem without serious custom work. has anyone here actually tried pushing non-native payloads on the I3 or are we looking at a full custom integration job which at that point maybe the platform isnt right for this anyway. the director keeps mentioning the Freefly Alta but thats a whole different conversation about budget and crew size

the short answer is yeah the gimbal port on I3 is pretty locked down compared to what some people hoped. the PSDK and Payload SDK stuff DJI publishes gives you a path theoretically but in practice getting a non-native sensor to talk properly to the Rome port with full stabilization and feed is a significant engineering lift. i know one house in LA that did it for a specific thermal payload but they had a dedicated developer on it for weeks. for one job thats probably not your answer.

honestly for specialty infrared the Alta X or even Freefly MoVI carbon rigged to something like a FLIR Vue Pro is probably the more realistic path if budget allows. the Inspire 3 is incredible within DJIs ecosystem but outside it gets complicated fast.

slightly off topic but the X9-8K on the I3 in low light is genuinely absurd, we shot some dusk to night transition stuff last month and the DP kept pulling stills off the timeline. not helpful for your payload question i know but just wanted to say the native setup is so good its worth asking if the director really needs specialty infrared or if theres a different way to get what they're after visually