been running the Inspire 2 with X7 for about three years now on documentary work, mostly long form stuff, some commercial. client came to us wanting a step up and honestly the I2 has been rock solid but im starting to feel the ceiling on it a bit.

we demoed an Inspire 3 with the X9-8K Air recently and i dont know, the dynamic range difference is real, the raw footage out of that sensor handles highlights way better than what ive been getting from the X7 in tricky lighting situations. but the cost jump is significant and im trying to figure out if it actually translates to deliverable quality that a client would pay a premium for or if im just being a gear head about it.

anyone running the I3 professionally on longer projects? curious how the battery management holds up on extended shoots too because the I2 TB50s were already annoying enough and i hear the I3 has its own thing going on with the TB51s

ran both rigs back to back on a nature doc last spring, about 3 weeks of field work. the X9 footage genuinely does give you more latitude in post, not a massive difference in good light but the moment you're shooting into mixed sun and shade the X9 holds more detail in the hot spots. for long form where you're grading a lot of material it adds up.

the TB51 situation is fine honestly, you just build the charging rotation into your schedule and its not worse than the TB50 setup, just different. the bigger thing i noticed is the dual operator mode is actually more stable with the I3, the transmission on the RC Pro between the pilot and camera op felt cleaner on longer range setups. that mattered more to us than the battery thing.

not on the I3 yet but jumped from Inspire 1 to Inspire 2 a while back and the workflow change was bigger than i expected so probably worth factoring in some transition time if you go for it. also curious what you're doing for payload beyond the camera, are you running any additional monitoring or just the gimbal as-is