ok so ive been running the X7 on my M300 for about two years now doing real estate and some commercial work and honestly its been great, no real complaints. but a client recently asked if i could deliver X9 quality footage for a hotel project they have coming up and i kind of said yes without really thinking it through lol.

so now im actually looking at what the X9 brings to the table and obviously the full frame sensor is the big thing but like... for real estate deliverables that mostly end up on vimeo or at best a 4K monitor is anyone actually seeing a visible difference? the dynamic range on the X7 already handles tricky interior/exterior mixed lighting pretty well in my experience. the main thing im wondering about is whether the gimbal stabilization is noticeably better on the X9 or if its basically the same 3-axis setup with just a bigger sensor on top. wind days are my nemesis and i feel like i still get micro jello on the X7 in anything above like 15 knots.

anyone run both side by side or switched over? genuinely curious if the X9 is solving problems i actually have or just giving me more pixels i dont need

ran both on separate jobs last year, not a direct AB test but close enough to have opinions. honestly for vimeo deliverables you are not going to see a meaningful difference and your clients definitely wont. the X9 shines when you're doing cinema stuff and someone is actually grading the raw footage heavily, the latitude is just stupid good. but for real estate where you're probably doing some color correction and calling it done the X7 holds up fine.

the gimbal on the X9 is not dramatically different in my experience. DJI improved the damping a little but if wind induced jello is your issue its usually more about airframe resonance and your mounting than the gimbal itself. i had the same problem on gusty days and it mostly went away after i checked my motor balancing. might be worth looking at that before spending 10k more on glass.

the hotel client thing is a bit of a red flag situation, are they actually spec-ing X9 or did they just say they want the best quality? because half the time clients throw out camera model names they read somewhere without knowing what they mean. might be worth a conversation before you commit to renting or buying the X9 rig. just a thought