So you mean when you are shooting at 24 fps for aerial videography, you don't notice any noticeable stuttering or "lag" of the video ? Then I guess if that's the case, shooting in 24 is definitely what I want to go for, because i would want the cinematic look as well.
24 FPS OR 30 FPS ?
- Thread starter Isaac94
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Your files seem to be uploaded in 4K but your bitrate seems very low on those examples.
Isaac, Yes that's my experience. depending on your flight management habits, I submit you'll have similar experience. Maybe I just don't have the experience to note the difference between 24 and 30 fps, but at normal operating and filming speeds & altitudes, I don't see a measurable difference.
On a related note, using LITCHI ap for route planning in conjunction with curved flight paths, is much easier than the Go4 DJI ap. The transitions between directions, altitudes, and viewpoints is very smooth instead of the viewpoint-to-viewpoint go-stop-go flight.
One point that I edit out occurs when I'm shooting an orbit scene and have to launch inside the orbit. The drone will launch , climb to altitude, rotate outward toward the orbit route, proceed to the orbit distance, then rotate QUICKLY to focus on the center, then proceed with the orbit route.
This auto rotate is fast enough to see some frame stuttering, and much faster than you would rotate manually for a panorama. Of course this whole scenario is eliminated by launching at or outside of the orbit with the drone facing the focus point at the center of the orbit.
On a related note, using LITCHI ap for route planning in conjunction with curved flight paths, is much easier than the Go4 DJI ap. The transitions between directions, altitudes, and viewpoints is very smooth instead of the viewpoint-to-viewpoint go-stop-go flight.
One point that I edit out occurs when I'm shooting an orbit scene and have to launch inside the orbit. The drone will launch , climb to altitude, rotate outward toward the orbit route, proceed to the orbit distance, then rotate QUICKLY to focus on the center, then proceed with the orbit route.
This auto rotate is fast enough to see some frame stuttering, and much faster than you would rotate manually for a panorama. Of course this whole scenario is eliminated by launching at or outside of the orbit with the drone facing the focus point at the center of the orbit.
The stuttering may be caused by the MP2 shutter, which is a compromised still camera shutter being used for video. Dedicated video cameras have a different type of shutter arrangement. I was told the 60/24 FPS was because of the differing electrical phase between UK 50Hz and USA 60Hz, hence UK HD1080 50P (2x25fps). I'm old, so may be talking out of date (or out of phase).
If you live in the US, use 30 fps without doubt. If 60 fps was available in 4k, I would use that.
I live in Malaysia, so I believe we uses PAL ? So what frame rate should I be using without doubt ?
There are no simple rules and answers as to what is the "best" thing to do.
In many cases there are several options that can work very well.
The answer to many of your questions is to try things out and see what works well for you.
I’m not sure what causes that. I edited with FCPX and exported as master file. Maybe YouTube does that?
It was shot in h.265 and exported to h.264
Great Thread and exactly what I was looking for when browsing this forum (and now joined 
). This was driving me crazy too, everyone is saying that we should film in 24/25 and I did just that, with 1/50 shutter and a ND64 filter on a very bright day (EV ~ 0), everything looked nice and well as long as I was flying straight lines and gentle curves and even in sports mode at full speed. But then I flew up to 50m height and made a slow 360 pivot turn, thinking I'll bring some awesome footage of my town home. But no, where ever there is some texture on the ground, be it from roof tops or ploughed fields the image would stutter quite noticably up to being unwatchable. I tried again in tripod and cinematic mode with even slower turnrate but the stuttering was still there, in the original video as well as after post (with same framerate and resolution produced).
Then, in a field test I tried various settings and setups to shoot that 360 at 50m height. Because some folks on google suggested a problem with the SD card I tried two different SD cards (256 samsung evo+ and 64 sandisk extreme pro) and the internal storage, no change. Then I lowered the res to 2.7k, still no change. In a last attempt I went back to 4k@30fps 1/60 shutter and booom, smooth as silk and absolutely no stuttering.
Why are none of the "pros" who promote 25fps like Drone Film Guide or others mentioning this on youtube, am I doing something wrong? Or how about mixing it up, shoot straights in 25fps and pivots at 30fps, lowering the latter down to 25 in post. Would those two clips be compatible or will there be a noticable difference? I'd love to shoot with 25fps but that stuttering is a huge dealbreaker :\
[EDIT]: okay strange, just for kicks I loaded one of the 4k@25fps into my editing software but rendered it with 1920x1080 resolution - and the stuttering is almost gone. So it's not just about framerate?
). This was driving me crazy too, everyone is saying that we should film in 24/25 and I did just that, with 1/50 shutter and a ND64 filter on a very bright day (EV ~ 0), everything looked nice and well as long as I was flying straight lines and gentle curves and even in sports mode at full speed. But then I flew up to 50m height and made a slow 360 pivot turn, thinking I'll bring some awesome footage of my town home. But no, where ever there is some texture on the ground, be it from roof tops or ploughed fields the image would stutter quite noticably up to being unwatchable. I tried again in tripod and cinematic mode with even slower turnrate but the stuttering was still there, in the original video as well as after post (with same framerate and resolution produced).Then, in a field test I tried various settings and setups to shoot that 360 at 50m height. Because some folks on google suggested a problem with the SD card I tried two different SD cards (256 samsung evo+ and 64 sandisk extreme pro) and the internal storage, no change. Then I lowered the res to 2.7k, still no change. In a last attempt I went back to 4k@30fps 1/60 shutter and booom, smooth as silk and absolutely no stuttering.
Why are none of the "pros" who promote 25fps like Drone Film Guide or others mentioning this on youtube, am I doing something wrong? Or how about mixing it up, shoot straights in 25fps and pivots at 30fps, lowering the latter down to 25 in post. Would those two clips be compatible or will there be a noticable difference? I'd love to shoot with 25fps but that stuttering is a huge dealbreaker :\
[EDIT]: okay strange, just for kicks I loaded one of the 4k@25fps into my editing software but rendered it with 1920x1080 resolution - and the stuttering is almost gone. So it's not just about framerate?
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Exactly, I tried shooting my first ever video where it's a almost 180 circle around the field with 4k/30, totally no stutter and the video was smooth as silk. Yes I would say there's plenty of drone experts out there on youtube suggest that we shoot at 24FPS, but if you go and look at Drone Supremacy channel, he also told us to shoot in 24FPS, but recently he told us to change to 30FPS, shoot in 30FPS, then convert it to 24FPS in post edit. That's what confuse me, I know it works like that, but how do we convert 30FPS to 24FPS ? I tried many methods but I am not sure if it does indeed convert the 30 to 24, any method out there ? Using Premiere Pro for post edit.Great Thread and exactly what I was looking for when browsing this forum (and now joined
Then, in a field test I tried various settings and setups to shoot that 360 at 50m height. Because some folks on google suggested a problem with the SD card I tried two different SD cards (256 samsung evo+ and 64 sandisk extreme pro) and the internal storage, no change. Then I lowered the res to 2.7k, still no change. In a last attempt I went back to 4k@30fps 1/60 shutter and booom, smooth as silk and absolutely no stuttering.
Why are none of the "pros" who promote 25fps like Drone Film Guide or others mentioning this on youtube, am I doing something wrong? Or how about mixing it up, shoot straights in 25fps and pivots at 30fps, lowering the latter down to 25 in post. Would those two clips be compatible or will there be a noticable difference? I'd love to shoot with 25fps but that stuttering is a huge dealbreaker :\
[EDIT]: okay strange, just for kicks I loaded one of the 4k@25fps into my editing software but rendered it with 1920x1080 resolution - and the stuttering is almost gone. So it's not just about framerate?
One other (possibly irrelevant) point I'd make is that in film school I was taught that the human eye/brain combo "sees" the world at around 24fps, which is why the standard was adopted as the "normal" frame rate after the switch from 16fps...
I'd argue that. The eye sees more like 30 fps. Why do you think the 180 rule exists? That is, shutter speed at half the frame rate. Motion blur is the "fix" for slower frame rates like 24fps. It hides the stutter when shooting horizontal motion like panning. When there is no detail from motion blur, there is no reference frame to frame. You can't perceive the large increments, or stutter. 24 fps was an economic choice for film, for video it can help increase the bandwidth of your recording. There is a very subtle difference in 24 or 30fps that can be perceived. It's is nostalgic (from movies) and has a "magical" or .... I can't describe this well.
Think of the time you may have watched a movie promo on television. There will be a behind the scenes video shot that is then replayed from a finished film clip. Real life versus film life.
jedpause
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Hi there, I tested and investigated this a lot. You should not shoot at 30 and reduce to 24 in post.. it will look horrible because the editor has to fabricate missing frames and you loose fluidity. If you want 24fps, shoot at 24. What you can do and it looks OK is output exactlyhalf fps in post... editors can deal with this without scrambling frames.
i.e. shoot 60, output 30, 50 and 25, but 50 and 24 will be jerky on the eye and best avoided
Unless you are going to be doing a movie, there is no reason to use 24 frames. All TV in the USA is 30 frames. 30 frames is cleaner and crisper, you'll get a motion blur with 24 frames, great if that is the look you want. however for real estate, events, weddings, 30 is better, doing a short film use 24 to give you that 'film look' 30 is also better for viewing on YouTube.
EXACTLY. Off point, I don't think I can name any commercial theater that uses film anymore. Frame rate is no longer a display standard.
Exactly how I use mine - make sure you use manual mode though @Isaac94 It's easy to try and set the things and forget, you can't change them unless you're in manual mode! D'oh!!
It's all much of a muchness and depends on what you plan on doing with your footage post-edit. However, it does give you more options post-edit!
My personal preferences are - film in 4K, use ND filters so you can lower your shutter speed (ideally 2x your fps or as near as possible so 1/60th @30fps or 1/50th @24 or 25fps), use ISO 100 and set white balance according to the conditions.
Fly safe and enjoy!!
My personal preferences are - film in 4K, use ND filters so you can lower your shutter speed (ideally 2x your fps or as near as possible so 1/60th @30fps or 1/50th @24 or 25fps), use ISO 100 and set white balance according to the conditions.
Fly safe and enjoy!!
Very nicely done, but a bit long. I use Pinnacle Studio 21 to edit my video down to manageable portions...
Actually I'd love to have motion blur when shooting at 25fps but as I wrote above, all I get is stutter in horizontal movements, especially pans and that's with supposed optimal shutter speed of 1/50th and almost perfectly exposed with an EV around 0. This is driving me nuts tbh, I am going on an island in two days and was hoping to shoot some nice clips but now I don't now if I will ruin my recordings either due to stutter at 25 or due to overly realistic looks at 30. Unfortunately my laptop is too weak to play 4k smoothly so I'll only see the results once I'm back home.
So for now I tend to stick to 25 and just avoid slow horizontal movements, I'll do some more testing tomorrow to see if I can make the shots I want without stutter.
There is a whole lot of misinformation in these posts.
1. Motion blur is solely a function of the drone speed and shutter speed. FPS has nothing to do with it unless you change the shutter speed as well.
2. 24fps is intrinsically more strobey as there are fewer frames per second to describe the motion. The smoothest footage is at 60 FPS, as many Hollywood films prove. Even smoother is 120 FPS or 240 FPS, but not an option for current drones, or current computers or TVs.
3. There is frequent confusion when evaluating playback on a computer. If the computer is underpowered, it cannot decide and play each frame in the time required, so it drops the frames that it can’t play in time. This is very annoying. On underpowered computers, 24 FPS May appear better, as there is 20% less decoding work for the computer to do to play all the frames required for that frame rate. The only sure fire way to tell what is going on is to play the footage from a memory stick plugged into a tv. All modern TVs will decode most varieties of DJI footage without dropping frames.
4. For the sharpest drone footage, shoot at a higher shutter speed, to avoid individual blurry frames. I generally shoot at 1/1000 or faster. The drone flys slowly enough so that the sharpness of the frame doesn’t seem at all strobey. This is doubly necessary for post processing to slow a shot down. Blurry frames become annoyingly blurry and obvious.
5. 24 FPS was chosen over 16 or 18 FPS for motionpictures to ensure higher quality sound. The reduced blur was only an incidental benefit.
1. Motion blur is solely a function of the drone speed and shutter speed. FPS has nothing to do with it unless you change the shutter speed as well.
2. 24fps is intrinsically more strobey as there are fewer frames per second to describe the motion. The smoothest footage is at 60 FPS, as many Hollywood films prove. Even smoother is 120 FPS or 240 FPS, but not an option for current drones, or current computers or TVs.
3. There is frequent confusion when evaluating playback on a computer. If the computer is underpowered, it cannot decide and play each frame in the time required, so it drops the frames that it can’t play in time. This is very annoying. On underpowered computers, 24 FPS May appear better, as there is 20% less decoding work for the computer to do to play all the frames required for that frame rate. The only sure fire way to tell what is going on is to play the footage from a memory stick plugged into a tv. All modern TVs will decode most varieties of DJI footage without dropping frames.
4. For the sharpest drone footage, shoot at a higher shutter speed, to avoid individual blurry frames. I generally shoot at 1/1000 or faster. The drone flys slowly enough so that the sharpness of the frame doesn’t seem at all strobey. This is doubly necessary for post processing to slow a shot down. Blurry frames become annoyingly blurry and obvious.
5. 24 FPS was chosen over 16 or 18 FPS for motionpictures to ensure higher quality sound. The reduced blur was only an incidental benefit.
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