Active Track only 30fps?

[bmoore1118]

I am trying to get into some active track shooting. My father in law wants me to shoot his boat out on the water. The one problem I am seeing is active track only does 30fps.

If I try and follow him wont that make the video stutter going 25-30 mph?

 

[FLDave]

What drone and what DJI Fly app?

 

[bmoore1118]

What drone and what DJI Fly app?

Air 2s with the djy fly app. Do 3rd party apps let you?

 

[FLDave]

Check page 20 of the Air 2s manual, last section on the page.
No 60 fps with FocusTrack at any resolution so your stuck with 30 fps--not 4K and not even 1080p.

 

[bmoore1118]

Check page 20 of the Air 2s manual, last section on the page.
No 60 fps with FocusTrack at any resolution so your stuck with 30 fps--not 4K and not even 1080p.

Does this effect fast motion?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Not sure you need Active Track for Capturing a boat , You will do much better if you just Fly a few patterns to make an Epic Cinematic Video of the water and the boat.

Find a nice spot to hover over the water and have him come to you and go right underneath you that makes for a nice shot. You can go low, High , of fly side by side , quickly and easily .

So forget the tracking , and take the easy Cinema shots to make a nice video.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water. Capture the boat in action.

 

[FLDave]

60 fps would be better, but it's not available. 30 fps will have to do. Don't be too close to a fast moving subject and don't shoot a fast moving subject moving across the view.
If you are following a fast moving boat the boat and Air 2s will effectively be moving together at the same speed to the video would not show much movement for the boat. The background, water, is what will be moving in relation to the drone, so movement here becomes important.
It will probably be fine. You may consider a ND filter to force the shutter to slow down, but that may not be needed either. It will take some trial and error to learn what works best for your videos.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

Does this effect fast motion?

60 fps is (generally) used for slow motion. It's not necessary for normal speeds although it will allow you to use a higher shutter speed and still remain fairly smooth, especially on pan shots. For Active Track, just make sure you can get somewhere around a 1/60th shutter speed a(a little deviation shouldn't hurt anything) using an ND filter and you should be fine.

 

[brett8883]

60 fps is (generally) used for slow motion. It's not necessary for normal speeds although it will allow you to use a higher shutter speed and still remain fairly smooth, especially on pan shots. For Active Track, just make sure you can get somewhere around a 1/60th shutter speed a(a little deviation shouldn't hurt anything) using an ND filter and you should be fine.

Yep I agree. Hollywood has been filming action sequences including car chases and boat chases in 24 fps for almost 100 years and never had a problem. 24 or 30 fps is plenty.

 

[jphoto]

60 fps would be better, but it's not available. 30 fps will have to do.

60fps is over-rated. The world is shot at 30 or 24, it's what people "expect".

Don't be too close to a fast moving subject and don't shoot a fast moving subject moving across the view.

Just did a boat sequence. Here's the problem: the DJI cameras are such wide angles that you HAVE to be close if you want to see any detail of the boat, someone in it, or a skier behind it. I have been flying these shots manually, not using tracking (because it kinda sucks), and competition speed for a slalom skeir is 36...so sport mode for sure, and active track won't follow that fast anyway. I had to build up my nerves to get close enough, and I'm still working on that. It takes a bit of precision flying, but a good slalom run is ruler-straight, and in very low wind (low chop on the water), so the best of conditions.

As to objects moving across the view, sometimes you do want that. It's a great insert shot to cut between a follow tracking shot and a leading tracking shot, just cut to the boat zooming across the screen, between.

You may consider a ND filter to force the shutter to slow down, but that may not be needed either. It will take some trial and error to learn what works best for your videos.

Highly recommend the ND filter to get the shutter down to 1/100 or lower. You actually do want the speed/motion blur. High speed shutters at 30fps make things look choppy, and MUCH worse at 24fps. At 24fps you want a 1/50 shutter, and that's going to take serious ND.

 

[Blue Sat Elite]

I am trying to get into some active track shooting. My father in law wants me to shoot his boat out on the water. The one problem I am seeing is active track only does 30fps.

If I try and follow him wont that make the video stutter going 25-30 mph?

If you plan to shoot 4k Dlog 10bits, consider setting 60fps to make your A2S crop the sensor, so you'll get a bit of zoom, a 32mm focal lenght instead of the wide 22mm, wich will make the boat pop.

If you shoot 4k normal color profile 8bits, then you can use zoom up to 1.4X (32mm equiv.) without loss.

Don't be afraid to track the boat yourself manually. In some situations active track is not very smooth and can't keep up.
As the others said, don't forget the ND to lower your shutter speed.