Air 2S seems to have optical problems

[wilger]

Hello all. I am new to the 2S and would appreciate your opinions on these pics I took. I did aerial photog years ago and dont remeber the buildings leaning like these are.

 

[GFields]

buildings leaning like these are.

hmm, I don't see them leaning. They look fine to me. The top photo looks a little over-saturated. Did you work on them in post?

 

[Cafguy]

Those look like nice pics to me and buildings look sound. I am not at all a Photographer but there are some pretty good you tube videos that will explain the MANY camera settings I only know a couple of them myself.

 

[mavic3usa]

Hey that second photo actually looks pretty good. But I can see if you stare at it long enough....all those lines...you get some "movement" and it appears to be "leaning." All the crosses are pointing each in a different direction.

 

[waynorth]

They look like they are leaning because the camera has a wide angle lens, equivalent to approx. 24mm focal length.
It is called converging verticals. This happens with all wide angle lenses on any camera (except for tilt/shift lenses). You have to live with it.
You can read some basics here: Using Wide Angle Lenses
Here is a quote:
"Whenever a wide angle lens is pointed above or below the horizon, it will cause otherwise parallel vertical lines to appear as if they are converging."

 

[wilger]

Thanks for all the input. It seems like when I photograph a yard the trees etc towards the left and right edges are leaning out. Makes for a strange picture. Is this something that a software could fix?

 

[waynorth]

Thanks for all the input. It seems like when I photograph a yard the trees etc towards the left and right edges are leaning out. Makes for a strange picture. Is this something that a software could fix?

Yes, many photo editing software can correct converging verticals, it is usually very easy. In Photoshop (and I believe in Lightroom) it is under the "Transform" menu.
But after such adjustment parts of the photo may look a bit unnatural and "stretched", depending on how much you transform.
This phenomenon is a problem for architectural and interior photographers, and they usually use a tilt/shift lens, and also some small adjustments in post processing.

 

[wilger]

I wasnt aware of this issue when I started in drones. They do take great pics over all tho. I guess if I am going to pursue this venture I will have to do my homework. Never noticed this with my Inspire 1 but different camera systems. Thanks again. I have also tried 2D mapping(Maps Made Easy) and plain verticals stitched in my software. Have found that even with a lot less pics (20 instead of 100) I still get a great vertical.

 

[Felix le Chat]

I wasnt aware of this issue when I started in drones. They do take great pics over all tho. I guess if I am going to pursue this venture I will have to do my homework. Never noticed this with my Inspire 1 but different camera systems. Thanks again. I have also tried 2D mapping(Maps Made Easy) and plain verticals stitched in my software. Have found that even with a lot less pics (20 instead of 100) I still get a great vertical.

It's standard lens aberration. The JPG output from camera to memory card will iron out the worst of it, you will see this a lot more with the DNG files. As already mentioned, this is a wide angle lens and you will get convex distortion towards the outer edges which can be addressed by using the vertical axis perspective distortion tool in your editor. This effect also gets worse or better depending on the pitch of your gimbal

 

[wilger]

I stay away from RAW due to vignetting on the 2S. Again it wasnt there with Inspire 1 so was bit surprised. Will check out the vertical perspective tool. Do the more expensive DJIs have this issue too?

 

[waynorth]

As already mentioned, this is a wide angle lens and you will get convex distortion towards the outer edges

Converging verticals is not the same as convex distortion (or barrel and edge distortion). All lenses will give converging verticals when it is tilted up or down. Except shift lenses, they are designed to prevent vertical lines to lean inwards in the photo.
Here is a definition of distortion from the same article I referred to above:
"The two most prevalent forms of distortion are barrel and edge distortion. Barrel distortion causes otherwise straight lines to appear bulged if they don't pass through the center of the image. Edge distortion causes objects at the extreme edges of the frame to appear stretched in a direction leading away from the center of the image."

 

[waynorth]

Here is a good article to learn about different types of distortion:

What is Lens Distortion?

photographylife.com

 

[waynorth]

Do the more expensive DJIs have this issue too?

All lenses have that "issue", including expensive Leica, Hasselblad and Nikon lenses. It happens when you tilt the lens up or down (so the camera sensor is not parallell to your subject). It is much more visible on wide angle lenses, and the effect is stronger the more you tilt the lens.

 

[wilger]

Yes noticed that distortion changed with gimbal angle. Will have to invest in some software I guess.

 

[waynorth]

Yes noticed that distortion changed with gimbal angle. Will have to invest in some software I guess.

Here is a very quick and dirty correction of the verticals, done in a minute in Photoshop. Notice that you lose some of the edges in the photo.

 

[waynorth]

And here I had a bit more angle:

 

[FLDave]

Just bring the drone down to eye level if you want your pictures to look like taken from eye level with straight vertical lines.

 

[wilger]

Wow that smartens them up! Is there any open source software that I could try before buying one?
If I bring drone down to eye level then may as well use my hand held camera.

 

[Deleted member 170519]

I stay away from RAW due to vignetting on the 2S. Again it wasnt there with Inspire 1 so was bit surprised. Will check out the vertical perspective tool. Do the more expensive DJIs have this issue too?

I shoot raw on my 2s. never noticed vignetting. By chance do you have a uv filter attached? Just curious.

 

[waynorth]

I took me the freedom to correct your photos. The church was more difficult because the gimbal angle was too steep, and it was placed so close to the edge.