Blurry footage when turning.

Bunraku · 2025-03-16T14:51:03-0400

Hi

My 5th drone and been flying for years. Just got the 3S and liking it a lot. However when turning the footage is very blurry. I have made sure i am using a shutter speed twice my framerate. I'm also making sure my turns are not too quick. But i find buildings etc are blurring out. I know some people might find this cinematic and pleasant but personally i don't. The below example is 4k at 30 FPS and a shutter speed of 1/60. I have also done the same with 60 FPS and a shutter speed of 1/120 and it's the same.

Why is this happening as did not happen on my Phantom 3 Pro, Mavic or my Mini 3 Pro? I believe my AIR 2S I previously owned had a similar issue, but that was down to shutter speed if i remember.

mavic3usa · 2025-03-16T15:26:43-0400

The experts will come along shortly and explain this and what you may be able to do. The only comment I can offer is I've found if you rotate more slowly, it helps.

AeroJ · 2025-03-16T15:47:23-0400

Yeah that is a battle we all have with some of the drones in the Mavic series; certainly my MP4 does that if I am not careful. And footage always looks sharper when you are on a straight track towards or away from it, as opposed to strafing along side it, or turning more than very gently.

You are on the right track to fixing it though. For stationary pans, they do just have to be slower, ideally with cruise control so you lock in a really slow consistent rotation, and screw the double frame rate thing / ND filters. Remove all the filters, pump your ISO up a stop or 2 and drop shutter speed to something much faster than 1/60. Or you can set your shutter speed to a fixed level, and let it auto ramp the ISO for you if it can be trusted not to go too high. Also can help to film in 60 FPS. If we then need to speed that footage up later we can, and it will still look a bit better than if we did it at 30 FPS or lower. Obviously it is worst at 24 FPS, so avoid that.

slup · 2025-03-16T17:06:57-0400

Read up more about panning speeds vs shutter angels & judder/motion blur here --> Panning Speed Best Practices

The panning speeds you show in your clip, is when you rotate CW about 7sec for the full image width & about 3sec when you pan CCW... the first rotation is border lining to be too fast, & the second is way too fast. The rule of thumb is to pan no faster than a full image width every 7sec when using a 180 degree shutter angle.

The desired motion blur is then a matter of taste... not a rule. If you find that you prefer faster panning speeds or less blur you can slow down the shutter until you get a result you prefer (I would try a 90 degree angle instead, it's usually preferred for landscape videoing). But bear in mind that it will always be a matter of having judder or blur when objects moves through the frame.

The reason that the same camera settings (on different drones) produce different results is that not only the shutter angle & panning speed matters... frame rates, different camera sensor sizes, and focal length of the lenses are also involved.