3 Emergency Services and Law Enforcement Video of Neighborhood Activity with M3 at Night using Tele lens From Just Above my House Roof Top.

[cgmaxed]

Video Link:

Explanation:

This video was unexpected. The scene occurred at my neighbors house. The M3 drone was flown just above my house. I'm posting it just so you all can see how well or how bad the Tele Lens performs in such conditions from about 350ft away at an altitude of 200ft in darkness, while having super bright flashing lights strobing everywhere. I didn't film long. You never know if Air support might be called.

I was sitting at home when I heard sirens, so I launched my M3 only to find out my neighbor had Emergency Services and Law Enforcement around His/Her House. What happened, I have no idea. They didn't stay long. Neither did I.

Anyway, you can all talk about the color saturation, quality of the Tele at 28x, graininess etc. But, I can tell you I would have never been able to get video footage to appear that close without the tele lens. I stayed above my house, so not to "interfere" with the first responders. Altitude was about 200ft, Distance to subject was 350ft,

 

[Prop Wash]

I would agree - Without the Zoom capabilites, you wouldn't have got that video. Really stable even zoomed. I've seen other videos talking about the full-zoom graininess and we saw it there, but was stll clear enough to see what you were pointing @.

 

[Point Zero]

Not one of them was wearing a mask. Weird for emergency services from any country right now

 

[canadian drone videos]

Video Link:

Explanation:

This video was unexpected. The scene occurred at my neighbors house. The M3 drone was flown just above my house. I'm posting it just so you all can see how well or how bad the Tele Lens performs in such conditions from about 350ft away at an altitude of 200ft in darkness, while having super bright flashing lights strobing everywhere. I didn't film long. You never know if Air support might be called.

I was sitting at home when I heard sirens, so I launched my M3 only to find out my neighbor had Emergency Services and Law Enforcement around His/Her House. What happened, I have no idea. They didn't stay long. Neither did I.

Anyway, you can all talk about the color saturation, quality of the Tele at 28x, graininess etc. But, I can tell you I would have never been able to get video footage to appear that close without the tele lens. I stayed above my house, so not to "interfere" with the first responders. Altitude was about 200ft, Distance to subject was 350ft,

Interesting stuff.

 

[BlairAir]

They have got to fix the auto focus hunting on that Tele lens. It's particularly bad in low light, which is more challenging for auto focus to begin with.

 

[crlmjohnson]

Overall nice video

 

[BigAl07]

Not one of them was wearing a mask. Weird for emergency services from any country right now

Ummmm not really. Some areas are a lot more back to normal than others by now. Florida is absolutely one of those areas.

 

[canadian drone videos]

I would agree - Without the Zoom capabilites, you wouldn't have got that video. Really stable even zoomed. I've seen other videos talking about the full-zoom graininess and we saw it there, but was stll clear enough to see what you were pointing @.

Digital zoom on a drone while shooting video is absolutely pointless. DJI knows this which is why the camera has its limitations while using the explore mode, they expect potential buys to also know this. If you want zoom during video the best results are doing it in post. Shoot the video using no digital zoom, then digitally crop it in post, that way you get full manual control of the main camera and smoother results. As far as the explore camera goes, who pays $3k for a drone with a 1/2 inch sensor? The explore camera is useless, it’s not meant for taking nice video you can show on a big screen TV. It’s only handy for searching the area for interesting things to fly to then shoot with the main camera.

So, had he not used digital zoom, yes, he would have got that video, with even better results then he has shown. But he’d need to do it right in post with knowledge and experience. It’s a misconception that pilots should use digital zoom for anything at all except to explore, the people who made the drone know this which is why they didn’t call the M3 a zoom camera drone, and called the 1/2 camera an explore camera and not a zoom camera.

They could have put optical zoom on this drone, but there is no good reason to do that for a camera that’s already shooting in 5k res. Optical zoom is only useful on a camera that’s shooting low res, because it’s footage can’t be cropped in post.

 

[MS Coast]

Has anyone compared the results of shooting 28X video with the explore camera to shooting 5.1k video on the main camera and zooming in post-processing?

My guess is that the larger camera would provide better results. The digital zoom on the explore is certainly a convenience for quick and dirty zoomed shots, but it seems like the larger sensor in the main camera would ultimately provide better results.

 

[canadian drone videos]

Has anyone compared the results of shooting 28X video with the explore camera to shooting 5.1k video on the main camera and zooming in post-processing?

My guess is that the larger camera would provide better results. The digital zoom on the explore is certainly a convenience for quick and dirty zoomed shots, but it seems like the larger sensor in the main camera would ultimately provide better results.

My point exactly, I can tell you cropping the 5k 5 times yields nice res still. As far as comparing it to the explore camera couldn’t tell ya I’ve never used it for shooting video.

 

[cgmaxed]

They have got to fix the auto focus hunting on that Tele lens. It's particularly bad in low light, which is more challenging for auto focus to begin with.

Yeah. I notice that a lot. It gets to be very frustrating.

 

[cgmaxed]

Ummmm not really. Some areas are a lot more back to normal than others by now. Florida is absolutely one of those areas.

Yup, If you walk around florida, outside no one has a mask. Inside depending on the store, masks are worn on less than 50% of the customers. Example: Home depot, you only see 20% wearing masks, Walmart 40%, Publix 60%. It's almost like it's class related.

 

[cgmaxed]

Digital zoom on a drone while shooting video is absolutely pointless. DJI knows this which is why the camera has its limitations while using the explore mode, they expect potential buys to also know this. If you want zoom during video the best results are doing it in post. Shoot the video using no digital zoom, then digitally crop it in post, that way you get full manual control of the main camera and smoother results. As far as the explore camera goes, who pays $3k for a drone with a 1/2 inch sensor? The explore camera is useless, it’s not meant for taking nice video you can show on a big screen TV. It’s only handy for searching the area for interesting things to fly to then shoot with the main camera.

So, had he not used digital zoom, yes, he would have got that video, with even better results then he has shown. But he’d need to do it right in post with knowledge and experience. It’s a misconception that pilots should use digital zoom for anything at all except to explore, the people who made the drone know this which is why they didn’t call the M3 a zoom camera drone, and called the 1/2 camera an explore camera and not a zoom camera.

They could have put optical zoom on this drone, but there is no good reason to do that for a camera that’s already shooting in 5k res. Optical zoom is only useful on a camera that’s shooting low res, because it’s footage can’t be cropped in post.

I experimented with some daylight footage between the zoom camera and the 5k camera. I hovered in the same place and then shot a sign at Tele 28x from a significant distance. Then I did the same with the 5K camera in 5.1k mode. I then put them both in adobe premiere. I took the 5k footage and matched the crop to the zoom of the 28x zoom footage. The result? I could read the 28x zoom, but I could not read the 5k crop. I even used a few different 5k footages, some with different apertures and ISOs. I still couldn't get enough detail to read the 5k cropped footage.

At Night, this comparison may likely be different. If I shot in 5k, the 4/3 cmos sensor may or would have picked up more light, thus cropping it in post may have shown more detail. I'll do some more experiments regarding detail next time I get a chance. I'll film at 28x and 5k. I'll zoom into a low lit sign and film it until it's just readable. Then I will switch to 5k, use post and crop it to the size of the 28x and see how readable or not readable it is. I will post my results in a new thread when I get it done.

I another situation, I also used my Air2s and Hovered in the same spot as I did with an M3 and an EVO2 Pro. It's (A2S) clarity on crop was better than both the 28x zoom and the 5k crop of the M3. Then I used the Autel 2 Pro. Same hovering position, same lighting. It had the most detail of any of the drones.

I'm just a hobbyist, so I use my M3 more because of the drone's specs itself. I would probably use The EVO2 PRO if I wanted detailed shots, but it's lacking a bit in accurate camera control and flight control. Flying the M3 is like flying a corvette while the EVO2 pro is like a heavy Cadillac. I'm just referring to the drones here not the cameras.

 

[canadian drone videos]

I experimented with some daylight footage between the zoom camera and the 5k camera. I hovered in the same place and then shot a sign at Tele 28x from a significant distance. Then I did the same with the 5K camera in 5.1k mode. I then put them both in adobe premiere. I took the 5k footage and matched the crop to the zoom of the 28x zoom footage. The result? I could read the 28x zoom, but I could not read the 5k crop. I even used a few different 5k footages, some with different apertures and ISOs. I still couldn't get enough detail to read the 5k cropped footage.

At Night, this comparison may likely be different. If I shot in 5k, the 4/3 cmos sensor may or would have picked up more light, thus cropping it in post may have shown more detail. I'll do some more experiments regarding detail next time I get a chance. I'll film at 28x and 5k. I'll zoom into a low lit sign and film it until it's just readable. Then I will switch to 5k, use post and crop it to the size of the 28x and see how readable or not readable it is. I will post my results in a new thread when I get it done.

I another situation, I also used my Air2s and Hovered in the same spot as I did with an M3 and an EVO2 Pro. It's (A2S) clarity on crop was better than both the 28x zoom and the 5k crop of the M3. Then I used the Autel 2 Pro. Same hovering position, same lighting. It had the most detail of any of the drones.

I'm just a hobbyist, so I use my M3 more because of the drone's specs itself. I would probably use The EVO2 PRO if I wanted detailed shots, but it's lacking a bit in accurate camera control and flight control. Flying the M3 is like flying a corvette while the EVO2 pro is like a heavy Cadillac. I'm just referring to the drones here not the cameras.

Sounds like you put her through the ringer lol, good deal. One test you didn’t think about was motion. As I’m sure you have figured out the drone works very differently when your zooming in. Doesn’t turn as fast, harder to stay on a subject when flying, what have you. The best trick for this is to use full res in the main camera do your flying around the subject then use tracking in post. It’s time consuming and takes some serious computer power, but it works.

I had the 14-42mm optical zoom lens for my x5s, thought I’d use it a lot, but I got better and better at editing video, in the end I stopped using it. I generally don’t use clips where the drone is just hovering, tends to make for some boring drone video. If ive got a decent camera giving me solid 5k I can pretty much be happy, and work with it. 7-28 zoom I noticed is useless to use while flying around, asking a flying camera to be able to track a subject smoothly at speed is a very tall order, I think that’s why there is no active track while in zoom, yet it should be able to handle 2-3 times zoom, but it’s pointless to add that to a drone that has no optical zoom.

The features we’d really like are impossible with the M3, optical zoom with tracking can’t be done, as the M3 has no optical zoom. DJI deliberately didn’t put optical zoom on this drone which is why I will never buy another Mavic, and will likely never buy another DJI product. I sold my I2 because it’s too darn big, too much hassle to transport and set up. Then they give us this drone with no optical zoom, done it deliberately, because they want us to buy an I2 lol. I bet $100 it took more engineering to put that second 1/2 inch camera in, and more expensive too mass produce, then it would have been to give that 4/3rds camera with 3x optical zoom. That’s how DJI operates.

Then they give us this Mavic Mini remote which does not match the drone, idiot Fly App which belongs with an amateur pilot, no third party mapping for professional use.

A lot of people are not happy with this drone. DJI has shot themselves in the foot with this fantasy of getting us to buy an Inspire... can’t even remove the ssd card, crazy.

Yes it’s a nice little drone that takes nice 5k video, but the competition is licking their chops and sending thank you cards to DJI as we speak.

 

[cgmaxed]

Has anyone compared the results of shooting 28X video with the explore camera to shooting 5.1k video on the main camera and zooming in post-processing?

My guess is that the larger camera would provide better results. The digital zoom on the explore is certainly a convenience for quick and dirty zoomed shots, but it seems like the larger sensor in the main camera would ultimately provide better results.

I've compared the 28x zoom to the 5k camera during the day. I took the shot from the 28x, then took the same image from the 5k camera and cropped it to the exact same size as the 28x shot. These were video clip comparisons. The 28x video clip was much more detailed than the cropped 5k clip. This was a daytime test though, so the 4/3 cmos sensor didn't make much of a difference versus the Tele sensor. I still have to do a night test.

 

[cgmaxed]

Sounds like you put her through the ringer lol, good deal. One test you didn’t think about was motion. As I’m sure you have figured out the drone works very differently when your zooming in. Doesn’t turn as fast, harder to stay on a subject when flying, what have you. The best trick for this is to use full res in the main camera do your flying around the subject then use tracking in post. It’s time consuming and takes some serious computer power, but it works.

I had the 14-42mm optical zoom lens for my x5s, thought I’d use it a lot, but I got better and better at editing video, in the end I stopped using it. I generally don’t use clips where the drone is just hovering, tends to make for some boring drone video. If ive got a decent camera giving me solid 5k I can pretty much be happy, and work with it. 7-28 zoom I noticed is useless to use while flying around, asking a flying camera to be able to track a subject smoothly at speed is a very tall order, I think that’s why there is no active track while in zoom, yet it should be able to handle 2-3 times zoom, but it’s pointless to add that to a drone that has no optical zoom.

The features we’d really like are impossible with the M3, optical zoom with tracking can’t be done, as the M3 has no optical zoom. DJI deliberately didn’t put optical zoom on this drone which is why I will never buy another Mavic, and will likely never buy another DJI product. I sold my I2 because it’s too darn big, too much hassle to transport and set up. Then they give us this drone with no optical zoom, done it deliberately, because they want us to buy an I2 lol. I bet $100 it took more engineering to put that second 1/2 inch camera in, and more expensive too mass produce, then it would have been to give that 4/3rds camera with 3x optical zoom. That’s how DJI operates.

Then they give us this Mavic Mini remote which does not match the drone, idiot Fly App which belongs with an amateur pilot, no third party mapping for professional use.

A lot of people are not happy with this drone. DJI has shot themselves in the foot with this fantasy of getting us to buy an Inspire... can’t even remove the ssd card, crazy.

Yes it’s a nice little drone that takes nice 5k video, but the competition is licking their chops and sending thank you cards to DJI as we speak.

I have to agree. I thought we would at least get a 6k 4/3 cmos with some optical zoom/digital hybrid. But, instead they go with 2 cameras? The 4/3 cmos picks up lots of color and light, but lacks detail, in a bad way. Cropping to zoom into a subject is limited at 5k. 6k would have been better.
Here is my other thread comparing the Tele 28x at night versus the 5k at the same time and location, but cropped to the size of the tele shot. Link: M3 Tele at 28x versus 5k shot at full resolution of a sign under a street lamp at night. Suprising Results to say the least.

 

[canadian drone videos]

I have to agree. I thought we would at least get a 6k 4/3 cmos with some optical zoom/digital hybrid. But, instead they go with 2 cameras? The 4/3 cmos picks up lots of color and light, but lacks detail, in a bad way. Cropping to zoom into a subject is limited at 5k. 6k would have been better.
Here is my other thread comparing the Tele 28x at night versus the 5k at the same time and location, but cropped to the size of the tele shot. Link: M3 Tele at 28x versus 5k shot at full resolution of a sign under a street lamp at night. Suprising Results to say the least.

DJI is a bit of a funny company, no denying they make great consumer drones... but that’s where the compliments end. DJI isn’t going to produce the drone we want till the competition forces them to. But that’s a big risk for DJI to take. Everyone I know, including myself who bought an I2 has since sold it. It’s too big, and too much of a pain to cart around and set up. It’s not the money, it’s the lack of something smaller. I’d drop $5k on a P4P with the 4/3rds sensor and interchangeable lenses in a heartbeat and never look back. DJI has chosen not to make one, but like many of us I’m no longer in the market for a drone like the I2. I will never buy another drone made by anyone that isn’t what I want, if DJI ever wants to sell me another drone they will mass produce the P5 which they already made.

This M3 is fine, but there is nothing they can do to it that will get me to buy an M4. Like you say, they could add 6 or even 8k res, or even bump the MP to 40, or add optical zoom... I could care less. It’s like... what’s the difference between 4-5g wifi? Once downloading speed gets to a certain point any additional speed doesn’t mean much. Okay, I wait 1/2 a second instead of 3/5ths of a second, I don’t care. Technology has maxed out, speeds and res get to a certain point and it no longer matters. Take the 4k TV, it’s pointless, the human eye can’t distinguish the difference between 2.7 and 4K, that’s why Apple products have retina displays that are not 4k. Am I going to throw out my Sony HD TV and go upgrade to 8k, no, am I going to put my M3 on a shelf and replace it with an 8k M4, zero chance that’s going to happen.

The only way to upgrade this M3 is if the M4 has interchangeable lenses, and the Mavic design will not support that.

 

[Point Zero]

You never know... @canadian drone videos

I would still buy the Mavic with all the features you mention if the price is a bigger design. I think the Mavic4 for example could easily be 30-50% bigger and still be extremely portable.

Who knows they might surprise you one day.

The P5 might even make an appearance next year!

 

[canadian drone videos]

You never know... @canadian drone videos

I would still by the Mavic with all the features you mention if the price is a bigger design. I think the Mavic4 for example could easily be 30-50% bigger and still be extremely portable.

Who knows they might surprise you one day.

The P5 might even make an appearance next year!

Yes that’s what I’m hoping for, bigger M4 or the P5, either will do the trick provided they have interchangeable lenses. This M3 seems maxed out, I don’t think they can get it much better without some radical upgrades. I think this M3 takes a compact foldable drone with a simple point and shoot camera system to the limit, yes it could be improved, but you can only pull so much jam out of a basic camera system.

The video quality is excellent, not really going to be any substantial improvements there. It flys well, it’s pretty quiet. It’s fast. For DJI, they need to be thinking, what can we do to get this guy to buy our next drone knowing he just sold his I2 3 months ago? They need to offer me a drone in the Phantom or Mavic size range that has interchangeable lenses. I love my P4P it’s an awesome drone, will never sell it, this M3 kinda aggravates me for one reason, I know DJI has the ability to make this M3 the drone we all wanted and deliberately dumbed it down.

But that’s what I expect from DJI.

 

[Droniac]

Video Link:

Explanation:

This video was unexpected. The scene occurred at my neighbors house. The M3 drone was flown just above my house. I'm posting it just so you all can see how well or how bad the Tele Lens performs in such conditions from about 350ft away at an altitude of 200ft in darkness, while having super bright flashing lights strobing everywhere. I didn't film long. You never know if Air support might be called.

I was sitting at home when I heard sirens, so I launched my M3 only to find out my neighbor had Emergency Services and Law Enforcement around His/Her House. What happened, I have no idea. They didn't stay long. Neither did I.

Anyway, you can all talk about the color saturation, quality of the Tele at 28x, graininess etc. But, I can tell you I would have never been able to get video footage to appear that close without the tele lens. I stayed above my house, so not to "interfere" with the first responders. Altitude was about 200ft, Distance to subject was 350ft,

Impressive