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Jerky panning on the Zoom.

Peregrine

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Trying to get some help here as to why I cannot eradicate jerky footage shot with the Zoom. Am I missing something in settings? I am using a Freewell Variable ND filter to control light, and am shooting at 24fps, with a shutter speed of 50. My aim is for cinematic footage with a hint of motion blur. Instead, I am getting panning that stutters. I have a high-end SD card that has served me well, so am happy that’s not the culprit.

Prior to getting the Zoom, I had a Mavic Pro. Using the above settings, I was able to get some lovely footage. Absolutely silky-smooth panning. And just the right amount of cinematic look to it. The Zoom is seeming like a bit of a mistake at the moment, as it definitely feels like a backwards step. Yes, the picture is a bit sharper, and the colours truer, but at the expense of smoothness, which is far more important to me.

Can anyone shed any light on things?
 
Panning is tricky & can easy introduce judder if not done right, note that both moving the camera horizontal, tilting the gimbal & moving objects is all panning.

First I recommend you to read up around the subject so you understand the parameters, this is a good "Best Practice" --> https://www.red.com/red-101/camera-panning-speed , then test out different scenarios with different formats, frame rates and resolutions to see what's a go and a no go (faster pans usually require higher FPS).

Then ... are your viewing equipment up to what's required to produce a smooth result when you play the movie (Resolution wise & format wise: MP4 / MOV (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265) ?
 
Panning is tricky & can easy introduce judder if not done right, note that both moving the camera horizontal, tilting the gimbal & moving objects is all panning.

First I recommend you to read up around the subject so you understand the parameters, this is a good "Best Practice" --> https://www.red.com/red-101/camera-panning-speed , then test out different scenarios with different formats, frame rates and resolutions to see what's a go and a no go (faster pans usually require higher FPS).

Then ... are your viewing equipment up to what's required to produce a smooth result when you play the movie (Resolution wise & format wise: MP4 / MOV (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265) ?

That’s a useful article. Thank you. I’m viewing on an iMac, which is reasonably well specced. I’ll have a look and see if the Zoom has a higher requirement than the old MP.

Regarding the actual mechanics of panning, I’m fairly smooth, and slow on the sticks, so have been able to get fairly decent results in the past. I’ll have a play around with different formats, but won’t be happy if I have to forego 24fps, as I used this previously, and it’s my preferred format.

An old MP video of mine, shot at 24fps showing pretty smooth panning:

 
In live view, I show smooth yaw. Yet consistently when playing on any PC, it seems blurry, though individual frames are not blurry.

Besides CPU and RAM, graphics card hardware has a big impact. I used to get hesitations about once a second until I upgraded my graphics card.
Considering the size of the video files, the DJI videos have a lot more detail to process than typical videos.
 
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Thanks DanMan32. I might try and view the results on my VR PC, as it is fairly high-end. I’m away from home until next week, so will have a peep then.
 
That’s a useful article. Thank you. I’m viewing on an iMac, which is reasonably well specced. I’ll have a look and see if the Zoom has a higher requirement than the old MP.

Regarding the actual mechanics of panning, I’m fairly smooth, and slow on the sticks, so have been able to get fairly decent results in the past. I’ll have a play around with different formats, but won’t be happy if I have to forego 24fps, as I used this previously, and it’s my preferred format.

An old MP video of mine, shot at 24fps showing pretty smooth panning:

That was really outstanding. Loved the mood you created with this video. So calming and quiescent. Nice views of the church and the cemetery, and the oarsman in the river enjoying a peaceful row down the river. The soundtrack, of course, made up 50% of the mood that was set.
Bravo. Nice video.
 
That was really outstanding. Loved the mood you created with this video. So calming and quiescent. Nice views of the church and the cemetery, and the oarsman in the river enjoying a peaceful row down the river. The soundtrack, of course, made up 50% of the mood that was set.
Bravo. Nice video.

Thank you Dale. That is much appreciated. And yes, I definitely agree that the soundtrack deserves most of the credit. If I can’t get the Zoom to perform better, I shall definitely go back to the MP. The footage was plenty good enough for my needs.
 
Thank you Dale. That is much appreciated. And yes, I definitely agree that the soundtrack deserves most of the credit. If I can’t get the Zoom to perform better, I shall definitely go back to the MP. The footage was plenty good enough for my needs.
Funny that people own both kinds e.g.: zoom and regular! I barely have enough time and energy for one drone, so my default was the Mavic 2 Pro even though I would have loved to have a zoom capability. Strange to me that people buy the zoom as a first option.
 
I bought the Zoom over the M2 Pro because I didn’t want the extra overhead of requiring a more powerful computer to process the more demanding footage. When everything gets compressed on YouTube anyway, I can’t really see many advantages over the Zoom.
 
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I bought the Zoom over the M2 Pro because I didn’t want the extra overhead of requiring a more powerful computer to process the more demanding footage. When everything gets compressed on YouTube anyway, I can’t really see many advantages over the Zoom.
My iMAC is indeed a beast. I spent the $$$ with the intent on doing video editing. I was tired of fighting with my old, tired, lazy Dell PC for years and finally bit the bullet. So now I try to shoot everything in 4K and RAW. The attached video was done today (I am still in quarantine so I photograph around my neighborhood). You can read the information on the Vimeo web site. I also subscribed to Vimeo so I can now publish in 4K. When you open the video, go to the cog in the bottom right and click on 4K resolution. My videos do not get compressed in VIMEO.
 
Strange to me that people buy the zoom as a first option.

If they had the M2Pro with zoom i'd take it if i could afford it. But i barely had enough to get the M2Z and now that i have it i actually love the hell out of the zoom. Dolly Zooms are overrated and really just a gimick but the zoom allows me to fly much farther away (and safer) from objects, animals, trees etc. With my spark i was always having to fly super close to frame the shot and it was sketchy cause one errant tree branch could send me plummeting into the river. I can get great tight shots with the M2Z while still being a good safe distance away.
 
You might look at this video and the settings he suggests


Thanks for the suggestion. However, I think my original post is being misinterpreted. If you check the video I posted, you will see that it is not a “stick” issue. I know how to pilot the drone for smooth footage. The problem is in the way the camera is capturing the footage. Pans look like they are playing at about 10fps, with the scenery juddering along. Particularly noticeable with objects with hard edges, like houses, office blocks etc.

Funnily enough, the exact effect I’m trying to avoid is evident in the video you posted. At around 7.10 when the drone is moving through the trees, and the footage is less than smooth, with sudden jumps as the hardware tries to keep up. I had that issue with the original MP, until I bought ND filters and took full control of the camera settings.
 
Funny that people own both kinds e.g.: zoom and regular! I barely have enough time and energy for one drone, so my default was the Mavic 2 Pro even though I would have loved to have a zoom capability. Strange to me that people buy the zoom as a first option.
after reading many reviews I went with the zoom over the pro only because the common factor in the reviews was that as shot the zoom produced a better picture but post production was the strong suit of having the Pro. Im just not all that savey with post production and really dont have the time. The zoom feature has been fun and I use it alot.
 
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