Jerky video when turning

[VFRon]

My Mavic Air records very jerky video while turning, especially if not moving forward at the same time.
I try to yaw very slowly but it is still jerky.
Is this normal?

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

The yaw is a little touchy on the MA. I try not to yaw at all when recording if I can help it. But you can adjust the Yaw Movement Limit which will help dampen it a bit. Here is a video describing it:

 

[VFRon]

The yaw is a little touchy on the MA. I try not to yaw at all when recording if I can help it. But you can adjust the Yaw Movement Limit which will help dampen it a bit. Here is a video describing it:

Thanks very much but I have adjusted the yaw movement but the video still seems to jerk.
Traveling forward it’s very smooth

 

[kidogofoto]

You might want to use an ND filter to have your shutter speed match the double of your framerate. If you are shooting 30fps, use a correct ND to get as close as you can get to a shutter speed of 1/60th

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

Do you have any examples you can post?

 

[Travisimo]

My Mavic Air records very jerky video while turning, especially if not moving forward at the same time.
I try to yaw very slowly but it is still jerky.
Is this normal?

Yawing while hovering is really not going to be very smooth, but you can do some things to make it a bit better.

1) First, make sure the jerky video isn't a result of your playback device instead of the actual recording. Especially if you are playing back at 4k or 2k/60, some machines just can't handle the playback smoothly and panning like this will exacerbate the problem. Doesn't sound like this is your problem, but just something to be aware of. Also, shooting in 2k at 60 fps will actually look smoother when doing this than in 24/30 fps.

2) As stated above, ND filters can reduce your shutter speed to a point where motion seems smoother. It depends on what type of "jerkiness" you are experiencing. If it just looks like the overall motion is not smooth, then a slower shutter speed can definitely help with that. In bright light, the Mavic Air (and other drones) will need to use a fast shutter speed (sometimes as fast as 1/1000 or more) to get proper exposure. What this does is makes frames look jumpy when playing back, almost like a stair-stepping effect. The 180 degree rules that seems to work good is finding a shutter speed of 1/(2x shutter speed). So if you are shooting at 4k/30, for example, you'd want to target a 1/60 frame-rate when shooting. 1/60 is not going to be possible in daylight without a filter. An ND8, ND16, or even an ND32 would be good choices depending on the conditions and shooting mode. You can search for Youtube videos that will help you with this.

3) Adjusting yaw movement is another option, as stated above. It can be difficult without lots of practice to slowly and consistently turn the Mavic Air, so adjusting the yaw so that it doesn't move as quickly can help. You could set it to cinematic mode or go in an adjust the actual settings. There are tutorials on how to do this as well, though I haven't tried them myself yet.

4) Generally speaking, however, unless you're intentionally shooting for a desired effect, it's best not to yaw much at all when filming. Yawing while move forward does make it look smoother, but yawing while hovering is honestly kind of painful to watch in most circumstances.

 

[VFRon]

Thanks very much for all of your help.
I will purchase some ND filters and try with them.
Even with this small problem I’m really pleased with the Mavic Air, and appreciate all of your help.

 

[Chris.J.Setterington]

Hi VFRon,

I had this problem too, last week my ND PL filters arrived and today I finally had a chance to try them out with frame rate 30 and shutter 60 @ 4K with ND16. The quality is stunning however I still had nasty yaw jitter even with small yaw movements. I was wondering if it was an issue with the video compression/decompression.

I was reviewing the footage directly from the SD card using the Windows Film and TV app that it defaults too. Instead I decided to use Windows Media Player,and everything was smooth, including parts of the footage with some pretty fast yaw. Things were even better when I reduced the video size by 50%.

Seems it was a software playback (probably the MPEG decoder) in my case.

All the best

 

[Melvoid]

Interesting. I think maybe the reply about the equipment limitations might be correct. I just played back the same rotate shot on my computer 2 or 3 times and got different "jerkiness" on each playback... and on the third try, none at all. And I thought I had a big fast computer with lots of memory and stuff.... Well, I guess that's good to know that it isn't the 'copter's fault.