Mavic Pro Platinum fuzzy trees

[Mitch]

This flavor of topic may have been done to death but, I'll ask for ideas/thoughts anyways.

The video link is below. I'm looking for general tips on how to gain better clarity of the bare trees and perhaps the video in general. I used an ND8 filter reducing the shutter speed to around 100. I shot at 1080 30fps. This is a Litchi mission with auto focus off so, after launching the mission long before the first waypoint I paused, tapped the screen to the open air to get a distant focus with hopes it would hold it throughout the mission then pressed play to resume. Of course this was done assuming the distant houses and such would be in focus. I'm not totally sure if the houses are truely in focus or, if its the best the MPP can do. And, to try and acquire more of a skeletal view of the trees instead of what them looking like a fuzzy blurr.

I've read along the way of turning off auto record on mission launch, setting sharpness to +1, none of which I've done as I've read this after the fact.

Thoughts?

Dropbox - test2.mp4

 

[4wd]

2.7K, +1. 0. 0 will probably help
In flat light the small sensor is never going to get much detail in trees that far away.
Don't move too fast either, you will notice it pulls things together much better in a scene where objects are moving slowly.

 

[Mitch]

2.7K, +1. 0. 0 will probably help
In flat light the small sensor is never going to get much detail in trees that far away.
Don't move too fast either, you will notice it pulls things together much better in a scene where objects are moving slowly.

I"m flying at 25mph. The mission is about 24000 feet going out a mile and a half. I need to maintain some speed. Do you think that may be too fast? I've seen some videos taken from P4P and the branches are crystal clear. But, being it was someone else's video and probably shot using the GO4 app with autofocus, may have something to do with it. Even still the difference is huge. I really need better quality than whats in this video. Lets hope the settings you mentioned will help greatly. Weather here is awful so, it could be potentially ages before I can retry here in NE Ohio.

 

[4wd]

It's not too fast if you need to cover ground.
But don't expect stunning 4K details as you whiz by.
The P4 has a larger sensor, and variable aperture - it will do a bit better..
It all gets harder to resolve with low light levels.
Camera does pretty well in bright conditions with more contrast

 

[Mr. Salty]

If you want fine detail like that you should probably start by shooting in 4K, or at least 2.7K. And setting sharpness to +1 will make a big difference.

And since you’re not flying close to anything where motion blur would be desirable, I’d say ditch the ND filter and get a higher shutter speed. This is a case where detail is more important than smoothness.

Finally, set your ISO to 100 and fly on a sunnier day.

 

[Mitch]

There is no sun in NE Ohio until Memorial Day. [emoji6]. Thanks to you and 4wd for the suggestions. The weather here will be below freezing for at least the next week so, I'll have to be patient.

 

[Mr. Salty]

I got my first drone a little more than a year ago, right before winter set in in Iowa. I hear you on the lack of sun. I had to boost contrast and color saturation in editing to get my earliest videos for them to not look gray.