Real framerate and smooth video

[kilomikebravo]

OK, thanks.

 

[brett8883]

Hi mrlagroa,

I shoot exclusively in H265, that's not the problem, unless the card isn't really U3 rated. Lots of fake cards around.

When panning and tilting, you you have to move pretty slowly. A really fast pan or tilt can be jumpy even at 60 fps. For most purposes, shooting at 30 fps will be better than 24. I know that all the cinemafiles will say 30 doesn't look filmic but unless you're wanting to cut the drone footage in with something else shot at 24 fps, 30 will serve you better, especially when there is a lot of movement. And a lot of drone footage has a fair bit of movement. The clip you supplied looks like it was shot at 24 fps and rendered at 30 fps. The movement of the cars doesn't look natural. It all looks a bit timelapse like. If that't the case, you can't avoid jitter.

When panning (pivoting camera side to side), a good rule to follow is that any point in the scene should take about 6 or 7 seconds to cross the frame at 30 fps. If shooting at 24 fps, another second or two will help smooth things out. If tilting (pivoting camera up and down) you have to allow around 3 or 4 seconds for an object to pass through the frame since the frame isn't as tall as it is wide. Also, panning with the Mavic 2 Pro seems to be a bit jittery anyway when using the left stick to pivot the drone. I often go for 8 or 9 seconds across the frame to smooth things out a little more. You can pan by using the gimbal alone, which is a little more smooth in my experience. You do that by touching the screen of your phone or tablet in the centre and then moving it left or right. You can also move up and down. I find I get a bit smoother shot this way when panning but no difference tilting. It's also hard to do when flying. As someone mentioned above, you can slow your gimbal down in the settings. I've got mine about as slow as it goes (not quite) and that's working well for me for the kind of nature and landscape stuff I like to film. Your first tilt didn't look too fast, that's probably the just the limitation of 24 fps. The second tilt, especially from the midway point on, is too fast.

Shutter speed has also been discussed above. The times 2 rule is a good one but should be broken sometimes. For example, if you shoot at 1/30th instead of 1/60th as the rule dictates, you will get more motion blur, which will hide some of that jitter. It's not a look I particularly like but others do. Faster shutter speeds can make things like waterfalls or the sea shore look more dramatic as long as there is not too much camera motion, or that camera motion is really smooth and slow.

Hope that helps.

I agree whole heartedly with everything you’ve said but I would just add that the 7 second rule is probably to low for the Mavic’s camera. Red has a cool little tool that is a panning speed calculator which you can input the the various parameters to get the ideal camera panning time.

I use the monstro 4K 16:9 (HD) and I believe the Mavic is a 26 mm lens(for the zoom it will depend on zoom level.) and enter your frame rate and everything.

You see that to pan 90 degrees the recommended time is 16 seconds for 24FPS, 12 seconds for 30FPS, and it would be 6.2 seconds if the Mavic could do 60 FPS. So it gives you an idea of how much frame rate affects panning quality.

Remember too that in post it’s easier to speed up than slow down so if the pan is too slow for your project you can speed it up without losing quality but the same can’t be said for slowing down at such a low frame rate

 

[mrlegroa]

I agree whole heartedly with everything you’ve said but I would just add that the 7 second rule is probably to low for the Mavic’s camera. Red has a cool little tool that is a panning speed calculator which you can input the the various parameters to get the ideal camera panning time.

I use the monstro 4K 16:9 (HD) and I believe the Mavic is a 26 mm lens(for the zoom it will depend on zoom level.) and enter your frame rate and everything.

You see that to pan 90 degrees the recommended time is 16 seconds for 24FPS, 12 seconds for 30FPS, and it would be 6.2 seconds if the Mavic could do 60 FPS. So it gives you an idea of how much frame rate affects panning quality.

Remember too that in post it’s easier to speed up than slow down so if the pan is too slow for your project you can speed it up without losing quality but the same can’t be said for slowing down at such a low frame rate

Thanks alot!

Will try this right now!

 

[mrlegroa]

@Kilrah, I think the speeding up may have had a significant role in the jitter.

I filmed another quick shot with all the tips you guys gave me: Cambridge at night

It was already quite dark (Iso was somewhere around 400)
But it looks much smoother
Still, I think I panned & pivoted too fast especially when both were combined (second 0:14).

I have my yaw expo on .10 and shoot on cinematic, but still id like it to be even less sensitive.

Also, I have the feeling that I have a quite noticeable barrel distortion in my footage?!

Thanks, guys. I would not have expected to get so many responses, really dope community!

 

[manowar_gub]

I agree whole heartedly with everything you’ve said but I would just add that the 7 second rule is probably to low for the Mavic’s camera. Red has a cool little tool that is a panning speed calculator which you can input the the various parameters to get the ideal camera panning time

Can someone detail how to adjust m2p for ~6.5 degree/sec panning speed? Set gain to 25%? Is it any fly modes who can goal that speed?

 

[mrlegroa]

Can someone detail how to adjust m2p for ~6.5 degree/sec panning speed? Set gain to 25%? Is it any fly modes who can goal that speed?

pretty much seconds my question above.

I really think there should be a way to limit the Y-axis acceleration to a speed that doesn't create any jitter in the footage. I have not tried any 3rd party apps but perhaps litchi has a feature for that?

 

[manowar_gub]

Can you address question to DJI ?
I know there is only 1 way - to use ND filters. But I dont want to use it because they affect IQ

 

[mrlegroa]

Can you address question to DJI ?
I know there is only 1 way - to use ND filters. But I dont want to use it because they affect IQ

@manowar_gub I always use ND filters to get to the right the shutter speed, I don't believe it affects the image quality.

I sent DJI an email, will update you guys once i get a response!

 

[kilomikebravo]

But I dont want to use it because they affect IQ

manowar: Amigo, you must have better eyesight than I because I can see absolutely no degradation of the images using ND filters whether it's for video or stills.

 

[manowar_gub]

2 kilomikebravo
Which ND filter manufacturer / model do you use?

 

[mrlegroa]

2 kilomikebravo
Which ND filter manufacturer / model do you use?

I can highly recommend PolarPro filters!

 

[kilomikebravo]

manowar: Like Mr. Legroa, I'm a PolarPro kinda guy. Are those from Freewell, Skyreat, etc., as good? Probably, I just like the company and they continue to produce great products. The Flight Deck tablet mount is another winner.

 

[mrlegroa]

manowar: Like Mr. Legroa, I'm a PolarPro kinda guy. Are those from Freewell, Skyreat, etc., as good? Probably, I just like the company and they continue to produce great products. The Flight Deck tablet mount is another winner.

I'm actually not familiar with the other brands,
Maybe somebody who ones different NDs can post a comparison.

Im also trying to find a comparison between the regular polarpros (which I think were discontinued) and their cinematic filters.

 

[lilewis]

Hi mrlagroa,

I shoot exclusively in H265, that's not the problem, unless the card isn't really U3 rated. Lots of fake cards around.

When panning and tilting, you you have to move pretty slowly. A really fast pan or tilt can be jumpy even at 60 fps. For most purposes, shooting at 30 fps will be better than 24. I know that all the cinemafiles will say 30 doesn't look filmic but unless you're wanting to cut the drone footage in with something else shot at 24 fps, 30 will serve you better, especially when there is a lot of movement. And a lot of drone footage has a fair bit of movement. The clip you supplied looks like it was shot at 24 fps and rendered at 30 fps. The movement of the cars doesn't look natural. It all looks a bit timelapse like. If that't the case, you can't avoid jitter.

When panning (pivoting camera side to side), a good rule to follow is that any point in the scene should take about 6 or 7 seconds to cross the frame at 30 fps. If shooting at 24 fps, another second or two will help smooth things out. If tilting (pivoting camera up and down) you have to allow around 3 or 4 seconds for an object to pass through the frame since the frame isn't as tall as it is wide. Also, panning with the Mavic 2 Pro seems to be a bit jittery anyway when using the left stick to pivot the drone. I often go for 8 or 9 seconds across the frame to smooth things out a little more. You can pan by using the gimbal alone, which is a little more smooth in my experience. You do that by touching the screen of your phone or tablet in the centre and then moving it left or right. You can also move up and down. I find I get a bit smoother shot this way when panning but no difference tilting. It's also hard to do when flying. As someone mentioned above, you can slow your gimbal down in the settings. I've got mine about as slow as it goes (not quite) and that's working well for me for the kind of nature and landscape stuff I like to film. Your first tilt didn't look too fast, that's probably the just the limitation of 24 fps. The second tilt, especially from the midway point on, is too fast.

Shutter speed has also been discussed above. The times 2 rule is a good one but should be broken sometimes. For example, if you shoot at 1/30th instead of 1/60th as the rule dictates, you will get more motion blur, which will hide some of that jitter. It's not a look I particularly like but others do. Faster shutter speeds can make things like waterfalls or the sea shore look more dramatic as long as there is not too much camera motion, or that camera motion is really smooth and slow.

Hope that helps.

Great instructions! I just printed this out. Thank you for this info - it makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[Rquirk]

Hey guys,

I am new to this forum and hope its okay to just open a threat (i could not find anything else)


My Setup:
Mavic Pro 2 (newest Firmware)
Polar Pro ND & PL Filters (8,16,32)
DGI Go app (newest Version)
Lumafusion on iPad Pro (2018)

Currently, I am dealing with two issues:

1. Jittery Video.
   • I film on H265 and 24 frames, Iso 100 and 1/50, using ND filters depending on the weather and try to keep the aperture as high as possible.
   • Should I switch to 30 frames? Maybe H264? Change the shutter speed?
2. Lumafusion identifies the footage as 23.98 frames instead of 24. Is that correct or is my app wrong?

Here is a video for reference: Sample Footage Wburg Bridge


Looking forward to your replies.

Don’t know if is relevant but I am having problems with jittery video which was not there at first when new. My frame rate was showing as 60. After I loaded the geofencing the frame rate now shows as 23. The video has gone from being smooth to jumpy. I feel that loading the geofencing has been significant.

 

[dfb]

Hey guys,

I am new to this forum and hope its okay to just open a threat (i could not find anything else)


My Setup:
Mavic Pro 2 (newest Firmware)
Polar Pro ND & PL Filters (8,16,32)
DGI Go app (newest Version)
Lumafusion on iPad Pro (2018)

Currently, I am dealing with two issues:

1. Jittery Video.
   • I film on H265 and 24 frames, Iso 100 and 1/50, using ND filters depending on the weather and try to keep the aperture as high as possible.
   • Should I switch to 30 frames? Maybe H264? Change the shutter speed?
2. Lumafusion identifies the footage as 23.98 frames instead of 24. Is that correct or is my app wrong?

Here is a video for reference: Sample Footage Wburg Bridge


Looking forward to your replies.

Don't use apertures over 5.6, unless you want a softer look.

 

[Donnie Frank]

Hey guys,

I am new to this forum and hope its okay to just open a threat (i could not find anything else)


My Setup:
Mavic Pro 2 (newest Firmware)
Polar Pro ND & PL Filters (8,16,32)
DGI Go app (newest Version)
Lumafusion on iPad Pro (2018)

Currently, I am dealing with two issues:

1. Jittery Video.
   • I film on H265 and 24 frames, Iso 100 and 1/50, using ND filters depending on the weather and try to keep the aperture as high as possible.
   • Should I switch to 30 frames? Maybe H264? Change the shutter speed?
2. Lumafusion identifies the footage as 23.98 frames instead of 24. Is that correct or is my app wrong?

Here is a video for reference: Sample Footage Wburg Bridge


Looking forward to your replies.

All your settings are right and should produce smooth results.

Not to doubt your veracity, but that train zooming by has almost no motion blur, which makes me question your shutter speed. You say 1/50, but that shutter looks much faster to me.

Also, I would change to the h.264 codec. You need some really heavy-weight editing tools and resource to edit and process h.265 footage.

D

 

[kilomikebravo]

Donnie: I just paused the OP's clip and the train's motion blur is quite evident so I think the quoted frame rate is accurate.

 

[mrlegroa]

manowar: Like Mr. Legroa, I'm a PolarPro kinda guy. Are those from Freewell, Skyreat, etc., as good? Probably, I just like the company and they continue to produce great products. The Flight Deck tablet mount is another winner.

@kilomikebravo,

here is a video that might be interesting (he compares DJI vs. Freewell):

 

[kilomikebravo]

Thanks, Mr. L.