What is the Mavic's camera capable of ?

[Storyline]

When I decided to buy a Mavic the decision was based on looking at sample videos mainly from this site and viewed on my 7" tablet. Some of the ones I found looked stunning.
I have now taken some footage myself and I have been quite pleased with the results - a lot to improve but I know from other people's that it can be done.
I have also viewed my footage on my Surface Pro which has a 12" screen with a resolution of 2736 x 1824 and it is supposed to be quite good. The footage (unprocessed and played with VLC) just about stands up.
Now comes my question. I wanted to view it on my TV but to do it I had to import the video into Lightroom and export it as 1920 x 1080. Now when I looked at that (which came through a USB socket on my Blu ray player) it looked fairly awful. It was very soft with lots of video artifacts.

Am I expecting too much - will the Mavic make video that is good enough to look at on a 42" HDTV ?

Edit : I realise I can get rid of the artifacts once I understand video PP better

 

[gnirtS]

If you're not shooting in sharpening+1 on the MP you're going to get soft video.
You will also get compression artefacts in the shadows and so on. It can produce usable video but you need to operate within its limits. The camera is about 2015 cell phone quality.
You cant get rid of artefacts with PP. Soft video, no. The noise pulsing effect in 4k you can deal with to an extent in PP.

 

[Storyline]

I am starting to think that maybe I should have waited for the Mavic 2 which presumably will have a much better camera. I was an early adopter of the original DJI Phantom and bought one of the very first ones to arrive in the UK. I flew this for hundreds of hours and got involved in many discussions of Phantompilots about how we could get better image quality. The lack of a gimbal on that aircraft meant that it was near impossible to get good footage and I used it only for documentary purposes and did not attempt any artistic type of video.
I wish DJI would offer an optional camera upgrade. The Mavic flies so beautifully and I would be more than happy to spend an extra £/$100 which should be enough for a massive camera upgrade.

 

[gnirtS]

The MP camera can produce perfectly usable video and still but you need to know its limitations. Its just trial and error. Once you know what works and doesnt you can work within it.
Its more than capable of producing content thats good enough to sell.

Nobody knows how much better the M2 Zoom will be - maybe it wont be. The 1" sensor model likely will be but id expect £500 or so more than the zoom.

 

[Storyline]

The MP camera can produce perfectly usable video and still but you need to know its limitations.
.....

Yes, you are right. I have been looking at some more video today on my Surface tablet and have found some great stuff. As with anything it is the content and creation that is much more important eg that film director that has just made a feature film on a phone. Yesterday I was just so disappointed seeing my footage on my lovely old plasma panel. It was almost certainly rubbish editing/conversion on my part

ps Have you watched any Casey Neistat stuff on youtube ? He is always saying the same as you and he is probably the single most talented videographer I have yet come across (and he loves the Mavic !)

 

[Thwyllo]

You need a 4k TV. Have you tried playing footage straight from the drone onto the telly?

 

[gnirtS]

ps Have you watched any Casey Neistat stuff on youtube ? He is always saying the same as you and he is probably the single most talented videographer I have yet come across (and he loves the Mavic !)

Can't stand the guy. Lucky not to be in jail (probably should be). He just relies on shouty and shock and not a lot else. One of the people that gives drone owners a bad reputation.

 

[lmel2005]

It's not necessary to convert your videos to 1080p, for seeing them on a full hd TV.

If your pc or laptop is capable of playing 4k, connect it to your 1080p TV via HDMI, and just play your footage.

 

[Qoncussion]

... I had to import the video into Lightroom and export it as 1920 x 1080. Now when I looked at that (which came through a USB socket on my Blu ray player) it looked fairly awful. It was very soft with lots of video artifacts.

When exporting from LR, what was the bit-depth of the final render? If Mbps (megabits per second) are lower than 30, that could explain the digital artifacts.

 

[Storyline]

The MP camera can produce perfectly usable video and still but you need to know its limitations.

Can't stand the guy. Lucky not to be in jail (probably should be). He just relies on shouty and shock and not a lot else. One of the people that gives drone owners a bad reputation.

I became quite a fan a few years ago when he was doing his daily vlogs. Not someone who I would necessarily want to have a beer with but it always amazed me how he could think of a topic, take a load of video footage, edit it cleverly, add music and do this day in day out. I have only just watched a few recently after a gap of a year or so and he made a comment about people saying he flew his drones irresponsibly and he went to out of town NY to test a new drone. I guess when he started with drones (as did I) there were no conventions and he flew his in built up NY. He is also a bit crazy with his electric skateboard which he rides amongst the traffic. Like him or loathe him he is still a (very) talented photographer (imo)

 

[Storyline]

It's not necessary to convert your videos to 1080p, for seeing them on a full hd TV.

If your pc or laptop is capable of playing 4k, connect it to your 1080p TV via HDMI, and just play your footage.

Unfortunately I do not have a conventional TV but a dumb plasma panel which is connected to a scaler which also does not have HDMI. I play TV from a Humax box and Bluray player at 1080i pixel mapped from the scaler to the panel. This is one of the disadvatages of being an early adopter. I was one of the first with HDTV (cost a fortune at the time) but now have been left miles behind. The picture though is still amazing/gorgeous and I would hate it for the panel or scaler to fail. Just nothing like as sharp as the new OLED 4k screens.
Edit: Recently I took my wife into Richer Sounds to see if I could tempt her to agree that we get an Oled TV for another room in our house but she said that they were nothing like as nice to look at as ours which must be well over 10 years old now ! When Panasonic stopped making our particular plasma panels and indeed all plasmas there were geeks who bought up several each so they were guaranteed to have a lifetime supply such is the fan base for the particular soft cinematic look they have.
Edit 2: By coincidence, this morning I have been researching getting a 4k monitor for my computer. There seems to be some quite cheap ones which I can't believe can be very good. I have quite a lot more research to do but if anyone has any recommendations I would love to hear them ....

 

[Thwyllo]

Can't stand the guy. Lucky not to be in jail (probably should be). He just relies on shouty and shock and not a lot else. One of the people that gives drone owners a bad reputation.

But at least he doesn't need an ugly mask on Halloween.....

 

[lmel2005]

Unfortunately I do not have a conventional TV but a dumb plasma panel which is connected to a scaler which also does not have HDMI. I play TV from a Humax box and Bluray player at 1080i pixel mapped from the scaler to the panel. This is one of the disadvatages of being an early adopter. I was one of the first with HDTV (cost a fortune at the time) but now have been left miles behind. The picture though is still amazing/gorgeous and I would hate it for the panel or scaler to fail. Just nothing like as sharp as the new OLED 4k screens.
Edit: Recently I took my wife into Richer Sounds to see if I could tempt her to agree that we get an Oled TV for another room in our house but she said that they were nothing like as nice to look at as ours which must be well over 10 years old now ! When Panasonic stopped making our particular plasma panels and indeed all plasmas there were geeks who bought up several each so they were guaranteed to have a lifetime supply such is the fan base for the particular soft cinematic look they have.
Edit 2: By coincidence, this morning I have been researching getting a 4k monitor for my computer. There seems to be some quite cheap ones which I can't believe can be very good. I have quite a lot more research to do but if anyone has any recommendations I would love to hear them ....

I understand you. I have a 60" plasma, and I only look at oled panels, for a new TV. But haven't decided yet. They killed 3d also, and we love seeing a stereoscopic movie from time to time....

But my TV has HDMI inputs, and I have connected an htpc on it, years ago.

I remember Panasonic plasma panels, supposed to be successors of the excellent pioneer kuros.

 

[Storyline]

There may be a way I can do it. I bought a Popcorn hour media streamer a good few years ago that I can connect to the scaler with DVI and I may be able to download a modern codec on that to play 4k. I am not too over fussed because I can't see us watching too much on TV as I will probably end up uploading to YouTube or Vimeo if I make anything half decent.
As a matter of interest do the majority record in UHD 4k? I have been watching quite a few YouTube settings advice videos and whilst 4k definitely records more detail I have watched one guy today who said 2k was better as it is less compressed and if you are going to edit it (colour grade, sharpen etc) and upload to YouTube it is easier in that format.

 

[mi8radire]

When I decided to buy a Mavic the decision was based on looking at sample videos mainly from this site and viewed on my 7" tablet. Some of the ones I found looked stunning.
I have now taken some footage myself and I have been quite pleased with the results - a lot to improve but I know from other people's that it can be done.
I have also viewed my footage on my Surface Pro which has a 12" screen with a resolution of 2736 x 1824 and it is supposed to be quite good. The footage (unprocessed and played with VLC) just about stands up.
Now comes my question. I wanted to view it on my TV but to do it I had to import the video into Lightroom and export it as 1920 x 1080. Now when I looked at that (which came through a USB socket on my Blu ray player) it looked fairly awful. It was very soft with lots of video artifacts.

Am I expecting too much - will the Mavic make video that is good enough to look at on a 42" HDTV ?

Edit : I realise I can get rid of the artifacts once I understand video PP better

Never had complaints on a 55 4k tv , check your sharpness settings and white balance ..take into consideration that all other settings affect your unedited footage. Post production is always needed anyway to have a perfect result. Even though if you check out my footage looks fine with minimum or no engagement at all.

 

[4wd]

I had to import the video into Lightroom and export it as 1920 x 1080.

You are probably rendering at too low a bitrate.
There is much to learn when editing video, but it's not really difficult - just lots of pitfalls to discover by trial and error.

 

[gnirtS]

As a matter of interest do the majority record in UHD 4k? I have been watching quite a few YouTube settings advice videos and whilst 4k definitely records more detail I have watched one guy today who said 2k was better as it is less compressed and if you are going to edit it (colour grade, sharpen etc) and upload to YouTube it is easier in that format.

2.7k is where you'll get the least compression per pixel (it has a slightly higher bits per pixel than 4k). At 40k it uses 60mbps which is really small so will get more artefacts on the video.

 

[Storyline]

You are probably rendering at too low a bitrate.
There is much to learn when editing video, but it's not really difficult - just lots of pitfalls to discover by trial and error.

The Lightroom Import/export was done in a real rush and I did not pay attention to any settings. I have got Premiere pro so will have a play with that. I got a few hours into a Lynda course on it and it was fairly overwhelming so have to put some time aside.

 

[lmel2005]

With my mp, I shoot in 2.7k, also. Good enough on 1080p or 4K panels.