Wobbly Timed Shot-What in the heck is Wrong?

[Dale D]

Dear Friends in the forum:

I am still at it!!! Here is yet another attempt at a timed shot (timelapse). Instead of using the video hyperlapse or timelapse, I shot 140 images at 5 second interval timed shot, e.g.: Photo>Timed Shot>5 seconds. The 6 second video shows wobbling. The drone is freshly back 2months ago from DJI as a refurb for the same reason I sent it in, wobble. The IMU and gimbal have been calibrated. The sequence has not been stabilized. It was developed in my standard LRTimelapse software using Lightroom.

Can one of you geniuses out there please tell me if I am doing something wrong or if my Mavic 2 Pro is just screwed up? See attached 6 sec. clip.

 

[SkyeHigh]

Dear Friends in the forum:

I am still at it!!! Here is yet another attempt at a timed shot (timelapse). Instead of using the video hypefrlapse or timelapse, I shot 140 images at 5 second interval timed shot, e.g.: Photo>Timed Shot>5 seconds. The 6 second video shows wobbling. The drone is freshly back 2months ago from DJI as a refurb for the same reason I sent it in, wobble. The IMU and gimbal have been calibrated. The sequence has not been stabilized. It was developed in my standard LRTimelapse software using Lightroom.

Can one of you geniuses out there please tell me if I am doing something wrong or if my Mavic 2 Pro is just screwed up? See attached 6 sec. clip.

It might be the low altitude Dale. What was the AC hovering above? Was it sufficiently contrasty for the ground facing sensors? Did you take it up to 8-metres prior to starting the shoot?

That series of shots would work out at a little over 11.5 minutes, which is a long time to keep absolutely stable.

As soon as the wind drops here in the UK I’ll give it a try with my M2P.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Dear Friends in the forum:

I am still at it!!! Here is yet another attempt at a timed shot (timelapse). Instead of using the video hypefrlapse or timelapse, I shot 140 images at 5 second interval timed shot, e.g.: Photo>Timed Shot>5 seconds. The 6 second video shows wobbling. The drone is freshly back 2months ago from DJI as a refurb for the same reason I sent it in, wobble. The IMU and gimbal have been calibrated. The sequence has not been stabilized. It was developed in my standard LRTimelapse software using Lightroom.

Can one of you geniuses out there please tell me if I am doing something wrong or if my Mavic 2 Pro is just screwed up? See attached 6 sec. clip.

There is nothing wrong with the drone. It cannot hold perfectly still between shots. Actually, your video looks exactly like mine in raw form. After you combine them into a video clip, you need to "stabilize" the video, which is a process that inspects for rotation, translation and scale between all of the frames. Then it makes adjustments by doing the necessary translation to smooth out/eliminate the movement. FCPX has several options for "stabilization". I'm not familiar with Prem Pro. so I'm not sure how to do that, but for the price I'm sure it can.

 

[Dale D]

It might be the low altitude Dale. What was the AC hovering above? Was it sufficiently contrasty for the ground facing sensors? Did you take it up to 8-metres prior to starting the shoot?

That series of shots would work out at a little over 11.5 minutes, which is a long time to keep absolutely stable.

As soon as the wind drops here in the UK I’ll give it a try with my M2P.

Thanks SkyeHigh for your rapid reply:

Yes- I have tried this pr enviously at 100 feet and still winds, with same results, previously published in this forum. I can send it if you want but the wobble is the same if not worse. In fact, as noted, I sent the darn thing back and burned one of my DJI Refresh opportunities, and received a new (refurbished) drone back with stickers, etc, So today, after miserably failing using the video timelapse intelligent flight mode several times at 2 seconds interval and 125 shots, then repeating 3 more times until battery was down, got same very bad wobble. So I thought today, I would try at very low level (my drive way at just above head height-no wind whatsoever). It seemed to hover in place, but when I got it on to the computer, same old wobble. Please use your drone, go out next to your house, put it up there about 8 meters and let is shoot on photo mode every 5 seconds RAW for 10-15 minutes. Then process it, and let me know if you get the same wobble.

 

[Dale D]

There is nothing wrong with the drone. It cannot hold perfectly still between shots. Actually, your video looks exactly like mine in raw form. After you combine them into a video clip, you need to "stabilize" the video, which is a process that inspects for rotation, translation and scale between all of the frames. Then it makes adjustments by doing the necessary translation to smooth out/eliminate the movement. I'm not familiar with Prem Pro. so I'm not sure how to do that. FCPX has several options for "stabilization".

Yes- Radio FlyerMan whom I respect. Your stuff is great. Right now, my Premiere Pro has been working furiously for the past 18 hours!!!! processing my video which now is only now at 74%. Yikes!! I have never had it take so long to process before. I think it is because I included a large panorama the the video. As soon as the video is processed, I will load up this 6 second clip and run it through Warp Stabilization which I quite familiar with. Premiere Pro and After Effects use the same stabilization engine. I just drag the warp stabilization on to the clip in the time line and let it work.

 

[THE CYBORG]

Got to agree with SkyeHigh that is a long time to keep perfectly still, any movement of the camera would give the wobble you have.
By the look of the trees & clouds it was breeze so your drone was fighting this making it almost impossible to stay as still as necessary
Edit
Try placing your drone on something stable and try again while not actually flying, this will eliminate the possibility of movement

 

[Dale D]

Got to agree with SkyeHigh that is a long time to keep perfectly still, any movement of the camera would give the wobble you have.
By the look of the trees & clouds it was breeze so your drone was fighting this making it almost impossible to stay as still as necessary.

Cyborg:

I ASSURE you , there was dead calm at the spot I was flying. Another hot, sultry, humid South Florida summer day without a breath of air where I was standing. I agree there was wind movement in the upper level of the palms which I why I keep it at around 8 or so feet. I just think the drone cannot be stable as a tripod at any height, wind or not, it just wobbles. So why do I see steady timed shots in the You Tubes and Ma ic Pilots Forum every day and I just cannot get one?

 

[THE CYBORG]

I haven't attempted any time laps myself so am not the best person to comment.
I wouldn't expect anything flying to be absolutely stable for 11 minutes & it would have to be for a stationary time laps.
If you added movement to the drone like flying forward while taking a time laps things would look smoother.
Like I say in my last post why not place the drone on something stable as if it was a camera on a tripod and give it a go.

 

[Dale D]

I haven't attempted any time laps myself so am not the best person to comment.
I wouldn't expect anything flying to be absolutely stable for 11 minutes & it would have to be for a stationary time laps.
If you added movement to the drone like flying forward while taking a time laps things would look smoother.
Like I say in my last post why not place the drone on something stable as if it was a camera on a tripod and give it a go.

Dear Cyborg:

With all due respect, I think you are missing my point. My goal is to film a timelapse (sunrise, sunset) from the sky. I failed miserably using the timelapse intelligent flight mode in video. So I turned to the camera mode.

If I placed the drone on a stable surface (like the trunk of my nearby car), it would be just like putting it on a tripod. I can definitely get a stable timelapse from a regular (DSLR) on a tripod at my head level. My goal is to film clouds and sun movement from the sky at intervals.


I guess I must fly the bird (very slowly) in a clear area (like over the water). Do you live near Lake District National Park? Must be some beautiful areas to fly over but I know nothing about the local drone regulations. Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Dale

 

[THE CYBORG]

I wasn’t missing the point but trying to eliminate a possible fault.
I know you want aerial footage but the intent of my suggestion was to determine if it was a fault with the camera, if perfect when placed on a platform then it is movement of the drone causing the problem.
I do think that if you fly forward while shooting it will look good as a stationary object will show any movement of the camera more than a moving one, you also want some moving objects in the shot, clouds, people or vehicles for example.
Keep trying & good luck.

I have lived on the edge of the Lake District all my life so to me the senary nothing special, I see it all the time.
We can fly in the National Park but not in anywhere owned by the National Trust.

 

[Dale D]

I wasn’t missing the point but trying to eliminate a possible fault.
I know you want aerial footage but the intent of my suggestion was to determine if it was a fault with the camera, if perfect when placed on a platform then it is movement of the drone causing the problem.
I do think that if you fly forward while shooting it will look good as a stationary object will show any movement of the camera more than a moving one, you also want some moving objects in the shot, clouds, people or vehicles for example.
Keep trying & good luck.

I have lived on the edge of the Lake District all my life so to me the senary nothing special, I see it all the time.
We can fly in the National Park but not in anywhere owned by the National Trust.

So can I just sit the drone on the trunk of my car, without taking off and spinning the propellers and do the sequence? Won't the drone overheat if not in the air sucking in ventilation through cooling fan? Of course there is no place to attach a tripod. I could also just let it sit on the driveway and do the sequence too.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

So can I just sit the drone on the trunk of my car, without taking off and spinning the propellers and do the sequence? Won't the drone overheat if not in the air sucking in ventilation through cooling fan? Of course there is no place to attach a tripod. I could also just let it sit on the driveway and do the sequence too.

It won't overheat. I did this extensively in House of Gardens. I did non-flight time lapse of a couple of hours for sun shadow movement. It''ll be fine.

 

[boblui]

The drone was simply too close to the subjects ! Even in totally windless condition, the drone does drift a bit. The closer the drone is to the subject, the more the amount of visible movements. Try to shoot something far away, clouds will be very ideal subjects. This hyperlapse is taken with my M2P. There was some wind. The photos were tuned in photoshop and the sequence is stabilized in Premiere Pro :

 

[Dale D]

The drone was simply too close to the subjects ! Even in totally windless condition, the drone does drift a bit. The closer the drone is to the subject, the more the amount of visible movements. Try to shoot something far away, clouds will be very ideal subjects. This hyperlapse is taken with my M2P. There was some wind. The photos were tuned in photoshop and the sequence is stabilized in Premiere Pro :

Dear Boblui
Thanks you so much for your help and sending this wonderful clip. So as I understand, you shot this in the VIDEO Hyperlapse mode? The difference is that the drone was in movement at all times. I assume you used either 2 second or 5 second interval and RAW, then processed it.

Let me know. My prior trials in the hyperlapse mode (an intelligent flight mode) were a failure when I tried to shot sequences of 125 images at 2 second intervals. I got tons of wobble. I have published those here before but I can attach if you want. It was a wonderful setting sun but with too much wobble trying to stay in one fixed position without flying.

 

[Dale D]

It won't overheat. I did this extensively in House of Gardens. I did non-flight time lapse of a couple of hours for sun shadow movement. It''ll be fine.

OK Radio Flyer Man: I think I've come up with the answer to my problems. This hot afternoon, I went back out to my d driveway and put the Mavic 2 Pro on the ground. I started it up with the propellers folded, and started in PHOTO mode, set the exposure settings, and started a TIMED shoot, with RAW every 5 seconds for 140 frames. Then processed it in my usual way (LRTimelapse and Lightroom Classic) and imported to video editing program (Premiere Pro). The resultant video of 6 seconds was STLL A LITTLE JUMPY. I applied warp stabilization , and voila, this video.

This definitely tells me that with the drone in the air, unless moving, a hover and timelapse will be jumpy, using the hyperlapse intelligent flight mode. I am still not sure if it would be jumpy with regular timelapse intelligent flight mode.

By the way- the drone was so hot, I could barely hold it after the test.!!!

 

[SkyeHigh]

OK Radio Flyer Man: I think I've come jump with the answer to my problems. This hot afternoon, I went back out to my d driveway and put the Mavic 2 Pro on the ground. I started it up with the propellers folded, and started in PHOTO mode, set the exposure settings, and started a TIMED shoot, with RAW every 5 seconds for 140 frames. Then processed it in my usual way (LRTimelapse and Lightroom Classic) and imported to video editing program (Premiere Pro). The resultant video of 6 seconds was STLL A LITTLE JUMPY. I applied warp stabilization , and voila, this video.

This definitely tells me that with the drone in the air, unless moving, a hover and timelapse will be jumpy, using the hyperlapse intelligent flight mode. I am still not sure if it would be jumpy with regular timelapse intelligent flight mode.

By the way- the drone was so hot, I could barely hold it after the test.!!!

A slow, short circular move (more of an arc) to the left or right targeted on the building would still give you the cloud movement but also an interesting view of the house. It’s a shot often done on a dolly with a curved track.

 

[Dale D]

A slow, short circular move (more of an arc) to the left or right targeted on the building would still give you the cloud movement but also an interesting view of the house. It’s a shot often done on a dolly with a curved track.

I don't think it is possible to get 140 shots in a circle or arc like move. If I do the math, 140 shots multiplied by 5 seconds per shot (interval) = 140 x 5 seconds= 700 shots. Divided that by 60 seconds=11.6 minutes of circling the house. I cannot go that slow. Is my math correct or did I screw it up?

 

[SkyeHigh]

I don't think it is possible to get 140 shots in a circle or arc like move. If I do the math, 140 shots multiplied by 5 seconds per shot (interval) = 140 x 5 seconds= 700 shots. Divided that by 60 seconds=11.6 minutes of circling the house. I cannot go that slow. Is my math correct or did I screw it up?

No, that looks correct. Can you do it a bit slower, switch-off GPS, hover in place and let the world rotate beneath? [emoji3]

Ah well, it’s been a long day. Time for my medication.

Glad you found the cause in the end.

 

[fGene]

If you want absolutely no movement between shots you have to put the drone on a stable surface AND disable the gimbal. Which kind of defies the purpose of using the drone at all.

As long as the gimbal is powered on, it will introduce slight movements from frame to frame, and there is nothing that could be done about it.

The only way to achieve a smooth footage with time-lapse is to use a software stabilizer in in post-production.

 

[Harro]

One of the best stabilizers I found was Mercalli, by ProDAD. Have used that for several years now and it generally does a very good job.