Work to be done with Mavic video settings I guess

[Letsgethigh469]

First several flights not too impressed with video footage. Sure it's just getting my settings right. But my P3A shoots better quality footage as of now.
Was shooting in 4k 24fps shutter speed at 50 on D cinema. Using an ND8 filter.
But I would move the wheel a little to keep the brightness in the scale.... Forget what the name of that is.
100 ISO
Sharpness settings at +1
Contrast - 1 and I think it's saturation - 1
Biggest problem was my mid 2011 iMac processing the 4K video. It was really jittery.
Did some searching and realized it was the mac not able to process it I think. Was a little smoother on my Note 8 that I was using when I went back and looked but still not smooth.
Think I'm going to start shooting in 2.7 k and see what that nets.
I know it's able to shoot great footage have seen the vids. I also didn't color correct anything either.
But my P3A is hard to beat really.

 

[kens65fb]

2.7K is good, but when you shoot 4K @ 30 FPS, and get the settings dialed in, you will be happy.

 

[Pathogen]

I really like how 1920x1080@24fps with 'Beach' profile (I think its called 'Film' now), and 0,0,0. Has a rich look without being blown out and decent dynamic range. Then a small gamma bend depending on the scene is general all I do in post. ISO 100 unless its getting dark outside, shutter speed for exposure control and color temp at 5800.

 

[Letsgethigh469]

Yeah I will experiment with it and see what I can get out of her. Not having the ability to process or even view the 4k correctly presents a problem is why I'm going to try 2.7. Can always up it if someone wants video with that.
It was very jittery and I at first thought it was the camera but I did a search on here and it hit me after briefly reading some posts that's what's happening. It's not the camera is the imac trying to process it. I pulled it from the card to the imac and it still did it. Not as bad but wasn't acceptable. Started to put it into imovie and see about compressing it but figured what's the point. I'll just start shooting in 4k and see what I can get.

 

[kens65fb]

4K with a little color grading

 

[Letsgethigh469]

4K with a little color grading

Very nice! What computer are you using to process the video? Apparently that's my issue or hope it is. I recorded some in 2.7 and it's ok I think. I still noticed some slight jittery movement especially when rotating. Never have this with my phantom. Still trying to figure it out

 

[kens65fb]

It's a fairly new computer with an i5 processor, and it barely handles 4K viewing and editing,
If your computer is older, then my advice to you is

1) Shoot your video in 4K @ 30 FPS , as more frames means smoother video
2) Save a copy of the 4K video for use later, and when you upgrade your hardware
3) Downscale a copy of the clip ( use handbrake, mpeg stream clip, or any other converter) and save a copy in 1080P
4) Import the 1080p clip into your video editor, and do all your processing.
5) When you are done, you have a processed 1080P clip that you can play & enjoy now, and a raw archived 4K clip to process at a later date.

 

[4wd]

For a while now I'm mainly recording at 2.7K as it's easier to work with when editing.
If you upscale to 4K when rendering it seems to smooth out artefacts from the advisable recording at +1 sharpen.

Mavic can definitely do better than P3 Pro, but it takes a while to learn how get the best from it consistently.

I have plenty of examples of disappointing results from P3 especially in lower light.

 

[Letsgethigh469]

It's a fairly new computer with an i5 processor, and it barely handles 4K viewing and editing,
If your computer is older, then my advice to you is

1) Shoot your video in 4K @ 30 FPS , as more frames means smoother video
2) Save a copy of the 4K video for use later, and when you upgrade your hardware
3) Downscale a copy of the clip ( use handbrake, mpeg stream clip, or any other converter) and save a copy in 1080P
4) Import the 1080p clip into your video editor, and do all your processing.
5) When you are done, you have a processed 1080P clip that you can play & enjoy now, and a raw archived 4K clip to process at a later date.

I see, I appreciate your advice thank you. Will do.
I did some searching on the topic this morning and discovered another area I'm going to check could be related.
A article and a video I watched suggested checking the frame rates at which the video is being played or edited. Probably a completely rookie mistake on my part which is very possible. But I havnt put the clip into iMovie yet as I have to download the update. Just updated the Mac software to High Sierra last week and when I attempted to load the file last night into iMovie it kept crashing. Apon a brief search I discovered there is an update for iMovie to be compatible.

But I see the choppy affects when just viewing the file from the SD card so I'm going to check the viewer settings and see if it has options at which a file is played. I just assumed it would be an automatic setting as I don't think I ever ran into this before.

 

[Letsgethigh469]

For a while now I'm mainly recording at 2.7K as it's easier to work with when editing.
If you upscale to 4K when rendering it seems to smooth out artefacts from the advisable recording at +1 sharpen.

Mavic can definitely do better than P3 Pro, but it takes a while to learn how get the best from it consistently.

I have plenty of examples of disappointing results from P3 especially in lower light.

So you record in 2.7k then "upscale" to 4k?
Being very new to this hobby I havnt heard of that or didn't know it was possible. The video looked great nice shots.
The clip through the forest part toward the end I thought I seen the same choppy affect except very slight. Was looking ap at the top right off the screen at a tree as it was panning up, right before it changes views. I replayed it and maybe it's just my eyes playing tricks on me the rest of the images on the same clip seem very smooth as did the whole video. Nice work!

 

[Letsgethigh469]

I called the vendor where I purchased this unit to get a reciept for the insurance. Before I got off the phone I mentioned the issues with the choppy video. He discussed some things to try but stated it sounded like I had done most of the attempts to correct it.
If I couldn't get it resolved to send it back to them for repair. He said that a lot of the Mavics right out of the box had this issue. Am going to try a few other things suggested but if I don't have any luck may send it in for repair. Anyone heard of issues as this with them?

 

[Apollo12230]

I was in the same place as you with my mavic and wasn’t impressed with the colors or the overall quality of the videos I was shooting. I did countless hours of research and have been refining my technique over the last few months. I found of all the videos I watched the guy in this linked video knows what he’s doing the most. He tells you what will give the mavic the best looking settings and will be the best optimal compromise between ease and quality.

For easy workflow and yet great quality, he recommends 2.7k and d cinelike with +1/-1/-1. I would recommend 2.7k not only for your older hardware but for the fact that it has less flicker and abnormalities in the overall picture (which he talks about.)

Basically shoot in these settings and then get your color grading right. Once you can properly fine tune the colors in a program like premiere or final cut, your footage will look sharp. I personally use a LUT I found off the internet which I simply plug into premiere and it really helps my videos look good. After putting it in, I only need to do minimal color correction.

If you have any questions about what to do or any of my recommendations, feel free to let me know.

 

[Letsgethigh469]

I was in the same place as you with my mavic and wasn’t impressed with the colors or the overall quality of the videos I was shooting. I did countless hours of research and have been refining my technique over the last few months. I found of all the videos I watched the guy in this linked video knows what he’s doing the most. He tells you what will give the mavic the best looking settings and will be the best optimal compromise between ease and quality.

For easy workflow and yet great quality, he recommends 2.7k and d cinelike with +1/-1/-1. I would recommend 2.7k not only for your older hardware but for the fact that it has less flicker and abnormalities in the overall picture (which he talks about.)

Basically shoot in these settings and then get your color grading right. Once you can properly fine tune the colors in a program like premiere or final cut, your footage will look sharp. I personally use a LUT I found off the internet which I simply plug into premiere and it really helps my videos look good. After putting it in, I only need to do minimal color correction.

If you have any questions about what to do or any of my recommendations, feel free to let me know.

Thank you. Yes I've watched some or most of their videos. Seems like he really knows what he's doing and has backed it up with testing.
I flew yesterday and made 3-4 different setting changes to test out the footage. Was thinking I should write this down... And sure enough after getting inside I dont remember exactly what change netted the smooth footage. I couldn't believe I was actually watching smooth footage again!
But I believe it was in 2.7k @ 30 GPS and I've had the +1,-1,-1 in the setting pretty much since I've gotten it. I've tried a few other combinations but that does seem best.
Not sure if my imac can't process the 4k or if it does have a slight issue with the Gimbal.... I also tried the 4k in 30fps from the 24fps but it still resulted the choppy look.
But changing the 2.7k from 24fps to 30fps did the trick. I had just put a ND16 on there from an ND8 as well and made some other changes so when I turned it was too much blur but that is easily correctable was just happy to see the video smooth.

 

[Pathogen]

But changing the 2.7k from 24fps to 30fps did the trick.

24fps is what movies and TV shows are. It remains a curious paradox that entry level TV's often don't have a pure 24Hz refresh rate (or a multiple of it). I'm still using a plasma TV which has the ability to do just about any refresh rate, and viewing 24fps recordings from the PC are magical. The common 60Hz (and 120Hz) displays people use simply can't display 24fps material correctly, and it can look choppy.

 

[MrMavic]

24fps is what movies and TV shows are. It remains a curious paradox that entry level TV's often don't have a pure 24Hz refresh rate (or a multiple of it). I'm still using a plasma TV which has the ability to do just about any refresh rate, and viewing 24fps recordings from the PC are magical. The common 60Hz (and 120Hz) displays people use simply can't display 24fps material correctly, and it can look choppy.

But aren't plasma TV's going extinct before they even got going good, that option is not really available. Last time I looked at TVs, the salesman told me the plasmas are going to the wayside.

 

[Pathogen]

But aren't plasma TV's going extinct before they even got going good, that option is not really available. Last time I looked at TVs, the salesman told me the plasmas are going to the wayside.

I don't even think you can get plasma anymore. Plasma core components were only made by Panasoinc I think, and they never could get the production costs down while LED screens are cheap like borscht to make. OLED is looking to be a suitable replacement however!

Also I was mistaken about 120Hz device. In fact it is perfectly suitable to display 24Hz material. 120 divided by 5 is exactly 24.

 

[Canes76]

Thank you. Yes I've watched some or most of their videos. Seems like he really knows what he's doing and has backed it up with testing.
I flew yesterday and made 3-4 different setting changes to test out the footage. Was thinking I should write this down... And sure enough after getting inside I dont remember exactly what change netted the smooth footage. I couldn't believe I was actually watching smooth footage again!
But I believe it was in 2.7k @ 30 GPS and I've had the +1,-1,-1 in the setting pretty much since I've gotten it. I've tried a few other combinations but that does seem best.
Not sure if my imac can't process the 4k or if it does have a slight issue with the Gimbal.... I also tried the 4k in 30fps from the 24fps but it still resulted the choppy look.
But changing the 2.7k from 24fps to 30fps did the trick. I had just put a ND16 on there from an ND8 as well and made some other changes so when I turned it was too much blur but that is easily correctable was just happy to see the video smooth.

Hey - If you want to check my YouTube page - All my videos are 2.7k 24fps
24fps will give you that film like motion blur...I love this setting. Not a fan of 30fps
Jeff Walrich

 

[Apollo12230]

24fps is what movies and TV shows are. It remains a curious paradox that entry level TV's often don't have a pure 24Hz refresh rate (or a multiple of it). I'm still using a plasma TV which has the ability to do just about any refresh rate, and viewing 24fps recordings from the PC are magical. The common 60Hz (and 120Hz) displays people use simply can't display 24fps material correctly, and it can look choppy.

When I first started filming with my mavic I chose to shoot in 24fps to achieve that “cinema feel.” But, even with the correct shutter speed my footage was way too choppy in almost all of my panning shots (even in relatively slow panning.) I have thought that there was a problem with the way mavic processes the frame rate but you might be right in that it’s limited to the displays it is playing on, though it has puzzled me why true 24p cameras (in movies and cinematic films) still look good (way better than the mavic does) on 60hz displays . In OP’s case I think we both came to the realization that 30fps, at least for generic viewing and YouTube gets rid of the horrid jittering effect that I’ve been getting with 24. Though there are examples of pretty smooth 24p footage like Cane76’s in the previous comment I will still continue to shoot in 30fps as I have experienced none of the problems that arise while shooting in 24. Most of the “cinematic feel” is created by proper editing and correct camera movements anyways, and when your scene is filmed in a proper way, the loss of the “24fps feel” is negligible.

 

[Pathogen]

though it has puzzled me why true 24p cameras (in movies and cinematic films) still look good (way better than the mavic does) on 60hz displays

I haven't tried feeding a Mavic 24fps recording into my blu ray player yet, but the discrepancy you mention between Mavic 24p and studio 24p may be related to interlacing. They split the 24p frames into fields basically creating 24i (48 fields per second), then double up every 4th field creating 30i (60 fields per second). I don't think DJI has a very good understanding of this process (telecine) based on the fact that the Goggles display telecined 24p material so embarrassingly poorly.

 

[Letsgethigh469]

Hey - If you want to check my YouTube page - All my videos are 2.7k 24fps
24fps will give you that film like motion blur...I love this setting. Not a fan of 30fps
Jeff Walrich

If I could get a smooth video from 24 fps I would. Even viewing from this new note 8 it was choppy when I looked at the files that was stored on the device. Not really sure whats up. The 2.7K @30 is the only setting that will play smoothly on either the imac or the Note 8