Second attempt, what do you think?
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Robharris07
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I'm still practicing so there aren't jerky movements when panning or tilting, so be nice to me Filmed in 1080 (not sold on filming in 4k yet just to post on youtube) Absolutely LOVE my P3 professional!


2015-5-25
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FantomDK
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It looks really good

I have written some longer comments with tips in this community. You can probably find them yourselves (I don't have time to find the links right now). Also, look up Jim Hare's Inspire 1 YouTube (or Vimeo?) videos explaining about videography with the DJI quadcopters. But let me give you a few quick pointers (in no particular order):

Tips for flying and shooting video

  • SMOOTH: As you noticed, it looks best, when movements are really really really smooth and slow. This is difficult to achieve with default settings.

  • EXPO & GAIN: In MC Settings -> Gain & Expo Tuning, changes the graphs so they are 0.30, which will mean that when you first touch the stick a little, it will almost not do anything (for slow fine movement). When you move the stick further, it will 'accelerate' how much stick is used, if that makes sense? Also, below in "Gain", consider lowering them a bit, especially "Yaw" (rotating) for those smoother and slower yaw movements.

  • MAKE STICKS LONGER: On the Remote Control itself, you can make the sticks longer, for further precision. You can in fact screw the little tops of the sticks off/loose and make the sticks short or longer. If they are longer (if you have long enough fingers to be comfortable) it will be easier to make fine adjustments for that buttery smooth movement we love in aerial videography

  • GIMBAL: Change the Gimbal speed! (Lower it). By default it is quite fast - which is fine to "look around". But it does not look good in video. I put mine about 50 or 60. But I also change the EXPO of the Gimbal so it moves really really slowly if I put in a little imput in the dial (front left) and increase speed if I move more. That makes it possible to make smooth gimbal movements that ease-in and ease-out. Takes some training - but these settings really help.

  • FLYING: Try to be as smooth as possible (did I mention this already? ). It helps to "follow thru" if you want to do a move, and try to plan it in advance. This (also) takes training - but thats part of the fun


Tips for videography

  • LOG-mode, DYNAMIC RANGE: To get the maximum dynamic range (detail in dark and light areas of the image) I shoot in LOG-mode. This is a more "flat" profile that looks dull and unsaturated and without contrast. This is then - with greater freedom - added (colorgrading) in post-production in your editing software. I also tweak the Custom Style to 0 sharpness (default) -2 saturation, -2 contrast to get an even more flat looking image. There are some problems with this; it looks boring straight out of the camera, and also on the monitor/iPad when you film. I live with this in order to get the maximum quality in the end-product.

  • SHOOT IN MANUAL: in order for the camera not to do a lot of 'ugly' switching of the light (up and down) when the light changes, you can turn on Manual mode (the button with 3 sliders under the Shutter Button). Use ISO 100 (best) when there is enough light (almost always unless after sunset) and set the shutter-speed to where the light looks good. Make sure you have turned on "Exposure Warning" which then makes "zebra stripes" on the areas of the image that is blown out (100% white meaning no detail that can never be returned in postproduction). Some zebras are okay and unvoidable. You just want to avoid the (whole) sky being fully blown out etc.

  • SHUTTER SPEED: This brings me to the mystery of shutter speed in video. In photography fast shutter speed is generall good. Less shaking, sharp images. But in video it is our enemy because high shutterspeed makes us lose motion-blur which helps the brain think the video is very fluid at 24-30 fps (less of a problem if shooting in 60fps).  If the shutterspeed is up around 400 or maybe 1200, the 30 frames per second each becomes very sharp. that might sound good (and is if you want to grab stills out of your video). But when there is movement in the video, it will appear stuttery/choppy/staccato. Thats not what we want. We want smooth, remember? In fact, a rule of thumb is, that the shutterspeed in video should be about 2x the framerate. So if you film at 30 fps, shutterspeed at 60 will be good for some natural looking motionblur. This is impossible in daylight or sunlight without a filter. And that is why people (myself included) experiment with ND-filters. ND-filters (Neutral Density) are grey filters that cut out an even amount of all wavelenghts of light so the shutter has to stay open longer in order to get enough light to expose each frame correctly. With an ND-filter we can get shutter-speed down. This is a third-party thing for now for the P3. ND-filters (lowering shutterspeed) can also help alleviate the dreaded "jello"-effect that some people (with unbalanced props etc.) suffer from. Thankfully the P3 is so well built that this is rarely a problem. But it can be. And an ND-filter is part of the solution. Personally, my motivation for experimenting with ND-filters is to get motionblur. However, you can work around this problem - again by being really smooth If you don't move the camera around a lot or move fast, you won't notice the problem form the high shutterspeed so much (the lack of motion blur).

  • COMPRESSION and GRASS: The video we get from our Phantoms is compressed (with the h.264 codec). So we should be aware that certain things can cause some ugly artifacts. Again, fast movement or panning og tilting the gimbal up and down (fast) can cause blockyness and artifacts in the videostream. Our 4K records in 60 bit which is good, but in the world of professional digital video, it is a bit low. So we have to work with that. In fact, you show some of the really difficult "problem-scenes" in your video. Filming grass, tall grass, large areas of similar color but with a bunch of tiny detail, is worst case for the P3-camera. So we should be aware of this, and plan accordingly. If we film that sort of thing, again being slow and smooth helps a lot. Don't pan (only very very slowly) or you risk the image 'collapsing' into a green mushy mess of blockyness. We would like to avoid this So be careful if that sort of thing fills up a large part of the frame.

  • SMOOTH MOVES: In general what looks good is smooth moves. Like you already do in your video. A flyby (also try going backwards where in fact you can have the camera pointing more up and flying faster without getting the props in the frame) where you don't correct your directly or only do it very smoothly, almost always works well. Mix in a little smooth gimbal movement, and it looks like a million dollars


Guess I could not help myself and ended up writing a small book for you. Hope you can glean some useful information from it


2015-5-25
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Robharris07
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-26 00:53
Something went wrong with your link - try again

Its there now
2015-5-25
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Michael Starley
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Man...gotta admit...good color,good clear resolution,and some pretty cool shots.  
Keepem coming.
2015-5-25
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Robharris07
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Michael Starley Posted at 2015-5-26 02:10
Man...gotta admit...good color,good clear resolution,and some pretty cool shots.  
Keepem coming.

thank you very much. I'm blown away at what this thing does for the money! Thanks!
2015-5-25
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sergioanguizola
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very nice, what are you using for video editing?
2015-5-25
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mark97564
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Record in 4k, it will be tons clearer even on a 1080 display
2015-5-25
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FantomDK
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mark97564@gmail Posted at 2015-5-26 06:41
Record in 4k, it will be tons clearer even on a 1080 display

Very true, good advice (note: you need a fairly strong/newer computer to handle the 4K well).


PS: I've added (a dissertation?) to my post above.
2015-5-25
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Robharris07
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sergioanguizola Posted at 2015-5-26 06:09
very nice, what are you using for video editing?

thanks, i'll give it a try!
2015-5-25
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Robharris07
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sergioanguizola Posted at 2015-5-26 06:09
very nice, what are you using for video editing?

I usually use Sony Vegas. However, for this one I just used Gopro cineform. I'm in a Apple windows house hold. The imac is much faster, but haven't made the plunge for Premier or Final cut. My windows computer has Sony Vegas, but really can't handle the video that well anymore Probably going to make the switch to Apple and Final Cut soon. Not sure I'm professional enough to spend the 20 or 30 per month for Premier.
2015-5-25
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Robharris07
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-26 00:53
Something went wrong with your link - try again

EDIT: NOW IT WORKS!

oh wow. This is great. Thanks so much for this. I will definitely start implimenting!
2015-5-25
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sergioanguizola
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thanks for your advice
2015-5-26
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dmwierz
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-26 00:53
Something went wrong with your link - try again

EDIT: NOW IT WORKS!

"SHUTTER SPEED: This brings me to the mystery of shutter speed in video. In photography fast shutter speed is generall good. Less shaking, sharp images. But in video it is our enemy because high shutterspeed makes us lose motion-blur which helps the brain think the video is very fluid at 24-30 fps (less of a problem if shooting in 60fps).  If the shutterspeed is up around 400 or maybe 1200, the 30 frames per second each becomes very sharp. that might sound good (and is if you want to grab stills out of your video). But when there is movement in the video, it will appear stuttery/choppy/staccato. Thats not what we want. We want smooth, remember?  In fact, a rule of thumb is, that the shutterspeed in video should be about 2x the framerate. So if you film at 30 fps, shutterspeed at 60 will be good for some natural looking motionblur. This is impossible in daylight or sunlight without a filter. And that is why people (myself included) experiment with ND-filters. ND-filters (Neutral Density) are grey filters that cut out an even amount of all wavelenghts of light so the shutter has to stay open longer in order to get enough light to expose each frame correctly. With an ND-filter we can get shutter-speed down. This is a third-party thing for now for the P3. ND-filters (lowering shutterspeed) can also help alleviate the dreaded "jello"-effect that some people (with unbalanced props etc.) suffer from. Thankfully the P3 is so well built that this is rarely a problem. But it can be. And an ND-filter is part of the solution. Personally, my motivation for experimenting with ND-filters is to get motionblur. However, you can work around this problem - again by being really smooth  If you don't move the camera around a lot or move fast, you won't notice the problem form the high shutterspeed so much (the lack of motion blur)."

Excellent advice. Thanks. Here's a follow-up question: I am a pro still photographer and new to video. I have a Sekonic L-358 light meter that has a cinema mode. You can select fps and ISO and it will recommend aperture for a given ambient light level. Are you familiar with using a tool like this to set digital video exposures? It's a great piece of gear for still photography, but I have found remarkably little on using it for video.
light meter.JPG
2015-5-26
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FantomDK
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You're welcome, thank you.

@dmwierz
I am not familiar with using such a device for aerial video. Since we can't set stuff like Aperture, I'm not sure how useful it would be for our specific use. Perhaps it could be used to evaluate what kind of ND-filter should be used? But that would still have to be based on experience. Oh, if you were to do aerial filming in front of clients, perhaps it would be useful to use gear like the light meter just to look really professional and scientific?

Since the lighting changes so much when we do aerial videography with our Phantoms or Inspires depending on where we point our camera, up, straight or down, towards the sun, moving over a lake etc. I think the best way to evaluate what settings we should use would be to evaluate based on what we see on the screen (after all the camera sort of is its own light meter), the Histogram (which can be turned on) and especially useful in my opinion; the Overexposure Warning zebra stripes. It would have to be fairly dark - after sunset - before I think we should consider changing the ISO on the Phantom from ISO 100 (lowest ISO).

Lets face it, we don't have near the control and manual settings as you are used to from your still photography. We also can't control the environment quite as much. But I think we can do a lot with what we have, and as long as we get the most out of our equipment as possible, I'm happy.
2015-5-26
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jeff.wyman.mac
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-26 23:45
You're welcome, thank you.

@dmwierz

This is a great thread.  It should be stuck to the top.  Thanks to all of you for sharing the wisdom.
2015-5-26
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lightpanther
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jeff.wyman.mac Posted at 2015-5-27 04:30
This is a great thread.  It should be stuck to the top.  Thanks to all of you for sharing the wisd ...

I'm honestly still seeing a lot of jerkiness in that video, but what I'm not sure is whether that is youtube or the way my computer is streaming it. Just being truthful about what I'm seeing when I view it. This is especially true of the rotation shots. Even in the straight shots down the green strip, though, I'm seeing the same effect.
2015-5-26
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FantomDK
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lightpanther Posted at 2015-5-27 05:10
I'm honestly still seeing a lot of jerkiness in that video, but what I'm not sure is whether that i ...

I notice it too.

A lot of it - or most of it -  I would blame on the high shutter speed (lack of ND-filter) as already talked about in the long post above. A video like that shot mid day (look at those straight-down shadows) on a very sunny day is close to worst case scenario regarding high shutter speed - leading to a complete lack of natural motion blur.

TIP: It is often a great idea to film duing the so-called Golden Hour (not Golden Shower, thats something else...) - in the time of the day when the sun is low on the sky - just after sunrise and before sunset. At that Magic Time of the day, the light is softer and warmer, shadows are longer and it will be easier to keep that pesky shutterspeed down to get our natural motion blur. Shooting against the low hanging sun can give a great effect - but beware that it will pose some challenges too (carefull not blowing out (zebra stripes overexposure warning) the sky).

Notice how if you pause the video, the frame is always almost completely sharp (as sharp as the camera can do) - whereas if you pause a TV-show or a movie in a part with motion, you will have massive motion blur. But when played back, it looks right. Note; we can also get too much motion blur, so it becomes mushy If shutterspeed goes down to 30 and shooting 30 fps after sunset, thats not optimal either (and again the advice would be to be extra smooth).

That brings me back to the point of smooth and slow movements I preached about above   Some of the rotate/yaw was a bit jerky and fast and should be avoided. Again it helps to change away from the default settings so it isn't as difficult to pull off those flying-filming moves.

Man, I write too long comments


EDIT: Added a tip about the Golden Hour.

2015-5-26
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lightpanther
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-27 07:02
I notice it too.

A lot of it - or most of it -  I would blame on the high shutter speed (lack of  ...

I'll buy your book Fantom  
2015-5-26
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s_nyky.yahoo
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-26 00:53
It looks really good

I have written some longer comments with tips in this community. You can pr ...

Hey FantomDK, thanks for all your posts! I really appreciate all the advice you are giving out on the forum! It is a lot of information for us rookies to digest and I spend way more time in the forums than flying but I think that will be worth it in the long run!!
2015-5-26
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leoamartinez
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Good video!!!
2015-5-27
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fhagan02
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Video looks good and as with anything you'll get even better in time.

My only question, which is the same with 75% of P3P vids on line so I'm certainly not picking on anyone, is the constant unleveled horizon line. This has been discussed to death in other threads and sources say DJI is "working on it". But man.... it really takes the "Pro" out of Phantom 3 Professional IMHO. I mean it's "Aerial" Filming. Over land, water, fields, hills etc. You'd think a level horizon would be high on the list of "must be able to do" in a system designed for this. Hope they get it worked out as I'm receiving my P3P this Friday and I remain optomistic.  The P3P has so much potential and I'm excited with this investment. (Supposedly an advance IMU calibration fallowed by gimbal calibration helps/fix this if not for good, temporarily.)

Thanks for sharing you work!


2015-5-27
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RedHotPoker
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Yup, great thread. Hope to see more awesome videos posted.
The wisdom of others here is awesome... Glad the helpful nature is intact in many here...
Keep up the good work, folks.

RedHotPoker
2015-5-28
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gil
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-26 00:53
It looks really good

I have written some longer comments with tips in this community. You can pr ...

Great advice -- as a matter of fact you need to post it as a new thread so it can be used as a reference.
2015-5-29
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bradp
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Robharris07 Posted at 2015-5-26 08:31
I usually use Sony Vegas. However, for this one I just used Gopro cineform. I'm in a Apple windows ...

You will want to check out blackmagics divinci resolve 10 or 11 lite...... i think you'll like it... pls let me know what you think of it and if it runs on your imac!
Also, thank you for all the vid tips... gratitude!
2015-5-29
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bradp
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-27 07:02
I notice it too.

A lot of it - or most of it -  I would blame on the high shutter speed (lack of  ...

Hey Fan,
Please continue to write long posts! ;-)
2015-5-29
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Robharris07
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-27 07:02
I notice it too.

A lot of it - or most of it -  I would blame on the high shutter speed (lack of  ...

@fantomdk what have you found is the best setting for white balance? Mine came out of the box on custom at 6k. Should I be on auto? Thanks in advance!
2015-5-29
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JtrJr-Droner
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FantomDK Posted at 2015-5-27 07:02
I notice it too.

A lot of it - or most of it -  I would blame on the high shutter speed (lack of  ...

I'd buy your book too!

Jerry
2015-5-29
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FantomDK
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@gil
Thank you, maybe I should do a little write-up and post as a new thread. When I get the time

@Bradp
Thank you

@Robharris07
So far I've only used Auto. In post-production (for me; Final Cut Pro X for video and Adobe Lightroom for still photos). I will sometimes tweak the whitebalance/warmth/coolness of the photos/videos.
I shoot photos in Adobe DNG raw (and video in LOG).

@JrrJr-Dorner
Thanks a lot, Jerry. A small e-book isn't a bad idea (even if it was free). The problem is; when I have some spare time, I'll be outside flying my Phantom3


2015-6-2
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