Hi everybody,

Recently I bought a really cheap ebay ND8 filter for my P3S. I figured for 6,48 dollars it was worth the shot.
I know ideally you should set the camera settings manually, but for simplicity and not having to adjust for different shots I kept it in auto.
I seems that sometimes, especially shooting in the sun the video becomes very red, while other moments the video actually looks pretty decent.
Is this red hue a result of it being a cheap ND filter, and therefore not completely neutral or should I mess with some camera settings?

Furthermore 2 short questions about the gimbal:
Sometimes i notice the gimbal is shaking very quickly, seems to happen with wind. Is this normal? (Can be seen the first 5 seconds or so in the video.)
Also, it seems when the quad is moving, the horizon does not remain horizontal but moves around. When the quad is hovering, the horizon is perfectly level.(see 10.10 to 10.30!)

On a positive note, I have like most been having some issues with Firmware 1.6.8, however yesterday I was for the first time able to fly 450 meters horizontal (with windsurfer and in CE mode) with full signal. Only the video transmission was getting slightly laggy and I brought it back.

Here is a video for reference:


Thanks for the help!

Hello maichelvnl， for your second question, the situations you described are normal, please try to fly in an open place without the wind and interference, then move the sticks gently.
For your last question, if you use the IOS phone, please enable the " hardware decoding", and have your antenna positioned to optimal range.
Here is the video for your reference:

Your video looks very pink / reddish. I don't think you can adjust this in the camera settings, and if it looks good without the filter then it's definitely a bad filter. I had bought a cheap one and got a purple tint to everything. It really is worth spending as much as you can on filters. It's like putting cheap tyres on your Aston Martin

It does look very pink to me, but when you are flying away from the sun it returns to blue.  Are you sure it wasn't a pink sky associated with twilight?   Generally auto should give you a good result, but you could try one of the other white balance modes and see if that makes a difference.  You would need to compare shots with and without the filter for a proper comparison.  It does also look a little dull, either due to the filter or low ambient light.  You could have a look at this post for some advice about shooting towards the sun, especially when it is low.

I didn't notice any initial shake in the camera/gimbal.   Generally any shake and the associated "jello" effect across the vision is caused by the gimbal being too tight -- has the packing foam at the back and the clear gimbal lock been removed?  Do you have only 2 anti-drop pins fitted?  Fitting 4 can introduce shaking.  Are the 4 soft rubber hangers in the gimbal corners correctly fitted in their holes, and not split or damaged?

I've noticed the "wandering horizon" issue before.  I've noticed that when the wind blows from the side, the horizon tends to tilt, but when flying directly into or out of the wind it will be quite level.  I have a theory that in strong wind from the side, the gimbal flexes away from the body so it is no longer level with the bottom of the craft, causing a roll in the camera that the gimbal doesn't correct because "level" is referenced off the airframe, not the gimbal plate.  This doesn't seem to affect it in the same way when hit from the front or back, probably because the horizon remains level, just a little higher or lower in the picture, therefore not apparent.

endotherm Posted at 2016-9-2 11:29
It does look very pink to me, but when you are flying away from the sun it returns to blue.  Are you ...

Thanks for the elaborate replies! Your wandering horizon theory sounds very logical, I'll assume this to be the what's happening.

I am very sure the sky wasn't this pink while flying! I completely forgot to take of the filter to test that aswell, but without my results are allways quite satisfactory, and the colors are allways correct.
I agree that the video looks dull, I first thought it was indeed due to using the ND8 filter with low ambient light, but I wonder if this could also just be due to the low quality filter, as it was definitely not as dark as the video suggests.

Finally indeed I just have the 2 drop pins installed, and the rubber hangers are in good condition.

@Matt-and-Riley, yeah the colors are good without the filter. I might have to invest in a decent ND filter then, but they seem to be hard to find...

I have the DJI ND filters and they work great.
Example below:

Also bought a set of cheap filters for my P3S (ND4-ND8-UV filter and Polaryser), they work fine to me.
Not sure wat the weight on your filter is but my filters are 8gramm. (Except the polaryser it's havier and I don't use it)
I have added balance weights (cupper-rings) at 2 locations on the gimal to keep it in static balance when power-off.
Adding weight (filters) without counterbalancing will make the gimbalmotors run hot and the gimbal will fail to work properly after a few minutes,
resulting in shaking gimbal movements or camera facing down.

About the signal:
I'm also in CE mode with latest firmware update.
I have the Argtek antenna mod that gives me a steady 1000m range before signal gets lost.
Last week I got 1500m (50m altitude) and the day after at the same place 2040m (90m altitude)
before signals got lost and RTH was activated.
BUT: all these results are achieved in a zero wifi-interference-area !!!!
The only wifi signal found in the list is the Phantoms wifi.
When I fly the same P3S in areas with lots of interfering wifi-signals, I often get signal loss , even at 50m range!!
500m in CE with standard antennas looks ok, but be aware when you fly in other areas with wifi-interference!!!!

dak162 Posted at 2016-9-2 13:08
I have the DJI ND filters and they work great.
Example below:
Summer

Nice! Unfortunately DJI does not make filters for the P3S

hayen.dominique Posted at 2016-9-3 14:39
Also bought a set of cheap filters for my P3S (ND4-ND8-UV filter and Polaryser), they work fine to m ...

Sounds good, could you perhaps post a link of the filters that you bought? the filter that I have does not seem to give any issues with the gimbal without further balancing. It seems to me that the gimbal motors are strong enough to handle the extra weight?

maichelvnl Posted at 2016-9-5 11:26
Sounds good, could you perhaps post a link of the filters that you bought? the filter that I have  ...

Here is the link for the filters.
I bought them from ebay.
The gimbal works fine without counterbalancing, but after reading some problems from other users with the same filters, I desided to balance the gimbal.
Cupper counterweights (so they don't influence the compass!)
The filterset contains: adapter, ND4, ND8, UV and polarizer
I don't use the polarizer beceause it is heavier than the other filters.
ND4, ND8 and UV have the exact same weight.
When I don't need ND filter (for images) I install the UV filter.
This way the gimbal is always balanced and there is no need to remove the counterweights.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/222174570 ... =STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Picture filters P3S

endotherm Posted at 2016-9-2 11:29
It does look very pink to me, but when you are flying away from the sun it returns to blue.  Are you ...

Filling up the 4 rubber dampers with foam earplugs could resolve this issue.
I had very good results on my P2 with zenmuse and gopro with these plugs in the white rubber dampers.
Zenmuse with Gopro is havier than P3 camera's and with the white soft dampers I had a lot of shaking
and yello-effect in the video. The earplugs resolved the shaking-issue.
The earplugs might also resolve the issue you are talking about, they will keep the dampers more in original
form when wind is blowing and with g-forces on the camera...
Note that you can no longer use the drop-pins when inserting earplugs!