Good day!

Looking into buying the spark to replace the phantoms issues reaching the smaller spaces i cant reach today (dont ask.. )

Two things:

Is the current FW stable?

Is the process of converting the 30fps to 25 (Pal) as i live in europe, straight forward in lets say premiere pro or other editing softwares? I use either 25 or 50(slomo) normally.

Mariuss, please note that spark can not shoot 25 ftps now. The current FW is tested by our engineers and our engineers are working on optimizing the app for better performance. Thanks for your support and hope you can find the best option.

The omission of 25fps shooting in Spark is a real bummer if you want / need to combine with 25 or 50fps.
This means you will have to either slow it down by 1/6th or skip frames.
Both have unwanted effects where slowing down is the least bad I would say.

Not sure if it is straightforward in Premiere, but I would say it should be possible.
In Sony Vegas Pro it is ' just' a click (convert to matching framerate) on the media in your timeline.
But it also means you have to render your project once more because some effects won't work well with footage that has a time effect.

I believe Premiere also has some effect can't be combined with footage that has been stretched etc.

DJI Elektra Posted at 2017-11-14 22:40
Mariuss, please note that spark can not shoot 25 ftps now. The current FW is tested by our engineers and our engineers are working on optimizing the app for better performance. Thanks for your support and hope you can find the best option.

I have noted that the spark is unable to shoot other framerates than 30fps, hence this thread.

Is there any way to follow up on the testing by the engineers? Through my time on this forum i see alot of generic replies without much result regarding FW progress on issues.

Montfrooij Posted at 2017-11-14 23:52
The omission of 25fps shooting in Spark is a real bummer if you want / need to combine with 25 or 50fps.
This means you will have to either slow it down by 1/6th or skip frames.
Both have unwanted effects where slowing down is the least bad I would say.

Thanks Montfrooij!

Will do some research regarding the conversion issue in PP. I assume there is a workaround on this!

I don't know if this helps or not, as I have never converted a video to PAL.  However, in my Wondershare Video Editor I can change the output from 29.97 fps to 25 fps.  So I could edit my Spark NTSC video clips and simply export them as PAL.  Seems fairly simple and straightforward.

mtnlandpix Posted at 2017-11-15 08:40
I don't know if this helps or not, as I have never converted a video to PAL.  However, in my Wondershare Video Editor I can change the output from 29.97 fps to 25 fps.  So I could edit my Spark NTSC video clips and simply export them as PAL.  Seems fairly simple and straightforward.

Do you have some examples of that online?
I would like to see how that works out

Montfrooij Posted at 2017-11-15 12:14
Do you have some examples of that online?
I would like to see how that works out

No, as I said, I have never converted a video (I have had no reason to do so.) but Wondershare Video Editor gives you the option to do this as you export any video you may have put together. (to export an NTSC video as a PAL video)

mtnlandpix Posted at 2017-11-15 12:47
No, as I said, I have never converted a video (I have had no reason to do so.) but Wondershare Video Editor gives you the option to do this as you export any video you may have put together. (to export an NTSC video as a PAL video)

Many aps allow it (i use newest Cyperlink Power Director)  but 29,97 -> 24/25 cause picture tearing if no frame blending during convertion - most convertion and result on YT in 25 fsp sucks

Yes, you can interpret footage from 30fps to 25fps in Premiere Pro and it is very easy. I don't have Premiere here to guide you but there is plenty of tutorials on Youtube.

krisp-spark Posted at 2017-11-15 13:36
Yes, you can interpret footage from 30fps to 25fps in Premiere Pro and it is very easy. I don't have Premiere here to guide you but there is plenty of tutorials on Youtube.

Thanks! I havent tested it yet but as medyq69 says i'm afraid there would be some jittering..

Mariuss Posted at 2017-11-15 08:12
I have noted that the spark is unable to shoot other framerates than 30fps, hence this thread.

Is there any way to follow up on the testing by the engineers? Through my time on this forum i see alot of generic replies without much result regarding FW progress on issues.

Sorry that our engineers have no plan on adding 25 ftps now. Thanks for your attention.

DJI Elektra Posted at 2017-11-16 01:05
Sorry that our engineers have no plan on adding 25 ftps now. Thanks for your attention.

Thanks for replying.

Can you explain why they suddenly dont target the EU+++ marked with this drone? Counting the number of threads regarding this issue (PAL incompability) its very strange to leave this out in future FW.
edit: emphasis on EU+++

DJI Elektra Posted at 2017-11-16 01:05
Sorry that our engineers have no plan on adding 25 ftps now. Thanks for your attention.

At last a first clear, definite statement of someone (or a chatbot) from DJI.

_pk Posted at 2017-11-16 02:19
At last a first clear, definite statement of someone (or a chatbot) from DJI.

True, seem like the AI's still serve generic based on keywords .

DJI Elektra Posted at 2017-11-16 01:05
Sorry that our engineers have no plan on adding 25 ftps now. Thanks for your attention.

Can we know why ?
Is a secret?

mtnlandpix Posted at 2017-11-15 12:47
No, as I said, I have never converted a video (I have had no reason to do so.) but Wondershare Video Editor gives you the option to do this as you export any video you may have put together. (to export an NTSC video as a PAL video)

Ok, I just wondered if they had some magic trick to make this work.

Raz Taz Posted at 2017-11-16 08:11
Can we know why ?
Is a secret?

I am very curious if this is a final statement.

DJI Elektra Posted at 2017-11-16 01:05
Sorry that our engineers have no plan on adding 25 ftps now. Thanks for your attention.

Oh no, this isnt good news! My guess is that this has something to do the hardware that captures and encodes the sensor feed, possibly why they haven't addressed the 29.97~ fps issue that others have reported that causes stuttering.

Its a shame but not a deal breaker.

Malakai_UK Posted at 2017-11-17 02:31
Oh no, this isnt good news! My guess is that this has something to do the hardware that captures and encodes the sensor feed, possibly why they haven't addressed the 29.97~ fps issue that others have reported that causes stuttering.

Its a shame but not a deal breaker.

My guess is that it has nothing to do with hardware but with sales and income predictions. Someone at DJI analyzes sales of Spark, Mavic and Phantom and makes a simulation how much Mavic/Phantom sales would decrease if Spark gets some "higher-end" features. If the overall income seems to be lower, then a given feature is not going to be implemented in a lower-end drone. Just a reality, the aim of DJI (or any over company) is just to earn money.

_pk Posted at 2017-11-17 03:03
My guess is that it has nothing to do with hardware but with sales and income predictions. Someone at DJI analyzes sales of Spark, Mavic and Phantom and makes a simulation how much Mavic/Phantom sales would decrease if Spark gets some "higher-end" features. If the overall income seems to be lower, then a given feature is not going to be implemented in a lower-end drone. Just a reality, the aim of DJI (or any over company) is just to earn money.

I don't agree, adding the 25 fps option wouldn't have any impact on sales. Its not an additional higher end feature, nor does it offer an improvement over any of their more expensive drones. Its a standard that is implemented on nearly every camera or recording device available to purchase.

My guess is to keep the cost of the spark down the encoding chipset DJI chose is a cheap, low power consumption kit that can encode video at 1080p, 30fps and that's all its capable of at a hardware level. If it was something that could be changed I have no doubt that with the sheer volume of people requesting 25fps, DJI would have at least been looking into changing it. Not making a statement that they wont be looking to change it.

Malakai_UK Posted at 2017-11-17 03:27
I don't agree, adding the 25 fps option wouldn't have any impact on sales. Its not an additional higher end feature, nor does it offer an improvement over any of their more expensive drones. Its a standard that is implemented on nearly every camera or recording device available to purchase.

My guess is to keep the cost of the spark down the encoding chipset DJI chose is a cheap, low power consumption kit that can encode video at 1080p, 30fps and that's all its capable of at a hardware level. If it was something that could be changed I have no doubt that with the sheer volume of people requesting 25fps, DJI would have at least been looking into changing it. Not making a statement that they wont be looking to change it.

Thanks for your attention. I hope the feature will be added someday. This requirement was forwarded and I believe our designated department will think about customers' demand.

DJI Elektra Posted at 2017-11-17 03:57
Thanks for your attention. I hope the feature will be added someday. This requirement was forwarded and I believe our designated department will think about customers' demand.

Thanks for the reply but surely you can see the demand for 25fps from this online community as well as others. It's quite a big thing to not have, especially for us in the "PAL" parts of the world.
Who is above you in the chain of command that we can collectively send a message to to get this pushed out quicker.

Malakai_UK Posted at 2017-11-17 04:12
Thanks for the reply but surely you can see the demand for 25fps from this online community as well as others. It's quite a big thing to not have, especially for us in the "PAL" parts of the world.
Who is above you in the chain of command that we can collectively send a message to to get this pushed out quicker.

Sorry I can not provide the contact info. Again, your requirement was forwarded. And we will forward this thread to our engineers and designated department.

I just purchased a Spark, and the lack of 25fps for Europe is not just irritating, its idiotic.   The whole point of owning a drone is to create smooth floating footage.   What's the point of ownership if your video chops and jitters. Sure I know how to convert 30fps to a 25fps timeline, but that's just squeezing a square cake into a round hole.  We live in 50Hz territory, and 25/50 fps is a requirement.

The worst part is that its such an obvious requirement in Europe that it never crossed my mind to check before I purchased it, and I doubt I'm anywhere close to being alone.
Please can someone at DJI make the sensible decision to make sure a 25fps record mode is added in firmware soon... or at least come clean as to the reasons why it can't be.

Under normal circumstances I would look to upgrade to more capable drones like the Phantom / Inspire in future, but this 25fps issue with the spark has left me so disappointed and cheated that I'm strongly inclined not to think about it on principle.

Julian99 Posted at 2017-11-19 16:36
I just purchased a Spark, and the lack of 25fps for Europe is not just irritating, its idiotic.   The whole point of owning a drone is to create smooth floating footage.   What's the point of ownership if your video chops and jitters. Sure I know how to convert 30fps to a 25fps timeline, but that's just squeezing a square cake into a round hole.  We live in 50Hz territory, and 25/50 fps is a requirement.

The worst part is that its such an obvious requirement in Europe that it never crossed my mind to check before I purchased it, and I doubt I'm anywhere close to being alone.

Agree with you on every point! DJI pay attention.