I bought my Phantom 3 Standard last May.  In the beginning the picture and video quality exceeded my expectations.  But about 3 months ago the video quality has gotten progressively worse until now.  The video quality has gotten so bad that I don't even show them to anyone anymore.  I used to brag on the quality. The videos tend to be grainy and blurry as well as either too light or too dark.  I've tried everything I can think of to repair the video quality with multiple settings and combinations of settings as well as several brands of ND filters and several forums.  No, really, I've been working pm this for months. (taking video's and logging them with the settings noting time of day and blah blah blah) Also beginning about 7 days ago the cameral will only record for 10 to 20 seconds and stops, ugh.  I'm at the end of my rope.  I think the camera may need replacing.  Any suggestions?  

Are you looking at the files off the SD card in the aircraft, or off the phone? Have you regularly re-formatted the card in the aircraft?

Can you record a short segment and post the original to Dropbox so we can have a look.

You may also try a new SD card , i had an issue with one i had been using for ages .. one day it would only record for 20 secs  on 4k  but was fine at 720p . i now use Sandisk extreme ultra ...no probs since

Geebax Posted at 2017-12-18 13:02
Are you looking at the files off the SD card in the aircraft, or off the phone? Have you regularly re-formatted the card in the aircraft?

Looking at the files from the SD card (files from the phone/tablet are worse quality).  I have not formatted the same card after I formatted the first time, but I have tried several SD cards, like Samsung EVO (one was orange and one was green), Sandisk Ultra. I also formatted those before I used them.    I just can't think of anything else short of replacing the camera and I hope I don't have to do that, thanks for the input.  I

AlanHd Posted at 2017-12-18 13:07
Can you record a short segment and post the original to Dropbox so we can have a look.

Yeah, I'll do that tomorrow, (working, I can't believe they expect me to work while I'm at work, lol) I'll either shoot a short video or edit one I already have recorded.  

DEUCEDOG Posted at 2017-12-18 13:16
You may also try a new SD card , i had an issue with one i had been using for ages .. one day it would only record for 20 secs  on 4k  but was fine at 720p . i now use Sandisk extreme ultra ...no probs since

I have seen that exact message on one of the cards I've tried.  I have tried 3 SD cards so far but I'm willing to try another if it will help.  You never know.  I hope I don't have to send it in to be repaired as I've heard it can take a long time to get it back.

thunderbyrd Posted at 2017-12-18 20:27
I have seen that exact message on one of the cards I've tried.  I have tried 3 SD cards so far but I'm willing to try another if it will help.  You never know.  I hope I don't have to send it in to be repaired as I've heard it can take a long time to get it back.

I doubt the camera has a problem. The most likely issue is the SD card. You may not want to hear this, but I only trust one brand of SD card, and so do many people. The Sandisk Extreme series cards never let you down unless they are counterfeit ones.

As for formatting, the aircraft creates a whole bunch of hidden folders and fills these witrh rubbish you will never need or use. Because you can't see them, you are not aware this is happening. But regularly formattring the card cleans them all off. I do it every second or third time I use the aircraft.

Hey there, thanks for keeping us updated. Do you still keep the original SD card which comes with the drone? If yes, you can take it out for test. I'd suggest to format the SD card and reset the camera settings to compare. Also, please kindly upload the original videos in the SD card for further assistance, thanks!

+1 for the sandisk extreme cards, I’ve never had a problem with them. try shoot a short clip as any time you edit a video, even if it’s just to trim most editors will want to re-encode the full video. We will want to see the metadata of an original video to try get an idea of what’s going on.

Geebax Posted at 2017-12-18 13:02
Are you looking at the files off the SD card in the aircraft, or off the phone? Have you regularly re-formatted the card in the aircraft?

Here is a short clip.  This video was taken at 4:00 pm, Dec. 18th 2017. The weather was sunny and beautiful, nothing like the video. What I see is it's dark, blurry, grainy.  It looks like I shot the video at night. I've tried every possible combination of settings and believe it or not this is the best.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/jgt1nsmqov6kgji/DJI_0009Trim.mp4?dl=0

thunderbyrd Posted at 2017-12-19 00:05
Here is a short clip.  This video was taken at 4:00 pm, Dec. 18th 2017. The weather was sunny and beautiful, nothing like the video. What I see is it's dark, blurry, grainy.  It looks like I shot the video at night. I've tried every possible combination of settings and believe it or not this is the best.

I downloaded that clip and you are correct, it is truly awful. But MediaInfo says it is 720p reolution, and 1.2 Mb/s bit rate, so it is not surprising. Have you obtained that clip from your phone or tablet?  Or did you edit the clip in some app?

The clip is also very dark, so I am wondering if you have an ND filter on the camera? If so, take it off. Most of all, you need to learn to expose the camera manually. As far as settings are concerned, set the white balance to a manual setting of around 6500, set the camera to manual exposure and use the thumbwheel to control exposure. You don't need to fly to do any of this, just set the aircraft up on a table or something outdoors and experiment with controlling exposure.

Only just saw you had posted a clip, I agree that looks terrible, does it make any difference with different color profiles selected.