Just wondering guys, what is your preferred length of video ?

I understand that it may depend on the purpose, but for most of us it’s just a chance to show something we’ve done.

I try target under 3 minutes.  I feel that anything over that gets too long.    I’ve seen some posted that are like 7mins+....I never make it to the end of those.



Sorry..not sure what is going on with that Poll...that last option just froze and I can’t edit it anymore.  It is supposed to say

“Don’t care, as long as it’s good”

tough call, that. i do enjoy the short montage kind of thing - so many users from around the globe here - i feel fortunate to get to see all the quick glimpses of incredible places i'll never get to - some others at greater lengths verge on telling a real story through the imagery, and i'm happy to let them run their full length.

Same here, i like the short clips however if am enjoying what am watching i can run it till the end

#2  Short & Sweet , any longer, and I tend to skip forward.

I always find I didn't make it long enough...better more than less...you can always edit the length.

Depends entirely on how interesting the video is - 10 seconds to 3 minutes

10-15 secs per clip fora nice scene set. i work in sports broadcasting standard for scenics are 30-60secs

I agree.. short is best for drone footage.  any more than a minute or two and I am gone.

fansdcf05e40 Posted at 2018-1-31 13:52
10-15 secs per clip fora nice scene set. i work in sports broadcasting standard for scenics are 30-60secs

This is really interesting to know.   I find I get bored with a long scene so try keep them under 10-15seconds....guess that makes me normal.

More than 3 minutes and I start FF unless it is riveting material.

Cookster670 Posted at 2018-1-31 18:11
This is really interesting to know.   I find I get bored with a long scene so try keep them under 10-15seconds....guess that makes me normal.

well i totally agree but the other day i captured some friends wedding ended up with a clip of about 13 min and it was interesting that everyone did like the clip yet it was long. I believe in such cases people dont mind the length. Also making a short documentary that have some interesting content with both air and ground footage can make a clip interesting even if it was long.
But for just drone about a certain location with a background music, definitely short is better  

The appetite to sit and watch anything beyond 3 minutes will depend on the relationship between the watcher and the subject of the video e.g. family watching a wedding will "tolerate" 13 minutes, drone how to's to a drone pilot, MTB course to a cyclist. If the watcher comes across a general interest video, it is less likely that anything over 3 minutes will be watched in full.

I try and keep my clips in the video to below 10 seconds each, although there are instances where I might go up to 20 seconds if there is enough going on to keep the interest.

yep.  I find anything with people in it holds my attention more.  But if you are just doing scenery...10 seconds is the max.

Sometimes if i’m doing say a 360 pano, I will speed up the rotation during the “boring bits” so you still get the experience of a 360, without falling asleep

3ish minutes. But exceptions can be made if you vary your shots enough. Of course if there's commentary it's a whole different story. Check out your youtube analytics and you can see how much your viewers watch before turning it off.

That does depend on what is going on in the video and what your audience wants.
But for youtube I think somewhere between 1-5 minutes is ok.
BUT, I make a lot of video's that are longer and get good viewing statistics on them.
Train video's that show some nice train moving have better results when I show the whole passage instead of only short cuts.
I tried that a couple of times, but got less views and shorter viewing times (they stopped watching sooner)

I've seen enough cliffs, forests, shorelines and waves crashing against the rocks to last me a lifetime.
Don't get me started on the ill-fitting music that seems to accompany most videos.

Vulcan-XH558 Posted at 2018-2-1 03:44
I've seen enough cliffs, forests, shorelines and waves crashing against the rocks to last me a lifetime.
Don't get me started on the ill-fitting music that seems to accompany most videos.

lol.  so true.

EXCEPT FOR MY VIDEOS.

a video is like a commercial, short, straight to the point and interesting.  If non of these are considered, this makes for a long, boring video.

I try for a 1 min length. I post mine on IG. So it works for me.

I guess not surprisingly, a shortish video is preferred.   I do agree with others though, if it's a GOOD video, i'm happy to watch a longer one, but more than 3 minutes of scenery...no thanks.

hmmm... Can't manage large files anymore on my device. Google took it over. No access to any storage on my device. I do have the card in the AC. Afraid I may lose that to if any google is involved.

depending on music file, mostly about 3 min.

I think that the drone footage is to accentuate the rest of the video, just like a time lapse or slow motion capture.  It shouldn't be the whole video.  The video should be as long as it has to be to tell the story.

Vulcan-XH558 Posted at 2018-2-1 03:44
I've seen enough cliffs, forests, shorelines and waves crashing against the rocks to last me a lifetime.
Don't get me started on the ill-fitting music that seems to accompany most videos.

So fully agree,...

My YouTube analytics say 1-3 minutes.
I find the happy medium of 1:15 min Is nice
But longer if you must express yourself

I don't see why not just capture everything and edit it later on?

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-3-7 16:27
I don't see why not just capture everything and edit it later on?

I realize folks want to save their SD Card space and allotment but doesn't it also provide safety in the event of a crash to have been recording the entire time?

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-3-7 16:28
I realize folks want to save their SD Card space and allotment but doesn't it also provide safety in the event of a crash to have been recording the entire time?

Or does everyone just screen record their phones in any event?

If it tells a story it can go on for as long as the story remains interesting. If like most, including my own,  it is just a video version of landscape photography then 1-2 minutes is the max.

Voted "Don’t Care as long as it's good"  but  preferably not much over 10min.

No more than 3 min's except if its an Oscar nominated movie
YT cinematic clips max 3 mins.
Reviews and s, longer.

Okay...after seeing this thread several times I've come to the conclusion that some people are talking about how long an edited, posted video should last and some people are talking about each individual clip length while taking video. The OP was talking about posted video like on the forum.  I don't know how to do these "voting" posts but I would like to see one on how long people take video clips in flight.  There's a large number of people that run continuously (like those really into editing that can break up a 15 minute video easily into shorter clips) or like myself that like to take short clips of 15-20 seconds and email them individually to friends and family.

I am horrible at editing, which is why I don't really record videos, which is why I can't put any good videos together.

I think when you consider short videos that is better for the Mavic Pro - since its video size is much larger than a Spark. I don't see a 1GB file being considered large and that records video at almost an entire Spark battery.

If I only got a few clips of a place, I usually keep it around 1-2 minutes because otherwise it feels like your watching the same place over and over again but if I get a lot of footage then I do 2-3 min.

David, I usually start recording before takeoff and stop after landing. Then I edit the interesting bits into a video. I fly a spark with 32GB sd card. Fill it up every week or so.

Vulcan-XH558 Posted at 2018-1-31 13:23
#2  Short & Sweet , any longer, and I tend to skip forward.

Same here.

Tentoes Posted at 2018-10-4 09:54
David, I usually start recording before takeoff and stop after landing. Then I edit the interesting bits into a video. I fly a spark with 32GB sd card. Fill it up every week or so.

That’s a good idea. I might try that soon

Under 5 min is always my goal. Footage and production has to be really good to go longer than that and keep interest IMO.

As long as it is a subject that I like it can be any length.