Hey Everyone!

I am coming to the forums with another issue I have come across:
The "severe" lens distortion on Phantom 4. On another one of my threads someone brought up this issue:

(this is a quote from Geebax, a user on this forum)

I am puzzled by the severe lens distortion, particularly those tall buildings near the beach, they lean one way and then the other when the camera is panned. A P4 should not have that much distortion.

While I have numerous video examples I will show my most recent encounter with this strange phenomenon. (it happens between 2:20 and 2:28, the downtown building on the right hand side seems to shift from one angle to the next as the video pans. let me know your thoughts.

All lenses have some level of distortion, especially at the edges. The leaning building effect you are seeing is not so much from the lens but from the perceptive of the camera to the ground. If you take any camera, any lens and point it at a structure with vertical lines and you point your camera even slightly up or down, the vertical lines will move outward or inwards. Try it in your house right now with your camera phone.

CreativeSky Posted at 2018-2-7 20:06
All lenses have some level of distortion, especially at the edges. The leaning building effect you are seeing is not so much from the lens but from the perceptive of the camera to the ground. If you take any camera, any lens and point it at a structure with vertical lines and you point your camera even slightly up or down, the vertical lines will move outward or inwards. Try it in your house right now with your camera phone.

hmm. Thanks for the input. Do all DJI craft have this type of distortion or is it just the Phantom? I understand that they are all distorted but some more than others, no?

eman_vg Posted at 2018-2-8 15:28
hmm. Thanks for the input. Do all DJI craft have this type of distortion or is it just the Phantom? I understand that they are all distorted but some more than others, no?

I don't believe it's a defect.   It's a matter of perspective. A CreativeSky posts above, you will notice it with many devices.  Humans benefit from stereoscopic vision, whereas the camera on your drone only has one "eye"   

Blériot53 Posted at 2018-2-8 15:37
I don't believe it's a defect.   It's a matter of perspective. A CreativeSky posts above, you will notice it with many devices.  Humans benefit from stereoscopic vision, whereas the camera on your drone only has one "eye"

I guess the lens is sort of fishy eyed. My DSLR camera doesn't seem to have this vision issue. Is there a way to make the buildings straighter in post production?

I agree with Blériot53 ..  It is mostly perspective caused by converging verticals...  If you stand under tall buildings and look up, they will appear all tilted towards each other.  If you shoot them from above looking down, the tops will be tilted away from each other and the bottoms will appear to converge.  

All lenses display this perspective distortion.  The only way to get away from it is to use a tilt-shift lens.  https://petapixel.com/2015/04/06 ... -a-tilt-shift-lens/

jwt-873 Posted at 2018-2-8 16:10
I agree with Blériot53 ..  It is mostly perspective caused by converging verticals...  If you stand under tall buildings and look up, they will appear all tilted towards each other.  If you shoot them from above looking down, the tops will be tilted away from each other and the bottoms will appear to converge.  

All lenses display this perspective distortion.  The only way to get away from it is to use a tilt-shift lens.  https://petapixel.com/2015/04/06 ... -a-tilt-shift-lens/

Thanks for the link. Very helpful!