Hi fellow birds,

I turn to you with the hope that you had the same issue and you have found the solution. I have a wonderful Mavic Air with the latest firmware. I shoot video in 4k 24p (24 is unfortunatelly the max in 4K). The issue I got that the footage is not smooth: it is jerky, jittery. Please see the footage I posted below.

I have this issue despite/regardless:

• I use the internal memory or I use the latest U3 Sandisk card
• Normal video or Cinilike
• I have smooth settings
• Already resetted the settings and calibrated the gimbal
  

Anyone had this issue? How to sort this out?

There might be a couple of things going on here.
First of all, the stuttering is most likely being caused by the combination of slow framerate and fast motion.
There is simply too much change between the frames and the frames are rather sharp.



So that is the most likely cause.

Now what can you do about it?
- Move much more slowly (side effect : it will look more 'cinematic')
- Don't pan. That is a type of movement that will create a lot of change between frames. (side effect: pan's are not the most cinematic type of movement, you rarely see a pan in a movie)
If you are still unhappy about the footage, you might want to try to lower the shutterspeed to 1/50s (double the framerate).
This will introduce a small bit of motion blur that will look more pleasing to the eye.
You need ND filters for this, which is a pain in the ... since they cost money, need to be put on AND you have to decide on the ground what density you need up in the sky to get to 1/50s shutterspeed.
In reality the lighting situation changes between shots because you move the drone around and the chosen filter won't be exactly right a lot of the time.
Also, with a filter, you are blocking light and that means the drone is not set up well for photography (you normally want a fast shutterspeed with photography to get sharp images).
So you most likely won't be able to get the best images out of the drone with ND filters on.

I have a pair of good ND filters (Polar Pro cinematic), but never use them in normal projects (unless it is an important project that must have a certain look) because of this.

Finally (I don't think this is the case here, but I want to mention it anyway) stuttering can be introduced by rendering your video in the wrong shutterspeed.
For example : if you shoot 24fps and render 25 fps or 30fps, the software will have to create a frame ever x frames. Even though the editors got better at this, it is very likely you will see some stuttering because of this.
The opposite is true also. When you shoot at 30fps and render in 24fps, the software will drope a frame every x frames. Introducing stuttering also.
You have to be very careful with this, especially when there are multiple camera's involved, that all the footage is shot in the same framerate.
One execption is when it is a dividable number (25fps and 50fps for example) since the dropping or creating of frames can be done for EVERY frame)

Long story, but my assumption is you will get much better results flying more slowly and avoiding normal 'panning'.
If not, try ND filters.

Hi there, I'm sorry to hear about the issue with your drone, could you please check if all the original videos have the issue or only this one?

@Montfrooij Thank you for taking the time and explain the issue. Before I got your reply I also came across some articles about the 180° Shutter Rule. You have made a really good point on the ND filters, the same what I had in mind: from the ground you can't estimate exposure settings you need in the sky. Also if I need to change ND filter I loose valuable time from the effective flight time.
Though the Mavic Air allows 30fps at 4K but my Sony Alpha is limited to 24fps in super35 mode. Hence I keep everything in 24fps on all devices and in post production. Also took some shots yesterday with the smoothest control settings and slowest movement settings. I did a very slow pan movement with these settings + cinematic and tripod mode. The issue remained.
1/50th is a very slow shutter speed, it is more like indoor. I will try to make a shot after sunset if my other activities allows it and check it if I still have the judder.

@DJI Natalia Yes all of my footage has the same issue. It is more pronounced at panning but it is present at other camera/drone movements as well.

tiny bird Posted at 4-22 03:57
@Montfrooij Thank you for taking the time and explain the issue. Before I got your reply I also came across some articles about the 180° Shutter Rule. You have made a really good point on the ND filters, the same what I had in mind: from the ground you can't estimate exposure settings you need in the sky. Also if I need to change ND filter I loose valuable time from the effective flight time.
Though the Mavic Air allows 30fps at 4K but my Sony Alpha is limited to 24fps in super35 mode. Hence I keep everything in 24fps on all devices and in post production. Also took some shots yesterday with the smoothest control settings and slowest movement settings. I did a very slow pan movement with these settings + cinematic and tripod mode. The issue remained.
1/50th is a very slow shutter speed, it is more like indoor. I will try to make a shot after sunset if my other activities allows it and check it if I still have the judder.

You'll not see jerky video if you move forward/backward as the scene doesn't change much.
For panning set the lowest yaw in controller calibration and use tripod mode and nd filter if possible to get 1/50 framerate.

The point is that what you call issue, is not an issue. It is a normal behaviour of the camera when is set to slow frame rate like 24 fps. There is anything you can do to avoid it. Keep in mind the tips that Montfrooij told to you. And yes.....pan movement is really annoying and not so "cinematic". I always try to avoid it if possible.