Hi,

I live in a PAL region so have video output setting on my OA3 set to 25fps.  Yet if I film a timelapse (or slow motion) then the output is the NTSC frame rate of 29.97fps and I can't find any way of changing the frame rate that a timelapse/slow motion outputs.  I have Firmware Version 01.02.10.10 and Camera Firmware Version 10.00.19.20.  

I've done a search on the OA3 forum but found nothing about it.  Not sure if this is me missing something obvious or whether this is a known issue or what?  Any help would be great.  Thank you.

Phil  

Timelapses are recorded based on an interval (eg every 1, 2, 3, 4, etc seconds) and that is independent of the frame rate you set for video recording. I don't know the exact technicalities behind it, but setting a frame rate for timelapses would not make sense. A timelapse is a series of photographs taken at every X seconds. So what would the frame rate supposed to be for a series of images captured at every 5 seconds?

I assume the decision was made to "chain" the photos together (making it into a video) at a "standard" 30 fps. You can always chose to output Video + JPG or Video + RAW and use the photos to create whatever frame rate you want.

Same if you create a Hyperlapse. It is recorded at 30 fps. Not sure why 30 fps was choosen but it's good enough for me (highly technical explanation! :-). Someone smarter than me prolly could provide a more elaborate/technical detail behind it.

osmonauta Posted at 1-2 11:23
Timelapses are recorded based on an interval (eg every 1, 2, 3, 4, etc seconds) and that is independent of the frame rate you set for video recording. I don't know the exact technicalities behind it, but setting a frame rate for timelapses would not make sense. A timelapse is a series of photographs taken at every X seconds. So what would the frame rate supposed to be for a series of images captured at every 5 seconds?

I assume the decision was made to "chain" the photos together (making it into a video) at a "standard" 30 fps. You can always chose to output Video + JPG or Video + RAW and use the photos to create whatever frame rate you want.

Thanks for the reply.  Sorry, I perhaps didn't explain it properly.  I'm not referring to the interval between frames when capturing the timelapses.  My issue is with the output MP4 file  frame rate which only seems to be possible in 30fps (NTSC) not 25fps (PAL).  Your suggestion of shooting JPGs and making my own MP4 output file is a good work-around, thanks for the suggestion.   But for the price I was kind of hoping it wouldn't have this limitation.

Philjman Posted at 1-2 14:08
Thanks for the reply.  Sorry, I perhaps didn't explain it properly.  I'm not referring to the interval between frames when capturing the timelapses.  My issue is with the output MP4 file  frame rate which only seems to be possible in 30fps (NTSC) not 25fps (PAL).  Your suggestion of shooting JPGs and making my own MP4 output file is a good work-around, thanks for the suggestion.   But for the price I was kind of hoping it wouldn't have this limitation.

No, you did explain it correctly. Maybe I was the one who confused you.

I merely was trying to point out that in video recording you shoot at, say 25 fps and you expect a 25 fps result when doing a timelapse. But in timelapse you are not shooting "frames per second". You are shooting 1 frame per a time interval. So the firmware joins these together to a movie file (MP4). How would it know that for the end result you want 25 fps or 30 fps or even 120 fps?

True, there could be a setting somewhere that'd specify the final fps but there isn't one. So it just creates the final output as 30 fps.

"But for the price I was kind of hoping it wouldn't have this limitation."
iPhones can shoot timelapses. Can you specify the final fps of the timelapse? Nope. Even though the iPhones (depending on model) costs way more than the OA3.

osmonauta Posted at 1-2 14:20
No, you did explain it correctly. Maybe I was the one who confused you.

I merely was trying to point out that in video recording you shoot at, say 25 fps and you expect a 25 fps result when doing a timelapse. But in timelapse you are not shooting "frames per second". You are shooting 1 frame per a time interval. So the firmware joins these together to a movie file (MP4). How would it know that for the end result you want 25 fps or 30 fps or even 120 fps?

Sadly, it's not just the iPhone. . . it is every mobile phone from all manufacturers. . . none of them output video footage at 25fps (normal video, timelapse or slowmotion) which considering a majority of the globe uses PAL seems crazy.  This is why I don't use my mobile phone for anything other than stills images.

Hi, Philjman. Thank you for reaching out, and apologies for any inconvenience caused. Please note that the frame rate for Timelapse is fixed to 30fps. But we will forward your feedback to our related team for attention. We hope this clarifies your concern. Should you have further inquiries, please reach back here at DJI Forum. Have a nice day.

DJI Tony Posted at 1-2 23:00
Hi, Philjman. Thank you for reaching out, and apologies for any inconvenience caused. Please note that the frame rate for Timelapse is fixed to 30fps. But we will forward your feedback to our related team for attention. We hope this clarifies your concern. Should you have further inquiries, please reach back here at DJI Forum. Have a nice day.

Hi Tony,

Thanks for your reply.  As there is no work-around possible for the slow motion output which can only be at 30fps and the work-around to achieve a 25fps output for the timelapse is laborious a future firmware upgrade offering a 25fps MP4 output for the OA3 (and Pocket 2) for both slowmo and timelapse would be great.

Phil  

Philjman Posted at 1-3 04:38
Hi Tony,

Thanks for your reply.  As there is no work-around possible for the slow motion output which can only be at 30fps and the work-around to achieve a 25fps output for the timelapse is laborious a future firmware upgrade offering a 25fps MP4 output for the OA3 (and Pocket 2) for both slowmo and timelapse would be great.

You are most welcome and we appreciate your utmost understanding. Your feedback has been recorded. Rest assured, this will reach our related team for consideration. We hope that such an option will be rolled out through a firmware update soon. Should you have further concerns, please reach back here at DJI Forum. Thank you, and have a nice day!

DJI Tony Posted at 1-4 00:11
You are most welcome and we appreciate your utmost understanding. Your feedback has been recorded. Rest assured, this will reach our related team for consideration. We hope that such an option will be rolled out through a firmware update soon. Should you have further concerns, please reach back here at DJI Forum. Thank you, and have a nice day!

I've been doing some testing with my Pocket 2 (P2) and when doing a time lapse in "Pro" mode the "Pro" menu does actually allow selection of the output MP4 file to be 24fps, 25fps or 30fps as the user requires (and the output MP4 is actually created at the selected frame rate) which is perfect.  But oddly there is no similar option on the P2 when doing a slow motion in "Pro" mode (the output file is always 30fps).
So it seems the coding is already written and included for the functionally of selecting the output MP4 file frame rate but it is only included in the P2 timelapse "Pro" mode and not included in the slow motion "Pro" mode on the P2 nor the timelapse "Pro" or slow motion "Pro" mode on the OA3. Not sure why that would have been omitted but if it can be included in a future firmware that would be great.

Also I noticed on the OA3 when doing a timelapse that the "Screen Off when recording" time setting is ignored so the screen stays on permanently whenever doing a timelapse.

Philjman Posted at 1-4 08:03
I've been doing some testing with my Pocket 2 (P2) and when doing a time lapse in "Pro" mode the "Pro" menu does actually allow selection of the output MP4 file to be 24fps, 25fps or 30fps as the user requires (and the output MP4 is actually created at the selected frame rate) which is perfect.  But oddly there is no similar option on the P2 when doing a slow motion in "Pro" mode (the output file is always 30fps).
So it seems the coding is already written and included for the functionally of selecting the output MP4 file frame rate but it is only included in the P2 timelapse "Pro" mode and not included in the slow motion "Pro" mode on the P2 nor the timelapse "Pro" or slow motion "Pro" mode on the OA3. Not sure why that would have been omitted but if it can be included in a future firmware that would be great.

When you're doing timelapse, you have to tap the little Moon icon in the top-left. That will turn off the screen after 10 seconds. When you tap the screen during a timelapse, it will come on for 10 seconds again, and it will turn off.

It is confusing because DJI doesn't have a help text for the moon icon, instead it says something different. And there's nothing about it in the manual, either. I've reported it a few firmware updates ago, but so far no actions were taken to correct it.

Also... during normal video recording, you can swipe on the LCD from top to bottom and it will reveal a control where you can adjust the LCD off time on the fly. It works only for video recording, though.

osmonauta Posted at 1-4 09:37
When you're doing timelapse, you have to tap the little Moon icon in the top-left. That will turn off the screen after 10 seconds. When you tap the screen during a timelapse, it will come on for 10 seconds again, and it will turn off.

It is confusing because DJI doesn't have a help text for the moon icon, instead it says something different. And there's nothing about it in the manual, either. I've reported it a few firmware updates ago, but so far no actions were taken to correct it.

Awesome,  thanks for the info.

Don't need to worry about PAL or NTSC as long as you
1: Don't plan to do playback on regional TV
2: Don't shoot indoors
So choose the framerate that fits you best even if you are in Europe with PAL.

I shoot mostly 24/30/60 fps even if I'm in a PAL region since my videos is for playback on youtube and most monitors have 60Hz or higher framerate.

When I shoot timelapses, I shoot them as slow as possible and later speed up more in post if needed.

johansenfoto Posted at 1-4 12:04
Don't need to worry about PAL or NTSC as long as you
1: Don't plan to do playback on regional TV
2: Don't shoot indoors

The issue is that I film all my other cameras at 25fps (which avoids the 50hz mains flicker issue) and a 30fps clip doesn't play nicely when editing in a 25fps timeline.

osmonauta Posted at 1-2 14:20
No, you did explain it correctly. Maybe I was the one who confused you.

I merely was trying to point out that in video recording you shoot at, say 25 fps and you expect a 25 fps result when doing a timelapse. But in timelapse you are not shooting "frames per second". You are shooting 1 frame per a time interval. So the firmware joins these together to a movie file (MP4). How would it know that for the end result you want 25 fps or 30 fps or even 120 fps?

That’s not right, filming at 25fps you are basically shooting 25 “frames separate shots” making a one second video that appears to be moving IE Movie. And its exactly the same as shooting 1 frame per second and manual or auto editing into a movie Timelapse  . You are doing nothing more than that. All movies including Timelapse’s  are simply created by individual shots. SW can simply create your movie and change to lots of different FPS videos.

Philjman Posted at 1-4 12:55
The issue is that I film all my other cameras at 25fps (which avoids the 50hz mains flicker issue) and a 30fps clip doesn't play nicely when editing in a 25fps timeline.

I understand.
You could use OpticalFlow in post but not always it will look great.
Also you could slow down 30fps to 80%

But if you shoot timelapse, choose output with raw/jpg files also, then you can import them to your timeline.

johansenfoto Posted at 1-4 14:38
I understand.
You could use OpticalFlow in post but not always it will look great.
Also you could slow down 30fps to 80%

Thanks, I've been creating a 25fps from the stills which works well for the timelapses.

Shame there's no similar workaround for the slow motion output frame rate.

At least for slo mo in 25fps you can shoot 100fps via the menu anyway, so at least you can get quarter speed, but not eighth.

Philjman Posted at 1-17 05:08
Thanks, I've been creating a 25fps from the stills which works well for the timelapses.

Shame there's no similar workaround for the slow motion output frame rate.

Of course there is.

1. You record your 240fps (or whatever framerate) footage.
2. You use an app (eg LosslessCut) to export any selected range of frames and as image (jpg or png).
3. You use the images to create your 25fps footage

Iancraig10 Posted at 1-20 02:38
At least for slo mo in 25fps you can shoot 100fps via the menu anyway, so at least you can get quarter speed, but not eighth.

I must be looking in the wrong menu as, other than the slo mo menu,  i can only select frame rate up to 50/60fps.

osmonauta Posted at 1-20 04:10
Of course there is.

1. You record your 240fps (or whatever framerate) footage.

That's a good work around, thanks.  For the price of the DJI OA3 I'm disappointed it i need to use a workaround at all.  Hopefully they'll sort the PAL/NTSC issue in the next firmware update.  . . .

Philjman Posted at 1-22 00:53
I must be looking in the wrong menu as, other than the slo mo menu,  i can only select frame rate up to 50/60fps.

From the bottom of the screen where it shows resolution.

Mine says 4K/60HB

Click that and I get a choice of resolutions and frame rates. I can select up to 120fps.

It won’t be slow mo, but in post you can then slow it down to the frame rate of your project. You only get 1/4 speed though, not 1/8th. When you are using PAL, you get up to 100.
If you use the slo mo switch though, it automatically creates a slo mo for you, and plays back instantly in slo o, but as you say, in 30fps which is no use if you use PAL.

Iancraig10 Posted at 1-22 01:06
From the bottom of the screen where it shows resolution.

Mine says 4K/60HB

Great thanks, got it now.