This drone looks amazing.  Sleek, sexy and a great battery that lasts almsot 28 minutes (more like 24).
Ok so I took this on a flight today and guess what, it's a phantom, some great upgrades to the way it operates.
However for me, and for many others, the footage is what is most important.  As I will be posting tommorrow, the lens
has NOT been improved.  Once again when shooting video or photos the horizons are off unless you are shooting at exactly 90 degress.
Since most of my photography is landscape, this was amazingly disspointing since DJI claimed that this lens was supposed to be all the rage.
For people that do not care about distorted horizons, then by all means, this is a great drone.   I especially like the new senor technology.

If anyone talks with DJI with the same concerns, please post and let us know your thoughts too.   Thanks all,
-SteadyFly

This drone looks amazing.  Sleek, sexy and a great battery that lasts almsot 28 minutes (more like 24).
Ok so I took this on a flight today and guess what, it's a phantom, some great upgrades to the way it operates.
However for me, and for many others, the footage is what is most important

Grats with your P4, Sir. For me it's all about the fun factor - the Sport Mode. I am a interested in a nice cam/photo, but the fun factor is the most important feature (P4) for me. Have you tested the sport mode? Is it....fun?

What do you mean by your "horizons are off" and "distorted horizons" ?

If you mean its not level...well that has nothing to do with the lens. Thats the camera body not being correctly leveled.  Same issue on the P3.

If you mean its curved...well no Sh*T.  Its a 21mm equivalent lens which is a near fisheye lens.  Its going to have distortion.  A $1000 21mm DSLR wide angle lens will have the same barrel distortion unless its a rectilinear lens (big bucks).  Its a fact of life with extreme wide angle lenses.  DJI didn't say they changed the focal length (94 degrees FOV), they said they changed the quality of the elements that make it.
https://support.nikonusa.com/app ... y-does-it-happen%3F

If you mean something else...do elaborate on what it is you actually mean.

Thacyoon Posted at 2016-3-16 15:37
This drone looks amazing.  Sleek, sexy and a great battery that lasts almsot 28 minutes (more like 2 ...

YEs, It's top of the line for sport mode!

Wolfiesden Posted at 2016-3-16 16:07
What do you mean by your "horizons are off" and "distorted horizons" ?

If you mean its not level... ...

Thanks for the feedback.  No I don't mean the level.  I mean the horizon, as I stated originally.  
This is not a fisheye lens and DJI specifically is going for a flat horizon as they  advertise.  Also this is not meant to be a fisheye lens or else it would be one..   Like a fish eye,  however, if you are 90 degrees you will get a flat horizon.  Most of the lens also gives you a flat horizon except for the right side of the lens where there is very noticeable lens distortion just like the lens on the Insipre1Pro (same issue).  If it were a fisheye lens, the entire lens would function in unison with its curvature.   It does not.  It looks very awkward instead.  
The sport mode is awesome Thaycoon!  Just tried it out and it works wonderfully.  
Thanks
SteadyFLy
IG: SteadyFLyProductions

Can you show us any examples?

The P3 has quite bad barrel distortion which is impossible to correct manually, but you can get a profile for it in Adobe Camera Raw (Photoshop or Lightroom).  This will totally eliminate the problem.  If you don't want to fork out for the latest version, it can be copied from trial versions into older versions.

Regardless of any lens improvements, you're still stuck with the same sized sensor, so improvements will be limited even if they mounted a top quality Carl Zeiss lens.  I find sensor noise limits detail more than anything on the P3P.

dlew21@mac.com Posted at 2016-3-16 21:27
Thanks for the feedback.  No I don't mean the level.  I mean the horizon, as I stated originally.  ...

"The sport mode is awesome Thaycoon!  Just tried it out and it works wonderfully."


Well, nice videos/pictures is fine, and sure, it need to be at this price. But for me - the P4 - is about fun. Thanks for the + note regarding the "fun mode" , looking forward to that...

Wolfiesden Posted at 2016-3-16 20:07
A $1000 21mm DSLR wide angle lens will have the same barrel distortion unless its a rectilinear lens (big bucks)

That's a bit of an exaggeration.  You don't need to pay that much for a better equivalent DSLR lens than the one on the P3.  But yes, you can't expect much from such a cheap camera/lens.  I'm surprised it's as good as it is.

16mm focal length (35mm equivalent) is generally accepted at the beginning of the fisheye range.  These lenses are roughly 21mm (only 5mm above the fisheye category) and as such have significant barrel distortion.  At least my P3P/P3A do.  Doing a barrel correction in ACR or Premiere generally fixes it.  No, technically its not a fisheye.  But its darn close and most tend to call it such.  More properly its an extreme wide angle lens.

So you are saying you are getting non-uniform curvature of the horizon?  Can you post a pic showing what you are seeing please?

nigelw Posted at 2016-3-16 15:39
That's a bit of an exaggeration.  You don't need to pay that much for a better equivalent DSLR lens ...

No, you missed the point.  A $20 lens would likely be better.

The point was that even an expensive wide angle/fisheye is going to have barrel distortion unless its a rectilinear lens (which the phantom lens is not).  Its the nature of short focal lengths, not the quality of the lens.  The point was that both a cheap lens and an expensive lens is still going to distort straight lines in short focal lengths.

The widest DSLR lens I have is an 18-105 which I rarely use.  Not a great lens nor is it a fast lens.  My go to lens is my Nikon 24-70 f/2.8.  Even it, as expensive as it was, has barrel distortion at 24mm.  Though way less than the 21mm on the Phantom since I am putting it on a crop sensor camera (D7000) so I miss out o the outer edges which would show the most distortion.

Here is one at 24mm:


And this at 29mm




However, the OP seems to be talking about a different form of distortion he is seeing where the horizon is not uniformly distorted.

dlew21@mac.com Posted at 2016-3-17 04:27
Thanks for the feedback.  No I don't mean the level.  I mean the horizon, as I stated originally.  ...

most wide lenses (including very high end dlsr lenses) have distortion that you will notice when the horizon is not at the center of the image. straight lines will seem curved the further they are from the center of the image. but fortunately, most photo editing software such as adobe lightroom have lens correction tools for almost every lens you can think of, including dji lenses. When you use the lens correction tool, it will make your horizon straight again. good luck.

Sorry, posted to quick.  I am going to post a comprehensive comparison of the P4 and P3.  It will post it to the forum as soon as done

This is a quick photo I took yesterday while testing it out. I sent the raw file to another forum user, but this is the jpeg. It was not during ideal lighting times and was also 90 degrees and a bit hazy. Not sure if this helps either argument, but I think showing issues instead of explaining them will help other users understand better.

Wolfiesden Posted at 2016-3-16 20:56
No, you missed the point.  A $20 lens would likely be better.

The point was that even an expensiv ...

This image is from a Canon 11-22  lens at 11mm on a Canon EOS M, so 17.6mm equivalent.  It costs £295 new!  There's virtually no distortion at all!

nigelw Posted at 2016-3-16 19:18
This image is from a Canon 11-22  lens at 11mm on a Canon EOS M, so 17.6mm equivalent.  It costs  ...

Nigel, my Rokinon 14 doesn't have any distortion either.  My suggestion with both the P3 and P4.  If you live in a city environment, take your drone and film the skyline.  Buildings are an excellent way to gauge this problem.  From there, look at the building and how they are pointed.  You will notice that the buildings are not uniformly vertical.  You can use a grid on your editing software to really see the problem.  However it is obvious.   The biggest aberration can be seen towards the far right and left of your lens.
I have found a few ways to counter this fault in the lens through Adobe Lightroom

I have included both photos.  Notice the ground is flat all the way across the horizon .  Notice the building on the far right and how it angles up and to the right compared to the buildings in the center frame.. Admitedly this is not the best case becasue I was actually trying to shoot at 90 degrees.  I will post better examples soon.

dlew21@mac.com Posted at 2016-3-17 10:23
I have included both photos.  Notice the ground is flat all the way across the horizon .  Notice the ...

Yeah.  I can tell from your photos the P4 is total crap.  Gonna ship mine back immediately - NOT.

Can someone fire me over the DNG? I don't mind of what, just wanna see how it looks compared to a P3Pro

I deleted my comment because I didn't understand the question correctly.

anthonytori Posted at 2016-3-16 22:38
This is a quick photo I took yesterday while testing it out. I sent the raw file to another forum u ...

Hard to tell from that because the bulge would be where the buildings are.  It does seem to go up slightly at either side though, which is similar to the P3.  On the P3 it's not a simple barrel distortion that can just be corrected in Photoshop by manual adjustments.  It's more of a mustache shape & needs the proper dedicated lens correction data.  Once you have that you can forget about it & all your images can be automatically corrected.  Most modern cameras can do this in jpeg's automatically, but not RAW.

dlew21@mac.com Posted at 2016-3-17 02:23
I have included both photos.  Notice the ground is flat all the way across the horizon .  Notice the ...

The distortion you're talking about isn't due to lens aberrations, it's due to not having the sensor perfectly perpendicular to the ground.  You'll find if you get the horizon dead centre, the buildings will be straight.  If you point it down at all, they'll splay out at the top.  This effect you get when tilting the camera up or down is keystoning.  It's the same as when point your camera up at a building & it appears to taper away.  It's what shift lenses are designed to avoid.

nigelw Posted at 2016-3-17 10:19
The distortion you're talking about isn't due to lens aberrations, it's due to not having the senso ...

I've never heard this sensor theory.  I've been shooting with the P3 since it came out and the I1P, and I've seen these issues on all of their cameras.  I've read about it on this forum, and can't seem to rectify the situation.  We are talking a brand new (and calibrated) P4, so it surprises me that it wouldn't be perfectly perpendicular with the ground.   Are you referring to possible buildings and hills below?

SteadyFly Posted at 2016-3-17 17:00
I've never heard this sensor theory.  I've been shooting with the P3 since it came out and the I1P ...

When I say the sensor isn't perpendicular to the ground, I mean the camera isn't level with the ground.  In some cameras the relationship between lens & sensor is adjustable, so that's not always true.

Your horizon is above centre so the camera is pointing down slightly, hence the sensor isn't perpendicular to the ground.

nigelw Posted at 2016-3-17 14:34
When I say the sensor isn't perpendicular to the ground, I mean the camera isn't level with the gr ...

Correct, that would be the same as 90 degrees to the ground.