is it worth increasing lens power on the P4.  seems like a pain.  I'd love to have dynamic zoom.  seems weight a problem

Fly nearer the object not sure I want a zoom on my P4

It is not as simple as simply adding a zoom lens. As you zoom in, the degree of gimbal stabilisation begins to shows up its flaws.

fans9efd7b08 Posted at 2016-10-31 14:45
Fly nearer the object  not sure I want a zoom on my P4

You guys point makes much sense.  My motive is not to intrude on other’s privacy (kinda an oxymoron considering drone design criteria) but rather, when at high altitudes, I’d like to be able to take a quick peek via zoom rather than reposition the aircraft (lower means noisier).  I’m guessing I’m getting into high dollar, heavy (weight) equipment.  That means bigger drones and high end communication protocols.  I’m also curious about gimbal stabilization mentioned by Geebax.
On another note, can either of you give me a quick lesson on filters.  They impact the histogram but they may do all sorts of other stuff.  Do they simply lower the light coming into the lens (and protect the lens).  Also how much of a pain in the ass is it to convert RAW data to a usable format?
Finally, do you guys need to invert all your equipment so the pictures are right side up?
Many thanks for all the help - Steve

Geebax Posted at 2016-10-31 15:44
It is not as simple as simply adding a zoom lens. As you zoom in, the degree of gimbal stabilisation ...

You guys point makes much sense.  My motive is not to intrude on other’s privacy (kinda an oxymoron considering drone design criteria) but rather, when at high altitudes, I’d like to be able to take a quick peek via zoom rather than reposition the aircraft (lower means noisier).  I’m guessing I’m getting into high dollar, heavy (weight) equipment.  That means bigger drones and high end communication protocols.  I’m also curious about gimbal stabilization mentioned by Geebax.
On another note, can either of you give me a quick lesson on filters.  They impact the histogram but they may do all sorts of other stuff.  Do they simply lower the light coming into the lens (and protect the lens).  Also how much of a pain in the ass is it to convert RAW data to a usable format?
Finally, do you guys need to invert all your equipment so the pictures are right side up?
Many thanks for all the help - Steve

dZe4UaPJgyOi Posted at 2016-11-1 08:12
You guys point makes much sense.  My motive is not to intrude on other’s privacy (kinda an oxymor ...

The gimbal thing is quite simple, while the gimbal electronics may be capable of providing a stable image with wide angle lenses, as soon as you zoom in, every tiny movement of the camera becomes very noticeable.

ND filters are not there to protect the lens, it already has a simple IR filter on it to do that. They are like sunglasses for your camera. You only need them for video shooting, not for stills. All they do is allow the shutter speed to be kept in the lower ranges, which has the effect of adding some blurring motion to the images, lessening the 'stutter' effect on camera movements, particularly pans. For stills shooting, a faster shutter speed is more of an advantage, as you do not want your images blurred by movement.

You need a selection of ND filters, they come in 8, 16, 32 and 64 ratings, however even in our bright sun here, I only use 16 and 32. In using them for video, I switch on the histogram display and adjust the exposure manually to keep the highlights close to the right hand edge of the histogram.

RAW is tricky. You need to understand that any RAW image must be 'developed' to unlock its potential, so you need a decent photo editing program to do that. You also need the official DJI LUT (look up table) that can be downloaded from the DJI site and your photo editing app needs to be able to accept that LUT. After that, it takes quite a bit of learning to fully appreciate how to bring out the best. To be honest, I do not recommend it to anyone starting out, the results can be disappointing until you grasp the fundamentals. But by all means experiment with it.

No, we don't need to invert our images, but it allows us to fly along looking up skirts