With the all technology on all DJI products, why is there no zoom feature? Is it a law for drones or just a DJI decision?

Costs i imagine probably come in time.Anti lobby will have a field day already convinced were all spies

pi-inthesky@hot Posted at 2015-11-9 20:54
Costs i imagine probably come in time.Anti lobby will have a field day already convinced were all sp ...

isn't digital zoom a software application tho?

Hi, jacksdrone, even though we have great gimbals, but mostly zoomed videos are tend to be shaky, that is the only reason

DJI-Tim Posted at 2015-11-9 21:44
Hi, jacksdrone, even though we have great gimbals, but mostly zoomed videos are tend to be shaky, th ...

Thanks Tim. Please all me Jack. Why not 3x or so digital. Should affect stabilization to a very minor degree correct?

jacksdrone Posted at 2015-11-10 10:47
Thanks Tim. Please all me Jack. Why not 3x or so digital. Should affect stabilization to a very mi ...

yes, but you always lose something, whether the stability or the video quality

DJI-Tim Posted at 2015-11-9 21:54
yes, but you always lose something, whether the stability or the video quality

Thanks for assistance

jacksdrone Posted at 2015-11-10 13:56
Thanks for assistance

You could shoot in 4k video, then when you output to 1080p, you get great picture quality and in editing you can do slow smooth pans and zooms because you are using 4K video.  When you zoom in during editing you will not lose output resolution. Try it, it works a treat.

Digital zoom SUCKS big time.  You don't ever want to use it.  Quality degrades immediately.

Digital zoom is useless and fake. You don't need Phantom 3 to do the digital zoom for you, you can do it yourself in a video editor at any time. Basically you just crop the frame down to the size you desire, that's digital zoom for you. Of course it also means the picture will be more pixellated the more you crop down.

The real zoom is optical zoom, which requires the right hardware. Optical zoom cannot be achieved by software like fake (digital) zoom. Optical will more a lot more expensive to implement. Also the more you zoom in, the shakier the image will be.

noodle Posted at 2015-11-10 19:31
Digital zoom is useless and fake. You don't need Phantom 3 to do the digital zoom for you, you can d ...

This is not necessarily true, if you shoot at 4K resolution you can zoom in or pan without losing resolution when you output down to 1080p because you have all those extra pixels to start with. Obviously you cannot do this if you are outputting to a 4K video.

jennings93@gmai Posted at 2015-11-10 22:06
This is not necessarily true, if you shoot at 4K resolution you can zoom in or pan without losing  ...

Like I have said, you can use video editor to do that, cropping video to a smaller portion of the image. You don't need Phantom to do that for you.

jennings93@gmai Posted at 2015-11-10 02:44
You could shoot in 4k video, then when you output to 1080p, you get great picture quality and in e ...

Curious as am a Noob to video editing.  What if any free video software will allow the zoom in editing from 4K to 1080p?

If you want zoom, try this...




Fly closer to what you want to film - never fails.

Nuff said !!!

being able to zoom in real time would be nice

toddf.perkins@g Posted at 2015-11-11 07:11
being able to zoom in real time would be nice

New flyers ask for zoom all the time but there are significant issues wthat make it impractical.
Weight and balance are big ones.
Extra complexity to control it.
Trying to get a telephoto lens to give a sharp focussed image on a vibrating drone is another biggie.
Get up in the $20K+ class and you might be able to but zoom isn't a practical or realistic option for the Phantom.

Aviator24 Posted at 2015-11-11 02:40
Curious as am a Noob to video editing.  What if any free video software will allow the zoom in edi ...

Yeah, well there is the problem, you want it for free. There are lots of programs that let you crop (the real term for post production zoom), but you have to pay for them.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2015-11-10 17:20
New flyers ask for zoom all the time but there are significant issues wthat make it impractical.
W ...

Point taken as to quality (or lack there of) of digital zoom. Thanks to all for responses

digital zoom is shaky on my smartphone as well, but that doesn't stop me from using it. The phantoms gimbal seems much more stable than my hands are

When I need to Zoom, I rely on my Nikon D800 - Nikkor 80~400mm lens. ;-)
That works well for me. Even the earth moon is a near facial portrait. Haha
The old creator face. Sure has some pocks.

I am already quite satisfied happy with the Phantom camera and current lens arrangement.
Yeah but, any future upgrade would be greatly welcomed and appreciated too.

RedHotPoker

RedHotPoker Posted at 2015-11-11 00:22
When I need to Zoom, I rely on my Nikon D800 - Nikkor 80~400mm lens. ;-)
That works well for me. Eve ...

Some of us have no Nikon D800

jacksdrone Posted at 2015-11-13 16:32
Some of us have no Nikon D800

If you want to zoom in during playback and you are using a windows based computer,  you can use Media Player Classic,  a free multimedia player that come in the also free K-lite codec pack.  It will zoom in while you are playing,  so you can pause and zoom,  zoom and pause,  whatever.  It will also let you pan the zoomed image.  Has a lot of other pretty nice features as well.
I have a security PTZ camera that has a 36x optical zoom.  Beautiful.  Try a 36x digital zoom,  you can not even tell what you are looking at.

Kneepuck Posted at 2015-11-14 12:24
If you want to zoom in during playback and you are using a windows based computer,  you can use Me ...

In any forum that deals with professional production, they will tell you to avoid the K-lite codec pack like it is the plague.

Kneepuck Posted at 2015-11-13 20:24
If you want to zoom in during playback and you are using a windows based computer,  you can use Me ...

Thanks! Isnt digital zoom just enlarging the pixels thus the image? Or is that too old school?

jacksdrone Posted at 2015-11-14 13:05
Thanks! Isnt digital zoom just enlarging the pixels thus the image? Or is that too old school?

No, it is simply cropping the image, showing fewer pixels, thereby turning the image to crap.

Geebax Posted at 2015-11-13 18:05
In any forum that deals with professional production, they will tell you to avoid the K-lite codec ...

Seems clear we are not dealing with professional production.  He did specify free.  For my application,  using MPC from K-lite works fine for the zoom feature.

Kneepuck Posted at 2015-11-14 14:00
Seems clear we are not dealing with professional production.  He did specify free.  For my applica ...

Heaps of other programs, also free, come with capable codecs. Just the K-lite ones are notorious.

Geebax Posted at 2015-11-13 20:23
Heaps of other programs, also free, come with capable codecs. Just the K-lite ones are notorious.

I wasn't aware of that.  However,  I have been using K-lite stuff for a number and have not had any issues,  What problems are you referring to?  Keep in mind,  I am not a professional and so do not have professional requirements.

Kneepuck Posted at 2015-11-14 15:45
I wasn't aware of that.  However,  I have been using K-lite stuff for a number and have not had an ...

I've never used them, but apparently user of the Sony Vegas Pro editing system found they over-wrote the codecs that came with other programs and caused inferior results.