Best Camera Settings for Smooth, Clean Footage

[Matt B.]

Hello all! New to the forum. Have a TyphoonH. Love how easy it is to fly. I'm a little concerned about it's camera, though. In a nut shell, I'll fly this thing out of the box with factory settings on the camera. The Quicktime files it produces has some 'hiccups'. When viewing the raw files, you can see the footage 'stutter' or, seemingly skip a frame a bit every now and then. So instead of perfectly smooth footage, it seems to stutter. To the layman, it's barely noticeable. To me, being a professional video editor, I can see it.

I'd like to know what I can do to get perfect footage out of this thing? Should I upgrade the micro-SD card? Should I try a different setting? What camera setting do any of you, who are getting perfect footage, using? What kind of micro-SD card are you using?

Any input would be appreciated! I emailed Yuneec support once about my concerns. They asked if I was in 24p mode... told them I was using the factory settings (which is 4k 30p)... and then asked them the same question. What setting is best for perfectly clear and smooth footage? It's been 2 weeks... no response

I'd hate to return this thing because of the video footage. But I need to figure out what the best settings are for the sake of my profession.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Steak frites]

Not sure exactly what you mean by stuttering. One form of stuttering happens when the shutter speed is too fast, like shorter than 1/200th. You can see this in moving elements in the frame. This can be minimized by using a ND filter to reduce the light to the lens, then using manual exposure controls to set the shutter to 1/60 or so. The motion blur at these slower exposures helps to smooth movement frame to frame.

Another kind of shudder happens at lower frame rates when you pan. This can be minimized by panning slowly. At 24 or 25 fps, this is most pronounced, but still happens at 30fps. If you want, you could try shooting at 60fps, where this effect is ameliorated.

Yet another kind of shudder happens because the computer can't handle all the data in 4k footage. Solutions to this include getting a better pc; transcoding to cineform or dnxhd, formats that are easier for the pc to decode; or just shooting in HD, not 4k.

 

[JCFlippen]

As a fellow editor can I suggest 1080p50 or 60 and double frame rate for shutter speed. PolarPro ND 4 or 8 handy for most things.
Depending on your edit machine Compressor can sometimes make a better job of producing .mov file than FCPX conversion. The Yuneec codec has some funny quirks that sometimes need ironing out depending on your system. I have not tried Yuneec files in Avid 8.4 yet.

 

[Matt B.]

Not sure exactly what you mean by stuttering. One form of stuttering happens when the shutter speed is too fast, like shorter than 1/200th. You can see this in moving elements in the frame. This can be minimized by using a ND filter to reduce the light to the lens, then using manual exposure controls to set the shutter to 1/60 or so. The motion blur at these slower exposures helps to smooth movement frame to frame.

Another kind of shudder happens at lower frame rates when you pan. This can be minimized by panning slowly. At 24 or 25 fps, this is most pronounced, but still happens at 30fps. If you want, you could try shooting at 60fps, where this effect is ameliorated.

Yet another kind of shudder happens because the computer can't handle all the data in 4k footage. Solutions to this include getting a better pc; transcoding to cineform or dnxhd, formats that are easier for the pc to decode; or just shooting in HD, not 4k.

Thanks for some of the tips! I'm pretty sure the shuddering I'm seeing has to do with the the lower frame rates. That actually makes total sense, and is something I can't believe I didn't think of in the first place. I guess I'm just used to being on the ground at all times, always shooting in 30p for events and never run into the problem of shuddering under those circumstancs. I use iMac's that are a minimum 3.06ghz quad core i7 machines so I doubt it has anything to do with the processing speed trying to handle 4k. It handles everything else 4k or non-drone I throw at it just fine.

I'll try your suggestions and film at a higher frame rate for sure (60fps).

 

[Matt B.]

As a fellow editor can I suggest 1080p50 or 60 and double frame rate for shutter speed. PolarPro ND 4 or 8 handy for most things.
Depending on your edit machine Compressor can sometimes make a better job of producing .mov file than FCPX conversion. The Yuneec codec has some funny quirks that sometimes need ironing out depending on your system. I have not tried Yuneec files in Avid 8.4 yet.

Awesome... 1080p 60 it is. The smoother the footage, the better. I'll try 4k too for giggles and see how that works out (I'm creating a lot of "stock" video for various venues as I go and one day I'll probably need it all in 4k). Excuse my ignorance though... what does "PolarPro ND 4 or 8" mean? Is that a setting within the drone's camera settings? And if so, what exactly does that control?

I know about compressor... as you can imagine, I've tried a lot of different software combos trying to smooth out my footage. Not sure why though... the results are in the original YUNEEC files the drone produces. Thought it may have just been my system hardware messing it up. But it sounds like filming at the lower frame rates is the culprit.

 

[Mortalis]

An ND filter is an add on filter for the lens
Yuneec Typhoon 4K Filter 3-Pack

 

[Tecneek]

As a fellow editor can I suggest 1080p50 or 60 and double frame rate for shutter speed. PolarPro ND 4 or 8 handy for most things.
Depending on your edit machine Compressor can sometimes make a better job of producing .mov file than FCPX conversion. The Yuneec codec has some funny quirks that sometimes need ironing out depending on your system. I have not tried Yuneec files in Avid 8.4 yet.

Variable ND, and a variable polar for dealing with different lighting or reflections throughout the day.

 

[Willie719]

Hi! Just wondering if anyone knows a way to put a polarization filter on my cgo2?

 

[Tecneek]

Hi! Just wondering if anyone knows a way to put a polarization filter on my cgo2?

Uh, I thought it was just like the CGO3. Push-in slightly, twist, pull-off or push-in slight twist to put one on. The filter has to be specifically designed for the CGO3. If you are not talking about that, and are talking about adjustments. I start by looking through the filter towards my flat screen TV. When viewing the TV through the filter and turning the filter to different degrees, the brightest point you see from the TV is equal to the set point for polarized sunglasses, and is the point that avoids the most reflections. I mark that point on my lens with a marker. As you continue to turn the filter, the TV will eventually turn black - mark that point on the outside of the filter. That point will be where all the reflections come back in. So, now you have two points that go from seeing all reflections to seeing the least amount of reflections. That is my layman's approach...