CGO3+ lens distortion correction

Lucas Galli · Aug 3, 2020

Hello, folks!
Since I first saw the crappy images that comes out of the CGO3+ I got really disappointed and almost regretted buying this thing. For a "distortionless" camera the output it is pretty awful. But I'll try to get the best out of it.
Today I made some very basic tests to check how much of its geometric distortion could be corrected. I must say that it's been a while since I last saw such a low quality lens, but I think I managed to get the barrel distortion under control. It is a complex, wavy distortion, so I will have to use a proper tool for best results. But for now I could create a profie that can be used for stills in Photoshop, which I am sharing with you. I think it is decent for start, but I accept any input from you. I still couldn't make any tests with video footage, since things are a bit more complicated in this realm. But I hope next week I'll be able to do it.
Please feel free to apply this profile in your images and tell me what do you think of it.

jannislh · Aug 4, 2020

Its a known issue that the CGO3 and CGO3+ sometimes have a lot of distortion. There are a lot of aftermarket lenses which do quiet a good job in correcting this issue. Best known are the ones from PixAero and Peau Productions. I use the last one myself and I am very satisfied. However I have not tried the first one since the availability was quiet poor when I decided to swap lenses. The reviews on the internet are also very good.

NWSaint · Aug 4, 2020

Hmmmm, i'm definetly no pro at taking pictures, but I haven't touched a thing except for switching the output on pix to jpeg mode, and IMO I think they look great..

https://i.postimg.cc/rynkqbrW/TH-45.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/pLnhfKHG/TH-21.jpg

.. maybe I just got lucky, or perhaps I just don't know that much about distortion.. LoL!

NW.

rdonson · Aug 6, 2020

@Lucas Galli Hello! The CGO3+ has a wide angle lens that's not glass. It's not going to look like what's on a commercial photo camera. I haven't checked lately but there used to be a profile for the camera in Lightroom Classic that corrected some of the distortion and gave some reasonable colors *IF* you shoot in RAW rather than JPG.

There are after market lenses for the CGO3+ that perform a LOT better. Over the years there has been a lot of discussion of those lenses in this forum. I don't know if they're still available though.

APack · Aug 6, 2020

Owning 4 CGO3+ I recognized all of them are different regarding sharpness. One suffered from a horrible misaligned lens, which I could correct by removing and re-glueing it in a plane manner. But quality control at Yuneec really sucks at this matter.

Rubik · Aug 8, 2020

It seems that not all CGO3+ were delivered with the same lens. Mine, and many others in the States had very minimal barrel distortion. Whereas, some from other countries had a lot. Was that early vs. late production, or different markets, I don't know? I was satisfied with mine. You might try getting a stock lens from a broken camera that was originally sold in the US. BTW, I was not happy with my PixAero 6mm lens and swapped it back for the original.

Lucas Galli · Aug 8, 2020

jannislh said:
Its a known issue that the CGO3 and CGO3+ sometimes have a lot of distortion. There are a lot of aftermarket lenses which do quiet a good job in correcting this issue. Best known are the ones from PixAero and Peau Productions. I use the last one myself and I am very satisfied. However I have not tried the first one since the availability was quiet poor when I decided to swap lenses. The reviews on the internet are also very good.

I am aware of these lenses, but I'm not brave enough to try to install them. Maybe in the future...

Lucas Galli · Aug 8, 2020

NWSaint said:
Hmmmm, i'm definetly no pro at taking pictures, but I haven't touched a thing except for switching the output on pix to jpeg mode, and IMO I think they look great..

https://i.postimg.cc/rynkqbrW/TH-45.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/pLnhfKHG/TH-21.jpg

.. maybe I just got lucky, or perhaps I just don't know that much about distortion.. LoL!

NW.

The distortion is most seen when you are closer to the subject, but you photos seems to be free of it. Since Yuneec's QA is very negligent in this particular aspect, it seems you got lucky!

Lucas Galli · Aug 8, 2020

rdonson said:
@Lucas Galli Hello! The CGO3+ has a wide angle lens that's not glass. It's not going to look like what's on a commercial photo camera. I haven't checked lately but there used to be a profile for the camera in Lightroom Classic that corrected some of the distortion and gave some reasonable colors *IF* you shoot in RAW rather than JPG.

There are after market lenses for the CGO3+ that perform a LOT better. Over the years there has been a lot of discussion of those lenses in this forum. I don't know if they're still available though.

I'm not sure if the CGO lens is glass or don't, but Yuneec advertises it as such. Anyway, the level of contrast and sharpness is well within I expected for a drone in this category. Like I said in another post, putting godd quality glass in the air is expensive.
As for the LR profile, I'm a professional photographer, so shooting in anything else than RAW is pointless to me. But I have tried a bit with some correction profiles and no one of them gave me satisfactory results, that's why I made my own.

ArtCox · Aug 8, 2020

Jeff Sibelius did a great YouTube series on this subject.
It is here: I have had very good results following Jeff's advice.

Photo · Aug 11, 2020

Lucas Galli said:
Hello, folks!
Since I first saw the crappy images that comes out of the CGO3+ I got really disappointed and almost regretted buying this thing. For a "distortionless" camera the output it is pretty awful. But I'll try to get the best out of it.
Today I made some very basic tests to check how much of its geometric distortion could be corrected. I must say that it's been a while since I last saw such a low quality lens, but I think I managed to get the barrel distortion under control. It is a complex, wavy distortion, so I will have to use a proper tool for best results. But for now I could create a profie that can be used for stills in Photoshop, which I am sharing with you. I think it is decent for start, but I accept any input from you. I still couldn't make any tests with video footage, since things are a bit more complicated in this realm. But I hope next week I'll be able to do it.
Please feel free to apply this profile in your images and tell me what do you think of it.

Hi all, what are the real problem with the CGO3+ images? Are you too fussy or don't I myself or my customers notice the "crappiness". Or I am just lucky to get a high quality CGO3+ to my H? I have many real estate cutomers and never heard any complains about the quality itself of the pics. I always video (no still photo) all the time and the screen grabb selected frames.
Besides complains flying to high or to low or taking pics from the "wrong" angle. But that's another story. When you say "crappy images that comes out of the CGO3+" is it your own judgement or your customers? Or is your cam just crappy"

Here's a few samples pics delivered to satisfied customers. Should they be dissapointed?

photo2be.com

This domain may be for sale!

www.photo2be.com

photo2be.com

This domain may be for sale!

www.photo2be.com

photo2be.com

This domain may be for sale!

www.photo2be.com

photo2be.com

This domain may be for sale!

www.photo2be.com

Best from Sweden

Rubik · Aug 11, 2020

No no. It's the lens in Lucas' particular camera. I've seen plenty of CGO3+ posts that have curved horizon, especially when the horizon is close to the top or bottom of the image. But not all CGO3+ cameras have that problem. Obviously, Photo's, NW Saint's and mine do not. Perhaps, Lucas, you should post some of your "crappy" shots for us to see.

NWSaint · Aug 11, 2020

Photo said:
Hi all, what are the real problem with the CGO3+ images? Are you too fussy or don't I myself or my customers notice the "crappiness". Or I am just lucky to get a high quality CGO3+ to my H? I have many real estate cutomers and never heard any complains about the quality itself of the pics. I always video (no still photo) all the time and the screen grabb selected frames.
Besides complains flying to high or to low or taking pics from the "wrong" angle. But that's another story. When you say "crappy images that comes out of the CGO3+" is it your own judgement or your customers? Or is your cam just crappy"

Here's a few samples pics delivered to satisfied customers. Should they be dissapointed?

photo2be.com

This domain may be for sale!

www.photo2be.com

photo2be.com

This domain may be for sale!

www.photo2be.com

photo2be.com

This domain may be for sale!

www.photo2be.com

photo2be.com

This domain may be for sale!

www.photo2be.com

Best from Sweden

Bra'... & I thought my shots were money... yours look amazing!.. trust we're not picky, just not sure we're on the same level as the OP.. cuz really, I mean btwn. your shots and mine, I ain't *******'.. that's for **** sure.. keep up the good work Photo! .. very nice!

PS: mods, apologies for the veiled profanity, just callin' it how i'd say it..

@Photo : that 3rd shot could have me studying that entire picture for the next week!.. INCREDIBLE DETAIL!

NW.

AlexandreMello · Aug 14, 2020

[QUOTE = "Lucas Galli, postagem: 224592, membro: 24254"]
Olá pessoal!
Desde que vi pela primeira vez as imagens ruins que saem do CGO3 +, fiquei muito desapontado e quase me arrependi de ter comprado essa coisa. Para uma câmera "sem distorção", a saída é péssima. Mas vou tentar tirar o melhor proveito disso.
Hoje fiz alguns testes básicos para verificar o quanto de sua distorção geométrica poderia ser corrigida. Devo dizer que já faz um tempo que não vi uma lente de qualidade tão baixa, mas acho que consegui controlar a distorção do barril. É uma distorção complexa e ondulada, então terei que usar uma ferramenta adequada para obter melhores resultados. Mas, por enquanto, eu poderia criar um perfil que pode ser usado para fotos no Photoshop, que estou compartilhando com vocês. Acho que é decente para começar, mas aceito qualquer entrada sua. Ainda não consegui fazer nenhum teste com filmagem, já que as coisas são um pouco mais complicadas nesse reino. Mas espero que na próxima semana eu consiga fazer isso.
Sinta-se à vontade para aplicar este perfil em suas imagens e me dizer o que você acha dele.
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Caelian · Jan 18, 2021

I have just purchased a second hand Typhoon H with CGo3+ camera. I already have a Typhoon H but wanted another for spares etc. The main reason for getting it was because I intended to change the lens on my original one to get rid of the distortion and I wanted a spare just in case. I already have the new lens. On taking apart the new camera I found that it has a totally different lens on it to my original. It's much deeper and looks to be a narrower field of view. Result! I won't know until I get a chance to put it up in the air, but it looks very much as though there were two different lenses fitted to the Typhoon H, which is why some people have distortion problems and others have no problems at all. I will update when I have flown it as I am waiting for some new gimbal rubbers.

jannislh · Jan 18, 2021

Caelian said:
I have just purchased a second hand Typhoon H with CGo3+ camera. I already have a Typhoon H but wanted another for spares etc. The main reason for getting it was because I intended to change the lens on my original one to get rid of the distortion and I wanted a spare just in case. I already have the new lens. On taking apart the new camera I found that it has a totally different lens on it to my original. It's much deeper and looks to be a narrower field of view. Result! I won't know until I get a chance to put it up in the air, but it looks very much as though there were two different lenses fitted to the Typhoon H, which is why some people have distortion problems and others have no problems at all. I will update when I have flown it as I am waiting for some new gimbal rubbers.

That is the case. There are actually even more. Very early models even had a threaded lens. I think this was more common on the CGO3 than on the CGO3+. Later models also had several different lenses due to quality issues in on some of them. The latest models did not have such a big distortion problem but still not good enough for many people. On early models the problem was sometimes quiet severe and obvious to everyone (at least when pointed out).

Vaklin · Jan 18, 2021

jannislh said:
Very early models even had a threaded lens.

I bought an absolutely brand new CGO3+ directly from China a few months before, and the lens is threaded. Yes, it was glued, but symbolically, The glue went out very easily. The original lens itself was without some great distortion. The main problem is the red color without the ND filter for these cameras.