Hello my Typhoon H pilot brethren!
The Typhoon H camera has a very good stock micro camera in it. It is using the latest 4K micro Sony sensors that are on par with the latest micro sensors in the Phantom 4, Inspire X3 cam, etc. There is no reason that the camera itself shouldn't shoot as good or maybe even better than the just mentioned UAS cams.
The issue, which at this point is pretty definite, as documented by many optic houses and general hobbyists who dig into their cam and are willing to change the lens have figured out the the problem is the stock lens provided by Yuneec is holding back the CGO3+'s abilities. It's like having a brand new OLED 4K tv and setting up a silk right in front of it. Doesn't matter how good the cam is if it's being disrupted by the optics which it is. Some, more than others, as actual focusing the lens has been an issue with some of the H user base as well.
Focus is an easy fix though. I don't know but am pretty sure that someone has covered how to do this but if you are having just general focus issues with the entire image, I can tell you how to easily focus it by popping open the front of the cam and turning the lens. You want to focus in on a small object at a minimum of 40-50 feet away so that you will have infinite focus. (Just in case you landed here for a focus issue, that is how you fix that). I have seen SOME H's with weird focus issues that won't be fixed by this because it is due to imperfections in the lens optics.
I found a company (Peau Productions) that are specialists in aerial optics and they have developed a couple different lens as a replacement lens for the H. After much research, I have decided this is the company that I am trusting to fix the lens issue with my H. I haven't even snapped a frame yet so who knows, maybe the new one has a better lens the the other one? Either way, I am putting it to the test against the lens from Peau.
*** First, I DO NOT in any capacity work for or with the company (other than getting a discount for offering up my new H as an OTB comparison). I am developing a relationship with them as I might be helping them with some of their other ventures as well. They are developing camera arrays and all kinds of other good stuff that you should definitely check out on their site but we are going to focus on the H and their contribution to the camera. I feel it's okay to post this here because as I said I don't work for them and I believe they are actually a vendor here.
They create lens replacements to remove fish eye lens for example for GoPro, and optics for Phantoms, Inspire, Sony Action Cams and a bevy of other camera accessories including filters for the H and pretty much all micro cameras while having surveying solutions for cameras as small as the Hero. I am not telling you all this to sell the company. What I mean is I guess I am selling the company on their trust worthiness and their history. I have seen some of their optics in action (as you will in a second) and it is quite promising.
These guys are good and it is for this reason that I am going to send them my brand new H cam to their shop and let their people install the lens for me. But before that:
I am going to take a BRAND new Typhoon H which is my second one. I was sent it directly from Yuneec as a test unit but I already have one so instead I am going to use it for the community as a guinea pig unit for one of the lens that they have at Peau Productions. I don't have a ton of experience using my H because aside from the fun of flying it, I don't use it at all for imagery as I have too many options that have good lens in them. So before I send it in, I'm going to spend a couple weeks getting comparative shots that I will emulate with the new lens/camera combo. I will use several different settings, locations, maybe with different filters, some un-color corrected and some onlined.
I believe they have 2 lens (well definitely 2, not sure if their other lens will fit or not) for the H that literally replaces the lens in the CGO3+ unit with a new lens. The process is actually a little harder to do yourself because apparently the sticky part where you separate the lens is harder to remove with the H than it is with the Phantoms so I will be sending it directly to them. If you feel comfortable installing one yourself, then you can buy the lens at a relatively low cost and just install it. It's not difficult and I would probably have my Drone's Plus friend do it for me if I wasn't doing a full fledged review and comparison and I want to make sure it is installed per their specs and on my new unit, plus they will professional focus it for me and again, I want to have the best possible result for final review and comparison.*EDIT: I have found out since I wrote this that indeed the H is a lot harder to install than it looks on the FPV Guy vid and it didn't look easy. I would suggest, for the H anyway, if you want to get this lens mod that you send in your cam or buy one of their ready to go cams. You could always do that and sell yours.
The first one they offer for the H, in addition to their filters, is the 3.97mm lens which is the closest one to the actual stock lens FOV. Their 3.97mm lens has an 82 degree HFOV (learn the difference between Horizontal Field of View and Angle of View which most people incorrectly call FOV). I am not going to make this longer than it will already be by going into a whole lesson on what the differences are but I will post later with some of that info if desired but understanding the relationship between AOV, sensor size, lens size and how they play off the sensors to create your actual FOV is important to understand if you are going to really understand the optics. The f-stop is fixed at 2.8 as is the stock lens for the 3.97. Go to their site for all the specs and the things they claim make their glass such good quality including the type of glass they use which is 8 different elements. The 35mm equivalent on the 3.97 is 22.63mm. The AOV is 65 x 82 x 92 degrees (Horizontal, Vertical, and Diagonal).
They also offer a much largerr 8.25mm lens (which is the one I think I am going to have them install on my new camera) which drastically changes the HFOV from around 82 degrees as compared to their 3.97 to 41 degrees which gives a MUCH narrower field of view but increases the optical zoom (which is of course fixed) by about 2x (That is a pretty significant zoom if you consider that everything you see will be zoomed in twice as much as it otherwise would). The AOV on this lens is 32 x 41x 51 degrees which is (Vertical, Horizontal and Diagonal). The 35mm equivalent with the crop factor on our 1/1.23" sensor changes to 47mm. The fixed f/stop on this lens is 3 as opposed to the 2.8 on most fixed m12 lens. I would be a little concerned of the .2 difference smaller aperture might effect low light situations but judging by the video below, definitely not. Of course using ND filters are our only method for letting in light or not as we can't change the aperture on a fixed iris and also a locked focus means we have to get our preferred focus before closing up the camera.
The footage I am about to show is from their site using the 8.25 which I would have thought that the 41 degree HFOV would be entirely too narrow but I think the footage looks amazing and remember, this footage and these shots were taken with the SAME EXACT camera that is on your H but with the added benefit of a focused quality lens instead of an unfocused crappy one.
Lol, the forum won't allow me to post the rest of this in one page so I will finish it up with the video and the images (along with a summary of this post) below.
The Typhoon H camera has a very good stock micro camera in it. It is using the latest 4K micro Sony sensors that are on par with the latest micro sensors in the Phantom 4, Inspire X3 cam, etc. There is no reason that the camera itself shouldn't shoot as good or maybe even better than the just mentioned UAS cams.
The issue, which at this point is pretty definite, as documented by many optic houses and general hobbyists who dig into their cam and are willing to change the lens have figured out the the problem is the stock lens provided by Yuneec is holding back the CGO3+'s abilities. It's like having a brand new OLED 4K tv and setting up a silk right in front of it. Doesn't matter how good the cam is if it's being disrupted by the optics which it is. Some, more than others, as actual focusing the lens has been an issue with some of the H user base as well.
Focus is an easy fix though. I don't know but am pretty sure that someone has covered how to do this but if you are having just general focus issues with the entire image, I can tell you how to easily focus it by popping open the front of the cam and turning the lens. You want to focus in on a small object at a minimum of 40-50 feet away so that you will have infinite focus. (Just in case you landed here for a focus issue, that is how you fix that). I have seen SOME H's with weird focus issues that won't be fixed by this because it is due to imperfections in the lens optics.
I found a company (Peau Productions) that are specialists in aerial optics and they have developed a couple different lens as a replacement lens for the H. After much research, I have decided this is the company that I am trusting to fix the lens issue with my H. I haven't even snapped a frame yet so who knows, maybe the new one has a better lens the the other one? Either way, I am putting it to the test against the lens from Peau.
*** First, I DO NOT in any capacity work for or with the company (other than getting a discount for offering up my new H as an OTB comparison). I am developing a relationship with them as I might be helping them with some of their other ventures as well. They are developing camera arrays and all kinds of other good stuff that you should definitely check out on their site but we are going to focus on the H and their contribution to the camera. I feel it's okay to post this here because as I said I don't work for them and I believe they are actually a vendor here.
They create lens replacements to remove fish eye lens for example for GoPro, and optics for Phantoms, Inspire, Sony Action Cams and a bevy of other camera accessories including filters for the H and pretty much all micro cameras while having surveying solutions for cameras as small as the Hero. I am not telling you all this to sell the company. What I mean is I guess I am selling the company on their trust worthiness and their history. I have seen some of their optics in action (as you will in a second) and it is quite promising.
These guys are good and it is for this reason that I am going to send them my brand new H cam to their shop and let their people install the lens for me. But before that:
I am going to take a BRAND new Typhoon H which is my second one. I was sent it directly from Yuneec as a test unit but I already have one so instead I am going to use it for the community as a guinea pig unit for one of the lens that they have at Peau Productions. I don't have a ton of experience using my H because aside from the fun of flying it, I don't use it at all for imagery as I have too many options that have good lens in them. So before I send it in, I'm going to spend a couple weeks getting comparative shots that I will emulate with the new lens/camera combo. I will use several different settings, locations, maybe with different filters, some un-color corrected and some onlined.
I believe they have 2 lens (well definitely 2, not sure if their other lens will fit or not) for the H that literally replaces the lens in the CGO3+ unit with a new lens. The process is actually a little harder to do yourself because apparently the sticky part where you separate the lens is harder to remove with the H than it is with the Phantoms so I will be sending it directly to them. If you feel comfortable installing one yourself, then you can buy the lens at a relatively low cost and just install it. It's not difficult and I would probably have my Drone's Plus friend do it for me if I wasn't doing a full fledged review and comparison and I want to make sure it is installed per their specs and on my new unit, plus they will professional focus it for me and again, I want to have the best possible result for final review and comparison.*EDIT: I have found out since I wrote this that indeed the H is a lot harder to install than it looks on the FPV Guy vid and it didn't look easy. I would suggest, for the H anyway, if you want to get this lens mod that you send in your cam or buy one of their ready to go cams. You could always do that and sell yours.
The first one they offer for the H, in addition to their filters, is the 3.97mm lens which is the closest one to the actual stock lens FOV. Their 3.97mm lens has an 82 degree HFOV (learn the difference between Horizontal Field of View and Angle of View which most people incorrectly call FOV). I am not going to make this longer than it will already be by going into a whole lesson on what the differences are but I will post later with some of that info if desired but understanding the relationship between AOV, sensor size, lens size and how they play off the sensors to create your actual FOV is important to understand if you are going to really understand the optics. The f-stop is fixed at 2.8 as is the stock lens for the 3.97. Go to their site for all the specs and the things they claim make their glass such good quality including the type of glass they use which is 8 different elements. The 35mm equivalent on the 3.97 is 22.63mm. The AOV is 65 x 82 x 92 degrees (Horizontal, Vertical, and Diagonal).
They also offer a much largerr 8.25mm lens (which is the one I think I am going to have them install on my new camera) which drastically changes the HFOV from around 82 degrees as compared to their 3.97 to 41 degrees which gives a MUCH narrower field of view but increases the optical zoom (which is of course fixed) by about 2x (That is a pretty significant zoom if you consider that everything you see will be zoomed in twice as much as it otherwise would). The AOV on this lens is 32 x 41x 51 degrees which is (Vertical, Horizontal and Diagonal). The 35mm equivalent with the crop factor on our 1/1.23" sensor changes to 47mm. The fixed f/stop on this lens is 3 as opposed to the 2.8 on most fixed m12 lens. I would be a little concerned of the .2 difference smaller aperture might effect low light situations but judging by the video below, definitely not. Of course using ND filters are our only method for letting in light or not as we can't change the aperture on a fixed iris and also a locked focus means we have to get our preferred focus before closing up the camera.
The footage I am about to show is from their site using the 8.25 which I would have thought that the 41 degree HFOV would be entirely too narrow but I think the footage looks amazing and remember, this footage and these shots were taken with the SAME EXACT camera that is on your H but with the added benefit of a focused quality lens instead of an unfocused crappy one.
Lol, the forum won't allow me to post the rest of this in one page so I will finish it up with the video and the images (along with a summary of this post) below.
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