Curved Horizon
- Thread starter Jmf455
- Start date
It's geometric distortion caused by the lens.
Photoshop has the ability to adjust for geometric distortion, as long as a lens definition exists. I can't remember for sure if one can manually create a lens profile, but I seem to remember it's possible.
Photoshop has the ability to adjust for geometric distortion, as long as a lens definition exists. I can't remember for sure if one can manually create a lens profile, but I seem to remember it's possible.
That sound good for the images but how about the video. Would any program straighten out the video.
Google tells me it is possible, and that there are several ways to accomplish this, and several programs available to do it.
PatR
Premium Pilot
Call Yuneec and explain this to them. Take a couple of still pictures to assist your explanation, presuming the horizon is presented the same way. Looks like you might have gotten one of the original lenses that were changed to eliminate that. The CGO3+ does not provide a curved horizon.
FlushVision
Premium Pilot
As well as my H480 I also regularly fly a Phantom 2 Vision Plus which does display a significantly curved horizon. When I feel the need to correct that distortion I generally use a program called 'ProDrenalin' which, incidentally, has a pre-set for the P2V+, and other pre-sets can be made to cover for cameras not already listed in it's stock pre-sets. It works well in removing fisheye but the downside is that once you render the corrected results you lose some of the quality. I also have 'Filmora' which also has a tool for dealing with these distortions but I've never used that tool so I can't comment on how well it works.
But this is only for my P2V+. My H480 does not show a curved horizon at all so I have no need to do any corrections for lens distorts. Incidentally, my H480 was one of the first available to the consumer in the U.K. (pre ordered before it's official release) and received by me on the first June 2016, so is one of the early ones.
PatR
Premium Pilot
I don't have any info to support this but I don't believe Yuneec deliberately produced super wide angle cameras. In fact, I don't think Yuneec is the actual maker of the camera and it's done by a contracted vendor. It's quite probable an employee of the vendor used parts from the wrong parts bin during the assembly of a few cameras and the error was not caught until some quantity had been transferred to Yuneec, fitted to aircraft, and made it through the shipping process. If a vendor makes products for more than one distributor and is sloppy with parts control this happens easily. It's also possible the lens manufacturer mislabeled some of the lenses provided to the camera manufacturer. Having closely followed the progress of the H since March of last year I have seen only a few reports of cameras producing a curved horizon. I do recall Yuneec acting quickly to correct them. Once they got out the door about the only way to find them again would be to wait for buyers to complain about them, as they should, and have.
What we have is an assembly of parts, with those parts and assemblies made by many different people at many manufacturers and transferred to a location for final assembly. Things can happen at any step along the way. World economy and all that...
What we have is an assembly of parts, with those parts and assemblies made by many different people at many manufacturers and transferred to a location for final assembly. Things can happen at any step along the way. World economy and all that...
Emailed some pics and talked to someone on the phone. They say that I didn't have the slider all the way up and that the curve is normal when the camera is tilted down. I will have to go out and have it up all the way and take more pics and video and see.
PatR
Premium Pilot
I didn't think it works like that either but he insisted it does. May have to call and talk to someone else.
I just realized... you took a picture of a screen, with an unknown camera with possibly an unknown amount of curvature itself.
Is there a way you can upload a screenshot or a frame of the video so we can get an accurate idea of how much curvature there is in the video from your H, as opposed to how much there is from the H as well as the camera that you used to create this picture?
Is there a way you can upload a screenshot or a frame of the video so we can get an accurate idea of how much curvature there is in the video from your H, as opposed to how much there is from the H as well as the camera that you used to create this picture?
The pic on the screen itself would not change. You can see the borders of the laptop screen. Gonna go out in a couple of days do some more pics and short videos so they aren't such a large file size. And upload here. I would try to pull shots from video I have but don't have any software for it yet. Unless something in windows can do it. I'll be shopping around and researching for some but that's a subject for another thread.
PatR
Premium Pilot
For this purpose just play the video and get to a point showing the curved horizon. Hit the pause button (fn+scrn) and take a screen shot with the video paused. Open MS Paint and select "paste". Save the file. You can use one of the default photo editors to crop anything personal out that may be present. Save the file as a JPG so it will upload to here.
You can also use the MS snipping tool once the video is paused.
You can also use the MS snipping tool once the video is paused.
For screen grabs and frame exports, Irfanview will work as well. It will play video (though it is mainly for quick photo edits) and export frames direct from the video...and it is free.
Actually it does work like that. Every lens has its curvature, and the photo will be more deformed closer to the edges of that lens. The wider the lens' is the bigger distortion you will notice. So if you capture a photo like you have shown us - where the horizon is very close to the top edge, it will be much more bent than it would be when you made a photo with the horizon in the middle of the photo. Same thing will happen with vertical line. So if you for example have a straight pillar but photograph it when it is sticking to either right or left side of the frame - it will no longer be straight. So to sum up, if you have a wide lens, and you care about objects being straight in either horizontal or vertical line, you should be sure that they are as much in the middle of the frame as possible, the farther they are from the middle - the bigger distortion you will get.
So guess I don't the have a problem unless the horizon is stil looking bent in the middle of the screen. Did 2 print screens below. With the one with more sky, not sure if tilt is up all the way but probably most of the way. But still shows some curve. The other with it tilted is more noticeable.
I know I saved pics to jpeg but they converted to png. Didn't have time this morning had to email them to myself to get them on my phone.
I know I saved pics to jpeg but they converted to png. Didn't have time this morning had to email them to myself to get them on my phone.
Attachments
Well, depends on when you bought your typhoon. I have 2 CGO3+ cameras and one of them (older - bought in may 2016) has almost no distortion, and the newer one (may 2017) has much much wider angle of the lens. I have contacted yuneec about high distortion of the newer camera, they told me that in the new cameras they install a lens with 115 degrees angle and in the older cameras they installed a 98 degrees lens. That's why there is that difference and they claim it is normal and I agree because 115 degrees is pretty wide.
Bought mine late last month. So it's new. Even though the photography part of this is not a priority at this time, just want to make sure all is operating like it should. New to this so my main focus is the mechanics of it all. Practice maneuvering with my toy drone in the backyard, the simulator I got for the laptop, and using the H in wide open spaces.
If this is the way it is I can deal with it and fix it with software in the future when I get to that point.
If this is the way it is I can deal with it and fix it with software in the future when I get to that point.
Yep; geometric distortion. Thanks for taking a variable out of the equation.
Hard to find a lens that has zero geometric distortion. This is indeed more than others, and less than some. Generally speaking, the wider the angle, the more the distortion. To correct this kind of distortion, manufacturers add lens elements to the lens, increasing weight, complexity, and price at the same time. I'd have no reason to expect a higher quality out of such an inexpensive camera. After all, it is in essence a webcam mounted in a fancy gimbal. I don't expect the same quality pictures from it that I get from my DSLR with a $10,000 lens, or even a $600 lens for that matter.
What is the format for final use going to be? Personally, I shoot in 4K with the CGO3+, but only because this affords me to use a DVE 2:1 zoom without losing resolution, as I have no reason to ever use 4K as a final format. 1080p is it for me. In doing this, it would further eliminate any geometric distortion as the field-of-view of the shot is decreased.
I have yet to shoot near big water, so unfortunately I do not have a picture to be able to compare geometric distortion on my CGO3+
Best of luck in getting to the bottom of this!
Hard to find a lens that has zero geometric distortion. This is indeed more than others, and less than some. Generally speaking, the wider the angle, the more the distortion. To correct this kind of distortion, manufacturers add lens elements to the lens, increasing weight, complexity, and price at the same time. I'd have no reason to expect a higher quality out of such an inexpensive camera. After all, it is in essence a webcam mounted in a fancy gimbal. I don't expect the same quality pictures from it that I get from my DSLR with a $10,000 lens, or even a $600 lens for that matter.
What is the format for final use going to be? Personally, I shoot in 4K with the CGO3+, but only because this affords me to use a DVE 2:1 zoom without losing resolution, as I have no reason to ever use 4K as a final format. 1080p is it for me. In doing this, it would further eliminate any geometric distortion as the field-of-view of the shot is decreased.
I have yet to shoot near big water, so unfortunately I do not have a picture to be able to compare geometric distortion on my CGO3+
Best of luck in getting to the bottom of this!
