Longer (6mm & 8mm) PixAero Lenses Now Available!

[rdonson]

Thank you Eagle's Eye Video (A) and rdonson (B) for two impressive, and different, renditions of Graham's image. It would be fascinating to read both your step-by-steps. FWIW (not much - my eyes are subjective and I haven't used any tools to analyse), here's what I get from them:

A. Less brightness, less contrast, more detail - especially in shadows, warm palette, bright blue sky
B. Impressive sharpness, more brightness, more contrast, less detail, cool palette, gray overcast sky

As a work of art, I prefer A. As an arresting advertising image, I prefer B. And you both did a great job in smoothing out Graham's canvas texture.

Incidentally, it wasn't until I opened A and B that I realised that the miniature Chinese lanterns on the beach were actually birds!

YuKay, a couple of thoughts.

To judge color you need a calibrated monitor. Without calibration you have no reference point.

Most RAW (including DNG) photos are taken with 12-14 bits of color information. Good editing software will enable you to work in a 16 bit wide gamut color space such as ProPhotoRGB. There are a lot of good reasons to use the big color spaces including fine art printing.

JPEGs contain 8 bits of color data so you may be throwing away a lot of color data when exporting from your photo editing software. Yes, most of the Internet denizens only know about and deal with JPEGs. If you’re serious about the photograph you likely save your editing as a TIFF with maximum color data. Then you can export to JPEG for sharing on the internet and have the TIFF saved if you want to do more with the image.

Hope this helps,
Ron

 

[YuKay]

Thanks rdonson. My monitor is constantly being calibrated by my Pantone Huey Pro, albeit the hues still shift depending on the time of day/ambient lighting. And having worked in prepress digital imaging for many years, I know all about the perils of the JPEG… which is why I personally wouldn't bother post-processing a JPEG still from any camera - at least not if I have to re-save the file as a JPEG.

 

[rdonson]

I guess I was preaching to the choir in your case

 

[Graham]

Graham, I also wanted comment on a couple other settings you were using... know that when you select "Gorgeous" mode you are getting an image that has been enhanced by the engineers at Yuneec to provide a prettier image with some increased contrast and saturation.

A pure image out of the CGO3+ is the "Raw" setting. Acknowledging that most people find the "Raw" setting too flat, they also have the "Natural" setting, which is a compromise between "Raw" and "Gorgeous". I use the "Natural" setting as a starting point and go from there.

You are doing the right thing by reducing exposure by a 1/3 to 1/2 F-Stop. Digital should be shot as slide film was shot, with that degree of under exposure. Like slide film, when you overexpose highlights, all you have is blank white area, with no visual detail left to resolve.

You also mentioned that you sharpened a lot... over-sharpening can exacerbate the JPG artifacts you are seeing in your JPG. Also see my post in the CES 2018 thread on modifying the default sharpness setting on the CGO3+ itself...

CES 2018; Yuneec 3 announces: Typhoon H Plus, Firebird FPV airplane and HD racer drones

Thanks very much, l'll follow that up. I was using gorgeous as I think our winter landscapes tend to look dull and didn't consider subsequent processing. I have a 6mm pixaero on the way and will indeed try natural when comparing lenses. I also prefer the denser colours from slight underexposure. Sharpness was done by eye looking at the distant bungalow. I'll certainly bear oversharpening in mind now. And jpg compression.

 

[YuKay]

If you have Photoshop or another image editor which supports layers, try making 3 or 4 duplicate layers of your image and sharpen each layer more than the previous layer. Then, working from the top layer down, start erasing sections of the image which look over-sharpened (preferably using a feathered edge to soften any resulting transitions). When you're done, flatten the layers and your final image may include sections from each layer. And for obvious reasons, if you must sharpen, do it last of all - after every other image manipulation process you may want to do.

PS. You'll know this, but never edit - and especially never sharpen - an image at less than 100% view as you won't be able to see the result of your action properly.

 

[Graham]

Here's some video from the Peau 8.25mm.

 

[pctyphoon]

So, you are satisfied with the 8.25 lens? Would you say it brings the picture in 2x, 3x, etc as compared to stock lens. Thanks for the video...

 

[Graham]

Yes, I'm happy with it, though it's better suited for photos rather than video because of vibration. I'd say the description on the Peau website is good 8.25mm f/3.0 41d HFOV 16MP (No Distortion) – Peau Productions

 

[Rubik]

Here's some video from the Peau 8.25mm.

Very nice! I like how the long lens allowed you to get close ups of the birds without scaring them away. I noticed only a tiny bit of wiggle near the beginning of the video.

 

[Graham]

Thanks, altitude was about 4m and of course I've omitted video showing bad vibration. I was flying in calm air and it would probably be much worse in wind.

 

[PatR]

Whenever we try to use a lens longer or heavier on a stabilization gimbal that was designed around a lighter or shorter fixed lens there will always be a possibility the gimbal may not be able to stabilize the camera 100% of the time. It's possible to help the gimbal do better by balancing the camera and lens to offset the effects of the longer/heavier lens but the extra weight might be more than the gimbal motors can handle and make the situation a little worse. It's a trial and error process. OTOH, the better video processing programs provide the ability to deal with minor amounts jello or other vibrations in post.

It would be interesting for those that have obtained 6 and 8mm lenses to weigh them on a gram scale and post those numbers here. If they also happened to have new boards that could be weighed the total difference in weights from the stock lens and boards could be reviewed.

 

[oliver]

In any case the long focal lengths will always cause problems on the images, moreover with wind and fast displacements. The E50 prototypes had at first also worries. It would be pitiful not to exceed 6 mm instead of 8.25. Even with a CG03 + stock, it happens to meet this kind of defect.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

One thing that is important to note is that the performance of any lens, is determined in part by it's use. Most of the vibrational softness issues only become apparent when the shutter speed is slowed via ND filters to provide smoother, more cinematic video.

For any photographic use, I recommend to either use only a polarizer or no filter at all to keep the shutter speed as high as possible for proper exposure, while in photo mode. Of course the ideal use of any longer lens would be any specialization that only utilizes photographic data, as opposed to video... such as NDVI analyses.

 

[Wakeborder2]

If you have a 98 degree lens on your CGO3+ then I believe the lens will screw right in to the existing barrel.

View attachment 7954 View attachment 7955

what are we looking at in these pics?

 

[Steve Carr]

what are we looking at in these pics?

It's a way to identify which lens is on your camera.
However, I have found the barrel size seems to vary. I just tried changing the lens in a 98 deg and the threads did not match.

 

[Rubik]

what are we looking at in these pics?

I think you should look at the difference in the rings around the lens right down near the glass. Also, images with the 115-deg lens will have horizon curvature when the horizon is near the top of the view.

 

[YuKay]

Also, images with the 115-deg lens will have horizon curvature when the horizon is near the top of the view.

Did anyone watch the golf from Torrey Pines at the weekend? Their stock ocean-pointing camera had the most extreme horizon curvature I've ever seen. I thought those broadcasters only used the best cameras.

 

[PatR]

They do use great cameras and lenses but a variable focal length wide angle lens will generate a bent horizon when at the shortest focal length. Many cinema types intentionally make use of that.

 

[Rubik]

I just received my 6mm Pixaero lens & mount from Russia. The packaging was covered with Russian script. The only English was my name and address.
I ordered some picks and will be installing the lens when they arrive. Hopefully it will just be as follows:
1. open camera cover exposing lens and adhesive (done),
2. pick out adhesive,
3. screw out stock 98-deg lens,
4. screw in new 6mm lens,
5. rough focus with ST16,
6. scribe single radial mark on lens face and multiple radially marks every few degrees +/- on mount face,
7. shoot 4k video of distant scenery with audio ON while rotating lens and describing which scribe mark,
8. review video on 4k monitor to determine best focus,
9. set lens to proper scribe mark,
10. apply hot melt adhesive to joint (maybe just 2 dabs 180-deg apart),
11. reassemble camera and test,
12. post results here.
Does this plan look right to any of you who have changed a lens on an early TH?

 

[oliver]

I just received my 6mm Pixaero lens & mount from Russia. The packaging was covered with Russian script. The only English was my name and address.
I ordered some picks and will be installing the lens when they arrive. Hopefully it will just be as follows:
1. open camera cover exposing lens and adhesive (done),
2. pick out adhesive,
3. screw out stock 98-deg lens,
4. screw in new 6mm lens,
5. rough focus with ST16,
6. scribe single radial mark on lens face and multiple radially marks every few degrees +/- on mount face,
7. shoot 4k video of distant scenery with audio ON while rotating lens and describing which scribe mark,
8. review video on 4k monitor to determine best focus,
9. set lens to proper scribe mark,
10. apply hot melt adhesive to joint (maybe just 2 dabs 180-deg apart),
11. reassemble camera and test,
12. post results here.
Does this plan look right to any of you who have changed a lens on an early TH?

For having changed several lenses on gopro, I focus with an indoor test chart iso 12233, 2 meters away and directly on the 4K screen. For the H, use the HDMI output while recording, then confirm by reading the micro SD card. Then block the whole with transparent bathroom silicone. it takes 24 hours, but it does not move and can be removed.