Thinking of Buying a 920
- Thread starter PatR
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What I can't understand is why some old guy would do videos about drones for E Harmony??? Must be that moaning and groaning thing you mentioned! Gotta be that old bull thing going on!Had forgotten you uploaded that one too... in rewatching since I've had mine up. The screeching motor sound under "no load" was exactly what I was getting. The 920 is a noisy girl, she likes to moan & advertise herself.That was a little of both the Old & Young Bull comment!
Thanks Pat, I've read about it before but haven't tried it and your explanation was very good so with all that info I will let you know how it works out in a few weeks, very unsettled weather here in Ohio, cold and raining, don't worry about the video I do enjoy our 920 group, the gang is to funny with complaints and aches. Oh I did forget to mention that the bird is a 920+, hopefully fly a maiden flight soon.
I'm old and I forgot but the video was really good, looked as though they didn't mind having a hex flying around the nice cars
The event required a meeting with the membership to obtain approval to fly, which wasn’t granted until proof of liability insurance was provided. There were also a couple of on site briefings to establish proximity to people and avoiding wandering into and under the path of the hex, which they largely ignored, which in turn caused alterations of the flight path to avoid them.
In one way they did perform as requested as they generally ignored the presence of the hex almost completely. One person even walked into the path of the H and just stood there looking the other way, which interrupted the best scene in the process of being created. The whole video was comprised of cut portions of scenes that got interrupted/diverted due to proximity of people.
In one way they did perform as requested as they generally ignored the presence of the hex almost completely. One person even walked into the path of the H and just stood there looking the other way, which interrupted the best scene in the process of being created. The whole video was comprised of cut portions of scenes that got interrupted/diverted due to proximity of people.
Go figure, as I stated before my retirement is coming so I want to do stuff like that plus residential and commercial, so was the insurance on you end? Any info can help on my part
Yea, insurance on my part. I have a liability policy with Transport Risk. $600.00/year/drone... it has not paid for itself.
Checking with the new commercial carrier for the AMA I received a quote for $100.00 less per H for similar coverage. I haven’t checked on 920 rates yet. As I’ve passed age 65 AMA membership runs ~$65.00/year if I decide to make a change.
Checking with the new commercial carrier for the AMA I received a quote for $100.00 less per H for similar coverage. I haven’t checked on 920 rates yet. As I’ve passed age 65 AMA membership runs ~$65.00/year if I decide to make a change.
I'd agree, enjoyed the outline of the Yuneec's CC. I haven't tried that on the H480 yet.
The video was also enjoyable to watch!
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Maybe a little crusty too eh.... don't like the young ones running around the yard. Ya, that seems to be an age 'thang that kicks in... Yep, just a bunch of Grumpies! Hopefully 'yer not out their attempting to give chase with a H480... that comes with a few more years. 
The video was also enjoyable to watch!
Thank you. Funny thing is, I’m not all that happy with it but evidently I need to be less critical. Another group saw the vid and called to do a 175 car show.
Gotta call the insurance agent Monday to add the 920 to the policy. I’m more comfortable flying that in such an environment than than I am with an H.
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Can you post the camera settings you typically use? The defaults or the last settings look like poopoo. Is some of the color correction done post?
Remember that was done with an H-480. Everything is done differently with the 920.
File format: MP4
1080-30
ISO- as low as I can for the lighting
White Balance; Sunny
EV as needed, usually enough to make the -16 screen show the image about a half step too dark. It’s always brighter afterwards.
Some of the video was shot late afternoon around 1700 and harsh lighting while some was shot near sunset on a different day. The up sun shots had the highlights darkened a little to remove some of the glare. As there were so many different colors, with pearls and metal flakes, so I avoided color corrections. IIRC alterations were done with lighting and shadows.
File format: MP4
1080-30
ISO- as low as I can for the lighting
White Balance; Sunny
EV as needed, usually enough to make the -16 screen show the image about a half step too dark. It’s always brighter afterwards.
Some of the video was shot late afternoon around 1700 and harsh lighting while some was shot near sunset on a different day. The up sun shots had the highlights darkened a little to remove some of the glare. As there were so many different colors, with pearls and metal flakes, so I avoided color corrections. IIRC alterations were done with lighting and shadows.
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I've got the cgo3+ figured out. I'm looking for some base line settings that work best for the cgo4 so I don't waste a lot of time trying to figure it out on my own. My biggest issue is when I'm doing the 480 pans no matter what I do the camera adjusts its settings during the pans. Blows out the sun shots and I've got the black elephant in a dark room when pointed to the ground. It does it no matter if the settings are locked or not.
Just ordered 4 more zippies because I was so excited to fly for more than 5 minutes. In my opinion the zippies are a great work around to crappy Yuneec batteries.
Just ordered 4 more zippies because I was so excited to fly for more than 5 minutes. In my opinion the zippies are a great work around to crappy Yuneec batteries.
I have a much better understanding of what you were asking now.
For the CGO-4 I shoot in MOV format for the data rate and convert to MP4 in post.
Natural and Scenery settings work well. Vivid is exactly that.
Frame rate is on you based on what you’re doing. I generally use 24.
You need a FAST writing card. What you used on the H will likely be too slow. V30 is good, V60 is ideal. If you get choppy results in pan the cause is the card. The CGO-4 is a data collection animal.
I try to shoot 90* to the side when moving forward faster than half normal speed using 4k. Better results are obtained aiming at less of an angle to the side.
EV is your friend! Since the Plus does not have a histogram we need to learn how our ST-16’s present an image. If it looks right on the ST-16 it’s over exposed. Use EV or shutter to darken the image about 1/2 to a full stop. You can lighten later but a lot of data was lost if it was too bright.
White balance seems to work well on Daylight even when cloudy.
As I go back and forth with the light metering you’ll have to find what works best for you. Sometimes center works best, other times averaging depending on the background.
If you want to play depth of field manual focus is very helpful. Set the focal distance and go. I don’t like the auto focus. It doesn’t seem to me to be as crisp as it should be. We can single tap a spot on the screen to zero auto focus in better but I don’t get the results I expect. Yours may be great. It may be I need a better lens than the stock unit.
The 920 does not maneuver as fast as an H. It really likes yaw and roll coordination to provide nice sweeping turns. You can use pitch and roll to follow a crooked path but you’ll want to be ahead of the aircraft and initiate side movement (roll) a little ahead of whatever is on the ground is changing direction. If changing direction where both yaw and roll is to be used, lead the change with yaw. You’ll get super smooth turns and impressive video that way. Oh, the gimbal is great!
Full zoom will experience some shimmer, especially when the aircraft is moving. Half zoom works better.
When the gimbal switch is in Velocity position my tilt slider is pretty much dead for the first 1/3 to 1/2 travel. After that it’s pretty **** sensitive.
If you have a low wind day you have to give “GPS off” a try. Give yourself plenty on open space. Best average speed I’ve experienced is 44mph and it handles the pretty much the same as when GPS is on. It’s a helluva “woosh” as it goes by
. Come off the throttle gently as braking seems to be enhanced when GPS is off. The Zippy batteries do not get “deep dived” when at speed like H batteries do.
You might experience power ups where the camera fails to deliver an image. That does not happen often and re-booting the aircraft takes care of it. Important; do not move the camera while the aircraft is booting up. That really irritates the camera and a re-boot is assured. If you forgot the lens cap, wait until after boot up to get it.
If you choose to remove the camera and store it in the case, remember to turn off the camera before powering down to retract the lens. You will not get it back into the case with an extended lens. If you keep the camera mounted there’s no need to turn off the camera. Just power down the bird and leave the lens extended.
For the CGO-4 I shoot in MOV format for the data rate and convert to MP4 in post.
Natural and Scenery settings work well. Vivid is exactly that.
Frame rate is on you based on what you’re doing. I generally use 24.
You need a FAST writing card. What you used on the H will likely be too slow. V30 is good, V60 is ideal. If you get choppy results in pan the cause is the card. The CGO-4 is a data collection animal.
I try to shoot 90* to the side when moving forward faster than half normal speed using 4k. Better results are obtained aiming at less of an angle to the side.
EV is your friend! Since the Plus does not have a histogram we need to learn how our ST-16’s present an image. If it looks right on the ST-16 it’s over exposed. Use EV or shutter to darken the image about 1/2 to a full stop. You can lighten later but a lot of data was lost if it was too bright.
White balance seems to work well on Daylight even when cloudy.
As I go back and forth with the light metering you’ll have to find what works best for you. Sometimes center works best, other times averaging depending on the background.
If you want to play depth of field manual focus is very helpful. Set the focal distance and go. I don’t like the auto focus. It doesn’t seem to me to be as crisp as it should be. We can single tap a spot on the screen to zero auto focus in better but I don’t get the results I expect. Yours may be great. It may be I need a better lens than the stock unit.
The 920 does not maneuver as fast as an H. It really likes yaw and roll coordination to provide nice sweeping turns. You can use pitch and roll to follow a crooked path but you’ll want to be ahead of the aircraft and initiate side movement (roll) a little ahead of whatever is on the ground is changing direction. If changing direction where both yaw and roll is to be used, lead the change with yaw. You’ll get super smooth turns and impressive video that way. Oh, the gimbal is great!
Full zoom will experience some shimmer, especially when the aircraft is moving. Half zoom works better.
When the gimbal switch is in Velocity position my tilt slider is pretty much dead for the first 1/3 to 1/2 travel. After that it’s pretty **** sensitive.
If you have a low wind day you have to give “GPS off” a try. Give yourself plenty on open space. Best average speed I’ve experienced is 44mph and it handles the pretty much the same as when GPS is on. It’s a helluva “woosh” as it goes by
. Come off the throttle gently as braking seems to be enhanced when GPS is off. The Zippy batteries do not get “deep dived” when at speed like H batteries do.You might experience power ups where the camera fails to deliver an image. That does not happen often and re-booting the aircraft takes care of it. Important; do not move the camera while the aircraft is booting up. That really irritates the camera and a re-boot is assured. If you forgot the lens cap, wait until after boot up to get it.
If you choose to remove the camera and store it in the case, remember to turn off the camera before powering down to retract the lens. You will not get it back into the case with an extended lens. If you keep the camera mounted there’s no need to turn off the camera. Just power down the bird and leave the lens extended.
Helpful post Pat thanks. To add to that, the guy I bought from who was using the H for television work said he nearly always used manual focus and usually shot at around f8/f9, focus on infinity.
He used the usual method of adding ND filter and adjusting ISO to get shutter to x2 frame rate.
He used the usual method of adding ND filter and adjusting ISO to get shutter to x2 frame rate.
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Finally getting to play with the camera settings on the plus, correct me if I am wrong in my assmptions:
They have given us a histogram that does not function
Manual mode in stills does not show any alteration on the 'Live View' (and we don't have a histogram) or an exposure meter rendering manual mode all but useless.
They have given us a histogram that does not function
Manual mode in stills does not show any alteration on the 'Live View' (and we don't have a histogram) or an exposure meter rendering manual mode all but useless.
Did the zippys fit well in the battery compartment on your plus? , How long was you flight time
