Video settings and SD Card

[Photo]

Hi, I fly commercial with H480 for still pics but now a customer wants video.. What settings can you recommend, if its possible to say. What type of SD card is needed? Best from Sweden

 

[Steve Carr]

The sd card must be a U3.
The settings I use are Gorgeous or Natural at 2160p at 25 fps. Lock the white balance. Depending on lighting you may need to set the exposure manually.

 

[Photo]

The sd card must be a U3.
The settings I use are Gorgeous or Natural at 2160p at 25 fps. Lock the white balance. Depending on lighting you may need to set the exposure manually.
View attachment 9358

Thanx Steve, marvelous quick response!

 

[PatR]

Lock the white balance after the system boots up.

Use sunrise/sunset for the lighting.

Don’t “cheap out” with the SD card. It’a a mistake many make. You want the fastest write speed you can have as 4k video puts close to a gig a minute to the card. Low write speeds generate those choppy pans we see so many complaints about. 90mb/s minimum, preferably 100mb/s.

Use the ST-16 screen as a visual guide to under expose about 1 stop from what looks great on the screen. Use EV to darken it. By visually under exposing from what visually appears correct on the screen your video will come off the card very close to correct.

Capture something white at the beginning or end of the video that can be discarded in post. Use the white feature to adjust white balance if needed.

Perform pans slowly and smoothly. Adjust tilt slow and smooth.

Use cruise control to free up your hands for camera control.

Make small flight control changes. Large directional changes, along with fast pans and tilts ruin a video faster than anything else. You can fix color, you can’t fix nauseating visuals. The only way to fix those are to cut them from the video.

 

[Steve Carr]

Large directional changes, along with fast pans and tilts ruin a video faster than anything else. You can fix color, you can’t fix nauseating visuals. The only way to fix those are to cut them from the video.

Absolutely agree with that.

 

[Photo]

Lock the white balance after the system boots up.

Use sunrise/sunset for the lighting.

Don’t “cheap out” with the SD card. It’a a mistake many make. You want the fastest write speed you can have as 4k video puts close to a gig a minute to the card. Low write speeds generate those choppy pans we see so many complaints about. 90mb/s minimum, preferably 100mb/s.

Use the ST-16 screen as a visual guide to under expose about 1 stop from what looks great on the screen. Use EV to darken it. By visually under exposing from what visually appears correct on the screen your video will come off the card very close to correct.

Capture something white at the beginning or end of the video that can be discarded in post. Use the white feature to adjust white balance if needed.

Perform pans slowly and smoothly. Adjust tilt slow and smooth.

Use cruise control to free up your hands for camera control.

Make small flight control changes. Large directional changes, along with fast pans and tilts ruin a video faster than anything else. You can fix color, you can’t fix nauseating visuals. The only way to fix those are to cut them from the video.

PatR, another great informative response! Thanx!

 

[PatR]

Although it can make me feel good, don’t thank me, thank everyone that’s posted their experiences here we’ve all learned from. There’s quite a bit I’ve gotten to learn from you folks that gets passed on to others.

Thanks for sure though

 

[AH-1G]

Although it can make me feel good, don’t thank me, thank everyone that’s posted their experiences here we’ve all learned from. There’s quite a bit I’ve gotten to learn from you folks that gets passed on to others.

Thanks for sure though

Such a humble man.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

We really do need a "I'm not worthy" emoji...

 

[PatR]

Maybe for you[emoji56] Seriously though, none of us could have gotten to wherever we are at without the experiences and help from those that have gone before us. For some that experience started long ago with what is now viewed as ancient technology. Others that have grown up with more advanced technology have been able to put things together faster and with their shared ability opened doors previously closed to those more comfortable with older stuff. It’s always been a two way street.

We all owe a debt to whomever we learn something from and perhaps the best way to repay those debts is by helping others grow. Forums like this help that happen.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

One of the key points that PatR brought up, is to pretty much ignore the read speed specs... write speed, 10 class and U3 or V30 rating are the only relevant parameters for our cameras. The micro SD card is your film, and as with any system, not pushing the upper limits of capacity is key.

I think the quoted write speed of the CGO3+ is about 50 Mb p/s, but having that extra cushion of 90 Mb capacity is what gives the smooth high quality video that the camera is capable of, within the limits of the sensor. The quoted memory requirements for Win10 is 2 GB... anyone running a Win10 box with only 2 GB RAM?

 

[rdonson]

Maybe for you[emoji56] Seriously though, none of us could have gotten to wherever we are at without the experiences and help from those that have gone before us. For some that experience started long ago with what is now viewed as ancient technology. Others that have grown up with more advanced technology have been able to put things together faster and with their shared ability opened doors previously closed to those more comfortable with older stuff. It’s always been a two way street.

We all owe a debt to whomever we learn something from and perhaps the best way to repay those debts is by helping others grow. Forums like this help that happen.

I couldn't agree more.

I still think that a lot of the "best practices" of owning, flying, maintaining and repairing a TH keep being rehashed and retold when we get a new batch of pilots. I wish we had a place to store this wisdom for new pilots where they could get up to speed quickly. These "best practices" should be curated so as to represent the collective wisdom and experience of this fine group. It might even include YouTube videos that cover some of the "best practices" well. I don't think it needs to be a manual. There are good manuals available.

Yes, I know this is means work but its also work for the most experienced pilots to repeatedly answer the same questions.

I'd give some of my time to help this kind of effort even though I consider myself a relative beginner.

 

[rdonson]

My approach for optimizing and getting the most out of the video and photos for the CGO3+ camera.

I shoot at the maximum resolutions because trying to turn HD to 4K afterwards is not going to go well. Neither is shooting low resolution photos and trying to "upres" them. You can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.

A lot is based on my digital photography experiences starting in 2000. I live in the US so some things like video fps may be slightly different in other countries. Those shooting for a "cinema" look may also choose different settings. These are my basics and don't include shooting video for "slow motion".

There are also YouTube videos from Captain Drone and Jeff Sibelius that cover this well.

As already mentioned shoot with U3 micro SD cards of at least 90 mps. I tend to favor Sandisk Extreme cards.

Video:
- 3840 x 2160 at 30 fps
- Natural or Gorgeous - RAW (flat look) if you're color grading in post processing with DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, etc.

Photos:
- set up camera for maximum resolution (12 megapixels)
- use higher shutter speeds to reduce blur
- take several shots rather than just one
- switch to "Photo" during video sessions then return to "video" after shooting stills
- use the "photo" button
- JPG if you're not going to post process photos significantly
- DNG if you're doing post processing in Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.
- JPG+DNG for convenience to see the image without doing post processing then choosing which ones get post processing

White Balance:
- Avoid Auto White Balance if possible
- Ideally set manually using an 18% gray target or a white sheet if you don't have a gray target
- Set to one of the preset white balance settings if you have to (Sunshine, Cloudy, fluorescent, etc.)
- "lock" in the white balance - you don't want it to change while shooting video

Manually set shutter speed and ISO:
- use the lowest ISO setting possible for the conditions - high ISO introduces noise (grain)
- for video set shutter speed to twice the fps rate - i.e. if shooting at 30 fps set shutter speed to 1/60
- use an ND filter (ND4, ND8, ND16) based on light conditions to achieve the desired shutter speed and ISO
- use EV (exposure value) to adjust appropriately for conditions - lock it in
- adjust EV during flight with the left D-pad

Manually setting white balance, shutter speed and ISO will eliminate "blooming" and strange shifts in color that are hard to correct.

Inexpensive gray target for setting white balance:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HT9MA1W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hope this helps