Are you guys (and girls) always shooting in 4k?

[CCrew]

Be easy on me, I'm new at this

Are you folks generally defaulting to shooting in 4k? Reason I ask is that I've been experimenting in the roughly two weeks I've owned my P3P shooting video and for lack of a better description I'm not overly impressed with the video quality in 4k. It seems to be generally what I consider flickering and nowhere near the sharpness nor stability I'd expect. It's almost as if the interlacing top to bottom of the frame varies. While part of it I know is my general newbieness of the flight controls, I'm seeing distortion in the video even at a hover. Stills are incredible. Is there a general learning curve to getting stable video, i.e.: exposure, etc that I need to master in addition to the controls? If it matters, I see it in the raw footage direct off the SD card, and it's consistent on whatever machine I view it on, be it high end Mac or Windows, all of which should render it just fine. I haven't even put it into edit (test videos, not worthy of a lot of post processing.)

Thanks in advance

 

[jeganx]

It depends on where you want to display the result and how fast you going to fly. I did notice the flickering, hence if I have no specific intention, I would rather record in Full HD 1080p 60fps.

 

[teccer]

+1 I don't use 4k as I've got no way to replay it back and I can't really fault 1080 even on my 40" tv it's crystal clear and sharp

 

[Natho]

man I had the exact same problem! After reading every post and trying everything... It pretty much came down to buying a high end Lexmar micro sd card and USB adapter. An up to date video playing program on the laptop and boom problem solved.! Cost $100 Aus for the sd card now I get super crisp 4K footage!

 

[jeganx]

Also, you dont want to pan or yaw your bird too fast when recording in 4K. It has to be slow enough to get the best result.

 

[matti]

I shoot 4K (3840 x 2160 because it is 16:9 unlike 4096 x 2160) because it better allows me to straighten out the often tilted horizon. It also allows me to grab essentially the same resolution images as the real 4000 x 3000 images (sans raw .dng of course).

I did a quick test and I slightly preferred the 4K input->HD output quality to HD input->HD output quality (No horizon fix in that test. The video editor settings might play a role here, though).

I output 1920x1080 (4K is somewhat crispier but takes too much space and time for my needs).

 

[olof Ekbergh]

Always 4K, leaves you way more options in post. You can crop in, sharpening works well, pull stills from frames at high res, tweak color more for 1080 delivery.

You need a powerful computer though.

And yes you need to be very smooth flying, especially pans. I tweak my rates and expo to be very sluggish this helps a lot.

 

[BobMcKinlay]

I tweak my rates and expo to be very sluggish this helps a lot.

Care to share your settings? I'm on an eternal hunt to find something that works for me. There's tons of advice out there, none of which seems to hit the spot. I guess another expirement won't hurt!

 

[CCrew]

You need a powerful computer though.

Thanks all for the responses. I think a 12 core Mac Pro w/64gb is enough computer though . I have the editing/display capability, it's definitely a source issue.
I may try Natho's suggestion, although currently using Samsung Pro+ cards which they say are "Compatible with 4K video" @ 95mb read 90mb write Class 10/UHS1 .

I'm even seeing it in hover with no wind, so I'm not 100% sure it's just the newbie maneuvering.

 

[olof Ekbergh]

Thanks all for the responses. I think a 12 core Mac Pro w/64gb is enough computer though . I have the editing/display capability, it's definitely a source issue.
I may try Natho's suggestion, although currently using Samsung Pro+ cards which they say are "Compatible with 4K video" @ 95mb read 90mb write Class 10/UHS1 .

I'm even seeing it in hover with no wind, so I'm not 100% sure it's just the newbie maneuvering.

I do fine on several MBP's and MPs. Just remember you also need a fast RAID or SSD's.

Use FCPX and transcode to Prores422 before editing and you will have no problems at all. I also use a BlackMagic output thunderbolt ExpressStudio and use SDI to display on a pro eval monitor, and at the same time to a consumer TV. Smooth as silk even from my 2 year old MBP (TOL back then 1TB SSD helps).