Color mode & Dynamic Range

After having a really bad experience with D-log on my first flight and then switching to D-Cinelike for the next few flights I went back to D-log to give that another shot. My first attempt a few weeks ago was terrible and although the Go app screen seemed to indicate the exposure was OK and the camera histogram was really good when I reviewed the footage the video was horribly blown with much of the sky a sheet of white. It occurred to me that the way D-log was compressing the video made it look like the blown highlight were in fact well away from over exposure and the screen, being totally washed at and dark, made it hard to see with my eyes that the exposure was really off.

So, this second go at it I used the exposure settings from a previous flight that was flown earlier that day using D-Cinelike and I used those settings, locked in manually, for this next try at D-log. I think the results are infinitely better than the first go -- see what you think.



Brian
Hi, this actually demonstrates quite well that you will get color-aliasing when you reintroduce color and contrast in the current dlog implementation as the compressed range does not retain enough information to bring this back without aliasing. Had this been 10 bit it would have been possible but not with a reduced 8 bit palette. In this example, if we compare with your dcinelike rendition of the same area, we see a particular green-purple hue which is very difficult to correct.

I would still avvise to stay with either none or dcinelike until Dji hopefully get a correct dlog profile (with full range)
 
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Hi, this actually demonstrates quite well that you will get color-aliasing when you reintroduce color and contrast in the current dlog implementation as the compressed range does not retain enough information to bring this back without aliasing. Had this been 10 bit it would have been possible but not with a reduced 8 bit palette. In this example, if we compare with your dcinelike rendition of the same area, we see a particular green-purple hue which is very difficult to correct.

I would still avvise to stay with either none or dcinelike until Dji hopefully get a correct dlog profile (with full range)

I did a quick comparison with Sony SLOG2:

really not an expert on this, but i also think DLOG has significant issue.
 
Flew my p4p for the first time yesterday. None, 0,0,0 with 4k 60fps h.264. After reviewing the footage, my mavic pro had the same quality/softness and looks out of focus half the time. The raw file looks decent, but not the quality I was expecting. Any thoughts/suggestions? What am I missing?

When I view the raw file it skips on my pc, even though my pc is custom built for gaming. After I create a proxy in Vegas pro, it is smooth playback. Maybe my auto focus is wrong or I don't have the right settings? I do touch the screen every 30 seconds to AF, but still seems off.
 
Flew my p4p for the first time yesterday. None, 0,0,0 with 4k 60fps h.264. After reviewing the footage, my mavic pro had the same quality/softness and looks out of focus half the time. The raw file looks decent, but not the quality I was expecting. Any thoughts/suggestions? What am I missing?

When I view the raw file it skips on my pc, even though my pc is custom built for gaming. After I create a proxy in Vegas pro, it is smooth playback. Maybe my auto focus is wrong or I don't have the right settings? I do touch the screen every 30 seconds to AF, but still seems off.

First, there is no need to refocus unless you are doing some sort of closeup filming, focusing at infinity during start of flight should cover most shots.

It is hard to say if this is your issue or something else unless you post some sample footage (or minimum a screenshot). 60fps will cost you half the vertical resolution of 4k compared to 30fps, but it should not cause a very obvious softness.

Very few setups will be able to use h264 (or h265), especially 4k 60, without proxy files, so your workflow should include this, or initial transcoding to a editable format (such as prores).
 
First, there is no need to refocus unless you are doing some sort of closeup filming, focusing at infinity during start of flight should cover most shots.

It is hard to say if this is your issue or something else unless you post some sample footage (or minimum a screenshot). 60fps will cost you half the vertical resolution of 4k compared to 30fps, but it should not cause a very obvious softness.

Very few setups will be able to use h264 (or h265), especially 4k 60, without proxy files, so your workflow should include this, or initial transcoding to a editable format (such as prores).
Thank you for the reply. I'm new to dji drones so I'm not an expert in figuring out the recording setting and what not. I didn't know about the focus to infinity thing. So if I understand correctly, just tap to focus to the horizon and don't touch it again? I'll try to post some ss later on today as I got a lot to do before my party tonight. Thanks again. By the way I am using a SanDisk extreme pro 64gb for my card.

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So if I understand correctly, just tap to focus to the horizon and don't touch it again?

Yes, horizon or any sufficiently distant object will cover 99% of all cases (again, closeups being the exception). Setting the the aperture at f/5.6 or even f/8 will further increase focal plane (how much is in focus) and decrease chances of out-of-focus problems. Exception here is low-light scenes (night or maybe dusk/dawn) where f/2.8 is preferred to let in as much light as possible. To increase chances of a good picture (low noise), using ISO 100 is also a correct choice (unless low light prohibits this).
 
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Yes, horizon or any sufficiently distant object will cover 99% of all cases (again, closeups being the exception). Setting the the aperture at f/5.6 or even f/8 will further increase focal plane (how much is in focus) and decrease chances of out-of-focus problems. Exception here is low-light scenes (night or maybe dusk/dawn) where f/2.8 is preferred to let in as much light as possible. To increase chances of a good picture (low noise), using ISO 100 is also a correct choice (unless low light prohibits this).
Right. I do photography as a hobby so I know about all of that stuff. You know what, I think I had my settings set on auto so I have no idea what the settings were. I bet that was my problem. I'll try again today if I have time.
 
Right. I do photography as a hobby so I know about all of that stuff. You know what, I think I had my settings set on auto so I have no idea what the settings were. I bet that was my problem. I'll try again today if I have time.
With a photographer background, you will probably have most success with A mode with a fixed ISO 100 (readily available). Sweet spot of lens is somewhere between f/5.6 and f/8. Be aware that you will find higher noise than you would expect (especially color noise) even at ISO 100.

Good luck!
 
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4K 29.97 fps (that's what 30fps recorded is) 75-100mb bitrate. Yea YouTube compresses the crap out of it.
 
4K 30 fps, 75-100mb bitrate. Yea YouTube compresses the crap out of it.
Thanks, but why render in 30 fps if it was shot in 60 fps? Also, what codec do you suggest? Seems like all the 4k sony choices so not allow you to adjust the settings, only resolution and fps... Sorry I am kinda new to 4k rendering.
 
I don't know which codec it is for vegas. I used to use vegas 13, switched to premiere pro cc, and never looked back haha. If you recorded in 60 fps then yes render 60 fps. In PP CC it's just an h264 codec, high bitrate. Profile high, vbr 2 pass, 100Mbps bitrate. Output is an mpeg4 file.
 
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I don't know which codec it is for vegas. I used to use vegas 13, switched to premiere pro cc, and never looked back haha. If you recorded in 60 fps then yes render 60 fps. In PP CC it's just an h264 codec, high bitrate. Profile high, vbr 2 pass, 100Mbps bitrate. Output is an mpeg4 file.
Might have to try out PP CC.... dunno if I wanna spend that much though when I have used Vegas for years, lol

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We did the monthly thing s it's like $20 a month. I was so used to vegas but picked up pp cc fast. I love the features and the auto proxy ingest/creation is smooth as butter!
 
You can get a 7 day trial of PP but you won't be able to do h265 as that codec requires paid version.
 

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