P4 camera not as sharp as I was hoping

4proppilot · Apr 25, 2016

Has anyone noticed that the P4 camera is not as sharp and does not give much detail when shooting in 4K. I find that phantom three professional video seems much more detailed than the P4.

Can anyone please offer some advice on getting better quality images out of this camera as this is the biggest disappointment since purchasing this drone.

I am using a genuine SanDisk micro SD card the extreme edition and I am shooting in 4K 25 frames per second with an output format of .mov

I find when flying over forests all even plantations with corn and wheat that the results are a very messy soft minimal details result.

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Kashif Ahmed · Apr 25, 2016

Have you tried adjusting the in camera settings?

4proppilot · Apr 25, 2016

Which settings?

I have tried Dlog, adjusting sharpness etc.....but the image quality is still no good.

Kashif Ahmed · Apr 25, 2016

I'm sure the p4 has the same settings as the p3p so if you look at the camera settings from the main page you sill see you can adjust contrast, sharpness, color temp etc... May want to look over your manual... It's juat uses symbols be allows you to adjust +/- 5 I believe...

Kashif Ahmed · Apr 25, 2016

Oh okay... That's interesting... It's not on the same page as true 4K cameras but there should be a noticeable difference between 1080p and 4K when you film...

4proppilot · Apr 25, 2016

There is a difference. The issue is that when flying very slowly over row of bushes, the resultant video is just a mashed up blur of green foliage which lacks detail.

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Kashif Ahmed · Apr 25, 2016

You have a video uploaded somewhere we can see? Cause that really doesn't sound right... Unfortunately that could be anything from a slightly dusty clear lens cover to something with the camera focus itself... Was it always like that or something that recently changed? Also, so the pictures and video both seem to lack the detail or is it just video?

4proppilot · Apr 25, 2016

Just video, photos look ok

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aaronrivera · Apr 25, 2016

Hey man.. I feel the same. My friends p3a 1080p video looks so much better when i compared his night shot to my 4k. His video had so much less noise and dark area were clean, as for my 4k, the dark area was so ugly with noise. I dnt understand. Could it be the sd cards? Cant write too much detail in the card or sumthing? Maybe i should try 1080p also?.. Hmm

Chopstix Kid · Apr 25, 2016

While I have nothing to compare it to, I also felt that motion on my P4 video (4K @ 30fps) was a bit blurred. I'm using the provided U3 MicroSD card but am waiting on a U3 90MB/s card I ordered. Since this is my first drone, I just accepted it as norm. I'm hoping that perhaps the faster card helps.

Sim597 · Apr 25, 2016

I don't understand as the only changes from the two cameras are less vignetting and less distortion via the lens. It's possible your buddy had lower ISO setting, that's where your noise was introduced. When I put my card in my 4K UHD TV, they look really good, I mean my family was blown away by how sharp and clear my videos were. (Of course they don't have any 4K to compare too)

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martybabe · Apr 25, 2016

Same here, I've been trying to convince myself that the video quality is better than my P3s but truthfully, I don't think an impartial observer would notice any improvement.

The reason I upgraded really was for better quality video from the P4 camera, rather disappointed here.

4proppilot · Apr 25, 2016

Martybabe, that is the reason I got the p4 over the p3.

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TheloniousMac · Apr 25, 2016

DLOG was massively gimped in the last FW update. At this stage it's not known if this is intentional or not but it affects DJI's range of drones including the X3 & X5 cameras as well as the Phantom 4.
Despite a lot of people shooting and recommending people shoot in DLOG, don't touch it for now.

4proppilot · Apr 25, 2016

Ok. That's a great reply. Thanks TheloniousMac. It seriously has made me want to sell this thing off and get a p3.

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Sim597 · Apr 25, 2016

TheloniousMac said:
DLOG was massively gimped in the last FW update. At this stage it's not known if this is intentional or not but it affects DJI's range of drones including the X3 & X5 cameras as well as the Phantom 4.
Despite a lot of people shooting and recommending people shoot in DLOG, don't touch it for now.

To be fair D-LOG by nature looks, before post processing, blown out, or less vivid, this is on purpose

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4proppilot · Apr 25, 2016

I will test today with cam settings reset to factory

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TheloniousMac · Apr 25, 2016

Sim597 said:
To be fair D-LOG by nature looks, before post processing, blown out, or less vivid, this is on purpose
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Yes, and I always used to shoot in DLOG but it was extremely noticeable after the last update, looks like massive posterisation.
If I had footage that I needed for a job it would have been ruined or extremely difficult/time consuming to fix in post.
A lot of guys on InspirePilots are complaining about DLOG looking **** since a few updates ago as well.