P4 Pro Camera Is Incredible - From a Professional Photographer

[Meta4]

I'm having a hard time getting this to work reliably. Is it possible I have a bad button?

More likely you don't have it configured in the settings.
It can be assigned to focus or some other function.

 

[ppdrone]

How does one change from continuous to spot focus like OP mentions in first post...?


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[Raptorman0909]

Found out how to get the h265 codec installed in PP. rename .mov to .mp4 and import. It prompts you to install codec. Now .mov will work too.

OK, that explains it. I have MP4 as the setting in the Go app anyways so that explains why I had no problems. Probably better to set it to MP4 in the Go app anyway.


Brian

 

[neslex]

What do you use to convert your h265 video to an editable format? It seems Sony vegas and premiere pro cannot natively edit h265. Beautiful footage by the way.

Premiere does. Is your version legit?

 

[Raptorman0909]

Ok another question for you premiere pro gurus. When editing the raw 4k video files (h264 by the way) and doing the playback preview (top right box) it is very choppy and my CPU maxes out at 100%. Any ideas? I was expecting it to use mercury CUDA since I have the GTX 980 ti. I checked the project settings and it is set to use mercury cuda, yet it hammers my cpu when trying to preview what I have in the timeline?

At the bottom right corner of the Program monitor (Top Right Window) you will see a little wrench icon and just to the left of that you will see something that says either Full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16. I suspect you are at Full and by lowering that to 1/2 or 1/4 the playback resolution is reduced making it easier for the CPU. You can generally run at 1/2 and get good visual results though to get the full 4K view you want to run at Full.

4K isn't easy and requires a pretty good PC. About a year ago I built a new PC with a 6-core i7-5820K CPU and a 980 Ti GPU, both water cooled and both OC'd a bit. Also, 32GB is a better RAM configuration but there's not much to be gained going beyond 32GB.

Now, just imagine how much fun it will be editing 8K footage with 4X the pixels as 4K.


Brian

 

[Talon Six]

Does it not work reliably, or not at all? If the latter then there is a setting that controls the function iof the half-press and you may need to set it to auto-focus. If it works but only sometimes then there may be a mechanical problem with the switch.

I figured it out. It was a bad button actuator (me). I wasn't waiting for the AF assistant to finish doing its job apparently. Works as advertised.

 

[F3honda4me]

Still playing around with premiere pro, man the ingest auto create proxy file feature is AWESOME.

 

[Raptorman0909]

Still playing around with premiere pro, man the ingest auto create proxy file feature is AWESOME.

I'm not a fan of Adobe the company but they are clearly the leader in image editing with PS and Lightroom and Premiere Pro, though not the best for color grading, is one of the best if not the best as a cutter -- putting the pieces together and syncing things. I've been tempted to play around with DaVinci Resolve but haven't gone there yet. My skills are modest at this point and most of my work is global grading -- the idea of doing differential grading for different parts of the scene (ground versus sky), particularly when things change when turning and panning, daunting.


Brian

 

[smiller]

I've been tempted to play around with DaVinci Resolve but haven't gone there yet. My skills are modest at this point and most of my work is global grading -- the idea of doing differential grading for different parts of the scene (ground versus sky), particularly when things change when turning and panning, daunting.

I've been playing with Resolve and while I'm also in the 'modest skills' category I'm not sure how much (the free version anyway) gives you over PP Lumetri, at least for my purposes. Clearly the full-on versions are the industry standard and far exceed the built-in features of PP, but due to price and complexity I'll not be going to the paid versions. But I need to play more, perhaps as I become more proficient I'll see more value in bothering with the extra effort to export to DaVinci for final grading.

 

[Raptorman0909]

I've been playing with Resolve and while I'm also in the 'modest skills' category I'm not sure how much (the free version anyway) gives you over PP Lumetri, at least for my purposes. Clearly the full-on versions are the industry standard and far exceed the built-in features of PP, but due to price and complexity I'll not be going to the paid versions. But I need to play more, perhaps as I become more proficient I'll see more value in bothering with the extra effort to export to DaVinci for final grading.

I hear ya man, I hear ya...


Brian

 

[F3honda4me]

I considered resolve but the free version from what I read you can't render 4K only 1080p.

 

[Raptorman0909]

I considered resolve but the free version from what I read you can't render 4K only 1080p.

Ahh, that would be a killer for me as most of my work is 4K.


Brian

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

Ahh, that would be a killer for me as most of my work is 4K.


Brian

That may have changed in version 12 or 12.5. Here is a screen shot comparing the render limits on the free and paid version. Looks like the free version does not allow DCI 4K but does a limit in some areas of UHD

 

[F3honda4me]

So in premiere pro can you not apply different color post adjustment to the same video scene in different areas using masking or what not? It's global only?

 

[MarcelV]

So in premiere pro can you not apply different color post adjustment to the same video scene in different areas using masking or what not? It's global only?

For those with Premiere Pro CC you should have access to install SpeedGrade in your CC app. SpeedGrade may not be as popular as DaVinci, but has a lot of more advanced features than default premiere and has a seamless workflow using the Lumetri Effect. So corrections done is SG are native in Premiere (rendered from the PP timeline) and can be further adjusted there.

I used it on a 4K short shot on a Sony FS7.

 

[smiller]

So in premiere pro can you not apply different color post adjustment to the same video scene in different areas using masking or what not? It's global only?

You can do masking in PP.

 

[jcknows0]

Yea..I don't think my laptop can handle h265, but it's nice to know that the p4p can still hang for a possible future upgrade. Coming from the p3p, the camera quality and the live feed was a major improvement. The battery is way better than my older p3p, or my p3p had some bad batteries

Great writeup OP. With regards to the h265 editing/even viewing, I've had an NX500 that shoots gorgeous HEVC video and found even the top of the line iMac unable to play it in 3rd party software (VLC). If you have Intel's current processor platform in your rig or laptop (6xxx series) you might wonder how. They only implemented partial hardware acceleration and it can play for very short bursts. Interestingly enough, the Samsung UHD Bluray player plays it flawlessly which makes it clearly a hardware problem. I can confirm with a very cheap U-Series (ultrabook processor) laptop the newer Kaby-Lake (7xxx) Intel processors play HEVC without problems. Forget about editing in Final Cut, because once again Apple doesn't seem to care. Only by paying Adobe 20/month for Creative Cloud will you be able to edit HEVC

Very much looking forward to getting my hands on one of these now that they've fixed all my gripes.

 

[Tony Clixby]

So today I upgraded from an Inspire 1 Pro to a P4 Pro. Yes you read that right, the 1" sensor in the P4 Pro blows away the Micro 4/3rds sensor in the I1 Pro's X5.

The good

1) Sensor size - DJI finally upped the sensor size for a Phantom family member to 1" and the improvement is nothing short of incredible. I posted over a year ago that the only thing that would make me buy another Phantom is if they improved the camera; which is why I sat out the P4.

2) Dynamic Range - This is more important to photographers and videographers than just about any other specification; somewhere I read it has between 11 and 11.5 stops of dynamic range, that's close to pro series DSLR capabilities! So of course I had to see it for myself, the attached photos show how incredible the dynamic range is on the P4 Pro.

3) H.265 Encoding - My #1 gripe for everything DJI creates has been their awful H.264 implementation. Most users mistakenly think that their footage does not look that great because DJI limited the bitrate to 60Mbs, the reality is; DJI's H.264 compression implementation is terrible. The bitrate is more than sufficient, but after they get done compressing it, there's so little clean data to work with that it is very hard to get professional results with the compressed footage. So when they introduced the H.265 codec I have high hopes that they also tweaked their H.264 algorithms. My DSLRs use the same codec and bitrate (or lower) and the footage is much cleaner. But more on H.265 in a minute.

4) Mechanical Shutter - This is huge; no more rolling shutter. The P4 Pro may be the only mass produced drone in the world right now with a mechanical shutter. It is mind blowing that they were able to keep the price so low, with a sensor size that large, and still throw in a mechanical shutter.

5) Adjustable Aperture - Finally...the ability to adjust the F stop to control the shutter speed. I know many photographers just use ND filters but I never have; you are risking burning out the camera servos due to the increased weight on the end of the camera (even a few oz could throw off the extremely delicate gimbal balance), and with an ND filter you cannot adjust the filter strength without landing and changing the filter.

6) Minimal Barrel Distortion - This blew me away, I thought sure that I would have to make my own lens profile to fix the barrel distortion until Adobe released one, but in my first few test shots I do not see any. Another incredible feat by DJI. I'm sure pixel peepers will be able to find some, but no end customer will be able to see it.

7) Battery life - The I1 Pro takes great pictures but has terrible battery life. Sometimes to frame that perfect shot or while waiting for that perfect shot I ran out of battery juice with the I1 Pro because it was just too short. Having a camera like this tied to a platform that can stay in the air more than 6 minutes will be a big improvement.

8) Resolution - Of course the increased resolution is nice but I care more about dynamic range than resolution. I would take a 5MP sensor over 20MP any day if the 5MP gave me 20 stops of DR.

The bad (so far after just one flight)

1) What used to be the shutter button is now I think the focus button. Very minor but I'm going to remap that button to being the shutter button.

2) H.265 - I learned the hard way that even though my NLE says it supports H.265 and my video card says it supports it as well; I was unable to edit or even play anything shot using the H.265 codec. Also it appears that YouTube does not support H.265 encoded video files. So tomorrow I will have to shoot my test footage using H.264 compression. I can only hope that DJI improved their H.264 codec while they were at it. I had planned on shooting everything in H.265 then transcoding the final product to H.264.

3) Sensors - This post is mainly focused on the camera and video capabilities but the P4 Pro seemed to have problems thinking something was in front of it and came to a screeching halt on the return trip to land. I'm hoping this will not become a major issue where the sensors "see" things that aren't there and impede flight progress. I'm not sure yet if it's possible since I have not been through the whole DJI App yet, but it would be nice to be able to turn off all of those sensors if desired.

Two Gotchas

* Autofocus - I have seen a lot of users complaining about blurry pictures and a lot of discussion around Autofocus. The reality is the "Pro" in it's name signifies this is not meant for the casual aerial enthusiast. If you want to leave everything on Auto and shoot everything in Infinity focus, then this is not the right model for you. For the I1 Pro I have always manually picked my focus point before pulling the trigger, and for video I always switch to continuous focus before recording. I then switch back to spot focus for photography; its the best way to get tack sharp pictures; even for landscapes.

* Shutter Speed - Remember folks, now that DJI has provided a way to change the Aperature you have to keep an eye on your shutter speed if you want sharp pictures. I tested this by shooting at F11 which resulted in 1/25 shutter speed; sure enough it looked sharp on my tablet and was blurry in post.

Sample Footage

I have attached two pictures showing how incredible the dynamic range is of this sensor. I shot right into the sun using all automatic settings (AWB, Auto Shutter, Auto Aperature, etc) then post processed the footage. The results blow away what I could have gotten with even the I1 Pro and come close to what my full frame DSLRs can do. Of course to get these types of results you will need to shoot RAW and post process. There was so much detail in the lows and even the highs had an impressive amount of recoverable data. I can only imagine what a 3-5 shot HDR bracket would do.

Great post. Thank you

 

[F3honda4me]

No Einstein, just telling it like it is.....You keep drinking the Koolaid slugger....lol

No because most of your issues either aren't actually problems or are minor problems. You act like the p4p is worthless.

 

[Raptorman0909]

So in premiere pro can you not apply different color post adjustment to the same video scene in different areas using masking or what not? It's global only?

No, PP has the capabilities to do secondary color correction but doing that on a moving sky as the drones turns and pans is not easy. I have great respect for the pros that do this everyday and can do the secondary color correction in there sleep.

Some day...


Brian