Phantom 2 with HD-3D + Go Pro 4 Black video artifacts?

Joined
Oct 12, 2014
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Hey guys so I have been using the Phantom 2 with a Go Pro Hero 3+ that I borrowed from my friend until my Go Pro Hero 4 Black comes in. Well it finally came in today however I have been experiencing these weird video artifacts during flight. As far as I can tell it only seems to happen with area in high contrast and only when the Go Pro 4 is tilted upwards. (UPDATE: I just realized it happens when the GoPro is pointed towards the sun, however its still important to note that it only happens when the DJI is active, if the rotors are off I don't get the weird wavy lines)

However this never happened with the Hero 3+ and I think it might be a setting or something in the Go Pro itself that I have to turn off/on. I uploaded a video to better depict the problem I am facing. Notice the weird wavy lines at the tree in-front of my house and the blue sky. Whats even weirder though is when I turn it around to face the other direction I no longer see the lines.

Basically if anyone here is on a similar setup, please let me know if there is something I am suppose to do to get rid of this.

Warning, during the upload process with youtube it seems to have added a loud spike of sound in the video during the start, please mute your speakers before playing the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cetoJ2PD ... 9_RJwkJlUw

Sorry couldn't figure out how to get the youtube tag to work so I could directly embed the video into this post instead of just linking it.
 
This is infact nothing to do with the GoPro Hero 4, but a normal problem with the Phantom (at least with GoPro's mounted)
What you are seeing is the sun hitting the GoPro lens directly through the props of the Phantom. When the props are spinning, they will generate the flickering you see as they block, and not block the sun.
There are multiple ways to avoid this. One is not facing the sun as you notice, or fly when the sun is sufficiently high, or low in the sky. You could also purchase a sunshade for the GoPro. I got these:
http://www.shapeways.com/model/2560592/ ... -hood.html
While i haven't been able to test them out in the sun yet, they seem to work pretty well, although i was a bit afraid of breaking it when mounting it to the GoPro. Its a tight fit.
They do block a tiny bit of picture on my GoPro Hero 3 in the upper right, and left corner, but only when shooting in 1440p. This probably means that it might block a bit shooting in SuperView as well (which i don't have on the GP3)
 
As said, those are not artifacts. There are a number of factors unique to using the GoPro on the Phantom that can produce odd or unusual effects.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys you definitly set my mind at ease, guess I was just lucky enough to fly the phantom for a week with the Hero 3+ and not get this issue, which in turn made me think it was a fault with the Hero 4.
 
mobiousblack said:
Thanks for all the replies guys you definitly set my mind at ease, guess I was just lucky enough to fly the phantom for a week with the Hero 3+ and not get this issue, which in turn made me think it was a fault with the Hero 4.

Same here,I had flown previously with the Gopro but not with the gimbal on and not into direct sunlight.
When I first saw the flickering I thought something was wrong with one or the other.
 
I currently fly a Droidworx SJ8, with alexmos gimble & a canon 7D or Sony PJ760. I'm about to buy the phantom 2 with H3-3D gimble (its easier to transport)..does anyone know if the zenmuse gimble can be lowered to prevent such propellor problems being caught on the curved lens of the gopro4?

Regards
Ross
 
macsgrafs said:
I currently fly a Droidworx SJ8, with alexmos gimble & a canon 7D or Sony PJ760. I'm about to buy the phantom 2 with H3-3D gimble (its easier to transport)..does anyone know if the zenmuse gimble can be lowered to prevent such propellor problems being caught on the curved lens of the gopro4?

Regards
Ross

You could lower it BUT as it stands the Gopro is very low on the Phantom as it is.
The only way you could lower it is to fit some higher landing gear first.
 
I have thought about the extended gear or retracts, but I'm sure there is some sort of detector on the legs that wouldn't work right witrh retracts ;)

Ross
 
Lowering the camera will not prevent prop shadows. It's easy to avoid. Someone here designed a simple plastic shade. If I didn't have an ND, I would use that.
 
macsgrafs said:
I currently fly a Droidworx SJ8, with alexmos gimble & a canon 7D or Sony PJ760. I'm about to buy the phantom 2 with H3-3D gimble (its easier to transport)..does anyone know if the zenmuse gimble can be lowered to prevent such propellor problems being caught on the curved lens of the gopro4?

Regards
Ross

If you can buy this miraculous product called "duct tape"/"gaffers tape"/"gorilla tape" in your village then you can spend 2 minutes crafting your very own lens shade.

Or you can angle the camera down slightly so the prop shadows aren't a factor.
 

Recent Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,352
Members
104,933
Latest member
mactechnic