Terrible lens flaring when drone is facing suns general direction? I mean like unusable terrible

jmacman · Feb 20, 2017

View the image grabs below..

Anytime the drone faces the direction of the sun at all there are these massive rose pedal like flares that make teh image a complete potatoe.

This is after running into the App crashing issue on the + remote that so many others have had as well.

Been a very frustrating introduction to DJI drones.

I have a Yuneec q500 which on paper is inferior in every way yet, I would much rather use that for my shots than this turd image. I am hoping its just a lemon and am getting a replacement sent

Anyone else have this issue?

gr8pics · Feb 20, 2017

When i put on my Polar pro filters, i feel its less, and more natural, worth a try.

jmacman · Feb 20, 2017

gr8pics said:
When i put on my Polar pro filters, i feel its less, and more natural, worth a try.

But do you otherwise get these rose pedal red flares across the image?

AyeYo · Feb 20, 2017

Totally normal. The Cinema series filters definitely cut down on it, but really you just shouldn't shoot people with the backdrop of a low sun unless you want to spend lots of time getting the angle right and lots of time cleaning it up in post.

gr8pics · Feb 20, 2017

Yes, its common with this lens, probably due to cheap elements, or best case, only the org UV filter. Better optics have nicer flares.

jmacman · Feb 20, 2017

This is really disappointing then. I was hoping it was just a lemon.

My Yuneec q500 looks way better getting sunset shots than this drone because of this issue.

DJI really dropped the ball here by not putting better optics in this camera.

Does anyone have a sample they could share of a shot with the sun using the filters (UV or Cinema?)

Honestly unless this can truly be corrected I'm just going to keep waiting till a drone company finally gets it completely right.

gr8pics · Feb 20, 2017

Heres one, it helps tilting down a tad...

jmacman · Feb 20, 2017

gr8pics said:
Heres one, it helps tilting down a tad...

View attachment 76709

Thanks for the image! Definitely looks way better than what I was getting... Which filter was this that you used?

gr8pics · Feb 20, 2017

jmacman said:
Thanks for the image! Definitely looks way better than what I was getting... Which filter was this that you used?

ND8 or ND4/Pola

airbud · Feb 20, 2017

Do they sell lens hoods for the P4P?

jmacman · Feb 20, 2017

airbud said:
Do they sell lens hoods for the P4P?

I have been looking but haven't found any lens hoods for it yet....I am going to try Polar Pro UV filter first and then ND's Vivid series

airbud · Feb 20, 2017

jmacman said:
I have been looking but haven't found any lens hoods for it yet....I am going to try Polar Pro UV filter first and then ND's Vivid series

Yeah NDs are a must. Usually at least an 8. Cracked my 8 and had to use a 4 last week in bright sun and post is a pain.

gr8pics · Feb 20, 2017

airbud said:
Yeah NDs are a must. Usually at least an 8. Cracked my 8 and had to use a 4 last week in bright sun and post is a pain.

Only for video, not stills...

airbud · Feb 20, 2017

gr8pics said:
Only for video, not stills...

Right, though I've gotten some great stills will shooting video with the ND on still and little to no post. You can swap but not totally necessary

Wind Farm

airbud
Feb 20, 2017

lickitysplit11111 · Feb 20, 2017

jmacman said:
View the image grabs below..

Anytime the drone faces the direction of the sun at all there are these massive rose pedal like flares that make teh image a complete potatoe.

This is after running into the App crashing issue on the + remote that so many others have had as well.

Been a very frustrating introduction to DJI drones.

I have a Yuneec q500 which on paper is inferior in every way yet, I would much rather use that for my shots than this turd image. I am hoping its just a lemon and am getting a replacement sent

Anyone else have this issue?

Not always,

KevMo Photog · Feb 20, 2017

Man if your shooting directly into a mid late afternoon your shot is gonna be a potato anyway. But ND filters will def help cut down the amount of flare you get for sure. And prob take your rose pedals mostly out I'm sure. A super late cool cloud sunset can be fine if you put your direct sun off the camera axis a little bit. And also like gr8pics said to tip your camera angle down just a tad so it's also not directly at a straight angle into your lens. Even my DSLR's are gonna have big flare if you point them directly at the sun. It's usually much better to shoot with the sun going across your shot instead of directly into it. Unless the cool cloud sunset late is what your looking for. But like the shot of you and your buddies. All you had to do was have you all turn around a bunch so the sun is lighting you up instead of the sun lighting your camera lens up on the bird. I never fly without my Polar Pro ND's on unless it's dark btw. They are awesome. Have the Shutter Collection. Great glass!

KevMo Photog · Feb 20, 2017

gr8pics said:
Only for video, not stills...

Agree man. But ND will help his rose pedals from shooting directly into this hot sun though don't ya think?

Tomas Wangen · Feb 20, 2017

I find the flaring to be quite acceptable in most cases.

I quickly through together some of my clips (toning is not consistent) showing a unobstructed sun at varying height, and though the dynamic range is way out there (with horribly burnt of areas in most of them) the flaring itself is quite fine. That being said, I would definitely avoid including the sun mid-day unless some cloudcover or fog was available.

All clips shot with stock uv-filter at f/5.6

(at the time of writing, youtube is still processing 4k)

jmacman · Feb 20, 2017

Tomas Wangen said:
I find the flaring to be quite acceptable in most cases.

I quickly through together some of my clips (toning is not consistent) showing a unobstructed sun at varying height, and though the dynamic range is way out there (with horribly burnt of areas in most of them) the flaring itself is quite fine. That being said, I would definitely avoid including the sun mid-day unless some cloudcover or fog was available.

All clips shot with stock uv-filter at f/5.6

(at the time of writing, youtube is still processing 4k)

Yea All your footage looks great. I am going to try the filters UV and ND to see what can be done....I feel like my drone would have been really bad in those situations. I have tried tilting it up down left right and could never get rid of the rose pedals.

I don't always have the ability to choose whether or not the sun gets in my frames especially at wedding shoots as the time of day and direction of the venues often require it. Besides using the sun in the composition is often very pretty like your footage.

(I kind of replied to a few different people's comments here)

Meta4 · Feb 20, 2017

jmacman said:
Anytime the drone faces the direction of the sun at all there are these massive rose pedal like flares that make teh image a complete potatoe. I am hoping its just a lemon and am getting a replacement sent

Forget looking for a replacement and try shooting with the sun instead of against it.
Any lens will flare when you stare into the sun - just to different degrees and with different patterns.
Many very expensive Nikon and Canon lenses have terrible flare under the same circumstances.
Turn your Phantom around and use the sun rather than fighting it.