What is going on here?

[ksaorsa]

I have a question about video settings on my Phantom 4, and I am hoping that someone with more experience here might be able to help me out.

I posted earlier in the year about a strange warp field effect that was occurring with my Phantom 4.

Video Artifact question, "warp field" not jello.

I had tried to narrow this down to a hardware cause, and I really thought I was onto something with the lens. It turns out that it definitely isn't the lens.

After some research, I found others that have had this same problem:

When I record in 1080p, the warp field is always present. When I increase the definition to 2.7K or 4K, the warp field is far less noticeable, BUT I get a strange "jiggle" when panning left and right.

Here is some 2.7K footage from a flight this weekend. The effect that I am talking about is very noticable at 2:28-2:41.

Notice how the background is "jerky" and has that "jiggle" effect. The lighthouse in the foreground of the frame seems fine. It's only when panning left and right that I can see the "jiggle."

Now here is 1080p.

Notice how the background is smooth when panning, but the "warp field" is now very noticeable, in the exact same spots as indicated by the user in the first youtube video.

Now here is 4K. (Youtube does downcode this to 1440p).

The "warp effect" seems to be completely gone here, but I still have the "jiggle" when panning, although it didn't seem as bad here.

I am at a loss.

I am using a Sandisk Extreme Plus micro SD card, so it should be plenty fast enough for read/write to the card.

Anyone have any ideas what might be causing this? I would think it MUST be software/firmware related at this point?

Is this something I should just live with? Or open up a ticket with DJI? This was a Christmas present, so it is still under warranty.

 

[John Locke]

I've never see that before. It looks like a lens issue to me. I wouldn't accept DJI's explanation that it's acceptable if it's still in warranty. My P4 doesn't do that. What happens when you zoom in 2X while shooting 1080, do you still see the warping?

 

[ksaorsa]

I've never see that before. It looks like a lens issue to me. I wouldn't accept DJI's explanation that it's acceptable if it's still in warranty. My P4 doesn't do that. What happens when you zoom in 2X while shooting 1080, do you still see the warping?

I haven't tried zooming. If it was the lens though, I can't imagine the problem disappearing in 4k?

Perhaps it is still there but I'm not seeing it?

I can see it for sure in the 1080p. A little less in the 2.7K.

I looked for it in the 4K, and I don't see the distortion, but I get the choppy panning effect.

That led me to believe it was software rather than hardware related?