Tired of solo troubles

DroneNerd702 · Dec 21, 2015

Bigskyflyer said:
Or we could just say nice video and move on, he would get bored and quit posting here. By the way Jubalr, I have never come close to producing that kind of quality video in my solo or p3 pro. Say what you want, that was an awesome video.

Seriously? What are you using for processing your GoPro videos? GoPro studio has everything you need to create stellar videos.

DroneNerd702 · Dec 21, 2015

livefastflyhighmedia said:
Also im sorry a gopro doesn't produce this quality of videoing

It can't? The Hero 4 silver does 4K.

This is my first 4K vid using GoPro studio. Wish I were at your location to do some filming with the Solo. Beautiful area and nicely done video.

Bigskyflyer · Dec 21, 2015

livefastflyhighmedia said:
Well guys I didn't think it would get this much attention! Im a proud 3dr and DJI owner for my business, sorry for ruffling a few feathers.

No ruffled feathers here. That is a 4000.00 set-up, it should make superior videos. I can't seem to get the crispness no matter what I use for post on my hero4 or my p3 pro. I have seen some very nice videos on here but nothing with the sharpness or color rendition of your video. Some of these guys need to get over themselves and realize they are comparing apples to oranges.

livefastflyhighmedia · Dec 21, 2015

EXACTLY! Thanks for the feedback, I mean a 500 gopro or a 2500 micro 4/3 camera.Its not rocket science1

DroneNerd702 · Dec 21, 2015

Bigskyflyer said:
No ruffled feathers here. That is a 4000.00 set-up, it should make superior videos. I can't seem to get the crispness no matter what I use for post on my hero4 or my p3 pro. I have seen some very nice videos on here but nothing with the sharpness or color rendition of your video. Some of these guys need to get over themselves and realize they are comparing apples to oranges.

I'm an experienced 35 mm still and digital photographer and I just gotta point out that he did have mother nature's natural lighting as well as natural landscape coloring, which includes the composition of the lake water that gives it the coloring properties it has, including the angles he chose to film from, were all on his side. Truly, I'm happy for him. No doubt about it, that location is primo. I guess we can ascertain better in regards to this thread's debate, with a simple question: Is that video footage straight outta the camera? If not, then, asking what tool he used for post would just be argumentative and unnecessary, for, a calibrated monitor and better-than-good understanding and application of saturation, exposure and gamma, etc., can produce similar and/or better results.

livefastflyhighmedia · Dec 21, 2015

DroneNerd702 said:
I'm an experienced 35 mm still and digital photographer and I just gotta point out that he did have mother nature's natural lighting as well as natural landscape coloring, which includes the composition of the lake water that gives it the coloring properties it has, including the angles he chose to film from, were all on his side. Truly, I'm happy for him. No doubt about it, that location is primo. I guess we can ascertain better in regards to this thread's debate, with a simple question: Is that video footage straight outta the camera? If not, then, asking what tool he used for post would just be argumentative and unnecessary, for, a calibrated monitor and better-than-good understanding and application of saturation, exposure and gamma, etc., can produce similar and/or better results.

You nailed it right on the head! Mother nature just graced us with a beautiful setting.

pyrate · Dec 21, 2015

so why did you buy a drone that was advertised as a gopro platform
sounds like poor buying decision
Gopros have been used in professional shoots, you can ignore that if you want.
Have not seen too many DJI professional shoots, but then again i have not looked for them

Ian [P13] · Dec 22, 2015

The GoPro 3+ Black was used by Guy Ritchie in Man from U.N.C.L.E recently, the people that say the GoPro can't be used professionally, 99.99% of the time are those people that never do anything more than post videos on YouTube anyway.

There's apparently BTS video of Michael Bay filming with the Solo in his new film, which will be released once it's cleared by the studio. I've seen a photo of that with my own eyes, but I won't re-post it here as it was on someone's personal timeline on Facebook.

Other recent films to incorporate the GoPro include (and I'm sure there's plenty more where the camera is used without being credited):
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Ex Machina
Need for Speed

livefastflyhighmedia · Dec 22, 2015

Ian [P13] said:
The GoPro 3+ Black was used by Guy Ritchie in Man from U.N.C.L.E recently, the people that say the GoPro can't be used professionally, 99.99% of the time are those people that never do anything more than post videos on YouTube anyway.

There's apparently BTS video of Michael Bay filming with the Solo in his new film, which will be released once it's cleared by the studio. I've seen a photo of that with my own eyes, but I won't re-post it here as it was on someone's personal timeline on Facebook.

Other recent films to incorporate the GoPro include (and I'm sure there's plenty more where the camera is used without being credited):
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Ex Machina
Need for Speed

im not ragging on go pro I use it for numerous shots Gopro just takes more post production time to achieve cinematic quality ! This was raw footage not touched at all in post

pyrate · Dec 22, 2015

and you spent double what it would have cost for solo and you appear to have two pilots
so not really a comparison
By the way a little post could have helped the color was way to saturated

Ian [P13] · Dec 22, 2015

livefastflyhighmedia said:
im not ragging on go pro I use it for numerous shots Gopro just takes more post production time to achieve cinematic quality ! This was raw footage not touched at all in post

You're kind of missing the point, virtually anyone professional (or indeed semi-professional) is filming in a log profile these days, filming in any log profile is really no more time consuming from one camera to the next, i.e. The GoPro's Protune is no more time consuming to work with as the GH4's log profile or the log from Sony's A7S.

If you're not working in a log profile to begin with, sure you'll get results up faster, but you'll be losing dynamic range and will be limited to a burned in look too.

Finally, the term "cinematic quality" is open to interpretation, one man's idea of cinematic isn't necessarily another's.

PdxSteve · Dec 22, 2015

Ian [P13] said:
Other recent films to incorporate the GoPro include (and I'm sure there's plenty more where the camera is used without being credited):
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Ex Machina
Need for Speed

That's a great site...thanks!

Quality Control · Dec 22, 2015

Lets be real, we all know the gopro is quite capable. Anyone who wants to argue that is in my opinion wrong.

Amateur or pro, great video and photos can be taken with some time and effort. No one wants to learn anymore, they want to turn on protune, have the video edited by an app and post!
Pretty sure the GoPro can do its own things...

pyrate · Dec 22, 2015

if everyone could do it, we would all be hit Hollywood directors.
you hit it on the head. Give 50 people a gopro and 3 will learn how to use it an make great footage. the other 47 will make average films and buy the next big thing because they think it will make them instant videographers

John Locke · Dec 23, 2015

Bigskyflyer said:
No ruffled feathers here. That is a 4000.00 set-up, it should make superior videos. I can't seem to get the crispness no matter what I use for post on my hero4 or my p3 pro. I have seen some very nice videos on here but nothing with the sharpness or color rendition of your video. Some of these guys need to get over themselves and realize they are comparing apples to oranges.

Frankly GoPro's are good cameras, but they have the same issues Phantom does, but the Phantom has more control at this time than Solo, over camera settings, etc. A little critique, DroneNerd's video has great color, however the shutter speed is too quick, making pans look jittery. To smooth that out the shutter speed needs to slow down to provide a smoother look between frames as they display. To do that an ND16 or ND32 neutral density filter when in bright sunlight helps minimize the problem. Drone Nerd did a great job of panning slow to minimize the jittery frames, but adding an ND filter would make it look awesomely smooth. Slow pans are an essential skill to learn, DroneNerd has honed this very well, it takes patience and a careful touch.

DroneNerd, FYI, the max altitude is 400ft above ground level. When you climb a mountain, you can go 400' above the mountain. I just wanted to clarify that since you implied 400' was your max height limit in your video. I was at Breckridge recently and climbed 1600' high, legally, because I was always about 150-200 above ground level, basically staying about 100' above the trees.

Here's a comparable video using a Phantom 3 that a friend took recently. When viewed in 1080 it's clear like DroneNerd's GoPro, but slightly smoother when panning around. This was using ND8, but should have been N16, possibly ND32, so he says.

DroneNerd702 · Dec 23, 2015

John Locke said:
Frankly GoPro's are good cameras, but they have the same issues Phantom does, but the Phantom has more control at this time than Solo, over camera settings, etc. A little critique, DroneNerd's video has great color, however the shutter speed is too quick, making pans look jittery. To smooth that out the shutter speed needs to slow down to provide a smoother look between frames as they display. To do that an ND16 or ND32 neutral density filter when in bright sunlight helps minimize the problem. Drone Nerd did a great job of panning slow to minimize the jittery frames, but adding an ND filter would make it look awesomely smooth. Slow pans are an essential skill to learn, DroneNerd has honed this very well, it takes patience and a careful touch.

DroneNerd, FYI, the max altitude is 400ft above ground level. When you climb a mountain, you can go 400' above the mountain. I just wanted to clarify that since you implied 400' was your max height limit in your video. I was at Breckridge recently and climbed 1600' high, legally, because I was always about 150-200 above ground level, basically staying about 100' above the trees.

Here's a comparable video using a Phantom 3 that a friend took recently. When viewed in 1080 it's clear like DroneNerd's GoPro, but slightly smoother when panning around. This was using ND8, but should have been N16, possibly ND32, so he says.

Thanks John but, the credit really goes to Solo's Gimbal + Pan setting which is still at the OOTB value, and in post, a lot of love for GoPro Studio's Flux technology (Hint: If you apply Flux, before you do the final rendering, use Windows Task Manager to set GoPro's Priority to Above Normal or High). But, you're right about adding lens filter on the GoPro which is next on my shopping list. To compensate for the lack of the proper filters, I boosted the saturation to something like 1.4??? or something like that (I have to look at the project file). I'm still trying to perfect filming and post work and come up with the right formulas. Videos such as yours (Very nice btw and I love that song by Christopher Cross!! I haven't heard it in a long time. Thanks for sharing.), and the video that was posted in this thread and many others are really quite good. The one filmed at the volcano site was superb. I noticed its quality and it had me wondering if they used several tools on various segments of the video and then brought them all into a tool like LightWorks for the final rendering? Not sure but the high quality of that particular production has me wondering. A lot.

Btw, the max altitude I referred to was Solo's max setting for basic flight mode. I didn't have any software tools to tell me things like my current above sea and ground level values nor a military style map that tells me the elevation of ridges, hills, depressions, and what not. Wish I did. Have to hunt for an iPad app. And thanks for answering one of the "dumb questions I've always wanted to ask but haven't yet" lol, in regards to climbing a mountain and then flying 400 or higher from it's peak with a quad, except, however, when I think about it, and as I reference an aerial map I got from my local FAA office that shows their Class B airspace and measurements, I'm not absolutely sure if you are right but, I'll double-check with a friend I met who is a pilot. I'm still learning so I really have no say to refute or support otherwise but, thanks though!

DroneNerd702 · Dec 23, 2015

livefastflyhighmedia said:
im not ragging on go pro I use it for numerous shots Gopro just takes more post production time to achieve cinematic quality ! This was raw footage not touched at all in post

Raw footage? Freaking awesome man. Love to see what it would look like if some Hollywood level editor did some post on it. Not that I think it needs it, just saying, those guys have ways of tweaking that would make our jaws drop.

Maddog · Dec 23, 2015

It would be great for us rookies if those of you who are posting these great videos could include any post production settings you use.
(Like saturation level, etc.)
It would really help us get that great "look"!

Thanks!

DroneNerd702 · Dec 23, 2015

Maddog, I hardly consider any of my vids "great", and for the Solo vids I've done and posted (only recently just started), I didn't thoroughly document except for the settings that are stored in the project files. You sparked the idea for me though to start mentioning them in the YouTube descriptions, which I hope doesn't become a chore. Keep in mind that post actions and settings may differ from video to video.