setting for gopro hero 5 black with karma drone

[dronelover]

iv been flying the drone for three days now and its great. In fact, on some instances it looks like it creates a mini parallax effect on some angles.

my question is, How are users here getting great footage with their karma drone?


my settings are:
PAL
PT on
Flat
2.7k at 50 FPS
WB 6000k
Auto shutter
ISO to lowest 400
Linear
Sharpness medium
EV comp at 0 to -1

and yet it doesnt look that good as others.
I dont use any filters because i dont have any. If only GP5 could have higher than 1/400 manual shutter so i could use ISO lock at 100 then it might get better? I dont know.

ill also want to upload to youtube but it looks like low quality and grainy compared to the original footage that i have in my PC.
What format and encoding do i need to render my footage on davinci to get sharp and full 1080p in youtube?

thanks in advance.

 

[Kevster]

Hey man, its taken me a long time to figure out how to get great footage from the gopro. You are on the right path by using protune.

First question is... are you colour grading your footage after the edit? The flat protune settings are meant to ensure the greatest dynamic range in the footage, but the footage does then need to be colour graded during the edit phase to bring the colour to life.

Other suggestions. Shoot 4k @ 25p. Unless you have very specific reason to shoot at 50p (e.g. you def want to use some of the footage in slo-mo) you don't gain anything by using 50p except to chew up storage space.

Related to the above, YouTube has a nasty secret of using two types of codecs for processing its videos. For small channels they use a codec called avc1 to process videos. For bigger channels AND videos uploaded in 2k or 4k youtube uses a codec called vp09. vp09 is a much better codec leading to better quality results. I had a real problem with my gopro videos looking blocky and pixelated when watching them on youtube in anything less than around 720p resolution (I also use Davinci, btw). This is probably your main issue. To get around this, as a small channel, make sure to upload your videos with a min of 2k resolution (4k being even better) which forces YouTube to process your videos using the better vp09 codec. In other words, uploading at 1080p won't help. Do a YouTube search on avc1 vs vp09 to find out more.

For examples of the 2 codecs, here is my latest video uploaded at 4k (and hence forcing youtube to use vp09)

Here is an earlier video which is processed using avc1

The difference between the two in terms of blockiness and pixelation is quite marked.

Lens attachments like ND filters and polarising filters can definitely enhance video quality and colour if used correctly as they allow lower shutter speeds, and can allow light to hit the sensor in the best possible way.

Hope all that helps. Feel free to fire any questions at me.

 

[dronelover]

Thanks.

there are times my footage really looks good. Other scenes are questionable even using thesame exakt setttings.

Like currently, i got 2 hero 5 blacks.
One for the drone and another for my second karma grip as a ground weapon.

the first hb5 on my drone has sandisk ultra which tops at 10MBps. And using sharpenss low.

the 2nd hb5 uses sandisk extreme pro that tops at 100MBps using sharpness medium.

everything is as same settings and i color grade using davinci.

I cant believe how good the footage is on the ground like really beautiful. I dont even need to color grade much.

But the one in the drone at merely 40 meters high didnt look so good at all. As in the colors the details just rubbish.
I was also filming at thesame place and at the same time.

could this be the perception like because drones are further away giving less detail and color and the light does not bounce back to the sensor?

while on the ground you are more closer to subjects and the light bounces back faster to the sensor of the camera.
Or is this because of the sd card quality.

shouldnt really matter since hb5 only tops at 7.5MBps while the ultra sandisk do 10MBps

 

[dronelover]

Nice footage. Youve sold my another hero 6 this time and that aftermarket lens.
i need another reason for my wife....

 

[Kevster]

For example of avc vs vp09

Thanks.

there are times my footage really looks good. Other scenes are questionable even using thesame exakt setttings.

Like currently, i got 2 hero 5 blacks.
One for the drone and another for my second karma grip as a ground weapon.

the first hb5 on my drone has sandisk ultra which tops at 10MBps. And using sharpenss low.

the 2nd hb5 uses sandisk extreme pro that tops at 100MBps using sharpness medium.

everything is as same settings and i color grade using davinci.

I cant believe how good the footage is on the ground like really beautiful. I dont even need to color grade much.

But the one in the drone at merely 40 meters high didnt look so good at all. As in the colors the details just rubbish.
I was also filming at thesame place and at the same time.

could this be the perception like because drones are further away giving less detail and color and the light does not bounce back to the sensor?

while on the ground you are more closer to subjects and the light bounces back faster to the sensor of the camera.
Or is this because of the sd card quality.

shouldnt really matter since hb5 only tops at 7.5MBps while the ultra sandisk do 10MBps

Full disclosure, I have also shot a lot of footage that is just awful, so you not alone there, lol

Tbh, I don't think the card makes a difference to the quality of the footage. If there is a problem with the card it will stop recording rather than affect the data rate for an entire video.

Have you tried swapping the two gopros between the drone and ground station in one session? If the image from the drone is bad on both cameras using the same settings shot at the same session then it won't be the cameras or their capture cards that is causing it.

I suspect that the main problem is what you identified in that the camera 40m in the air is exposed to a lot more light. This can cause the shutter speed to speed up immensely which then affects the light hitting the sensor, which could well affect how colours are recorded. This is especially so on bright days and if filming towards the sun. I have experienced a similar thing when shooting using Protune... the footage just comes out garbage and colourless (yes, taking into account that this is protune footage). I would suggest experimenting with ND filters to help open up the shutter speed and even a polarising filter to bring definition back to the colours (when shooting at a 90% angle to the sun). In my first video above the footage where I think the colour is richest (see links below) was shot with ND16 and Polarising filters. They can make a big difference to the quality of the colours. Having said that, it does take time getting used to how they work (and I have also messed up footage having the wrong combo of filters). I think this is probably your main issue with your drone footage, if it makes sense.

The other thing is your white balance might be wrong. Again, the drone camera might require wb set to 5000k because it "sees" colours as "mid day" whilst the ground camera (with more shade) will be correct at 6000k.

Anyway, just my thoughts

 

[Kevster]

Nice footage. Youve sold my another hero 6 this time and that aftermarket lens.
i need another reason for my wife....

lol, I love that lens so I won't try dissuade you . I have a video where I go into the Peau Productions lenses if you interested in exploring further

 

[Kevster]

btw, if you have examples of both the "good" and "bad" footage posted online it would help

 

[dronelover]

i will post a short one just a small scratch with no audio so you might understand more of what i meant.
I do think i need some ND filters. I have that with my mavic and i think it really helps.
the polarize filter seems to look good but i dont use it much because some POV isnt always 90 degrees from the sun so i just use ND16 on my mavic.
Ill get some for the go pro aswell.

i also use 5500k WB just for consistancy with my other gear having set to 5500k.

also, why i specifically use 50 fps because i want to try that slo-mo cinematic look that people likes to do like 20-40 % of a certain FPS.
Im not sure yet at what percentage i should give my 50fps to get that good looking footage.

 

[Kevster]

Cool, ja, please post the examples.

I use my polariser quite a bit. As far as I can tell when I am filming towards / against the sun, it just acts like an ND filter. But for those moments when I am at an angle it's really worth it.

In terms of slowing down 50fps. I assume your timeline is set to 25fps (Pal)? I generally try slo down or speed up in whole numbers, i.e slo by 50% (divide by 2), 25% (divide by 4), speed up by 200% or 400% etc. The reason is that the math works out to better create buttery smooth motion. For example - your timeline is 25fps and your footage is shot at 50fps, if you slow down the footage by exactly half the footage will literally be playing back at 25fps and will look very smooth. If you slow down by a quarter, its easy for the software to use 1 frame of footage for every 2 frames on the timeline.

Whereas if you slo down by, say 40%, the software has to interpolate how to allocates frames that are not neatly divisible onto the timeline and the slo motion can get jittery and not very natural.

On that note, say I bring footage shot at 30fps onto a 25fps timeline, and it doesn't matter that there is a slight slow down of the visuals (cars driving by, for instance) I will tell Davinci that the footage is actually 25fps and it will play smoothly. Whereas if you keep the footage at 30fps it can look pretty jittery as the software interpoloates how to fit the frames onto the timeline

 

[dronelover]

Thanks for the reply.


i havent forgotten this thread yet.


Sorry for taking me too long to reply.
Been very busy lately with the kids and family in general

i kinda know now the problem of this camera.
Its not really a problem other than the lighting of the environment.

So today i had time with family to film the karma drone and IT WAS FANTASIC!!

same settings and resolution is in drone and ground karma grip.
Both had same results in sharpness/detail and color.
With the drone up in 60 meters i could see clearly the ridge lines on the rooftops of the houses below.
It was very very sunny today in the afternoon.

I hope to finish my gopro editing tonight so i could post in the tube and link it here.