New Phantom owner - tips for best footage?

[Jody Arnott]

Well I took the plunge and ordered a DJI Phantom today. I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to get the best footage from my GoPro?

Best resolution/frame rate, how to minimise jello, etc?

Thanks all!

[Chuck Spaulding]

Which GoPro?

The Hero2 only shoots 1080P at 30fps, the wide POV makes it look like your always swimming through the aerial footage, the medium narrower POV looks much better but is much more susceptible to vibration.

The best way to minimize vibration is to balance the motors and props and isolate the camera from the airframe as much as possible.

I understand that the Hero3 shoots 1080P at 60fps so when you put it into a 24fps timeline it is significantly slowed down. This gives the illusion of being smoother and is fairly easy to post stabilize.

[Jody Arnott]

Thanks for that. I don't have the GoPro yet but I'm going to buy the Hero 3. I'm thinking shooting at 2.5k would be best, as I'll be able to stabilise in After Effects without losing too much resolution. Although I have read that shooting at 60fps helps with the jello, but that limits me to 1080p.

Any tips on how to isolate the mount from the frame?

[Chuck Spaulding]

I haven't shot with the Hero3 it would be interesting to see what the 2.5K looks like, but I think you might find that whatever resolution you might lose in stabilizing 1080P60 footage would be almost imperceptible compared to the 2.5K @ 30fps. Of coarse there might be times you just need realtime footage so 30fps is the only way to go.

You could try to figure out a way to attach this sort of "floating" camera mount. It has rubber bushings that isolate the camera from the Phantom. This version has been discontinued but you can find the latest version at Products.

[Giroud Francois]

the only gopro able to shoot 2.5k is the V3 Black and this model is known to be problematic with the phantom, particularly with the jello.
the silver version is cheaper and seems to have some advantage because you can power it up from the usb port, that is not possible with the black and more tolerant to vibration.
Lets add the freezing camera problem occuring with the black edition, I do not think it worth the extra spending, unless you plan to fly at night time, were the black version has significant better performance in low light.

[Trond Saetre]

Jody,
The best way to minimize the jello effect, is to make sure your propellers are balanced.
(The stock propellers you get with the Phantom now, are supposed to be balanced, but check them anyway. I got 7 out of 8 propellers balanced, and one slightly off.)

I have my gopro in the underwater housing, mounted directly to the phantom, and I hardly ever notice any jello at all.

Filming in 2,7k might give you more jello than filming in 1080p.
ND filter can also help reduce any jello.

[Prech Marton]

While playing video sometimes it's hard to see jello, but when you pause
and step frame by frame, it will be there.
I understand that 60fps means less jello compared to 30fps,
because of faster shutter speed.
But what about ND filter? Because gopro don't have real iris, it can only
play with shutter speed, so with ND gopro will use longer shutter speed.
And how would be less jello with longer exposures? Maybe blurry, but less?

Also what is the explanation that silver has less jello than black? In the same mode?
Anybody tested it from here?

[Trond Saetre]

According to numerous recommendations in the forum at rcgroups.com, ND filter will give longer shutter speed, and therefore reduce jello.

[Jody Arnott]

Originally Posted by Trond Saetre

Jody,
The best way to minimize the jello effect, is to make sure your propellers are balanced.
(The stock propellers you get with the Phantom now, are supposed to be balanced, but check them anyway. I got 7 out of 8 propellers balanced, and one slightly off.)

I have my gopro in the underwater housing, mounted directly to the phantom, and I hardly ever notice any jello at all.

Filming in 2,7k might give you more jello than filming in 1080p.
ND filter can also help reduce any jello.

Interesting, thanks very much for that.

I'm still waiting for the Phantom to arrive.. so I'll definitely be posting up some sample video when it does :)

I wonder if there's some kind of plugin (for Avid, Final Cut, or whatever) that can reduce or eliminate jello?

[Prech Marton]

But moving from 30p to 60p recording modes means faster
shutter speed, and also result in less jello.. ??

[Bruce Dempsey]

60p is 60 frames per second so when played back at 30 fps it is slo-mo thus the shake rattle and roll is softened

the default video shutter speed on any ntsc camcorder is 1/60 sec, The confusion is cause by the #60

[Prech Marton]

No, i watch every video in realtime.
So when i record 60p i playback at smooth 60fps, and i like it.