Best FPV camera settings

Ibflyen · May 29, 2015

I am very happy with the inspire but must admit I bought the inspire more for the FPV experience than the video recording and photography. That being said I know very little about camera settings. I have found some videos explaining different camera settings and most all of them are wanting the settings for post work.
I on the other hand don't plan on doing any post work on the video until I want to start exploring the photography end of it. I want the best settings for FPV flight. I would like to just have every thing set on auto and with nd filters try to keep the ISO,shutter speed, etc in the range they need to be for smoothest clean clear video going to my googles.
I know there are lots of variables but just some sort of idea where the shutter,ISO and everything should be for smoothest video

Cheeky Monkey · May 29, 2015

Hi, Using the Fn button top of camera panel on right hand side, Set your photo mode to JPEG, RAW is for post processing, set JPEG to highest resolution for best images, choose your format, 4:3 is std aspect, 16:9 id wide screen aspect.

You will need to use the ND filter for everyday work, basically the Inspire 1 Camera has been design for amazing night work making it ultra sensitive, therefore during the day in very bright light the Inspire 1 will overexpose images unless the ND filter is being used, even in auto mode, plus the ND filter will actually give you better images in terms of colour saturation and so on.

Hope this helps

Ibflyen · May 29, 2015

Cheeky Monkey said:
Hi, Using the Fn button top of camera panel on right hand side, Set your photo mode to JPEG, RAW is for post processing, set JPEG to highest resolution for best images, choose your format, 4:3 is std aspect, 16:9 id wide screen aspect.

You will need to use the ND filter for everyday work, basically the Inspire 1 Camera has been design for amazing night work making it ultra sensitive, therefore during the day in very bright light the Inspire 1 will overexpose images unless the ND filter is being used, even in auto mode, plus the ND filter will actually give you better images in terms of colour saturation and so on.

Hope this helps

Thank you. Yes that helps..
That was kind of my plan. Using different nd filters to help keep the shutter speed and iso where they need to be for best fpv picture.
What range should I try to keep the shutter speed and iso at for clearest and smoothest picture. Was also planning on shooting in 1080p rather than 4k. What frame rate for smoothest video?

Cheeky Monkey · May 29, 2015

1080p @24fps, should be fine for everyday work, if you're shooting sport, you may want to go higher, say 48 or 60, Inspire supports 1920x1080p @24/25/30/48/50/60.

You need to really work with whatever your video editor is capable of, what are you using, I have Apples Final Cut Pro which works with everything, plus what are you putting your video out to? PAL(UK) or NTSC(US), sorry I assumed above you were PAL(UK), work back from video editor, no point in capturing at a frame rate your software can't handle.

As for pictures, i'd say you want to keep the shutter speed up above say1/125 or even 1/250 as your flying and the bird is effectively at the mercy of your tail wind you're very prone to moving whilst the shutter captures the shot. Its really hard to give you an all-round answer every shoot will be different and will require different setting s at the time, you may want the over or under exposure slightly as well, Auto will obviously reduce this effort required but it also takes away the creativity of photography, but remember your flying one hell of a bird, so keeping safe is priority.

here an example showing the exif settings via Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ii_monkie_ii/17167575779/in/dateposted-public/

I can't remember if I choose manual settings for that shot or not?

Ibflyen · May 29, 2015

I am strictly looking for the smoothest,clearest picture for fpv flight. I'm not at all worried about what the settings should be for post production for the time being.
I am using NTSC.

Kilrah · May 29, 2015

If you really don't care about the recording then anything goes. You might want to set the picture to log as that will allow you to better see what's in the shade, but apart from that nothing really affects the live picture.

Ibflyen · May 29, 2015

So none of the settings have an affect on the live video?
I notice when panning that my live feed is very jerky and blurred while flying straight ahead has a wonderful view. I was hoping that I could get the jerkiness out of the picture some.

Kilrah · May 30, 2015

What display device(s) are you using? HDMI display is best, with simultaneous video to app disabled otherwise the mobile device performance will also affect the smoothness of the HDMI feed.

Ibflyen · May 30, 2015

I am using a Verizon wireless Ellipses android tablet for the pilot app and Zeiss cinemizer Googles on hdmi.
I will disable video to the app and see if that helps.
Thank you!

Kilrah · May 30, 2015

It should be quite a bit better. By experience simultaneous display is never smooth with android devices, only with iOS.
If simultaneous display is on and you also turn on HDMI OSD it's even worse.

Ibflyen · May 30, 2015

I received the android tablet for free from Verizon with a 2 ye as r contract so I'm sure it's not a very good tablet!

It seems as if the ios features are much better supported by dji and have thought about going in that direction anyway.
Which ios device would you recommend for the best performance with the inspire?

Kilrah · May 30, 2015

I have an iPad mini 2 and iPhone 6, and I don't know if it's placebo effect from the smaller screen but it seems the iPhone 6 is smoother. I also don't like the mini's screen so much (not contrasty enough) and when I fly that way it's usually with the goggles so I don't need a big tablet, the phone's size/weight is good.

Ibflyen · May 30, 2015

Kilrah said:
It should be quite a bit better. By experience simultaneous display is never smooth with android devices, only with iOS.
If simultaneous display is on and you also turn on HDMI OSD it's even worse.

Android,simultaneous video,and osd to tablet all turned on so

Kilrah said:
I have an iPad mini 2 and iPhone 6, and I don't know if it's placebo effect from the smaller screen but it seems the iPhone 6 is smoother. I also don't like the mini's screen so much (not contrasty enough) and when I fly that way it's usually with the goggles so I don't need a big tablet, the phone's size/weight is good.

I have a Samsung galaxy s5 that I won't be parting with any time soon, do an iPhone isn't going to work.

I will have to go check out some different ios devices today. I just thought maybe there was one particular ios device everyone agreed worked the best and I would get that one.

Ibflyen · May 30, 2015

Well I went and bought the iPad air 2. All I can say is WOW what a difference!! Panning,tilting, no choppy video at all and everything looks better! The app talks to me, signal strength of sattelites and number of them. The ios app is much better than the android.
Thanks a million for all your help! This us what I have been wanting!

worldsoutro · May 30, 2015

Will raising the video quality affect the distance I could go? Or does it strictly stream in 720 ?

Kilrah · May 31, 2015

Stream is always 720p. The quality setting changes the bitrate i.e. how clean the video will look, and yes the higher the quality the shorter the distance (its even written in the app where you adjust that setting what the expected distance could be).
I leave it on auto so it will reduce if needed.

worldsoutro · May 31, 2015

Kilrah said:
Stream is always 720p. The quality setting changes the bitrate i.e. how clean the video will look, and yes the higher the quality the shorter the distance (its even written in the app where you adjust that setting what the expected distance could be).
I leave it on auto so it will reduce if needed.

Thanks, I wasn't sure if the quality setting was strictly for what is stored on the sdcard