Really Disappointed With Video Quality

Alasdair McBroom · Apr 6, 2015

Ok. Thank you. You had me worried there. Yes I expected the moire and compression like you correctly point out, but thought you meant something more than that. It looks to me like grain really isn't an issue. I wonder what resolution that particular film was shot in? Could it be that 1080p is the sweet spot? Is there no happy medium with sharpening?

Merko · Apr 6, 2015

Says 4K in the description, so i guess its 4K.

skylabimaging · Apr 6, 2015

Alasdair McBroom said:
Ok. Thank you. You had me worried there. Yes I expected the moire and compression like you correctly point out, but thought you meant something more than that. It looks to me like grain really isn't an issue. I wonder what resolution that particular film was shot in? Could it be that 1080p is the sweet spot? Is there no happy medium with sharpening?

That's another thing that kinda sucks about this camera is the sharpening is either too much or not enough, I haven't found a sweet spot yet, I just leave in camera sharpening at 0...some have gone down to -1 but reported that it was too blurry at that point.

Merko said:
Says 4K in the description, so i guess its 4K.

Vimeo doesn't upload in 4k yet.

Merko · Apr 6, 2015

skylabimaging said:
Vimeo doesn't upload in 4k yet.

Aerial highlights from our first few tests with the DJI Inspire 1 for Odyssey Safaris in Tanzania.
4K version available at: youtube.com/watch?v=35l59PScxqk

skylabimaging · Apr 6, 2015

That's youtube though the one in vimeo is compressed to 1080...it makes no difference to me anyway, I don't have a 4k monitor.

Ferdi · Apr 7, 2015

skylabimaging said:
Well there's a lot of moire and compressed artifacts, which is typical for a camera in this dollar range, and for most people that watch videos isn't a big deal. There's no point in really dissecting the video, from a cinematic perspective it looks great, shots are all well composed, the subject matter is cool, stability is awesome, I enjoyed watching it. The problems the camera has are typically pointed out by people who know about cameras and have worked with high end gear. So unless you plan on flying a camera that shoots RAW video, you're gonna have these issues no matter what but like I said most people don't notice stuff like that just camera geeks like myself.

Don't worry about it if you don't notice anything yourself

I totally agree. I'm a bit of a pixel-peeping image geek and want my images to be the best they can. The fact is, once this stuff gets encoded for the web the image is degraded anyway, but no one really notices because so much of the content is watched on mobile devices. Most people realise that web video isn't perfect and doesn't expect it to be.

You'll love flying this bird! It's a pretty neat piece of kit, warts and all!

Alasdair McBroom · Apr 7, 2015

My word that is good. If you can find fault in this 4k version, you're a better man than me.

sdjackaerial · Apr 7, 2015

Alasdair McBroom said:
My word that is good. If you can find fault in this 4k version, you're a better man than me.

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my jaw literally dropped with the running zebras. WOW.

jon b · Apr 7, 2015

I believe the inspire camera holds its own to a GP Black. They both sport small sensors so it's to be expected that you'll notice the artifacts you see.
Need better quality... The next noticeable jump you'll be able to see won't come till you are sporting a professional sensor on a much heavier rig

For the quality and integration of the craft I think you have a great solution

damoncooper · Apr 7, 2015

Posted this back before I bought my Inspire as part of my pre-purchase due diligence, but here it is again for folks who may find it useful:

============

Ok verdict after downloading and watching 16GB worth of original Inspire 4K footage on a Sony 4K XBR65850 65-inch TV via Sony FMP-X10 4k media player:

1) Streaming artifacts are gone obviously (watching direct file)

2) Stutter on high motion shots is predictable and happens every 3-10+ seconds. Frequency of full-frame stutter seems proportionate to the amount of motion in the shot. Watchable but slightly uncomfortable for the viewer. Probably not noticeable on mobile devices or computer screens.

3) Low-light performance leaves a lot to be desired. In particular, not an insignificant amount of noise in the form of "static" is added to lower-light or shadow areas of shots. Probably imperceptible to the average viewer on computer screens, probably not noticeable at all on mobile devices, but enough to distract on a 4k TV.

4) I was of the impression the lens was flat (vs the GoPro fisheye lens), but it's not. Panning still produces some perceptible image distortion. Large formats will exaggerate the effect unfortunately and gives the viewer some disorientation as objects distort slightly as they move on screen. I suspect / hope software makers (Adobe and others) will produce Inspire1-specific lens distortion presets to allow for fixing the distortion in post-production so this probably isn't a major issue.

5) No jello or micro vibrations were perceptible in any of the Inspire 4k videos I tested, which is excellent.

Overall impression: The Inspire 1 camera is much improved over GoPro 3 + Phantom combo, but lags far behind the Panasonic LUMIX GH4 which exhibits only barely imperceptible noise on low light and none of the other issues above.

Summary for me: I'll probably be buying one and if DJI offers a camera upgrade I'll be very interested in that. The GH4 is the desired gold standard to try to match IMO. If DJI can come close to its performance in a camera upgrade they'll have a truly amazing platform in the Inspire.

Merko · Apr 7, 2015

GH4 cost half of the Inspire 1, and thats just for the house and no lens. can't compare those at all.

I don't really notice much image disortion tho. Im happy with the Inspire Quality compared to what I paid for it.

Had a S1000 with GH4, which is a lot better of course, but cost way way more also

damoncooper · Apr 7, 2015

They've joined the MFT consortium so a better camera is likely coming as an upgrade.

Alasdair McBroom · Apr 8, 2015

Great post Damon, thank you.

InspiredOne · Apr 8, 2015

Did I miss something?

Where's the beef?

Scotflieger · Apr 8, 2015

The latest version of Adobe Camera Raw 8.? (and I suspect Lightroom 5.5) corrects for any residual distortion in the I1 DNG still images. I have taken a number of high level seascapes and one click immediately straightened the horizons.

Alasdair McBroom · Apr 24, 2015

Just to re-visit this thread. Now that I have received and started to use my Inspire, I am going to have a little whinge about the video quality. Most of the stuff I have shot so far has these little micro fluctuations in exposure. It's really quite noticeable in detailed areas. I shoot in 4k at 25fps, log. Before I start to upload videos for you guys to dissect, does anyone else notice this about their videos?

damoncooper · Apr 24, 2015

Alasdair McBroom said:
Just to re-visit this thread. Now that I have received and started to use my Inspire, I am going to have a little whinge about the video quality. Most of the stuff I have shot so far has these little micro fluctuations in exposure. It's really quite noticeable in detailed areas. I shoot in 4k at 25fps, log. Before I start to upload videos for you guys to dissect, does anyone else notice this about their videos?

Yep. Auto exposure artifacting sucks. Try to fix exposure if possible in manual using histogram.

Scotflieger · Apr 24, 2015

Alasdair McBroom said:
Just to re-visit this thread. Now that I have received and started to use my Inspire, I am going to have a little whinge about the video quality. Most of the stuff I have shot so far has these little micro fluctuations in exposure. It's really quite noticeable in detailed areas. I shoot in 4k at 25fps, log. Before I start to upload videos for you guys to dissect, does anyone else notice this about their videos?

If you are using auto exposure, the exposure is taken from wherever you place the yellow square (by tapping the Pilot App screen). Obviously, if this square passes over areas of different luminosity your exposure will change for the whole image. What you don't want to do is to have this square on or near the horizon. As the light falling on a scene will normally be constant (unless you have a lot of broken cloud), setting manual exposure should give you a more consistent exposure.

The Editor · Apr 24, 2015

Scotflieger said:
If you are using auto exposure, the exposure is taken from wherever you place the yellow square (by tapping the Pilot App screen). Obviously, if this square passes over areas of different luminosity your exposure will change for the whole image. What you don't want to do is to have this square on or near the horizon. As the light falling on a scene will normally be constant (unless you have a lot of broken cloud), setting manual exposure should give you a more consistent exposure.

No - this is wrong.
By default, the Inspire camera uses evaluative metering which is center weighted. By putting your finger on the screen you are changing to spot metering (around 8%) and therefore just metering in the yellow square region.

Scotflieger · Apr 24, 2015

The Editor said:
No - this is wrong.
By default, the Inspire camera uses evaluative metering which is center weighted. By putting your finger on the screen you are changing to spot metering (around 8%) and therefore just metering in the yellow square region.

That is why I do not use the evaluative metering as it consistently under exposes the ground.