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Really Disappointed With Video Quality

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Mar 2, 2015
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Hello everyone

My Inspire 1 is underwhelming me. Video quality compared to the GoPro Hero 4 Black on my Phantom 2 is much worse. I always shoot in 4K to give me more scope in editing, and no matter what image profile I choose, the video is noisy. Still's aren't good either. Look at this video. I expect it to be at least as good as a GoPro but it's not.
4K, 24FPS, ISO 100, auto-exposure, Log.

Can anyone help me find a solution?

 
Yep, you can read about my similar struggles here, although I am getting great results with photos.
http://www.inspirepilots.com/threads/dji-inspire-video-mode-comparison-with-luts.1656/

What 'style' do you have it set to? I find 'none' works best...
Also after my shoot today I have found that even though 1080p gives you less flexibility in post, the footage straight from the camera looks much better (ie mostly free of grain compared to 4k).
You can try 'remove grain' effect in after effects as well if you have it. I find that works well.

Overall, yes the camera is underwhelming, but I feel like if you play around with the settings, footage is still muuuuuch better than a phantom with gopro due to better controls and flatter image.
Here's hoping we can get an upgraded camera or at least some better firmware.
 
Yep, you can read about my similar struggles here, although I am getting great results with photos.
http://www.inspirepilots.com/threads/dji-inspire-video-mode-comparison-with-luts.1656/

What 'style' do you have it set to? I find 'none' works best...
Also after my shoot today I have found that even though 1080p gives you less flexibility in post, the footage straight from the camera looks much better (ie mostly free of grain compared to 4k).
You can try 'remove grain' effect in after effects as well if you have it. I find that works well.

Overall, yes the camera is underwhelming, but I feel like if you play around with the settings, footage is still muuuuuch better than a phantom with gopro due to better controls and flatter image.
Here's hoping we can get an upgraded camera or at least some better firmware.
As mentioned in my post it was set to Log today. I didn't have a style set before and it was equally poor. I set log today because someone else on this forum recommended it.
Thanks for your reply.
 
right. I'm referring to the 'style' value not the color value. LOG is optimal, but you can fine tune further in style setting.
 
Very disappointed with the retailer's initial response "we are struggling to see any visible noise at all on the footage".
 
Same thing, just a different wrapper.
Codec/compression is the same.

While the codec/compression is the same, PC/Mac handles the wrappers within NLE's differently. @Ricardodaforce I see that you're on a Mac cutting with FCP X ... have you tried using any plug-ins (such as neat video) to clean up the noise?

.
Welcome to the forum BTW..... :)

Thanks. Glad to be here. I'm sure I'll be needing help from the forum as time goes on. The Inspire 1 is my first multirotor.
 
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@Ricardodaforce to be fair, only the GoPro Hero 4 black has a slight advantage over the existing Inspire 1 camera visually. There are talks of DJI releasing a new & improved camera down the road for Inspire 1. The reality is, no single camera at this price point will be able to deliver everything to everyone. The "noise" you speak of, IMO, is negligable, but at least it can be corrected in post. My biggest beefs with the camera is the amount of aliasing + moire present in the image.
 
These are things that you just have to deal with cameras in this range and make the corrections needed in post. It is not a professional grade camera by any means (sure they added log mode to make people feel pro status, or rather like colorists) but it's a $550 camera/gimbal pack...a zenmuse h3 is $380 alone.
 
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I don't know why but when I play back my P2V+ V3 footage using VLC its horrible, however quicktime its fine.
With VLC its like looking through a mosquito net and there is a huge amount of jagged edges on everything.

My previous P2V+ (mk 2) was fine with VLC.
 
I'm also less than impressed with the video quality. I have to choose between horribly over-sharpened or soft, almost out of focus footage. Although others have said that the Inspire camera is closer to GH4 quality than Gopro, I disagree. Other than the horrible fish-eye lens (easily fixable in Ae when shooting in Medium) and auto exposure ruining many shots, I actually preferred the image from my GoPro Hero 4 Black (purely from an image quality perspective). But like stated by someone else, at this price point, what did I expect? I believe the fact that I've got manual control over the camera makes up for the lack of image quality. And the sharpness issue is possibly a firmware update away from being addresed. There's also the possibilty of a new camera slotting onto the Inspire. All in all this is an amazing beast and I absolutely love it, warts and all!
 
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Hi. I'm new to the forum and have just ordered an inspire as an upgrade to a phantom with hero 4 black. Is the video that bad? I came across this and can see **** all wrong with it, at least on my iPad.
 
Hmm. Maybe you could expand a little. What do you see wrong with it?

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
 

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