cause of camera interference

titaniumviper · Sep 25, 2016

Hello,
I recently took my phantom 3 to the lakes to get some footage. After reviewing it i noticed stange interference on the camera which i believed to be caused my the props. Does anyone know the cause of this and how to avoid it. A video is below of what im talking about and its at it worse at 30 seconds in. Thanks

Cobs · Sep 25, 2016

Its caused by flying into the sun, aim your camera lower or avoid flying into the sun

shockwave199 · Sep 25, 2016

Yes, props. Angle the camera down at least -5 degrees to get it out of the shot. Also, ND filters will help.

jephoto · Sep 25, 2016

If you'll notice about 1 min into the video you turned to the right- away from the sun and the effect just about disappears. But you do see the tips of the blades. You are moving at a pretty good clip- and to go fast, especially if there's any headwind at all the whole quad will tip forward.
As said above, tip the camera slightly down to avoid this.

Not sure ND filter would make any difference at all. Actually may increase the lens flare when facing the sun by putting another piece of glass in front of the lens.
Possible a lens Hood may help if you need to shoot towards the sun.
Or a polarizer. But may not.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

titaniumviper · Sep 25, 2016

Hi guys,
Thanks for all your speedy replies. I really appreciate it. I'll ensure my camera is angled lower and invest in a lens hood.
Thanks very much

Michael

shockwave199 · Sep 25, 2016

I would not invest in a lens hood. Invest in a set of ND filters, such as polar pro. I use an ND 8 filter for all of my daytime flights and it does very well. There are some instances where I may have been better with a 16, but 8 does well. Then set your camera to manual settings for best exposure results while using an ND filter. Lastly, keep your camera no higher than -3 and preferably more like -8 and that will keep props out of your shots almost always. If you want to keep things super easy, keep everything about exposure on auto, while in hover at 80' up point the camera until you have more ground than sky such as ground 3/4 Sky 1/4 and then push the AE button to lock exposure, keep the camera at around -10 and not much higher, slow your rate of forward speed a bit, and there you have it. Clean footage decently exposed with no props in the shot. I would not recommend a lens hood at all.

jephoto · Sep 25, 2016

Most of that I agree with- except that I don't think the ND filters would help him on this issue- all things equal.
All an ND will do is slow your shutter- which is great for better video.
His issue here was the sun coming through the the spinning props causing a strobing effect- with a bit of lens flare. The angle of the lens will have more effect to reduce this problems And maybe a hood.
Also a bit slower flight speed will reduce the forward tip too.

shockwave199 · Sep 25, 2016

Since using an ND filter I have no issue with prop schmutz of any kind in the video. I know I'm very careful about my camera angles but I can't be that perfect and sometimes the wind will override the effort regardless. I could be wrong, but I believe that the ability to drop shutter speed down to a proper setting, rather than a massively high speed which picks all that up, is one of the advantages of an ND filter. It won't cancel out props in the shot when the camera is looking straight ahead, but I think it does a lot to remove prop shadow overhead getting into the shot. I just do not subscribe to lens hoods. They do nothing useful and can make things worse by trapping wind and messing with gimbal balance. If you're running without an ND filter in a day shot, you better be very careful about camera angle and locking in exposure.