Jello Effect in P3P

[Durango9595]

Hi everyone, I just made a huge upgrade from my P2Vision that i've had forever to the P3P. I took it out for the first time yesterday and was very disappointed to see a jello effect while reviewing the video clips. It's subtle at times and not so much others but pretty consistent throughout all my clips. What I am wondering is if they all do this or do I have a potential faulty unit? I don't hear or see any buzzing or vibrations in the gimbal like I've seen in some youtube videos.

The thing is I'm still within in the amazon return time frame so I'm wondering if it might be better to just scrap it and try again with a new one. I also bought it used very good with a record of previous firmware upgrades in the text file so it may have a few flights in already but looks clean and had original packaging. Perhaps it was returned due to jello issue? Every forum says I should buy a nd filter to fix this, any thoughts on that as well? Would it eliminate the jello effect of this magnitude? Need to distinguish this from standard light issues or a more serious problem. I plan on using this unit for professional real estate photography so it needs to look good.

Would you guys keep it and troubleshoot or return/exchange before it's too late? Here's a clip for reference, it's at its worse around 40 seconds

 

[Michael Humphrey]

Did you take the plastic off the back part of the gimble?
It got me.

 

[Air Ontario]

Slow flying
ND filters
Shutter speed vs Frame speed
Vibration/prop issues


Those are a few things that effect/cause jello due to the top down shutter.
Slow flight with ND filters in order to get the shutter speed to twice the frame rate and using balanced props tend to give great video in manual.

I don't shoot in auto enough to help you there.

So say if shooting 1080P at 30 fps you;d want shutter no lower than 60. some higher, say 100 isn't too bad and fly slow with no herky jerky stick movements.

 

[Sinisalo]

try using the other 4 props that came with your phantom, most likely you have an out of balance prop. I agree with Air Ontario, you need to get ND filters and stop shooting in auto.

 

[Michael Humphrey]

Nice pointers.
I keyed in on the just got it yesterday.
I was so excited to get airborne I over looked that small issue.
I never got the jellies but I was just reading on filters.
ND filters and Polarization - the all you need to know video.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[TheManFromX]

I come from a photo and video background and I can tell you that "jello-effect" is inherent to the sensor scan speeds.
It is not an artifact of shutter speed. It is caused by movement of the camera only, however subtle.
The kind your video is demonstrating is probably due to a wobbly craft.
As Sinisalo suggested check the rotors.
Sometimes an improperly balanced gimbal will generate vibrations.
I noticed the horizon in your video wasn't horizontal. Might be a clue...

X

 

[Durango9595]

Slow flying
ND filters
Shutter speed vs Frame speed
Vibration/prop issues


Those are a few things that effect/cause jello due to the top down shutter.
Slow flight with ND filters in order to get the shutter speed to twice the frame rate and using balanced props tend to give great video in manual.

I don't shoot in auto enough to help you there.

So say if shooting 1080P at 30 fps you;d want shutter no lower than 60. some higher, say 100 isn't too bad and fly slow with no herky jerky stick movements.

Appreciate the detailed response. I guess I was really trying to get a baseline on whether the severity of these issues seen in my video were fixable or if I needed to send it back. Sounds like the nd filter is really the way to go.

 

[Air Ontario]

Appreciate the detailed response. I guess I was really trying to get a baseline on whether the severity of these issues seen in my video were fixable or if I needed to send it back. Sounds like the nd filter is really the way to go.

With a fixed aperture(like the Phantom) you are limited to either fast shutter speed(which makes jello worse) or slow shutter speeds which need ND filters to allow you to shoot slower shutter speeds reducing jello effect.

Gimbal vibration and or anything that causes camera vibration will cause jello effect with a rolling shutter. Fast shutter and herky jerky are bad and make jello worse. Smooth, slow movements offset jello effect and give a pleasing motion blur to things leaving the view along the sides and underneath.

 

[Durango9595]

I come from a photo and video background and I can tell you that "jello-effect" is inherent to the sensor scan speeds.
It is not an artifact of shutter speed. It is caused by movement of the camera only, however subtle.
The kind your video is demonstrating is probably due to a wobbly craft.
As Sinisalo suggested check the rotors.
Sometimes an improperly balanced gimbal will generate vibrations.
I noticed the horizon in your video wasn't horizontal. Might be a clue...

X

I just calibrated the gimbal. Hoping that helps with that. Going to give it another go tomorrow and see what happens

 

[CaptainDrone798]

I come from a photo and video background and I can tell you that "jello-effect" is inherent to the sensor scan speeds.
It is not an artifact of shutter speed. It is caused by movement of the camera only, however subtle.
The kind your video is demonstrating is probably due to a wobbly craft.
As Sinisalo suggested check the rotors.
Sometimes an improperly balanced gimbal will generate vibrations.
I noticed the horizon in your video wasn't horizontal. Might be a clue...

X

Finally, someone who speaks the truth.

 

[CaptainDrone798]

When I first bought a Phantom 3 I had no Jello. Then within a month I had a very slight jello effect. The issue was those tiny rubber connectors between the upper and lower gimbal. If not seated correctly, you get jello.

The other major cause of jello are the props. You can easily see if this is the problem by hovering the Phantom in front of you at eye level. If you see any vibration, you have a prop issue.

 

[PhantomPlanet]

although my original props had no visible damage (maybe a bit of bug blood), changing them out took away the jello when a gimbal calibration didn't help.

 

[Air Ontario]

I replaced mine with new ones several days ago. (vibration dampers)

 

[Durango9595]

UPDATE: Gave it another go today and reviewed the video clips and they were all garbage! Jello effect throughout every clip.I included a video link below. Here's what I learned:

The biggest discovery is that the jello only occurs when the motors are on. I took some clips of a bright pond walking around with motors off and NO JELLO, not even a little! I think this would eliminate the ND filter theory of eliminating the jello.

I used my factory sealed backup props that I didn't use on the first flight... same result. I think this accounts for the balancing props suggestion if both sets produce the same result. I also calibrated the gimbal.

I've watched plenty of raw footage on youtube now to see that I really need to return this unit. It shouldn't be doing this. My phantom 2 vision took **** video without the gimbal but never did i have jello issues like this. I believe there's some kind of vibration issue going throughout the gimbal. I'm thinking this is the reason it is an opened box, "used very good" unit.

 

[Durango9595]

I come from a photo and video background and I can tell you that "jello-effect" is inherent to the sensor scan speeds.
It is not an artifact of shutter speed. It is caused by movement of the camera only, however subtle.
The kind your video is demonstrating is probably due to a wobbly craft.
As Sinisalo suggested check the rotors.
Sometimes an improperly balanced gimbal will generate vibrations.
I noticed the horizon in your video wasn't horizontal. Might be a clue...

X

UPDATE: Your input ended up being the most accurate. I made a similar post on the dji phantom sub reddit and someone suggested I check the clear pins that go through the white rubbery vibration isolators on the gimbal mount. There's only supposed to be 2 clear pins and mine has 4. Also 2 of the 4 rubbery pieces appear to be of a larger size which doesn't seem right. Most importantly one of the white rubbery vibration isolators is not properly installed and hanging below the top of the mount. All of these factors seem to suggest there was a poor after market assembly causing excessive vibration in the gimbal causing the jello effect. In the process of contacting the seller to hopefully get a refund and not an exchange. I rolled the dice getting a used unit and got burned but thanks for the input!

 

[mdowney58]

I recently hovered my P3S at eye level, and noticed my entire gimbal shaking slightly.
I also noticed a jello effect in my more recent videos, that didn't used to be there.
I found my Yaw Arm to have a wiggle
to it that shouldn't be there,
Yaw Arm Wiggle
and I'm guessing (hoping) that fixing the wiggle will fix the jello.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[TheManFromX]

To repeat: Shutter speed is unrelated to "Jello-Effect/Skew".
The only way to reduce JE/S is to move the camera slowly. Most professional videographers know this golden rule.
Putting a ND filter on a camera only allows you to lower the shutter speed.
High shutter speeds cause footage to have a choppy or 'staccato' effect. (cinematographers call this "strobing")
The battle scenes in "Gladitor" purposely used HSS to get a very 'kinetic' feel.
Conversely, an ND filter will allow you to use a lower shutter speed to get smoother looking video. (It induces mild motion blur)
To sum things up- you can put 5 ND filters on your camera; but if you're moving it too fast or have a wobbly craft or gimble...
... you're havin' Jello for dessert!

 

[Durango9595]

To repeat: Shutter speed is unrelated to "Jello-Effect/Skew".
The only way to reduce JE/S is to move the camera slowly. Most professional videographers know this golden rule.
Putting a ND filter on a camera only allows you to lower the shutter speed.
High shutter speeds cause footage to have a choppy or 'staccato' effect. (cinematographers call this "strobing")
The battle scenes in "Gladitor" purposely used HSS to get a very 'kinetic' feel.
Conversely, an ND filter will allow you to use a lower shutter speed to get smoother looking video. (It induces mild motion blur)
To sum things up- you can put 5 ND filters on your camera; but if you're moving it too fast or have a wobbly craft or gimble...
... you're havin' Jello for dessert!

Hah, nice pun. my refund has been processed yay! Appreciate the help, I would have been screwed if I bought a bunch of expensive ND filters and was still stuck with a defective product that I missed the return deadline on. Going to buy a new one this time. The P3P prices have plummeted on amazon since the P4 has been released. Great timing!

 

[Harry Callihan]

A new unit won't help you if you don't understand what's causing the jello. Scanning is the ONLY cause coupled with shutter speed. It's not your props, rubber dampers, a bad unit (which it probably isn't) or any other theory you'd like to believe. You need to brush up and learn about this for when you run into your next problem, which you will. This isn't about what you don't know. It's about what you're not willing to learn.

 

[Durango9595]

A new unit won't help you if you don't understand what's causing the jello. Scanning is the ONLY cause coupled with shutter speed. It's not your props, rubber dampers, a bad unit (which it probably isn't) or any other theory you'd like to believe. You need to brush up and learn about this for when you run into your next problem, which you will. This isn't about what you don't know. It's about what you're not willing to learn.

Well I'm sure you don't want to hear this but you are 100% wrong. My new aircraft takes amazing video, no problems at all. I have made zero mods and film in default settings. It was an improperly assembled gimbal that was causing excessive vibrations. Excessive vibrations causes jello...