P4 Pro Camera Is Incredible - From a Professional Photographer

[F3honda4me]

Myself, I am most impressed with how the p4p handles extreme contrast. I shot some very demanding scenes today (from a dynamic range and high frequency motion perspective) and the only scene (below) where I got visible banding / blocks from the h265 encoding, before toning, was the darker parts of the second scene.

This quick edit is nowhere near neutral, but gives a indication how the material holds together after considerable adjustments; a working log profile would make this much more forgiving (especially for the shadows) so I am hoping for a quick resoultion from dji here.

Some notes here, i used the none-profile with a -1 sharpness setting (this helped some issues with banding due to somewhat reduced high-frequency information hogging all the bandwidth) and I think a -2 might be even better. We do see some flares, but with a unobstructed sun directly on the glass, I cannot see how this is avoidable, so I think the lense is excellent (given the price).

What do you use to convert your h265 video to an editable format? It seems Sony vegas and premiere pro cannot natively edit h265. Beautiful footage by the way.

 

[smiller]

What do you use to convert your h265 video to an editable format? It seems Sony vegas and premiere pro cannot natively edit h265. Beautiful footage by the way.

Transcoding to intermediate files is a good solution to H.265 codec incompatibility, and also is much less CPU intensive when using your editing application. The only price is the large size of the intermediate files so just stick to standard ProRes, it's plenty good enough and files won't be too huge.

Rocky Mountains Media Converter is an excellent free tool for transcoding from H.265 to ProRes.

 

[Raptorman0909]

What do you use to convert your h265 video to an editable format? It seems Sony vegas and premiere pro cannot natively edit h265. Beautiful footage by the way.

I have editing video shot in H.265 in PP without a problem. When I first loaded a H.265 clip PP said it need to update to handle it which only took a few seconds and since then it handles H.265 OK. I'm using a Windows 10 box and PP CC.


Brian

 

[smiller]

I have editing video shot in H.265 in PP without a problem. When I first loaded a H.265 clip PP said it need to update to handle it which only took a few seconds and since then it handles H.265 OK. I'm using a Windows 10 box and PP CC.

I have also edited H.265 directly in PP on a Win10 machine so it does work, but even with an i7 it isn't the smoothest experience in my case. But there is indeed PP support of H.265 under Win10 though (and maybe back to Win7, dunno) if you have a reasonably fast processor.

 

[Tomas Wangen]

What do you use to convert your h265 video to an editable format?

I transcode to prores (normal level) myself. Disadavantage is huge files, advantages are compability with most editors and also very cpu-friendly files.

ffmpeg is free, scriptable and can be used on all platforms.

for reference, the parameters I use (windows):

ffmpeg.exe -i file.mp4 -c:v prores_ks -profile:v standard -qscale:v 4 -vendor ap10 -pix_fmt yuv422p10le -colorspace bt709 -color_primaries bt709 -color_trc bt709 -c:a pcm_s16le -chunk_size 96K "file_pres.mov"

 

[Raptorman0909]

I have also edited H.265 directly in PP on a Win10 machine so it does work, but even with an i7 it isn't the smoothest experience in my case. But there is indeed PP support of H.265 under Win10 though (and maybe back to Win7, dunno) if you have a reasonably fast processor.

Yeah, I don't think anything handles H.265 as well as H.264 -- I know that when I try to play the raw video clips from the camera that Windows Media Player is able to play H.265 but it does so at less than 40% real speed. That is, a clip that last 10 seconds will take more than 25 seconds to play using Windows Media Player. I don't think PP is as bad as that but it does run more slowly and with more stutter than H.264 does.


Brian

 

[Rom3oDelta7]

So today I upgraded from an Inspire 1 Pro to a P4 Pro. Yes you read that right, the 1" sensor in the P4 Pro blows away the Micro 4/3rds sensor in the I1 Pro's X5.

6) Minimal Barrel Distortion - This blew me away, I thought sure that I would have to make my own lens profile to fix the barrel distortion until Adobe released one, but in my first few test shots I do not see any. Another incredible feat by DJI. I'm sure pixel peepers will be able to find some, but no end customer will be able to see it.

I created a lens profile using the Adobe tools and it turns out there is some barrel distortion, but not a lot. There is, however, fairly pronounced vignetting. Overall, though, I was surprised at how little distortion there was.
Lens profile (RAW only) is available at this link (do a "save link as..." to save this).

 

[Talon Six]

It's still the shutter button - but it's a two-stage button.
A soft press does the focusing and the hard press will take the photo.

I'm having a hard time getting this to work reliably. Is it possible I have a bad button?

 

[smiller]

I'm having a hard time getting this to work reliably. Is it possible I have a bad button?

Does it not work reliably, or not at all? If the latter then there is a setting that controls the function iof the half-press and you may need to set it to auto-focus. If it works but only sometimes then there may be a mechanical problem with the switch.

 

[KingDad1985]

The P4P is amazing all around. Not just the camera but also the way it flys!

 

[SmurfN]

I will need to read up some more on why the consensus is that the mechanical shutter is only for stills; DJI's own documentation states it was added to eliminate jello (DJI Phantom 4 Pro – Specs, FAQ, Tutorials and Downloads) I have never gotten jello from any platform when shooting stills; only video.

to end this discussion once and for all.

 

[apextech]

I dont mean to wake up this issue again, but there seems to be alot of focus on the P4P sensor vs the M4/3. A camera is made up of more than just the sensor, its that of course, but also the processor and the lens. It's just that I am hearing very little about the total camera package and most are concentrating on just the fact that the new Phantom has a ( 1") sensor which is actually 13x8.8mm and not actually 1" at all, the M4/3 sensor is about twice its size, the most obvious advantage to that is its low light performance, of course the processing chip as well as the processing algorithms would make a difference between the two, also realize that the M4/3 is going to have a shallower depth of field at any given f stop when compared to the 1" sensor as well. DJI ships the X5 camera with a $300 lens (15mm) and its really not the desired lens for the application the 12mm Olympus would be but it retails for $800.

I almost upgraded to the Inspire Pro, but when the P4 Pro came out I went that way mainly for the ease of use, flight time and cost of breakage (if that should happen), the Inspire Pro gimbal is $1200 (not including lens) if it has a problem which is almost the cost of an entire P4P, OA system was a contributing factor as well, I did this knowing that this new DJI Phantom will be a horrible investment, devalue like crazy in a short amount of time and have virtually no customer support behind it, but I bit the bullet as a early adopter fot this quad anyways, go figure.

 

[X5GEE]

So today I upgraded from an Inspire 1 Pro to a P4 Pro. Yes you read that right, the 1" sensor in the P4 Pro blows away the Micro 4/3rds sensor in the I1 Pro's X5.

The good

1) Sensor size - DJI finally upped the sensor size for a Phantom family member to 1" and the improvement is nothing short of incredible. I posted over a year ago that the only thing that would make me buy another Phantom is if they improved the camera; which is why I sat out the P4.

2) Dynamic Range - This is more important to photographers and videographers than just about any other specification; somewhere I read it has between 11 and 11.5 stops of dynamic range, that's close to pro series DSLR capabilities! So of course I had to see it for myself, the attached photos show how incredible the dynamic range is on the P4 Pro.

Agreed .... The P4 was nice, but coming from a Phantom 3 Advanced, it wasn't enough to purchase one (for photography stills). I considered buying the Inspire 1 /Zenmuse X5, but the price and size was hard to justify. It was a no brainer for me to pick up the P4P. I've been doing extensive image testings the past 2 weeks with it. Definitely blows away the old 1/2.3 sensor. Especially in low light. Here's a test image I shot the other week. Some post was added.

 

[maseman88]

Transcoding to intermediate files is a good solution to H.265 codec incompatibility, and also is much less CPU intensive when using your editing application. The only price is the large size of the intermediate files so just stick to standard ProRes, it's plenty good enough and files won't be too huge.

Rocky Mountains Media Converter is an excellent free tool for transcoding from H.265 to ProRes.

is there any way you can post a link on how to install this? I cant get it to work on my macbook pro

 

[Talon Six]

Agreed .... The P4 was nice, but coming from a Phantom 3 Advanced, it wasn't enough to purchase one (for photography stills). I considered buying the Inspire 1 /Zenmuse X5, but the price and size was hard to justify. It was a no brainer for me to pick up the P4P. I've been doing extensive image testings the past 2 weeks with it. Definitely blows away the old 1/2.3 sensor. Especially in low light. Here's a test image I shot the other week. Some post was added.

Great shot!

 

[Doctorcobani]

For stills yes, video is crippled. H.365 banding, slog useless.........4K 60fps is a joke at 100mbs transfer rate. Side sensors not available in p mode, and it looks like there are a bunch of folks loosing connections with the tx.

I'm pretty sure you post this sky is falling doomsday junk in every thread.

Multiple times in every thread.

It's annoying... in every oportunity, he speak negatively about P4P. It's the most advanced fly camera at the moment for $ 1499, the quality is STUNNING, but seems that he claims the specs of an Inspire 2 for the price of a P3S, and with 4K 60FPS at 1Gbps... WTF
And one more time... it's H265, not "3"65.

 

[smiller]

It's annoying... in every oportunity, he speak negatively about P4P. It's the most advanced fly camera at the moment for $ 1499, the quality is STUNNING, but seems that he claims the specs of an Inspire 2 for the price of a P3S, and with 4K 60FPS at 1Gbps... WTF
And one more time... it's H265, not "3"65.

And don't forget the incessant complaints about 'range problems.' Here is an example of a 'range problem' where the tester flew out 3.6 miles and had to return only because of low battery. Lol.

 

[ianwood]

Your claims re the 1" sensor being superior to M43 (X5 camera) are interesting. The M43 sensor is almost 50% larger accross the diagonal than the 1" so to the extent this is true will prove short lived. Very unlikely the inspire two cameras would not be sighnificantly better (I think the X5 still would significantly outperform the 1" in noise and DR regardless of what the claims are),

Compare the Sony RX100IV (smaller, stacked sensor similar to P4P) to the Panasonic GH4 (larger sensor same as X5/X5R) and you will see that the smaller sensor can hold its own against the larger one. DOF is obviously different but there isn't always a clear advantage in size for latitude and sensitivity.

 

[apextech]

I may be mistaken, but I dont believe the P4P senor is a stacked sensor, I think its the Exmor R variety like found in the RX100 I/II, are making the assumption its a Sony sensor?, again I'm not 100% on this, anyone with any info in this direction such as part numbers for the P4P sensor would be welcomed.

 

[Tron_X]

What do you use to convert your h265 video to an editable format? It seems Sony vegas and premiere pro cannot natively edit h265. Beautiful footage by the way.

Magix Vegas Pro 14 can edit the HEVC natively as of build 201. I tested it with some sample footage to confirm. Apparently the P4P files are considered to be an hvc1 variant (they didn't work with the earlier builds). VEGAS Pro 14 Update 3 (build 201)