Phantom 4 Standard Shaky Jittery Video

jogforfitness · Nov 6, 2017

I've seen numerous posts on this over the lifespan of the P4 but don't know if anyone has discovered a resolution.

I experience shaky or jittery video (10 second video link below) often especially when the camera is facing to the left or right. This is not a filter issue as far as slowing down the shutter speed.

Is the probable issue the absorbers (or whatever they are called) within the shell?

Or, if the entire camera/gimbal were replaced is that a probable resolution? That's a pricy resolution but, if my video is crappy because of the jitter then it may be worth it.

Or, the fact I change filters depending on the lighting and don't recalibrate the camera/gimbal with each change (could the slight difference in the filters weight be the issue if recalibration is not done)?

My last resort would be to mail it to dji support as I know I'll not get my same drone back plus, it's not under warranty.

20171105_jitter.mp4

tevek · Nov 6, 2017

Assuming that the footage in the link is from the microSD card, have you tried adjusting your video settings or swapping out your card? I know next to nothing about filming/photography but recently shot some footage with Litchi of a local golf course and when I played it back, it was essentially the same as yours. That was the first time that had happened and then stupidly realised after a recent GO4 update, I had failed to check all my settings. For whatever reason the video setting had defaulted to 4K and my transmission bit rate and channel settings went back to factory default. My fault for not checking, anyway I dropped the video setting to 1080 (as that is all the customer can view anyway), reset my transmission rate to 4 Mbps and custom set my channel, inserted a fresh high quality card, flew the same mission again and it came out fine. I often used ND4/8filters and leave the settings on auto and post edit if need be, but rarely need to do much with the footage.
If your probably is fairly recent and you haven't stacked your drone, maybe try that before donating a kidney for repairs.

jogforfitness · Nov 6, 2017

Never considered it could be SD card related. I will reformat to see if it makes a difference. I've been using it for a year or so now. I'm already and still recording at 1080. Transmission is set to 4mbps. Not sure when I'll get to retry as the weather is moving colder, windier and rainy as we move towards the winter months.

Thanks for the idea tevek.

tevek · Nov 6, 2017

jogforfitness said:
Never considered it could be SD card related. I will reformat to see if it makes a difference. I've been using it for a year or so now. I'm already and still recording at 1080. Transmission is set to 4mbps. Not sure when I'll get to retry as the weather is moving colder, windier and rainy as we move towards the winter months.

Thanks for the idea tevek.

No worries, we are presently moving into summer through a supposed spring season and we went from using the wood fire two days ago to 30C+ today and it's too hot to fly. Regarding the card, I found that formatting through Litchi wasn't a success but using the GO app or my PC was. I opted for a new card anyway to rule out any other formatting issues.

drwar · Nov 7, 2017

jogforfitness said:
I've seen numerous posts on this over the lifespan of the P4 but don't know if anyone has discovered a resolution.

I experience shaky or jittery video (10 second video link below) often especially when the camera is facing to the left or right. This is not a filter issue as far as slowing down the shutter speed.

Is the probable issue the absorbers (or whatever they are called) within the shell?

Or, if the entire camera/gimbal were replaced is that a probable resolution? That's a pricy resolution but, if my video is crappy because of the jitter then it may be worth it.

Or, the fact I change filters depending on the lighting and don't recalibrate the camera/gimbal with each change (could the slight difference in the filters weight be the issue if recalibration is not done)?

My last resort would be to mail it to dji support as I know I'll not get my same drone back plus, it's not under warranty.

20171105_jitter.mp4

I was unable to play your video for whatever reason/ It would not load.
I went thru some issues with jittery video when I was using 4k 24 FPS
When I increased the FPS to 60 by using 1920 x 1080 I got a very smooth video. 24 FPS seems to be too slow a frame rate when there is any kind of quick motion and gives the impression the screen is jumping between frames.

jogforfitness · Nov 7, 2017

I was recording at 1080 24 fps. The video does not have any sudden movements. I'm flying around an old steel mill at roughly 250-300 ft. I can bump up the frame rate to 30 but, I'm sensing the issue is really mechanical. My guess is it's a motor that moves the camera. Regardless, I plan to try the suggestions here.

drwar · Nov 7, 2017

Run the fps up to 60 at 1080, increasing it only to 30 ( 25% increase) is not going to rule this out.

RémyHeli · Nov 8, 2017

Have you tried increasing camera pan expo rate in GO4 app for smoother reaction to wheel input?

Expecting craft flies smoothly otherwise gimbal might have more work to stabilise. I would attach extra tiny autonomous camera onboard to verify this. That camera can also watch gimbal.

jogforfitness · Nov 8, 2017

RémyHeli said:
Have you tried increasing camera pan expo rate in GO4 app for smoother reaction to wheel input?

Expecting craft flies smoothly otherwise gimbal might have more work to stabilise. I would attach extra tiny autonomous camera onboard to verify this. That camera can also watch gimbal.

The jitter occurs intermittently during a Litchi mission. The turns and such are all programmed.

tevek · Nov 8, 2017

jogforfitness said:
The jitter occurs intermittently during a Litchi mission. The turns and such are all programmed.

Dumb question, but does the same jitteriness occur using the GO app when free flying? Cannot see how it would be a SW issue but I guess anything is possible.

jogforfitness · Nov 8, 2017

tevek said:
Dumb question, but does the same jitteriness occur using the GO app when free flying? Cannot see how it would be a SW issue but I guess anything is possible.

I predominantly fly Litchi missions so, I don't really know. I was able to get out briefly today in my neighborhood and fly a very very short (maybe a minute in length) circular mission a few times. Encouraging news is I didn't notice any random jitter. This is tricky because it's sporadic so this short test is not enough to declare victory. What I changed was this: bumped up the frame rate from 24 to 60, formatted sd card. I want to fly a longer mission for the test to be more thorough but, that may be a while because of the weather. Multiple longer missions will be a truer test.

I was surprised that the footage appeared smoother in general at 60fps. 24fps was not as smooth. But, this is not what I was trying to resolve. The issue was the occasional random jump/jitter/shake that would occur in random fashion out of nowhere. I'll update this thread as I find opportunities to test. It's dark here now at 5pm and I work usually until 4.

tevek · Nov 8, 2017

jogforfitness said:
I predominantly fly Litchi missions so, I don't really know. I was able to get out briefly today in my neighborhood and fly a very very short (maybe a minute in length) circular mission a few times and, I didn't notice any random jitter. This is tricky because it's sporadic. What I changed was this: bumped up the frame rate from 24 to 60, formatted sd card. I want to fly a longer mission for the test to be more thorough but, that may be a while because of the weather. A longer mission will be a truer test.

I was surprised that the footage appeared smoother in general at 60fps. 24fps was not as smooth. But, this is not what I was trying to resolve. The issue was the occasional random jump/jitter/shake that would occur in random fashion out of nowhere. I'll update this thread as I find opportunities to test. It's dark here now at 5pm and I work usually until 4.

Well hopefully it may simply be a fps issue as I found similar results to yours when I dropped the resolution and upped the fps. As for the weather, it's 08:00 over here and the temp is already nudging 25C so it will be an afternoon flight. Funnily enough I flew last evening and the gimbal dropped, flopped from side to side and I got the 'maximum gimbal limit reached' or similar. I was giving it some stick and there was quite a breeze so I put it down to reaching the limit of the gimbal, the drone and my silliness. Got some great sunset photos over the lake so at least I achieved something.

drwar · Nov 14, 2017

jogforfitness said:
I predominantly fly Litchi missions so, I don't really know. I was able to get out briefly today in my neighborhood and fly a very very short (maybe a minute in length) circular mission a few times. Encouraging news is I didn't notice any random jitter. This is tricky because it's sporadic so this short test is not enough to declare victory. What I changed was this: bumped up the frame rate from 24 to 60, formatted sd card. I want to fly a longer mission for the test to be more thorough but, that may be a while because of the weather. Multiple longer missions will be a truer test.

I was surprised that the footage appeared smoother in general at 60fps. 24fps was not as smooth. But, this is not what I was trying to resolve. The issue was the occasional random jump/jitter/shake that would occur in random fashion out of nowhere. I'll update this thread as I find opportunities to test. It's dark here now at 5pm and I work usually until 4.

Can you correlate the jittery movement to your different Waypoint positions. If you can, make sure you use curved pathmode that helps quite a bit. I have noticed the drone in general will lurch at Waypoints , when I changed to "curved" it was greatly reduced but not gone. I still have questions as to whether some of this is compass calibration, gimble etc.

Dronus · Nov 17, 2017

Are you flying in Atti mode ?

Jeffstoltzfus · Apr 28, 2018

Im wondering if this issue was ever resolved? I've been shooting for a year and just started noticing some things like this. Not quite as bad as your issue... but not smooth like it should be. Im not shooting in cold or warm weather and im shooting at 4k 59fps which should be and often is smooth... i notice it when flying orbits maybe? i have to do more troubleshooting. it sucks