Sunrise over Cowichan Bay - DJI Avata 4K Video

[Aaron Hokanson]

Had the good fortune to capture some footage of my home town of Cowichan Bay, BC, located on the south end of Vancouver Island about an hour north of Victoria. What a morning.

This is from the DJI Avata in manual mode. HIGHLY recommended to turn off any built-in stabilization, put the field of view to wide and then stabilize it in post using GyroFlow (free and amazing). Works really well.

Hope you enjoy!

Youtube Video

 

[Kilrah]

Haven't tried yet, but as long as you turn stab off can you set the camera angle to the middle setting and still use gyroflow? Widest is just too wide IMO, don't like at all unless there's a very specific reason to use it.

 

[Xitor]

Had the good fortune to capture some footage of my home town of Cowichan Bay, BC, located on the south end of Vancouver Island about an hour north of Victoria. What a morning.

This is from the DJI Avata in manual mode. HIGHLY recommended to turn off any built-in stabilization, put the field of view to wide and then stabilize it in post using GyroFlow (free and amazing). Works really well.

Hope you enjoy!

Youtube Video

When you were going backward, was that done in post, or were you really fly backwards?

 

[Aaron Hokanson]

When you were going backward, was that done in post, or were you really fly backwards?

Oh that's definitely done in post. I would say that anytime you see backwards flying for FPV it was reversed in the edit. Flying blind is not recommended, especially over the ocean with masts around ;-)

 

[Aaron Hokanson]

Haven't tried yet, but as long as you turn stab off can you set the camera angle to the middle setting and still use gyroflow? Widest is just too wide IMO, don't like at all unless there's a very specific reason to use it.

Wide is actually the middle setting (there is linear and ultra-wide as the other options). Pretty sure the gyro data only gets baked into the footage in wide view. Could be wrong, tho!

 

[Xitor]

Oh that's definitely done in post. I would say that anytime you see backwards flying for FPV it was reversed in the edit. Flying blind is not recommended, especially over the ocean with masts around ;-)

That's what I figured, but I'm still an observer sitting on the fence and haven't purchased my avata yet. Great footage, pushed me a little closer to pushing that avata button. Just not sure if I should jump it and the get pack without the actual controller. But if I do, then I'm almost at $2K with DJI refresh.

 

[Aaron Hokanson]

That's what I figured, but I'm still an observer sitting on the fence and haven't purchased my avata yet. Great footage, pushed me a little closer to pushing that avata button. Just not sure if I should jump it and the get pack without the actual controller. But if I do, then I'm almost at $2K with DJI refresh.

This is my first ever drone purchase and I sure am happy with it. I went all in, got the remote controller, the fly more pack, ND filters, DJI Refresh, so far I am in it for $2500 CAD. FPV is the closest thing you can get to actually flying without a manned aircraft license.

I got it first with just the motion controller and that was a blast but flying manual was the goal. Spent about 6 hours in the simulator before I felt comfortable enough to fly it for real. Amazing how suddenly you can do it. My first simulator flight in manual was so disheartening lol But practice makes perfect.

 

[Kilrah]

Wide is actually the middle setting (there is linear and ultra-wide as the other options). Pretty sure the gyro data only gets baked into the footage in wide view. Could be wrong, tho!

Correct, tested it and gyro data is only there in Wide. It's the amount of lens distorsion correction that threw me off.

Gave it a try and I'm happy with gyroflow indeed, Doesn't seem to significantly impact quality, processes in pretty much realtime on my rig so very reasonable, and it's nice to be able to dial in a bit less stabilization than rocksteady to make it feel more natural and adjust the distorsion correction depending on the type of flight.

If you need a flat horizon you'll want to use built-in HorizonSteady though.

 

[Aaron Hokanson]

If you need a flat horizon you'll want to use built-in HorizonSteady though.

GyroFlow has a "Lock Horizon" option that I used in the video above, but dialed slightly back so that there was a slight bank for turns. But set at 100% it keeps the horizon perfectly level.

 

[Kilrah]

But set at 100% it keeps the horizon perfectly level.

Yeah but quality is absolute garbage in comparison since it can only do that by cropping into the 4K footage while the built-in HS gets to reframe the much higher resolution sensor before generating the output that stays "true" 4K.

HS can compensate a full 360° roll with basically no visible degradation, you do have the limitation of having to use the "normal" FOV though.

 

[Aaron Hokanson]

Yeah but quality is absolute garbage in comparison since it can only do that by cropping into the 4K footage while the built-in HS gets to reframe the much higher resolution sensor before generating the output that stays "true" 4K.

HS can compensate a full 360° roll with basically no visible degradation, you do have the limitation of having to use the "normal" FOV though.

Ah, gotcha. I guess it depends on the footage and whether cropping in changes it too much. All decisions to be made!