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EVO 4k 30fps-vs-60fps test

Rule of thumb... shutter speed should be 2x frame rate. Frame rate is the # of pictures taken per second, shutter speed is the amount of exposure time per picture.
The slower the framerate, the more info/data the sensor can gather, hence the better the image quality, since there is more info. Framerate goes hand in hand with shutter speed. Remember that.
Comparing the same scene shot at 30 vs 60 will more than likely look slightly better at 30. But...I think you will need to look really close to find the difference. Your shutter speed MUST be faster than your frame rate otherwise you get blank frames and duplicate frames in your final video. You may notice a slight "stutter" in the video at 30 vs 60, but the advantage of 30 is higher quality and motion blur. The advantage of 60 is you end up with more to work with in post as long as you keep the shutter speed higher than the frame rate. Optimally at 2x.

Here is another thing to think about...ND filters that slow shutter speed by limiting the amount of light to the sensor. You can shoot two videos in sunlight..both at 30fps, one video without an ND filter the other with, slowing the shutter speed to 2x frame rate with the correct ND filter. The video with the ND filter will look way, WAY better, way more saturated than the video shot on auto shutter. Longer exposure time for each frame with the ND filter, means more info to the sensor, better quality.

I am not a video expert, but did shoot video commercially for many years - mostly theater work, along with being a semi-pro fotog. Drone footage usually yaws a lot, so at the lower framerate, you need to be really slow when yawing to keep it sharp. There is math involved to determine the rate of yaw to keep things smooth, and I am lazy when I fly, so I like the higher framerate of 60. Is it "better"? Depends on your preference and what you are shooting, and what your definition of "better" is. Hope this info helps someone, and if I am not accurate in any statements, feel free to correct. Not here to argue any points.
 
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Correct me if I am wrong here (and I very well could be) but isn't the 4K part that gives you detail and the frame rate between 30 and 60 gives you smoother transitions not more detail. Basically more frames per second means your getting more still images in your video so rather than seeing a choppy transition when the drone is in motion it smoothes out the higher the frame rate. You video is just a bunch of still images moving at a defined rate the more images you cram into the gaps the less choppy your video.

On the note of uploading to youtube remember they degrade the quality of your video to improve streaming abilities

i could be wrong on some of it or all of it... its just how I understand it.
It's about motion blur rather than choppiness. 30fps will play perfectly smoothly with a degree of motion blur on fast action such as sport. 60fps will play smoothly (for the minority who have the horsepower to see it) without motion blur which, in action sequences, is unrealistic. 60fps looks like an animation or an Xbox game and you will find few, if any, pro videographers publishing their work at that frame rate, even though most of them will have shot the footage at 60fps.

Check out Autel's series of promotional EVO videos from various beauty spots around the world. They were all shot at 60fps but they were published at 24fps. They don't stutter.

60fps is the ideal speed to shoot at because it gives options in post prior to rendering out at the preferred frame rate for publication.
 
@Quad808 Thanks for that I think this information will help me with my drone footage! So if I understand what you're saying is that ideally you would want shutter speed at 30fps to be 60 and at 60fps should be 120? I'm still working out how to properly utilize ND filters
 
Yes! Shutter speed(time of exposure)needs to be more than fps. If you want maximum motion blur set FPS to 30 and shutter to 30 with the use of an ND filter to limit the amount of light to the sensor. I agree with YuKay...60fps is where to shoot at, but not publish for people to watch...that would be 30 for PC watching. Best to mess around and try different settings, videoing the same subject to see what you like on playback.
I shoot drone footage for mostly myself, and not professionaly....so I shoot the way I like to see it. That doesn't make it "right" LOL...
 
Here is another thing to think about...ND filters that slow shutter speed by limiting the amount of light to the sensor. You can shoot two videos in sunlight..both at 30fps, one video without an ND filter the other with, slowing the shutter speed to 2x frame rate with the correct ND filter. The video with the ND filter will look way, WAY better, way more saturated than the video shot on auto shutter. Longer exposure time for each frame with the ND filter, means more info to the sensor, better quality.
Thanks for posting. I'm a complete novice at piloting a drone but I have processed a lot of still and video images for publication and it's very useful to read advice from someone who is proficient at both.

I haven't yet used ND filters on my EVO as I prefer to pick shots and conditions which don't require a filter. That's because I think that filters can make the image a little softer - and if possible, I will always avoid sharpening in post. Have you found any trade-off when using ND filters?
 
I've done some more testing this morning (GMT) but need some volunteers with different platforms/more horsepower than me to check my findings.

I uploaded a short clip of my son's girlfriend's chihuahua. It was shot at 4k60 and uploaded in two versions: 4k60 and 4k30.

My 2017 retina 5k iMac with 40GB of RAM and 4TB of SSD internal HD and minimum 30Mbps broadband connection can't play the Youtube 60fps version smoothly at 4k. The tilts, which are liquid-smooth when played from my HD at 4k60, stutter when played on Youtube.

To a lesser degree, the 4k30 version also stutters.

I'm viewing in Chrome and when I reduce the resolution to 1080p, I still see tilt stutter in both 60 and 30fps versions.

When I switch to Safari, which sadly can't play YT video at any size above 1080p, both the 60 and 30fps versions play back with the same smoothness as the original footage.

So, for me, Chrome is a sub-optimal viewer of YT video - but I can't make the 4k comparison with Safari.

My next step will be to try Vimeo since Safari plays their 4k60 video perfectly, including this HDR stunner. So if Vimeo 4k60 plays fine, there are no hardware or bandwidth limitations causing my Youtube playback issues. I think it's just that Chrome sucks.

Meanwhile, these are the two 60sec clips and the tilts begin halfway through:

4k30 ["Buzz meets Autel EVO (4k30fps)"]
4k60 ["Buzz meets Autel EVO (4k60fps)"]

Any feedback appreciated.
 
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Something that made it simple for me as far as the frame rate/shutter speed correlation is an airplane propeller.
If you video the spinning prop on a sunny day your shutter speed will be many times faster than your frame rate. The resulting video will show the prop as a still boomerang shaped image.
But by using an ND filter if you can slow the shutter speed to double your frame rate the resulting video will show the prop as a blurred disc...which is what your eyes see as well.
I still think that the overall image quality is higher at 30fps but that makes it much more difficult to slow the shutter speed to 1/60(2×30=60). Anyone who has shot video or stills on a bright day knows that shutter @1/60 will be very over exposed. That's the real reason 60fps is preferred...because 1/120 (2×60=120)shutter speed is easier to achieve.
But either way you need nd filters.
 
So I did some playing around today with fps and manual shutter speeds vs setting it to auto. However when I went to play back the recordings the 30fps recordings played back just fine but my 60fps recordings won't play back at all. anyone have this issue? This is the first time I have tried to record at 60fps so it's quite possible that I'm the problem!
 
So I did some playing around today with fps and manual shutter speeds vs setting it to auto. However when I went to play back the recordings the 30fps recordings played back just fine but my 60fps recordings won't play back at all. anyone have this issue? This is the first time I have tried to record at 60fps so it's quite possible that I'm the problem!
It’s normal. Most computers can’t play 4K60.
 
I've done some more testing this morning (GMT) but need some volunteers with different platforms/more horsepower than me to check my findings.

I uploaded a short clip of my son's girlfriend's chihuahua. It was shot at 4k60 and uploaded in two versions: 4k60 and 4k30.

My 2017 retina 5k iMac with 40GB of RAM and 4TB of SSD internal HD and minimum 30Mbps broadband connection can't play the Youtube 60fps version smoothly at 4k. The tilts, which are liquid-smooth when played from my HD at 4k60, stutter when played on Youtube.

To a lesser degree, the 4k30 version also stutters.

I'm viewing in Chrome and when I reduce the resolution to 1080p, I still see tilt stutter in both 60 and 30fps versions.

When I switch to Safari, which sadly can't play YT video at any size above 1080p, both the 60 and 30fps versions play back with the same smoothness as the original footage.

So, for me, Chrome is a sub-optimal viewer of YT video - but I can't make the 4k comparison with Safari.

My next step will be to try Vimeo since Safari plays their 4k60 video perfectly, including this HDR stunner. So if Vimeo 4k60 plays fine, there are no hardware or bandwidth limitations causing my Youtube playback issues. I think it's just that Chrome sucks.

Meanwhile, these are the two 60sec clips and the tilts begin halfway through:

4k30 ("Buzz loves drones")
4k60 ("Buzz loves aliens")

Any feedback appreciated.
Just watched both clips, and my PC and play 4k/60 easily. There is a difference in both clips. The 4k60 is butter smooth on the tilt, due to the extra frames, the 4k30 is every so slightly studdering on the tilt, but it's not bad. This is what I am talking about. How about this...make the original clip available and I will run it though an editor, then I bet you can play it back at 4k60.
Here is another tip...VLC video player. Its free and does a great job on video playback. One thing to change in the settings of VLC, is to go into tools-->preferences-->input/codecs and disable hardware accelerated decoding. This made a difference in one of my i7 PC's that I know had the horsepower to run the EVO 4k60 footage smoothly. It would stutter. Once I made that change, smooth as butter.
The piece of hardware that one needs to play the high bandwidth EVO 4k60 smoothly is a good video card. Your machine is powerful enough...try VLC and see if that helps. The problem with the EVO and playback of 4k60 is the 100MBs, not the 4k60. Thats a lot of video data to process per second.

Also...ND filters. You NEED these. They allow you to slow the shutter speed and gain control. This in turn allows you the slower shutter speed, and that allows more information to hit the sensor since the shutter is open longer. The footage looks much richer.
 
It’s normal. Most computers can’t play 4K60.
I knew my computer could handle the play back as I do a lot of gaming so my system is pretty stacked. It turned out to be the player I was trying to use to play the video back. Once I installed the VLC player I was able to view the videos.

Thanks!
 
Just watched both clips, and my PC and play 4k/60 easily. There is a difference in both clips. The 4k60 is butter smooth on the tilt, due to the extra frames, the 4k30 is every so slightly studdering on the tilt, but it's not bad. This is what I am talking about. How about this...make the original clip available and I will run it though an editor, then I bet you can play it back at 4k60.
Here is another tip...VLC video player. Its free and does a great job on video playback. One thing to change in the settings of VLC, is to go into tools-->preferences-->input/codecs and disable hardware accelerated decoding. This made a difference in one of my i7 PC's that I know had the horsepower to run the EVO 4k60 footage smoothly. It would stutter. Once I made that change, smooth as butter.
The piece of hardware that one needs to play the high bandwidth EVO 4k60 smoothly is a good video card. Your machine is powerful enough...try VLC and see if that helps. The problem with the EVO and playback of 4k60 is the 100MBs, not the 4k60. Thats a lot of video data to process per second.

Also...ND filters. You NEED these. They allow you to slow the shutter speed and gain control. This in turn allows you the slower shutter speed, and that allows more information to hit the sensor since the shutter is open longer. The footage looks much richer.
Some good advice there, @Quad808 but you missed a key part of my post, namely:

The tilts, which are liquid-smooth when played from my HD at 4k60, stutter when played on Youtube.

So 4k60 plays just dandy in the default Quicktime Player. The problems occur when trying to view 4k60 - or even 1080p60 - on Youtube via Chrome.
And to repeat myself, 4k60 on Vimeo plays perfectly in Safari so my culprit must be Chrome.

AFAIK, Youtube, Chrome and Safari all now default to the HTML5 player so I can't blame Flash.

STOP PRESS: I just got a Chrome update through and although 4k60 videos stutter on the first play, they are as smooth as I would like on the second play, ie after cacheing the video. So still broken imho.
 
I believe it is a youtube issue, and not your computer or bandwidth. First run of both your videos, watching on a 4k monitor full screen, both didn't have glitches. After that run through, I was going to grab some screen shots...and the 4k60 won't play nicely anymore. Got to be youtube servers.

edit
video plays fine at 1440, so it could be a youtube encoding issue at the full 4k
 
OK...after doing many, many uploads of 4k60 footage to youtube and trying to get it to play back smoothly, here is what I found:
You will need to run your EVO footage through an editor and save it as follows, or close to it:
4k60 H2.64 VBR 25MBps Along with the attached settings recommended by youtube. 30 fps uploaded did not need any tweaking. 4k60 played back at 1440 was fine, even straight footage out of the drone, uploaded at the max 100MBps as recorded. The problem comes with 2160@60fps playback.
I am on a fast computer with a 1G connection, so it's not a speed problem. There could be a tweak I am missing for EVO footage, but not sure. Will keep digging.

So...you CAN upload the full footage at 4k60, but will only playback at youtubes 1440 resolution smoothly. I tried everything I could think of.
 

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I believe it is a youtube issue, and not your computer or bandwidth. First run of both your videos, watching on a 4k monitor full screen, both didn't have glitches. After that run through, I was going to grab some screen shots...and the 4k60 won't play nicely anymore. Got to be youtube servers.

edit
video plays fine at 1440, so it could be a youtube encoding issue at the full 4k

There are so many variables and with 4k60 putting every link in the chain under maximum stress, it seems you need to get lucky with all the stars aligning in order to get trouble-free playback. A brief glitch in your internet connections or load at Youtube's servers could be the cause of dropped frames and stutter.

Youtube's vp9 codec for 4k video may be buggy - which is a possible reason for Apple wanting nothing to do with it. And the Chrome browser is not very good imho, as a browser or video platform. The Safari browser is much superior as a video player - but that may be linked to the fact that it won't play vp9 and therefore can't be used to view 4k videos from Youtube. If and when the codec wars are finally resolved, Youtube and vp9 may rule the roost but I wouldn't count on it. Apple has massive clout and succeeded in killing off Flash so it may manage to kill off vp9. I wouldn't rule out an Apple challenge to the Youtube platform as it has been investing heavily in servers over the past couple of years.

A stuttering video creates bad PR for the camera which filmed it but the cause is almost always elsewhere in the chain. So don't base a drone purchase decision on Youtube videos.

All we can do is upload by the rules and hope that people will be able to view our video - albeit the vast majority don't have the infrastructure needed to receive and play back 4k60 video. That alone is a compelling argument for not uploading 4k60. More people will be able to view 4k30 and in most cases, it looks as good, if not better, than 4k60. For less well connected receivers, Youtube will automatically downscale from 4k to 1440p or 1080p but it doesn't offer lower frame rate options so can't downscale 4k60 to 4k30.

For the basics, this is a good, plain-talking tutorial from Videomaker:

 
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Yep...This has GOT to be an encoding issue. I can go right now on youtube and search for 4k60 and the videos play easily. Will keep searching for the correct settings...
 

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