Grainy footage with Moire issues

Ohshowprods · Mar 13, 2021

Hello Group.

I just got my new EVO 2 Pro 6K this week and already experiencing some issues that perhaps others have had as well. I'm just not getting a nice smooth looking image out of the drone, there is always just a little bit of grain in the image, and, on this particular clip of the high school football/Track field there is LOTS of Moire in the field as well as the side of the school building too. I've included a link to the clip below.

Here are my camera settings:

Manual Exposure - ISO 100 / F6.3 / 8 stop ND filter attached on the lens / LOG / H.265 / 4k / 30fps
Editing: 4k / 29.97 FPS timeline in Final Cut Pro X / EVO 2 Pro Alog Rec 709 Lut added

Hoping for a little help if you can with fixing the issue.

Thank you for your help!

Link to video sample

Here is another video, you clearly see the flickering in the windows of the power station on the right:

PingSpike · Mar 13, 2021

We can't see that video, is it set to private?

Eagle's Eye Photo · Mar 13, 2021

Change the YouTube parameter to Unlisted, and it will show here... ?

Ohshowprods · Mar 13, 2021

PingSpike said:
We can't see that video, is it set to private?

Yes just changed it from Private. Thanks.

YouTube

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Ohshowprods · Mar 13, 2021

Eagle's Eye Video said:
Change the YouTube parameter to Unlisted, and it will show here... ?

Yes, sorry, here it is:

Ohshowprods · Mar 13, 2021

PingSpike said:
We can't see that video, is it set to private?

Here is another, you see the flickering and grain in the windows of the power station on the right.

Ohshowprods · Mar 13, 2021

Ohshowprods said:
Yes, sorry, here it is:

Here is another shows the flickering and grain, flickers in the windows of the power station on the right.

herein2021 · Mar 13, 2021

Ohshowprods said:
Here is another shows the flickering and grain, flickers in the windows of the power station on the right.

You are having that problem because the EVO II 6K camera straight out of the box over sharpens the image. I don't know if the EVO II 6K camera has an anti-aliasing filter (this like many other camera specs seems to be pretty hard to find with Autel's products), and I also don't know if the camera performs in camera sharpening but I can tell you that I never shoot video using the built in profiles for this reason.

I think Autel added some in camera sharpening and skipped the anti-aliasing filter to appear sharper than DJI's products, but the tradeoff of course is moire and overly sharpened images to videographers. For the casual user, sharpness is a good thing; to the videographer it looks like a camcorder and you will see the moire problems if you know where to look.

My optimal video settings are:

Resolution: 4K30FPS 10bit 4:2:0 HEVC H.265
ISO: 100
Aperture: F11
Shutter Speed: Whatever is needed to properly expose the footage
ND Filter: None (you can read more about why here)
LOG Curve: ALOG
Color Profile: Sharpness -2, Contrast -1

If you reshoot the scene with those settings you will probably get more natural looking results. If you have already shot some footage and want to fix it after the fact all you need to do is add the Gaussian blur effect and slowly increase the strength until the moire disappears, then mask it to the affected object and add some motion tracking to keep the mask on the object.

Ohshowprods · Mar 13, 2021

Thanks for the reply and tips on the settings!... I'll do some more tests with those settings and sounds like it should work. If you don't mind, I was curious how you handle white balance, someone posted they can use a gray card to adjust WB but I didn't see a way to do that. Being an old school video guy I'm concerned about messing with the shutter speed...you mentioned; Shutter Speed: Whatever is needed to properly expose the footage. I'm used to shooting the double the frame rate rule of thumb so wouldn't that mess with the footage, or perhaps the drone is moving so slow it doesn't matter?

Thanks again for the help, it is MUCH appreciated!

Ohshowprods · Mar 13, 2021

I did a test and the result is still crap, I'm returning this drone. Thanks for your help.

herein2021 · Mar 14, 2021

Ohshowprods said:
Thanks for the reply and tips on the settings!... I'll do some more tests with those settings and sounds like it should work. If you don't mind, I was curious how you handle white balance, someone posted they can use a gray card to adjust WB but I didn't see a way to do that. Being an old school video guy I'm concerned about messing with the shutter speed...you mentioned; Shutter Speed: Whatever is needed to properly expose the footage. I'm used to shooting the double the frame rate rule of thumb so wouldn't that mess with the footage, or perhaps the drone is moving so slow it doesn't matter?

Thanks again for the help, it is MUCH appreciated!

I'm surprised that you are returning it but good luck with whatever you end up with. Keep in mind that nearly every drone if not every drone on the market right now with the 1" sensor is the same 1" Sony sensor so I wouldn't expect any better results unless you go pretty far north in the price range. The DJI Inspire 2 with the X7 might meet your expectations but you will be paying a premium for every pixel (and entering the DJI world where they control everything you can do with your drone).

As far as WB goes, I'm not producing Hollywood blockbusters so when it comes to the drone's WB I use the built in WB settings to set it (Daylight or Cloudy). To fix it the rest of the way in post I just make sure to shoot 4K30FPS which is 10bit footage and I then fine tune the WB in post within Davinci Resolve by using a white surface of a building or roof. The 10bit gives me the latitude I need. Not ideal but good enough for the types of projects I deliver (weddings, music videos, real estate, etc). You can read more on how a high shutter speed will not break your footage here.

Ckeil · Aug 27, 2021

I know this is an old Post, but in case someone else reads this. I was having the same issues playing back 4k video 30fps and I was so close to returning it, because everything looked like crap compared to MA2 at 4k. Well I tried everything and the last thing was going to my brothers house and played it on his 4k TV & I was blown away at the video qaulity. Turns out the TV that was given to me for free was not a 4k TV as he thought it was. Moral of the story is make sure your PC can playback 4k video & your TV or monitor supports 4k or it will look like sh*t.

Pork Belly · Sep 2, 2021

Ckeil said:
I know this is an old Post, but in case someone else reads this. I was having the same issues playing back 4k video 30fps and I was so close to returning it, because everything looked like crap compared to MA2 at 4k. Well I tried everything and the last thing was going to my brothers house and played it on his 4k TV & I was blown away at the video qaulity. Turns out the TV that was given to me for free was not a 4k TV as he thought it was. Moral of the story is make sure your PC can playback 4k video & your TV or monitor supports 4k or it will look like sh*t.

I'm actually thinking of returning mine. I was doing some research and found this thread. Just can't get over the grain on this drone. My first gen Autel EVO seemed to handle it better. I shot right before sunset and got so much grain that the footage was unusable. Photos were equally as bad. Maybe I was expecting too much?

With that said, 90% of these things are user error. I may have messed up the settings. I've set it at 4k 60FPS, ISO100, 120ss, AWB, F7.1. Shot 10 minutes before sunset.

herein2021 · Sep 3, 2021

Pork Belly said:
I'm actually thinking of returning mine. I was doing some research and found this thread. Just can't get over the grain on this drone. My first gen Autel EVO seemed to handle it better. I shot right before sunset and got so much grain that the footage was unusable. Photos were equally as bad. Maybe I was expecting too much?

With that said, 90% of these things are user error. I may have messed up the settings. I've set it at 4k 60FPS, ISO100, 120ss, AWB, F7.1. Shot 10 minutes before sunset.

With those settings you should have been fine, the only part I would change is the WB to Daylight. Without seeing a sample video it is hard to tell exactly what you mean by grain. At ISO100 you should not have any noise in the footage, I have shot video at night at ISO800 and the footage was still clean; at least as clean as can be expected from a 1" sensor. You also did not mention if you were shooting in LOG or not. I have never used anything except the LOG profile.

Pork Belly · Sep 3, 2021

Hi. I always use LOG since I like having control, unless I'm shooting real estate and I want something quick.

Here's link to the file. MAX_0005.MP4

Thank you!

GeoDrone SRL · Oct 21, 2021

herein2021 said:
You are having that problem because the EVO II 6K camera straight out of the box over sharpens the image. I don't know if the EVO II 6K camera has an anti-aliasing filter (this like many other camera specs seems to be pretty hard to find with Autel's products), and I also don't know if the camera performs in camera sharpening but I can tell you that I never shoot video using the built in profiles for this reason.

I think Autel added some in camera sharpening and skipped the anti-aliasing filter to appear sharper than DJI's products, but the tradeoff of course is moire and overly sharpened images to videographers. For the casual user, sharpness is a good thing; to the videographer it looks like a camcorder and you will see the moire problems if you know where to look.

My optimal video settings are:

Resolution: 4K30FPS 10bit 4:2:0 HEVC H.265
ISO: 100
Aperture: F11
Shutter Speed: Whatever is needed to properly expose the footage
ND Filter: None (you can read more about why here)
LOG Curve: ALOG
Color Profile: Sharpness -2, Contrast -1

If you reshoot the scene with those settings you will probably get more natural looking results. If you have already shot some footage and want to fix it after the fact all you need to do is add the Gaussian blur effect and slowly increase the strength until the moire disappears, then mask it to the affected object and add some motion tracking to keep the mask on the object.

Are you aware that Contrast -1 in LOG is not working for 6K, right? at least, not on Android...does nothing, like somebody forgot to write the code for it... If you go to Contrast any than -1, all works, but -1 remains on same settings like previous one....

))))

herein2021 · Oct 21, 2021

GeoDrone SRL said:
Are you aware that Contrast -1 in LOG is not working for 6K, right? at least, not on Android...does nothing, like somebody forgot to write the code for it... If you go to Contrast any than -1, all works, but -1 remains on same settings like previous one.... ))))

That is interesting, I use an iPad and it seemed to work for me but I need to do more testing to see. I will turn it all the way down then all the way up and see if the contrast actually changes at all. It would not surprise me one bit though.