First videos with my Spark

[gottawonder]

These are my first three videos with my new Spark. First quadcopter videos period. I bought the Spark the week before our trip and these were a couple pieces I put together. Initially I just added these for family and friends, so they're single clip videos. Uploaded in 1080p so watch the HD if you can.

Post production: I played these at 80% in VLC and recorded the playback at 30fps within VLC. This gave the videos the 24fps cinematic effect, AND eliminated the variable rate FPS that sometimes causes jitter on Youtube. The rest of the editing was done in iMovie.

I'd been holding out for a Mavic Pro, then waiting on the Mavic 2, but decided to try the Spark to get some beach pics for this trip. I'd flown enough hours on a non-GPS quad to be comfortable, but decided I'd rather risk a $300 splashdown vs a $700 this round. I'm very happy with the results. I'll probably add a Mavic 2 Pro to "the fleet" at some point, but having a ball with the Spark.

VIDEO LINKS:
Fire Dance
Keewaydin Island
Reflections​

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Nice stuff. Interesting processing approach for sure.

 

[gottawonder]

I wasn't really seeking out the 24fps approach, I sorta backed into it. I was reading threads on jitter on youtube videos, some with specific reference to iMovie, and corrections to eliminate same. It was the convergence of a couple ideas, and using (free) software already on my laptop. Someone had talked about taking a variable fps to fixed with Handbrake, and i started messing with VLC, initially to just convert to a fixed 30 fps. Then I bumped the playback speed to 80% and said "oh, that works too." So, I just previewed a full video, and hit "record" in VLC to grab the segment I wanted to use. I'm not opposed to buying more serious video editing software, but for the purpose of these vids it wasn't necessary.

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Bear in mind that is really 29.97fps. I have heard some iMovie users say by shaving off one or two frames at the front of clips, the jitter is gone. I've used iMovie from time to time, usually not because of better NLE's in my toolbox, but never had the jitter effect. Spend the money on FinalCutPro X as it seems you are on a Mac... you wont be sorry. I alternate between it and Vegas on the PC.

 

[gottawonder]

Bear in mind that is really 29.97fps. I have heard some iMovie users say by shaving off one or two frames at the front of clips, the jitter is gone. I've used iMovie from time to time, usually not because of better NLE's in my toolbox, but never had the jitter effect. Spend the money on FinalCutPro X as it seems you are on a Mac... you wont be sorry. I alternate between it and Vegas on the PC.

Yes you are correct. I've also heard adjusting the speed with iMovie from 100 to 97% works as well. Final Cut Pro is on the list once I start doing more with video. Thanks for the info.