X4 107C HD video... focus?

[reck]

Hi all, Just got my X4, actually I have both the FPV and the HD ones... and just love them. The quality of the HD camera is pretty good but I can';t help feeling that the focus on mine is set a little close, so far distant subjects are out of focus.

That';s not so good when you want to get the sweeping views from on high in. I';ve shot some sample video here, just noodling around outside my house, but flying thru the hedge you see the problem... the leaves are lovely and sharp but the far distant horizon isn';t. 

http://vimeo.com/87723634

So, should I break it open and attempt to get the focus out a bit more ??? It seems just a little tweak would make it perfection... or is the underlying camera chip not high enough resolution and that is the underlying problem? Other HD video from this cam I';ve seen seems to suffer with a similar look ... I won';t be disappointed if it can';t be improved but it would be nice to know!!! Cheers!

[guest325]

You gets what you pays for,  a low end camera capable of that sort of video quality would most likely cost more than your Hubsan!

[Friskle]

as above, you get what you pay for, that said, personally for the money, i think thats quite good, which is the way i look at cams, your never going to get super quality with these machines, and lets be honest, they are meant for cloder in video and not pretty vistas.

if that was my hubsan, i would be quite happy with that video, after all the hubsan vids i have watched, they all look pretty much the same.

[flybywire]

looks pretty good to me?

[reck]

Thanks guys, I just wanted some idea how good/bad it was based on your experiences... there is a certain look to these cheap HD cams I guess the result of low end video processing... not complaining, I just won';t be breaking out the lens to tweak it if it is ';in the zone'; already.

[powerlord]

Yes it';s not a lens problem.  It';s sharp to infinity.  Try shooting some video holding it,  or sitting on something to eliminate the movement of the quad and you';ll see.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[reck]

Good suggestion there from @powerlord ...

so, I did some testing, nailed everything down and shot a sequence of pictures in the same dull lighting conditions out of my window.

Aiming at a tree some distance away. I used a range of cams... Mobius both video and still pictures, Sony DSC R1 on 24mm zoom (compact camera) so you can see what the tree should look like, my DVRHD headcam which can shoot 1080 but set to 720P and also used it to take a still at 5mp and video stills at 720P, and of course both Hubsan X4 cameras. And finally an 808 cam of some vintage.

Think that the X4 HD cam could very well be a 720 x 480 cam that has been upscaled. The reason I say that is that comparing with other 720P HD cams, their resolution is much better, and the 720 x 480 cam as seen in my 808 example, it looks pretty similar in terms of detail. Well, decide for yourselves, is that X4 HD cam sharp to infinity... IMHO it probably is, but it is relying on a bit of upscaling which lets face it is not unknown from the Chinese cam makers :-)



Reminds me how good the Mobius is!

[JugglerJim]

I think of the 4 copters I have with cameras the Hubsan is the best picture, they';re all supposed to be 2mp ';HD'; (yeah, right lol) but the Syma';s and the v262';s cameras both leave something to be desired.

[flyaboveall]

I had bad focus on my X4 h107c hd and google showed me this page nearly on first position, when I was looking for help. And here I found useless answer "You get, what You pay for". So today I fixed my focus a little. It is not GoPro, but much better than before.. Maybe somebody will find it helpfull. https://youtu.be/yXNczS8Xg6g