Hi folks I just popped my SD card into my pc to watch some footage recorded in Vietnam and I noticed that all the video footage has a TERRIBLE video quality, like if it was upscaled from 244p and out of focus, even when recorded at 2.5k. I've seen some footage recorded with this camera from other guys and even their 720p recordings have a much better quality than even my 4K recordings. What's even more strange is that all the photo I took are great: detailed, sharp and without major artifact even in low light condition. So the sensor and lens are fine. But the video is not comparable to even a 15€ ultracheap webcam from 5-7 years ago. I'd like to post the link directly but this is my first post, so just paste this after youtube to show you what I mean /watch?v=ted7MAUwwoY This is recorded ad 2.5K, with superfine details and strong sharpness, and the 1080p are plain unusable on a screen larger than the rear one on the action camera itself. What I did wrong? [edit] Just to clarify, I use a toshiba exceria microsd UHS3, not a cheap class 10 card.
Hi @EdwardTH, Best you contact support, but either you reflash or update your firmware first and check so it doesn't take time doing basic troubleshooting steps from the technical support procedures. You might get lucky and not need to do much anything else. Weird case you have though, first I ever heard one. -TF
We are checking on this for you. For some reason in Forests (Green environments), there seems to be some issues. Can you try shooting in another environment?
@EdwardTH Have you contacted support yet? @RBEmerson could you take more pictures with the the sun peeking through one corner?
Whoops - I'm quite satisfied with the image. I posted it only as a sample of the excellent quality of the imagery, even in difficult lighting, I get at 1080p@60 fps. Here's another sample of the image quality. Note the sharpness of the stones in the wall. This is an excellent image. (Note, too, the flaming idiot passing between two cars!)
EdwardTH, you've hit every photographer and videographer's nightmare: the shot/scene missed due to equipment failure. "Some days you're the dog, some days you're the tree."
Apparently my last reply (last week) wasn't submitted properly :| I managed to reflash the firmware and finally everything works as intended! @Sreedev K I downloaded the firmware on a blank micro SD (formatted in fat32), popped it into my camera and at boot it said if I wanted to update the firmware (even if it's the same one); confirmed and done in about 30 seconds. Then reboot the camera and format the SD. @sjcam_admin I did not cause I wasn't able to (busy period), and when the reflash solved the problem I didn't want to bother them for a solved issue
Can you check the bit rate of this video? For me it's always around 30-32Mbps. Maybe the quality drop is due to my SD card, but that should reflect in the bit rate.
Has the images posted by you in this thread undergone any editing or is it directly from the cam? I think there is some issue with my cam. When I'm in motion and I pause the frame, I get blury image.
I work with raw data from the SD's - that is, I copy the data to a work space. Working on originals is not a good idea. Anyway, the editing is cuts, dissolves, and fades. At the editing process I transcode (change from one resolution to another) the 1080p 60 fps video to 2160p 60 fps. Keep in mind that transcoding doesn't create new imagery or sharpness where it doesn't exist in the original video. The only reason for changing to 4K is to control the results of YouTube's compression of uploaded videos. That's the long answer. The short answer is what you see is what I got. It's possible the SD is causing problems, but I'd expect the results of using "bad" SD's to be damaged, unreadable, or missing files. My guess is the blurring comes from your camera settings. Here are my camera settings for video recording Video resolution: 1080p 60fps 16:9 Video quality: S. Fine Auto Low Light: Off Gyro Sensor: On Detection: Off Dual Files: Off Loop Record: Off Sharpness: Normal AWB: Auto EV Value: 0.0 ISO: Auto Metering: Center Quick Capture: Off FPV: Off TV Mode: NTSC Light Frequency: Auto
Talking about resolution and video quality, here's a sample of 1080p @ 30 fps. At 30 fps, the closer an object is to the camera, more "streaked" it is. This makes sense - at slower frame rates, the more object moves during the exposure. That applies to all cameras, video or still, regardless of brand. But... While I can't prove it, because I don't know what parts are used in the camera, the raw footage shows a number of adverse artifacts. For example, areas that, at 1080p, should have shown more detail are blobs of color. While YouTube hasn't helped this video look better, here's a sample from a camera (Sena Prism) that's simply not as good as the SJ7. This video is called a re-edit because many people said the "turn it on and shoot it all" version of the video is boring. This is "the best of the curves" from the same footage. Feel free to view them both and comment accordingly. [/grin]
I maybe found the catch with my initial problem! When I connect the camera with the app, the app hard lock all the settings to the awful quality I reported initially; even after rebooting and changing all the settings to the desired ones, they change only visually on the menu but they remain actually locked. I noticed this because I just got back from an holiday and all the video were perfect, except the last one that I shoot after connecting it with the app. I then proceeded to make some test and this is what came out. Basically the app for me is not useless, but actually harmful because if I shoot with the remote app all video are terrible both the one shot through the app and the ones shot after using the app; only solution to unlock this state for me is a reflash.
The sample videos were taken by starting the camera from the Android phone app. Starting from the app or pushing the record button shouldn't matter. Try resetting the camera to its default values, set the camera with the options I listed above, and shoot some video from the camera and starting via the phone app.
Recently I switched to V1.18 and shot video to replace the Hawk Mountain video above. The results are disappointing. It's qualitatively not as good as the sample video from the Alps. Looking at detail along the side of the road, there's less detail and more "color blobbing". I can't find outright pixilation in any one frame, but it's apparent while moving. A mountain ridge in the distance has a distinct white band, perhaps 4-5 pixels wide, between the darker trees in the ridge and the light blue sky. This band exists, but not as distinctly, in the Alps video, shot with V1.15. Overall, the results, compared to earlier video, are, as I said, disappointing. I'm in the middle of changing Resolve video editor versions. Once that's complete, I'll post a sample video to YouTube (possible a private video) and frame grabs to be posted here.
