FPV blackout period after shooting a picture

[timjustindodd]

Hey guys! My first post here on multirotor!

Here's a run down on my set up, then I'll tell yah my problem and see if you have any tips

DJI F550 with a Futaba T8J
For now - (just during testing and first flights) a hard mounted Canon EOS M with the 22mm F2.0 lens.
I'm using the RX-LCD5802 monitor/receiver and a TS 352 video transmitter.
I have my H-momentary switch set to trigger a tinysnapper by stratosnapper.

Everything works great BUT when I take a picture, there's about 3 full seconds of blackout on the monitor after the picture is snapped. Now I know the time from the EOS M is almost 2 seconds per shot, but then the monitor takes an extra second or two even to re-establish a connection for some reason... This happens too when I click the menu button, it blacks the monitor out for about 2 seconds, then it reconnects. Is there anyway to make it not switch to some auto mode and just stay hard locked on that channel or something? My guess is that the monitor/receiver sense a lost connection and start bouncing around between the antennas or something. Anyone have any experience with this? Also, anyone have any idea on how to make there be no black out period for a shot with the EOS M?

Thanks guys!

 

[timjustindodd]

So I just went a timed the amount of time it takes and it's 5:44 seconds of black out period!! Thereby basically rendering FPV useless!!! :/ The time with out going through the monitor is 2:40 which isn't great, but that's half the amount of time...

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

Try setting the camera to continuous mode where it takes lots of pictures in quick succession. Sometimes called burst mode. It won't actually take lots of pictures but the refresh rate will be much quicker. I had the same issue with my Panasonic GH2, it's instantaneous now.

 

[jes1111]

I'd have to say you're trying to do the wrong thing here. Assuming your next step is to mount the EOS M on a gimbal (otherwise, what's the point?) then you really can't be taking an FPV feed from that camera. Dangerous

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

How about we call it a 'live feed' instead of FPV?

 

[jes1111]

Maybe - but TimJustinDodd used the words "Thereby basically rendering FPV useless!!!" - implying the delay inhibited his ability to fly the aircraft via that feed. So I guess I was just checking that he wasn't intending to try that :upset:

By the sounds of it, a better route for that particular camera would be to rig a 5GHz wifi link to the USB port and run EOS Utility on a laptop or tablet - preferably in the hands of a second operator.

 

[haha49]

You have a few choices on what to do. 1 you could add another camera and attach it to the other camera so you both see what it sees. You can use the camera to shoot video then use a program like VLC to take a snapshot of the video if you film in 1080p on a go pro the photo is only 1920x1080 not good if you want to crop the image but it works. If you shoot in 4k you get ok photos out of it.

 

[timjustindodd]

Try setting the camera to continuous mode where it takes lots of pictures in quick succession. Sometimes called burst mode. It won't actually take lots of pictures but the refresh rate will be much quicker. I had the same issue with my Panasonic GH2, it's instantaneous now.

Sadly, I can't remote trigger in any mode other than timer/remote mode. I'd love to put it in continuous.

 

[timjustindodd]

Maybe - but TimJustinDodd used the words "Thereby basically rendering FPV useless!!!" - implying the delay inhibited his ability to fly the aircraft via that feed. So I guess I was just checking that he wasn't intending to try that :upset:

By the sounds of it, a better route for that particular camera would be to rig a 5GHz wifi link to the USB port and run EOS Utility on a laptop or tablet - preferably in the hands of a second operator.

This is true.... I would be fine with flying it with the live feed and shooting if the delay was only 2.5 seconds of downtime. Sadly it's 5.5... that's just too long of a black out period. Can anyone lend help as to why it takes THREE extra seconds to re-establish the link with the monitor? I can tell once it senses a break in feed it tries to re-establish it and that takes way too much time. So even if I click on the menu button, it takes three seconds for it to reconnect. Is there anyway to keep it to one band or something so it just sticks with it?

 

[timjustindodd]

Oh just so you know my intentions... I want good FPV just so I can frame photographs well. i won't be doing flight videos or anything. I'm a professional photographer and I'm just looking to get some cool shots of the places I visit. Also do some aerial photography for businesses too. I do have a gopro I could mount and pull a livefeed from, but it wouldn't help me with framing my shot that well... I don't know, I'm torn. It might be way safer to fly with the gropro FPV though....

Also, I do have a ASP 2 axis gimbal that I'm waiting for the gimbal controller to come in the mail.... so yes, I'll have a gimbal as well. I'm worried I'm really going to be pushing the limits of payload on my F550... 600 gram gimbal, 400 gram camera, a go pro, a receiver battery, the receiver unit.... Any thoughts here?

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

You could just live with the 5.5 seconds delay. Take a picture, drink some tea, take another one. :02.47-tranquillity:

 

[haha49]

the 3 option is get a camera switcher were you just flip a switch on the remote and it changes the camera that way you can frame it and switch over so you can still see another flight camera.

If the camera does video you can snapshot it for what you want. It's kind of nice you don't miss anything the quality isn't as nice though.

 

[jes1111]

Ok - so you're not going to actually fly the aircraft using the image from a gimbal-mounted camera - good, 'cos that would end in tears - so you're going to fly with visual line of sight. Therefore you only need one camera feed. Like I said above, the ideal for you would be to bring the Liveview from the camera down to a laptop or tablet using 5GHz wifi. That way you'll have the Liveview continuous image (actually it's a stream of JPEGs) and you'll have full control over the camera - shutter, aperture, ISO etc. Everytime you snap an image it can be downloaded to the laptop/tablet so you can check framing, exposure, sharppness etc. before moving on. What could be better?

To do this you need to get rid of the video tx/rx you've got and get a "Wireless USB Device Server" - like this one: http://www.silexeurope.com/ed827bdf...roducts/usb-device-servers/sx-ds-3000wan.html

Range will be at least 100 meters - which is fine - you don't want the wee beastie any further away from you than that when flying visually.

NOTE: not all USB Device Servers will work with a camera but I can confirm that Silex does

 

[JoeBob]

From my experience tethering 30Ds to laptops, I wonder if your delay is from the camera?

Experiment: Change the camera's image file size to the smallest the camera supports. Turn off any cpu functions like auto-white-balance. See if the video blackout time is shorter. If the video blackout is from the camera writing 18mp images to your card, a faster SD card may regain some of your speed, and enable you to record bigger files again.

 

[haha49]

From my experience tethering 30Ds to laptops, I wonder if your delay is from the camera?

Experiment: Change the camera's image file size to the smallest the camera supports. Turn off any cpu functions like auto-white-balance. See if the video blackout time is shorter. If the video blackout is from the camera writing 18mp images to your card, a faster SD card may regain some of your speed, and enable you to record bigger files again.

that type of camera has a manual shutter once it drops it loses video as it blocks the video sensor. It can't do both at the same time due to the way the camera works. Wire 2 cameras up take the photo then switch over allot less delay. You can still snap photos while using the other camera as well.

 

[timjustindodd]

From my experience tethering 30Ds to laptops, I wonder if your delay is from the camera?

Experiment: Change the camera's image file size to the smallest the camera supports. Turn off any cpu functions like auto-white-balance. See if the video blackout time is shorter. If the video blackout is from the camera writing 18mp images to your card, a faster SD card may regain some of your speed, and enable you to record bigger files again.

It's true, the 2.5 second black out is from that, but there's an additional three second delay after that yet. Same thing happens if I click to the menu, the receiver seems to see there was a black out and it scrambles to reconnect, in doing so, it stays black for 3 seconds!!!

I think what I'm going to do is mount a gopro for a live feed and shoot using the eos m...

 

[tahoelight]

I can't stand the live feed delay on my 5D when shooting stills. It drives me and my camera operator crazy. I have been dealing with it for years. I never found a fix. It is not 5 seconds, but long enough for the screen to go black and take a couple seconds to regain the image. Framing the shot with a gopro probably won't be a very accurate solution. I tried mounting some FPV cameras to the tray, but I had issues knowing if the camera actually captured a shot, and sometimes it wouldn't. Plus, getting the right focal length is not easy if you change lenses. Sorry I don;t have a solution, but I thought I would let you know your not alone.

 

[g60jet]

Have you tried using a fast CF card, I've used 5ds with wifi transmitters directly to a server and the faster the write speed of the card the quicker the camera starts the tx process.


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