Pelicans - Anafi

Krusty Geeza · Feb 14, 2019

Another self-indulgent video from me; trying to get close, but not too close, so as to not disturb a large flock of Pelicans at a wetland.

Whilst the quietness, small size & nimble nature of the Anafi was great, the lack of detail on the Pelicans is a bit of a disappointment, considering the detail elsewhere. To be fair though, even with my DSLR, Pelicans are hard to capture well exposed as they are black & white, so you have both extremes of the exposure (dynamic) range to try & capture detail within.

I was able to get within about 15 metres of the flock without spooking them at all, which in combination with a bit of zoom, could have brought them closer again.

Technical Details:

4K, 23.98 fps, Cloudy
Automatic exposure ( Auto ISO, Auto shutter speed, HDR)
Straight out of camera; with no adjustments like sharpening, saturation, exposure, colour grading, etc...

AaronB · Feb 14, 2019

Nice footage, you had an Interesting effect at 00:40 when the pelicans turn with the Anafi.
We had a similar encounter. The pelicans give that billboard effect found in computer games:

Looks like the pelicans lost interest in the Anafi by the second half of your video?

Krusty Geeza · Feb 14, 2019

AaronB said:
Nice footage, you had an Interesting effect at 00:40 when the pelicans turn with the Anafi.
We had a similar encounter. The pelicans give that billboard effect found in computer games:

Looks like the pelicans lost interest in the Anafi by the second half of your video?

Thanks for sharing the observation, Aaron. Nice footage too. I noticed that initially they were keeping an eye on the Anafi! There was only a few minutes elapsed between the first & second parts of this video. They were very quick to settle in for a snooze.

There's a weird anomaly that occurs at 0:48 where the image is disproportionately distorted. That's in the footage & is the first time I have ever seen it happen with the Anafi. It looks like she gets buffeted by a gust of wind & is thrown off-course slightly at that moment, so it could possibly be the image sensor's yaw stabilisation kicking in weirdly. Maybe?

AaronB · Feb 14, 2019

Krusty Geeza said:
There's a weird anomaly that occurs at 0:48 where the image is disproportionately distorted. That's in the footage & is the first time I have ever seen it happen with the Anafi. It looks like she gets buffeted by a gust of wind & is thrown off-course slightly at that moment, so it could possibly be the image sensor's yaw stabilisation kicking in weirdly. Maybe?

Looks more like a change in focal length - sort of a mini dolly zoom?

Mar · Feb 14, 2019

Wow, that's a lot of pelicans in one spot, very cool. Appears to be a good wind going on judging by the trees but the Anafi did a good job of handling it, keeps amazing me.
I couldn't really tell when you were zooming in or were you zoomed in already.
I'll have to look at the video again to see what you're talking about at 0.48.

Krusty Geeza · Feb 14, 2019

AaronB said:
Looks more like a change in focal length - sort of a mini dolly zoom?

Interesting thought Aaron! As I have watched it a few times now at that point, it's obvious that she (Anafi) does a wiggle on the yaw axis & the distortion is related to that somehow, the pelicans didn't get closer or larger during it. I'll put it down as an anomaly & watch out to see if it occurs again at sometime.

Krusty Geeza · Feb 14, 2019

Mar said:
Wow, that's a lot of pelicans in one spot, very cool. Appears to be a good wind going on judging by the trees but the Anafi did a good job of handling it, keeps amazing me.
I couldn't really tell when you were zooming in or were you zoomed in already.
I'll have to look at the video again to see what you're talking about at 0.48.

Thanks, @Mar ! It is a hotspot for the Pelicans & is an important breeding ground for them here in our city.

I didn't use any zoom on this one, I mentioned that I could have (if I remembered it at the time of flying) used zoom to possibly bring them even closer in.

I don't know why, but I rarely ever use the zoom feature. I figure that I'll always get cleaner finishes if I crop in later on in editing, rather than losing that permanently by zooming while flying. I hope that makes sense?