FPV video post-production

Stabilise your video with the drone’s log

Footage from an FPV drone shakes and rotates with every move. Electronic stabilisation in cameras fixes this, but it crops the image and fails on fast turns. Gyroflow does something better: it’s a free, open-source program that uses gyro data to know exactly how the camera moved in each frame, and compensates for it afterwards, on your computer.

The gyro data can come from two places:

• From the camera itself. Many action cameras save gyro data inside the video (GoPro from the Hero 5 on, Insta360, some Sony and DJI models, FPV cameras such as the RunCam Thumb). Gyroflow reads it directly.
• From the drone’s Blackbox log. If the camera doesn’t have it, the flight controller’s gyro does the same job: Gyroflow opens Betaflight’s .bbl files.

1. Record ready for stabilisation

   Turn off the camera’s stabilisation and record at the widest field of view. A fast shutter speed reduces blur on turns; if you want a cinematic look, use ND filters.

2. If you use Blackbox

   The camera must be rigidly mounted relative to the flight controller (no rubber mounts that let it move on its own). Log at 500 Hz or more and check there’s enough memory for the whole flight.

3. Open the video and the lens profile

   Drag the video into Gyroflow and choose your camera’s profile and the resolution. Gyroflow has a community-built profile database; if your camera isn’t there, you can calibrate one with a chessboard pattern.

4. Load the motion data and sync

   With the camera’s gyro, it’s already there. With Blackbox, open the .bbl file, set the flight controller’s orientation relative to the camera and run automatic sync at several points in the video.

5. Adjust and export

   Choose the smoothness, horizon lock (very spectacular in freestyle) and adaptive zoom, then export. You can also use it as a plugin inside video editors such as DaVinci Resolve.

If the image wobbles after stabilising, it’s almost always the sync or the orientation: sync again at more points and check that the axes match. If the video has jello, Gyroflow can’t remove it: it’s mechanical vibration (see the assistant’s diagnosis).

OSD on your recording

Your goggles record what you see (the DVR). With digital video, Betaflight’s OSD often isn’t recorded into the video but into a separate file, and the link data (signal quality, latency, bitrate) into an .srt subtitle file next to the video.

• Why it’s useful: to review a failsafe or a signal drop with the voltage and LQ in view, or to share the flight looking just as it did in your goggles.
• How it’s done: there are free tools that read the OSD file and the subtitle file and “burn” them onto the video with the font of your choice (for example, Betaflight’s or a cleaner one for social media).
• Always copy the files together: the video, the OSD file and the .srt share the same name. If one is missing, the tool can’t line them up.

From 4:3 to 16:9 without distorting the centre

Many FPV cameras record in 4:3 for a wider field of view, but screens and social media are 16:9. If you just stretch the image, everything looks squashed. Non-linear stretching (popularised by GoPro as “SuperView”) leaves the centre almost untouched and stretches the edges more, where nobody looks.

• There are free programs that do it in one step, and video editors can do it with warp effects.
• Do it after stabilising with Gyroflow: stabilisation needs the lens’s original geometry.

A workflow that works

1. At the field

   One folder per session. Note which battery and which log go with each video (the battery logbook helps).

2. At home

   Copy videos, logs and OSD files before wiping your cards. Analyse the log in the assistant if the flight didn’t feel right.

3. Editing

   Stabilise, convert to 16:9 if needed, grade the colour and cut to the music with the rhythm of your tricks in mind. Less is more: the best FPV videos last just a few minutes.