Not Impressed with EIS Image Stabilization on Chasing M2

Eternal Angler

Administrator

Cool shot of a lion fish captured with the Chasing M2 ROV. Not the most stable and smooth footage, but it does show that the M2 is able to get into tighter spots like in between rocks which the Gladius Mini probably wouldn't be able to do, along with grabbing that degree of angle, which seem to be 60 degrees or so. You really have to factor in what you want out of an underwater drone, I think the Mini is smoother traveling through the water and capturing film, but then again, it won't be able to capture certain things like at 60 or 90 degree angle and of course do lateral movement. I think chasing will improve the stabilization of the M2 with time as well with more software update.

I also, starting to see how the whole video picture distorts and shifts, kind of like a wavy motion in the video when the M2 moves around, I assume that's the EIS Image Stabilization or digital image stabilization, electronic image stabilization (EIS). I really don't care for that look... I seen it on tablets and other cheaper camera devices when they're filming. I would say you're better of not using that and just going slow if you're trying to capture quality footage of fish swimming.

I wonder if there'd be a way of Chasing using some type of floating lens like what my camcorder uses in my Sony FDR-AX53, Balanced Optical SteadyShot, I absolute love this camcorder. I bought it for my fishing videos and recording wild life, it basically has the best stabilization in it's camcorder class. It uses a sort of gimbal mechanism inside...

sony-gimbal-camera-floating-lens.jpg

Or find out what the hell type of digital stabilization that GoPro is using, because that hypersmooth 2.0 or 3.0 is the most impressive digital stabilization I've seen from an action camera. I've seen other M2 videos of the EIS stabilization and to me it looks kind of bad.

And I'm starting to see more and more M2 owners using and making their own light arms, a big complaint is I'm starting to see how much the water particles show up with the stock lights and 4k camera when filming, due to the stock lights so close to the camera. I think the lights were a little more spaced out on the Mini, but maybe I'm wrong.

Again, I've said this in other posts, the M2 is a new model, so do allow Chasing some time to make some improvements with both hardware and software. Can't expect everything to be perfect with a new model, but I'm sure they appreciate any feedback they get from us!
 

Eternal Angler

Administrator
Yep, great point Phil! I suspect rocks were in the way, but not so sure if the pilot was dodging the rocks or dodging the controls of the M2, lol. I mean I expect a lot of the new videos of the M2 to be driven by new pilots and maybe the videos will become more stable as the pilots get more experienced with operating the M2. However, 8 thrusters may not be what it's cracked up to be and I'm sure there's more of a learning curve with omni movement in all directions. Time will tell, definitely more maintenance too with 8 thrusters. Why I'm still waiting it out, I may just go with the upgraded version of the Mini or another underwater drone. Robotic arm is a must for me, which the Mini Pro or whatever the upgraded version of the Mini is called, will have. Hope Youcan Robot has a robotic arm in the works for the BW Space!
 

YoucanPhil

Member
Yea, trying to squeeze in between rocks is a good way to lose a drone unless your goin in after it When it gets wedged. Personally, i think the grappler is just gimmicky, the odds of you finding something worth picking up are extremely slim, unless you like to just grab random stuff. They waste battery power and Gladius cant afford to lose any battery life as it is...and now they are adding more crap on the M2, things gonna last 15 minutes with all the accessories on it.
Maybe i can let you demo a pro sometime. Do you use your drone to scout fishing spots?
 

Eternal Angler

Administrator
Personally, i think the grappler is just gimmicky, the odds of you finding something worth picking up are extremely slim, unless you like to just grab random stuff.

Ever hear the phrase one man's trash is another man's treasure? This being the Great Lakes State where I'm at and Michigan having lake's like Lake St. Clair which are heavily pressured with fishermen and are littered with fishing lures across the bottom. I've lost numerous "giant" musky lures just casting, they snap break off casting lots of times. Lots of these lures that are snagged, the hooks rust out and are just waiting to be plucked. If I can find bass baits, lead, and other musky lures, just use the claw for that purpose would be totally worth it for me. Lead I can melt down again to make other lures(recyclable purposes). I'm not really looking to find anything that valuable, if I do, awesome. But just doing cleanup with trash for the environment, amongst tackle and other things, I think it'll be lots of fun and teaching newer generation about respecting the environment on my youtube channel. Which I think the American culture is lacking!

We all have our uses for these underwater drones and look at them differently, I could totally see where you think the claw is gimmicky.. I think for the first generation consumer drones like the Geneinno T1, yes it is gimmicky and help sell a lot of T1s, but because that drone isn't stable enough to pickup a lot of things, along with the claw being too heavy and making the T1 lean forward when attached, yes gimmicky... But what do you expect, this is the first generation of consumer drones? Now with these next generation of consumer underwater drones like the V6s and M2, they're much more stable and picking up items with a lot more ease. Have you seen what Robert Zollna and Austin Vibert have picked up? Pretty darn impressive, the technology can only improve from here out...


They waste battery power and Gladius cant afford to lose any battery life as it is...and now they are adding more crap on the M2, things gonna last 15 minutes with all the accessories on it.
Maybe i can let you demo a pro sometime. Do you use your drone to scout fishing spots?

I'm sure just like electric cars, the battery technology will improve and last longer as each year passes. But you don't stop working on a technology just because it's lacking battery life. But yeah, you make a great point if you buy one of these underwater drones just for filming purposes, a claw is kind of useless, I totally see where you're coming from.

and now they are adding more crap on the M2, things gonna last 15 minutes with all the accessories on it.

You're probably right, too much accessories too fast on the Pro version, some of that stuff probably be gimmicky and will only be allowed to used in a short period of time.

Maybe i can let you demo a pro sometime.

That would be cool!

I'm very surprised after talking to some of the management from both QYSEA and Chasing, that they didn't offer me demo some of their model drones... I think I even mentioned it to Navatics... Ya know owning this forum and all, along with my youtube channel that has around 1.5k views, I thought they'd be interested. Hey times are tight, maybe in the futre they'll reach out, but they do give me bits and pieces of information here and there. I suspect a lot of these companies don't want to give out an underwater drone, then have a youtuber do a review that turns out to be negative, which could possibly ruin sales.

I mean I had a french fishing lure company Suissex kind of sponsor me, give me around $500 worth of fishing lures. The 4.5" version worked incredibly well on bass, their 7" version on the other hand which I used on musky, broke only after a few musky at St. Clair. Worked quite effectively on musky, but after a couple strikes the musky were breaking the wire and ripping the willow blade right off. The company might like the one review, but might not care for the other review.

Like I told some of these underwater drone companies, I won't even do reviews, but just filming of the fish and let the youtube viewers decide what they think of the footage. Didn't get much of an interest...

I can't decide if I'm going to open up a separate youtube channel for this forum or just stick with my standard fishing channel. I think I'll probably just stick with my single solo channel, I ran two other channels once, a gaming channel, as well al channel on UFOs/Paranormal, lol, along with my fishing channel and it got to be way too much. Along with work, then my other websites, one only can do so much in a days time... Safe to say I enjoy I lot of different hobbies!

Do you use your drone to scout fishing spots?

I wouldn't go that far yet, lol, I just love filming wildlife. I mean don't get me wrong, maybe with time, as the technology improves I could see that being a possible use. As I've heard how the underwater drone companies are working on sonar, 3d mapping and such. But way too soon for any of that I think...

On my old fishing channel I'd drop my gopro down in the water and film all sorts of species of fish swimming by, I loved watching and editing the content, and so did my subscribers. This is a video I did this past spring with blue gill on their beds with the GoPro 5.


Last January I had bought a Geneinno T1 and dropped it down in my marina, had some people say I wouldn't be able to see much with it being winter and water being murky from snow and rain, what ya know I still got some cool footage of bluegill, sunfish, crappie, and even bass. Even though the footage was kind of pixely and not the best of quality, lot of my subscribers still loved the video.

As one my fellow bass fishermen had pointed out, he was surprised to see largemouth school up like smallies right in the middle of winter. So right there, we've noticed and learned something.

lol I've met some fishermen that think underwater drones still seem gimmicky because their attached to a tether. To me, I think that's a benefit, you're not able to lose the drone, but hey, that's just what some people think. I think it's kind of crazy how advanced these underwater drones are in the consumer sector, yet no one knows... I have a recent story for ya, I came across another pilot flying his DJI Spark drone when I was musky fishing at my local metro park. I start talking about a lot of things surrounding the drone company DJI and how I'm pretty happy with my Mavic Mini, he tells me how he's happy with his DJI Spark he bought used on Ebay. Along with other things like fishing, before he leaves the pier, I go you do know there's underwater drones now in the consumer sector don't you? I explain to him they're a lot of fun to use, he hadn't a clue... I'm like yeah man, just look up the Gladius Mini, pretty stable and easy to use, only around $1k, you could find it even cheap used on ebay since there's new improved models out now.

Amazes me how this hobby has sort of had a really slow start... For myself, I just knew the technology was just around the corner in the consumer sector. At one point after I sold my 2004 Cobra Mustang, I was going to use some of that money to buy the TTRobotix Seawolf, but then thought, well I just wait it out...

Kind of funny, when I did decide to buy the Geneinno T1, I get a few of these hobbyists that get on my youtube channel start slamming me and saying they could build a ROV for half the price. You got those people out there as well, lol. I'm like yeah, I'm not that tech savy where I'm going to make my own software(app), make my own claw, figure out how to connect everything up, camera etc... Sorry, I do like working on cars at times, but I don't have that amount of time nor intelligence to do that sort of thing.

Then I go do a first test video with the T1 on my youtube channel, everyone claims in the comment section I'm doing a review, meanwhile it's just a first test in extremely murky water conditions in the middle of winter, my hands are freezing. I mean I get it, suspect a lot of people are just looking for some sort of information to go on before buying something like the T1 since there's very little video footage or reviews on this drone other than Dustin Dunnill. And since they didn't find what they're looking for, they're extremely pissed off, lol, lucky me!

To be honest with you, while Dustin Dunnill does a great job with his one day reviews, my person opinion is an underwater drone should go through at least a month of testing before giving solid honest review, not a day, kind of think that's ridiculous. I mean you do get the just on how stable it moves through the water, how easy the controls are to navigate and such. But I honestly wanted to do a first test of the T1 and tell my "fishing" subscribers how I plan on using the T1... The hobbyists looking to purchase this drone didn't care and were having a hissy fit I wasn't giving a more in-depth review. lol

It's been an interesting seeing how people respond when seeing this technology, people from the fishing community, veteran hobbyists from the RC community that make their own subs and ROVs, along with the average YouTuber... I've done my best trying to expand the hobby, but it still seem to moving at a snail pace, dunno, maybe things are moving faster than I think behind the scenes. I still think a lot of hobbyists aren't aware, I mean some hobbyists don't care for water in general. To me, I think it's even cooler, considering it's a lot more unknown territory than the sky.
 
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Eternal Angler

Administrator
It's kind of weird how I've seen a lot of hobbyists buy some of these underwater drones and never post any footage on YouTube or other social media sites. Then those that do, it tends to be very short and very shaky. I get it, not everyone wants to share their footage or even feel like taking the troll criticism on youtube and elsewhere. But I definitely thought there'd be more footage up then what's up on Youtube at the moment... I think other than Dustin and I, we got basically the only quality videos of the Geneinno T1 still, as we go into 2021.
 

YoucanPhil

Member
It's kind of weird how I've seen a lot of hobbyists buy some of these underwater drones and never post any footage on YouTube or other social media sites. Then those that do, it tends to be very short and very shaky. I get it, not everyone wants to share their footage or even feel like taking the troll criticism on youtube and elsewhere. But I definitely thought there'd be more footage up then what's up on Youtube at the moment... I think other than Dustin and I, we got basically the only quality videos of the Geneinno T1 still, as we go into 2021.
That is precisely why we have little online content. Our customers never post their videos, its not because of video quality, its because they use them professionally and have zero interest in online likes. Dont get me started about Dunhill..guy is an idiot, most of the reviewers are. He did a review for us a long time ago, never again. Idiot took it out of the box, threw it into a above ground pool in his backyard at night, no calibration, nothing..and proceeded to complain on why it wasn't working right. I tore him up online, so did Youcan..he deleted video and blocked me. These reviewers think they can be Jacques Cousteau in 5 minutes of running new technology...
It is slow taking off in the USA compared to other countries, not sure if its because of covid, cost or apprehension of this new tech, but even if you look at Chasing owners group, there are only 2k members..and that's worldwide. Your right, all you see are cherry picked clips online. Thats why i post videos raw, no editing. That grouper video is 6 minutes long, i only ran it the first minute and let the boat captain run it the rest of the time. He did pretty good considering he never ran any kind of drone whatsoever.
 

Eternal Angler

Administrator
That is precisely why we have little online content. Our customers never post their videos, its not because of video quality, its because they use them professionally and have zero interest in online likes.

Yep! I've noticed that...

Dont get me started about Dunhill..guy is an idiot, most of the reviewers are. He did a review for us a long time ago, never again. Idiot took it out of the box, threw it into a above ground pool in his backyard at night, no calibration, nothing..and proceeded to complain on why it wasn't working right. I tore him up online, so did Youcan..he deleted video and blocked me. These reviewers think they can be Jacques Cousteau in 5 minutes of running new technology...

Hahaha... Yeah I don't think it's fair to do a review on an underwater drone within a days time, again ridiculous.

Wow, didn't know all that, totally understandable that you'd be pissed off if he didn't give it more time and sort things out before doing a review.

I had a few problems I ran into with the T1, even editing my Geneinno T1 videos with magix vegas, I changed over to premiere pro and everything went more smoothly. It took some time to sort a few other things out with hardware, after I did, got used to the T1 and loved it. Still think it's a quality underwater drone to this day... I could of done a video review after a month of using it, said a few negative things and positive things, but didn't, I mean I still did a review on Amazon and even this forum, kind of, just felt since these companies are fairly new, they deserve some time to get their bearings.

I sold it after I heard the M2 was coming out with replaceable batteries, sd card slot, and a robotic arm. Just so many new features that had me pretty excited!

It is slow taking off in the USA compared to other countries, not sure if its because of covid, cost or apprehension of this new tech, but even if you look at Chasing owners group, there are only 2k members..and that's worldwide. Your right, all you see are cherry picked clips online. Thats why i post videos raw, no editing. That grouper video is 6 minutes long, i only ran it the first minute and let the boat captain run it the rest of the time. He did pretty good considering he never ran any kind of drone whatsoever.

Yep, kind of weird. Maybe Americans are just turned off from the concept of electronics and the water, they don't think it's possible, maybe they're annoyed with having a tether attached as well? I've heard numerous complaints by Americans, yet they have even used one yet, it's as if they're minds are already made up, lol, passing judgment without even trying something yet, I called it a predisposition assessment on my Geneinno T1 Amazon Review. I hate that! Even this pro fisherman who has a tv show that does underwater videos, Kim Striker from Hook n Look, he liked my youtube channel and called me personally, I mentioned the underwater drones to him and he claimed water would be too murky to navigate around in lake st clair. Yet here I am, middle of winter, worse conditions possible, yet I'm filming all sorts of species of fish. We have zebra mussels that cleared up the water tremendously on lake st clair, so I really don't know what he's talking about. Here's a video of a Michigan local getting amazing footage at Emerald Lake in Newaygo Michigan with the Gladius Mini.

Honestly, I'm a lot more interested in underwater drones than aerial drones, under the water is so much more fascinating than the sky. I mean hell, you'd think because there's less rules and don't have to purchase a drone license, that they'd be flying of the shelves compared to the aerial drones. Maybe the prices have to come down a little... I mean I didn't buy my first aerial drone till the Mavic Mini came out, at that price, unbeatable!

One of my first fascinations was after watching the movie Abyss with Little Geek ROV! When I was a kid, I thought it would be so neat to have something like that one day... I was sold from day one ;)

Then I saw that clip on monster quest a few years back, where James Lindner broke out an underwater drone to search for giant musky, I knew the consumer sector wasn't too far behind... Looks like YouTube ended up pulling that clip, bummer, anyways that ROV also had sonar on it, was a mega cool episode. Hope to see sonar on some these underwater drones soon. I know last time I spoke with Will Turner from Geneinno, they were working on it.
 
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