so ive been playing around with the hyperlapse modes on my Air 3 for the past few weekends and honestly i cant figure out if im setting something up wrong or if the results are just supposed to look a bit... choppy? like i did a free mode hyperlapse over a field at sunset which looked amazing in my head but when i pulled it off the card it looked kind of stuttery. not terrible but not the silky smooth stuff i see people posting online.

im shooting in the normal hyperlapse mode not master shots or whatever, interval is set to 2 seconds and i think the shutter is on auto. maybe thats the problem? ive seen people talk about the 2x interval rule for shutter speed but i honestly dont fully understand how that works when youre also moving the drone slowly at the same time. the footage is fine otherwise ? colors are great, the Air 3 camera is genuinely really good for the price ? just this one thing is bugging me

yeah the shutter is almost definitely your issue. for hyperlapse you want your shutter speed locked to double your interval, so if youre on 2 second intervals you want 1/2 second shutter. that means shooting in lower light or using an ND filter to bring the exposure down enough to allow that slow shutter. the motion blur between frames is what makes it look smooth when it plays back, without it every frame is tack sharp and it looks like a slideshow basically.

i use an ND64 or sometimes ND128 depending on conditions and it made a massive difference. Freewell makes good ones for the Air 3, not too expensive. also lock your ISO manually while youre at it, auto ISO during a hyperlapse can cause flickering between frames if the drone is making small exposure adjustments.

oh man i had the exact same problem when i started doing hyperlapses on my mini 3 and it turned out to be the shutter speed thing the other guy mentioned. once i got an ND filter set it was like a completely different result. also worth making sure the drone isnt moving too fast during the shot ? i used to rush it thinking more movement = more dramatic but slower and smoother is way better for free mode