That "UFO" video from Bakersfield last week was so obviously a drone with a fisheye lens

I watched it like 15 times and you can literally see the prop blur if you pause at 0:23. The guy who posted it is still arguing with everyone in the comments claiming it's "unexplained" - bro, it's a DJI Phantom with a cheap wide angle attachment. Has anyone else noticed how many of these "weird light in the sky" clips are just people messing with lens distortion?

2 comments

2 Comments

tara_jones9413d ago

I get what you're saying about the prop blur, but honestly I watched it a bunch too and the way the light moves doesn't look like any drone I've ever flown. The fisheye thing makes things look closer and weird, but the acceleration on that thing was just not normal. Feels like there's more going on there.

the_avery13d ago

The prop blur at 0:23 is actually from the lens flare artifact, not the drone itself - it's a common thing with cheaper wide angle attachments where the glass creates little ghost images of the rotor blades. If you look at actual DJI Phantom footage (I've owned three of them), the prop blur on those is way more uniform and doesn't have that strobing effect. The acceleration thing people keep bringing up is just the fisheye distortion messing with your sense of speed, like how a GoPro makes everything look faster than it really is. It's wild how much our brains get tricked by lens math (which isn't real math, but you know what I mean).