Basic Camera Setting
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Meta4
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For daylight photography, here are settings that will get you great pictures almost all the time.
Set the exposure mode to A (for aperture priority)
Set ISO to 100, aperture to 5.6 and White Balance to Auto
I find the exposure is better if I set Exposure Compensation to -0.3
In Aperture Priority, the camera will select the appropriate shutter speed to give good exposure.
If you are shooting at night or in very low light, you should open up the aperture towards f2.8 and if that isn't enough, then increase the ISO value.
If you are shooting stills, leave the filters in the box, they won't do anything to help you.
There are a number of settings that control how the drone and gimbal respond to your input. They make a big difference to how the drone handles, and are worth fine-tuning to your specific preference. However, these are what I use for smoother flight control. Smooth flight (& gimbal movement) matter more if you shoot video, as this is often done while the drone is in motion.
Exp: Up, Right, Forward - all 0.37
Attitude 60%
Brake 100%
Yaw endpoint 45%
Gain: Pitch, Roll, Yaw, Vertical - all 80%
Gimbal pitch smoothness - 20
Gimbal pitch exp - 10
As you're new to drones and photography, I'm going to recommend auto settings for photo and video (in particular), and that you not worry about using filters. Once you get some experience under your belt, you can experiment in manual-mode and, if you like, with the filters.
Exp: Up, Right, Forward - all 0.37
Attitude 60%
Brake 100%
Yaw endpoint 45%
Gain: Pitch, Roll, Yaw, Vertical - all 80%
Gimbal pitch smoothness - 20
Gimbal pitch exp - 10
As you're new to drones and photography, I'm going to recommend auto settings for photo and video (in particular), and that you not worry about using filters. Once you get some experience under your belt, you can experiment in manual-mode and, if you like, with the filters.
I have one question, what is that 500 number in the picture? I have the other settings that you recommendedFor daylight photography, here are settings that will get you great pictures almost all the time.
Set the exposure mode to A (for aperture priority)
Set ISO to 100, aperture to 5.6 and White Balance to Auto
I find the exposure is better if I set Exposure Compensation to -0.3
In Aperture Priority, the camera will select the appropriate shutter speed to give good exposure.
If you are shooting at night or in very low light, you should open up the aperture towards f2.8 and if that isn't enough, then increase the ISO value.
If you are shooting stills, leave the filters in the box, they won't do anything to help you.
Shutter speed.
In the above photo, with the aperture manually set at f5.6, and using aperture priority mode, the ISO is manually set at 100. Metering the total amount of light the camera is seeing , the camera determines that a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second will result in proper exposure of the overall scene. But the operator has set the EV (exposure value) to minus 1/3 stop. so the photo will be slightly underexposed and probably more color saturated. If I remember correctly, the 1/500 is already reflecting the 1/3 stop adjustment, or it will adjust when a photo is taken by upping the shutter speed (faster-shorter time opened) to 1/640.
In the above photo, with the aperture manually set at f5.6, and using aperture priority mode, the ISO is manually set at 100. Metering the total amount of light the camera is seeing , the camera determines that a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second will result in proper exposure of the overall scene. But the operator has set the EV (exposure value) to minus 1/3 stop. so the photo will be slightly underexposed and probably more color saturated. If I remember correctly, the 1/500 is already reflecting the 1/3 stop adjustment, or it will adjust when a photo is taken by upping the shutter speed (faster-shorter time opened) to 1/640.
I tried shooting some video, it was not smooth. It was a bit jittery and a few times it was looking like I was having a signal issue. But I was only about 30 feet from the drone. I wish there was someone that new about this stuff so I could sit down with them and learn.
Video is a whole different conversation. Although the basic principles of exposure ie light, aperture, shutter speed, iso apply, video is when you want to slow the shutter speed down using small apertures (like f11 on Phantom 4, Mavic 2, Mavic 3 etc. and the neutral density filters you mentioned. The rule of thumb is to try to get your shutter speed down to twice your frame rate. So if you are shooting say, at 30 fps (frames per second) you want a shutter speed of 1/60 of a sec. and so on. this helps to smooth out the video with a little motion blur. try it.
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A few questions to start with.
How are you viewing the jitters? From your remote? From your SD card? Are you seeing the same jitters on your mobile device while flying that you see on the recording?
Is your SD card fast enough? Is your computer capable of displaying the video clip at the resolution you recorded?
How are you viewing the jitters? From your remote? From your SD card? Are you seeing the same jitters on your mobile device while flying that you see on the recording?
Is your SD card fast enough? Is your computer capable of displaying the video clip at the resolution you recorded?
Meta4
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The 500 number is the camera displaying the shutter speed it would choose to give correct exposure with the settings and available light when that screenshot was taken.
It's saying that it would use 1/500th of a second.
That number will go up and down as appropriate for the conditions.
These are very pertinent questions that may be the cause other than the drone itself. I did not ask for a description of the "jitters" before I assumed it was the camera settings. Lots to learn.
Thank you thank you thank you. I was watching it from the cache from the remote control. When I viewed it from SD card on my laptop it was just fine. This is my SD card. I have the P4P+
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In my experience, aperture is best set to f/4 (and if it is dark, f/2.8). In most situations the drone is at optical infinity from the (landscape) subject and f/4 provides more than sufficient depth of field. If you are shooting special subjects that are closer/larger, then yes you can close down to f/5.6 or even f/8.
