Can anyone suggest the best camera settings for clear sunny day and also for clear night shots I'm using phantom 3 advanced
Thanks
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Camera setting
- Thread starter steve2092
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I good rule of thumb is to have the shutter speed be twice the frames-per-second (i.e. 30fps would use 1/60" shutter speed). During the day you will need neutral density filters to accomplish this. You can get there without ND filters at night, however I find my P3A doesn't focus well in low-light (night) conditions. Typically you want the ISO as high as you can get without introducing graininess into the video, 800 seems to be good on mine. The lower the ISO (film speed), the faster the shutter needs to be.
Everything I just said is "rule of thumb" and "suggested starting points", there really is no "correct" answer. The beauty of photography is you can experiment and get the look that is appealing to you.
One thing I did recently to help myself was to save the way-points of a flight so i could repeat the same exact flight over-and-over. Then I flew the way-points multiple times with different camera settings and different ND and polarizing filters. I was then able to compare apples-to-apples, same exact flights with different camera settings. This process dramatically accelerated my learning curve !!
Everything I just said is "rule of thumb" and "suggested starting points", there really is no "correct" answer. The beauty of photography is you can experiment and get the look that is appealing to you.
One thing I did recently to help myself was to save the way-points of a flight so i could repeat the same exact flight over-and-over. Then I flew the way-points multiple times with different camera settings and different ND and polarizing filters. I was then able to compare apples-to-apples, same exact flights with different camera settings. This process dramatically accelerated my learning curve !!
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SJP is correct, analog movie makers referred to the 180 degree rule......interesting read learning how it was done in the day, explains a lot. 180 degree rule means my shutter speed needs to be a factor of 2 x the frames per second setting. This all means at 25fps video recording you aim to set your shutter speed at 1/50 or at 50fps at 1/100 and so on......
The Phantoms use a fixed aperture and a fixed focus point. That means one can only adjust ISO and shutter speed to adjust exposure. On a bright sunny day you completely over expose at 1/50th or even at 1/100th of a second shutter speed. The only way to then reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor is to make use of ND filters. For example using a ND8 or a ND16 will give you the chance to get that shutter speed closer to 1/50th at an ISO of 100.
In terms of settings I prefer to use the D-Log setting for color. You need to keep in mind that the P3 basically records a "RAW" video format. To get the best from the recorded video you need to develop the video RAW file into a workable file. Programs like Final Cut Pro & Premier Pro do this in the background......I prefer to do this as I download my footage to my server.
What is video "RAW"? Recording at 25fps results in huge amounts of data saved to disk. To manage the data size video footage is compressed to a smaller size (progressive or interlaced compression) and this compressed footage is saved in a so-called container (file format) H.264 for example.
DJI has a great de-compressor that will recreate the original 25fps file into a un-compressed file. Download the DJI transcoder app from the DJI website, this app will do the de-compressing for you.
If you now take this decompressed file into a video editor like Premier Pro or Premier Elements you can really get the best results possible...... The D-Log color setting gives you a great neutral color to work from. From Premier Pro or Elements it is possible to export your final movie file to a youtube, facebook or whatever format you like......
In terms of best image settings I apply the following simple rule....... Always record your images in both JPEG and RAW format.
RAW format are the digital negative of the image......theoretically nothing has been set or done to a RAW image file. That means any settings you make to your JPEG file will NOT effect the RAW file.
Wow that is something....!!! This means now you can go and be creative. You free to adjust your JPEG file look the way you like it.......the key here is....the way YOU like the image....you the artist.
There are NO best image settings, only that what you as the artist like to present to your audience.
Finally the RAW file will enable you to go back to the digital negative and to develop a "best" setting image or a creative image as you want.......
The last question was about night photography. In short you have 2 major challenges with a Phantom 2 Vision or the P3's. The sensors are tiny and very noisy. Third you need a stable platform when using long exposures. The Phantom gimbal is great keeping the camera steady. My advice is to keep night work limited to the so-called blue-hour, that is when you will get the best results. Keep the ISO up to and below 400. Remove any ND filters!!!
The Phantoms use a fixed aperture and a fixed focus point. That means one can only adjust ISO and shutter speed to adjust exposure. On a bright sunny day you completely over expose at 1/50th or even at 1/100th of a second shutter speed. The only way to then reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor is to make use of ND filters. For example using a ND8 or a ND16 will give you the chance to get that shutter speed closer to 1/50th at an ISO of 100.
In terms of settings I prefer to use the D-Log setting for color. You need to keep in mind that the P3 basically records a "RAW" video format. To get the best from the recorded video you need to develop the video RAW file into a workable file. Programs like Final Cut Pro & Premier Pro do this in the background......I prefer to do this as I download my footage to my server.
What is video "RAW"? Recording at 25fps results in huge amounts of data saved to disk. To manage the data size video footage is compressed to a smaller size (progressive or interlaced compression) and this compressed footage is saved in a so-called container (file format) H.264 for example.
DJI has a great de-compressor that will recreate the original 25fps file into a un-compressed file. Download the DJI transcoder app from the DJI website, this app will do the de-compressing for you.
If you now take this decompressed file into a video editor like Premier Pro or Premier Elements you can really get the best results possible...... The D-Log color setting gives you a great neutral color to work from. From Premier Pro or Elements it is possible to export your final movie file to a youtube, facebook or whatever format you like......
In terms of best image settings I apply the following simple rule....... Always record your images in both JPEG and RAW format.
RAW format are the digital negative of the image......theoretically nothing has been set or done to a RAW image file. That means any settings you make to your JPEG file will NOT effect the RAW file.
Wow that is something....!!! This means now you can go and be creative. You free to adjust your JPEG file look the way you like it.......the key here is....the way YOU like the image....you the artist.
There are NO best image settings, only that what you as the artist like to present to your audience.
Finally the RAW file will enable you to go back to the digital negative and to develop a "best" setting image or a creative image as you want.......
The last question was about night photography. In short you have 2 major challenges with a Phantom 2 Vision or the P3's. The sensors are tiny and very noisy. Third you need a stable platform when using long exposures. The Phantom gimbal is great keeping the camera steady. My advice is to keep night work limited to the so-called blue-hour, that is when you will get the best results. Keep the ISO up to and below 400. Remove any ND filters!!!
Start with auto exposure mode, enable your histigram and overexposure warnings in dji go and dial in exposure compensation when needed.
This is a good concise answer. It's what I should have said in the first place.
Should have said? Thats interestimg. Your advice was good and my preference however I suspect Steve is just making a start in the hobby so he has enough to fully occupy himself learning to fly without juggling TV and ISO setting in flight and diverting his attention away from the phantom. I would have mirrored your advice and probably will along with others once he is comfortable flying and wants to progress.
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