Night flying

[smaugnaut]

Does anyone have any recommendations? Did my first night flight tonight and was kinda of disappointed with the quality. The red lights from the Phantom really saturate the video. I was taking video of a storm out over the everglades and the lightning came out okay but the lights from the city were just pixelated to hell. Im probably asking too much but is there anything to improve video at night?

 

[Catalina36]

You can put electrical tape over the forward LEDs. But the camera on this thing just doesn't do too well in low light.

 

[slothead]

A commenter of my first night flight suggested putting tape on the inboard sides of the red LEDs. I had not tried it yet because I hadn't flown since then, but it sounded like a good idea.

 

[SpikeFinch]

Night flying really freaks people out...

The lights make it look like a UFO or something.... Kind of funny

But I agree, I heard the tape was the trick.

 

[Edmond]

I'm new to the Phantom, but I work a lot with photography. When I was setting my Phantom camera I found the ISO settings, with 100, 200 and 400.

400 will work best in the lowest light situations and mine was set to 100 in the default.

 

[smaugnaut]

Thanks for the quick replies! I appreciate it. I will probably put tape on the red lights and put camera iso setting at 400. Im too tired to go back out tonight but tomorrow night ill see how it goes and report back. thanks again!!!

 

[Mako79]

Tape the front arms.
Use 1080x25fps (a must). Higher frame rates will make it dark as not enough light is coming in.
Set to CLOUD
Use 200 ISO (400 ISO is too grainy IMO).
If you leave AUTO on any of the settings, it will cause a random yellowish/purple tinge as the camera tries to adjust for light.

 

[Morgon]

Somewhat related, is the camera sensitive to IR?
Not that this will help with landscape as the OP is looking for, but could have other uses.