Night flying

I don't know we're you're from but in my country and as far as I've read from other posts night flight is illegal
That's what I thought to...in Australia it is illegal according to CASA website.
 
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Well, I took it out and it worked well. Unfortunately I underestimated how much footage I had on the Micro SD card and ran out of space about 5 minutes in to the flight, but it was still fun (I have cleaned the card now). Visibility of the drone was much improved from daylight flying and I found the night breeze to be very pleasant, I have gotten used to wiping sweat off my face during the day. The camera was amazing, I have gotton used to cheap (phone and tablet) cameras which when used at night basically just show a black screen but the Phantom 4's camera took in so light it looked much brighter than it actually was, more like twilight than night (I was shooting in D-log incase your wondering). I had a lot of fun flying and it seems like the signal was a bit better. I used the opportunity to test sport mode as well, with the tail wind I was able to break 60 miles per hour! Unfortunately the gimble also had a hell of a time keeping up in the turns and I got lots of shaking and flips between the speed and wind buffeting. I estimate the wind speed was 15-20 miles per hour. Switching back to P mode and flying against the wind I managed just about 8 miles per hour top speed so it was really blowing, I think much stronger 170 feet up than on he ground. The footage I did get though was very nice, the city looked spectacular lit up. Lots of fun.:)
 
I don't know we're you're from but in my country and as far as I've read from other posts night flight is illegal
....except when "fully illuminated", as in stadium lights fully illuminating the drone (AMA rules), which negates the night camera settings. The other exception, if operating under Part 107, is during the first half hour before sunrise or the first half hour after local sunset, if your drone is equipped with a strobe light visible for 3 miles. And, no, those little LEDs don't count. Other than that, you should remain grounded after dark.
 
That's what I thought to...in Australia it is iegal according to CASA website.

If you read the pamphlet shoved into every drone sold here in N.Z. you'd think ALL night flying is illegal. But it's not...there are exceptions. I can fly my Phantom 4 at night in N.Z. as long I stay within "Shielded Airspace". Basically, that's below the top of the nearest structure/tree/cliff-face, and stay within 100 meters of it. I have inquired with the experts at N.Z. CAA and this has been confirmed. It's in the Part 101 rules, if you read them closely enough.

I intend on recording some fireworks soon, so I ran my flightplan past CAA and have been given the all-clear, albeit with a few items to watch out for - like a 30 meter perimeter around the take-off location that nobody can enter.

This Shielded Airspace also applies within the 4km radius of an unmannded aerodrome here in N.Z. - as long as it's not in the boundaries of said aerodrome, nor in an arc shaped area at either end of the runway.
 
I only shoot video. I fly night missions often & find Auto Mode provides the best overall results. I usually record at 30 fps or else the ISO drops to 6400 producing extremely noisy & unpleasant blacks. Night flying only produces interesting video if you have lots of lights in the scene. Night flying over water, woods, or sparsely populated areas seems mostly to be a waste of time. Video below recorded @ 1080x30 fps in Auto Mode.


Nice work .................... !
 
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Is "iegal" legal or illegal? ;)
It is imperitive to understand the difference between unlawful and illegal. Unlawful pertains to that wich is against the law whereas illegal is a sick bird :p

NoCo Drones
 
I only shoot video. I fly night missions often & find Auto Mode provides the best overall results. I usually record at 30 fps or else the ISO drops to 6400 producing extremely noisy & unpleasant blacks. Night flying only produces interesting video if you have lots of lights in the scene. Night flying over water, woods, or sparsely populated areas seems mostly to be a waste of time. Video below recorded @ 1080x30 fps in Auto Mode.


WHAT? That video is crazy good man!

Where you live, that was all legal footage, flying so close to populated areas and building etc?

Also, how on earth did you manage to fly so far away from yourself? It seemed like you went a million miles away from take off point. So inspiring.

Sorry, total novice here just freaking out a little bit, still in beginner mode :/
 
If you read the pamphlet shoved into every drone sold here in N.Z. you'd think ALL night flying is illegal. But it's not...there are exceptions. I can fly my Phantom 4 at night in N.Z. as long I stay within "Shielded Airspace". Basically, that's below the top of the nearest structure/tree/cliff-face, and stay within 100 meters of it. I have inquired with the experts at N.Z. CAA and this has been confirmed. It's in the Part 101 rules, if you read them closely enough.

I intend on recording some fireworks soon, so I ran my flightplan past CAA and have been given the all-clear, albeit with a few items to watch out for - like a 30 meter perimeter around the take-off location that nobody can enter.

This Shielded Airspace also applies within the 4km radius of an unmannded aerodrome here in N.Z. - as long as it's not in the boundaries of said aerodrome, nor in an arc shaped area at either end of the runway.

Thanks for bringing that up, it's all new to me, and I've read so much my eyeballs are dried out and buggy. Information overload. I took my bird out onto an oval a few weeks back on a perfect still night and just flew straight up to 80m and sat and filmed the Melbourne CBD from about 8kms away. Had no idea if that was allowed or not, stupidly I started reading rules later :)

Probably should have printed out that **** instruction book first too.
 
Thank you. I'd say it definitely pushes the envelope. The flight was 7.2 miles in total mission length & it is about 2.2 miles away at the furthest point. I'm not actually flying the birds. They are flying autonomously on a mission I programmed with the Litchi app.

WHAT? That video is crazy good man!

Where you live, that was all legal footage, flying so close to populated areas and building etc?

Also, how on earth did you manage to fly so far away from yourself? It seemed like you went a million miles away from take off point. So inspiring.

Sorry, total novice here just freaking out a little bit, still in beginner mode :/
 
Thank you. I'd say it definitely pushes the envelope. The flight was 7.2 miles in total mission length & it is about 2.2 miles away at the furthest point. I'm not actually flying the birds. They are flying autonomously on a mission I programmed with the Litchi app.

Was the remote connected the whole time? I found out the hard way that it still does the mission without signal, but the camera programming doesn't work.
 
No filters at night, you want as much light as possible coming in the lens. Night shots are fun, 2 second exposures are cool on a calm night, especially with car traffic.
hi M,Locke! How can you expose 2 seconds?.Will it come blurry?
 
I don't know if this is still a thing on the P4, but on the P3 it's advisable to turn off the front lights to prevent glare from them in your shots. The downside of course is that it's now less visible, but if you can't follow it via the green lights it's probably too overcast to fly anyway. :p
 
I only shoot video. I fly night missions often & find Auto Mode provides the best overall results. I usually record at 30 fps or else the ISO drops to 6400 producing extremely noisy & unpleasant blacks. Night flying only produces interesting video if you have lots of lights in the scene. Night flying over water, woods, or sparsely populated areas seems mostly to be a waste of time. Video below recorded @ 1080x30 fps in Auto Mode.



I was wondering do you have an antenna mod to get that far out?? Great video! I have kind of lurked here on the forum(always busy with work) but that was a nice flight.!!
 
Thank you. I'd say it definitely pushes the envelope. The flight was 7.2 miles in total mission length & it is about 2.2 miles away at the furthest point. I'm not actually flying the birds. They are flying autonomously on a mission I programmed with the Litchi app.

Wowsers... I gotta check out this Litchi app! So much to learn.
 
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Impressive both footage from dirty bird and deltalimatango!!! Is it original or you have edit with some program for tha outcome we see?

Litchi app is it acceptable by DJI in terms of guaranty???

Also regarding settings "1080x30 fps in Auto Mode" ok but what about Style? Color? 3d noise reduction? ntsc or pal?

Please note that I an total novice that just bought a dji phantom 4.
 

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