Night flying

My videos are all edited. I don't see the point in having a long video of me just flying. I try to add scenes and different angles to things. I have some videographer friends who have given me tips about shooting video. Never have a scene longer than 5 seconds as people lose interest. Always move the scenes along. I use iMovie and will migrate to Final Cut Pro X in a few days. Considering I have Apple computers, their products keep my workflow similar. I render for PAL as I live in Europe at the moment. Most of my videos are in 4K.
 
My videos are all edited. I don't see the point in having a long video of me just flying. I try to add scenes and different angles to things. I have some videographer friends who have given me tips about shooting video. Never have a scene longer than 5 seconds as people lose interest. Always move the scenes along. I use iMovie and will migrate to Final Cut Pro X in a few days. Considering I have Apple computers, their products keep my workflow similar. I render for PAL as I live in Europe at the moment. Most of my videos are in 4K.

Thanks for your reply.

When I asked about edit I did not meant only about video/scene length but mainly about video setting related edit
 
Ah ok. Misunderstood. To be honest I usually set up for taking a still image and then use those settings for the video. I adjust the exposure and ISO as I go along.


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For mine the video was recorded for NTSC with no style or color setting. Can't remember if 3D noise reduction is enabled but it's set to whatever is the default. The only editing was adding music with the YouTube Video Editor.

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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On a calm night, shooting 2 second stills can deliver some amazing results. Out of 5 photos you'll typically get one amazingly clear shot, except for the streaks of moving car lights.

I have to disagree. Two seconds is quite a long exposure on a moving, vibrating, platform. It can even be a long time on a windy day with a camera mounted on very stable tripod. I would bet with two seconds, on a typical day, if you take 5 shots, when blown up to 100%, they will all be blurry. What is possibly a better option would be to scout locations where there is a higher degree of traffic moving at a faster pace. You can use a lower shutter speed, say 1 second or even less and still get car light trails. I can even do this handheld with my DSLR. The key is the speed of the traffic. The included image was shot at 1/13 of a second at ISO 400. The speed of the fireworks are what made the image, not a 2 second exposure.
 

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I doubt it as I am self-employed but you should convince them to buy Phantoms so we can set up a big squadron mission! :cool:

when your flying at night(or any time really) does line of sight come into it at all?or are you looking at your screen the whole time your flying?
im asking because when my drone goes out of sight even for a second i tend to freak out so i cant imagine what its like to loose sight of it at night?and does it take a lot of practice to fly only by looking at your screen?

fantastic video by the way.
 
Thank you. I've been flying RC since the 70s so flying VLOS is how I learned. It was the only way you could fly until recently. Flying via FPV is intuitive & natural to me. Once the Phantom is in the air & away it's pretty much FPV flying for me. First I understand the aircraft's mechanics, & I also spent countless hours (and $$$) playing computer games. I was an Air Warrior junkie & blew quite a wad racking up kills on the GEnie network under the pseudonyms "Pot Luck" & "Nemesis.". Any kind of flight game I found to be irresistible, particularly things like Flight Simulator, X-wing, & TIE Fighter. My personal favorite addiction was Descent 2 in which the "Icarus" was uncannily similar to flying a Phantom. It was a multi-player free-for-all that I played for days at a time. Oh what I would give for a Gauss cannon & a rack of Shakers slung under my Phantom! :cool:

when your flying at night(or any time really) does line of sight come into it at all?or are you looking at your screen the whole time your flying?
im asking because when my drone goes out of sight even for a second i tend to freak out so i cant imagine what its like to loose sight of it at night?and does it take a lot of practice to fly only by looking at your screen?

fantastic video by the way.
 
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When I fly for distance, I fly at night and lose sight of the drone after maybe 2 kilometers and then all I see is a black monitor screen. I keep the red front led's on to reflect off of the blades but this is really all I can see until it returns. I have insurance so if it doesn't come back I'll just buy another one. I'm really not concerned about it. I control this hobby, not the other way around.


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Thank you. I've been flying RC since the 70s so flying VLOS is how I learned. It was the only way you could fly until recently. Flying via FPV is intuitive & natural to me. Once the Phantom is in the air & away it's pretty much FPV flying for me. First I understand the aircraft's mechanics, & I also spent countless hours (and $$$) playing computer games. I was an Air Warrior junkie & blew quite a wad racking up kills on the GEnie network under the pseudonyms "Pot Luck" & "Nemesis.". Any kind of flight game I found to be irresistible, particularly things like Flight Simulator, X-wing, & TIE Fighter. My personal favorite addiction was Descent 2 in which the "Icarus" was uncannily similar to flying a Phantom. It was a multi-player free-for-all that I played for days at a time. Oh what I would give for a Gauss cannon & a rack of Shakers slung under my Phantom! :cool:

Yea ok so what your saying is you have loads of experience.
What about the dos and donts of night flying?
 
Night flying is exciting & offers some spectacular views. You can see the Phantom from much greater distances than in daylight, though it can be more difficult to spot obstacles like power lines, antenna, & tree branches. Therefore I recommend one be competent at the controls & thoroughly familiar with the area being flown.
Yea ok so what your saying is you have loads of experience.
What about the dos and donts of night flying?
 
Thank you. I've been flying RC since the 70s so flying VLOS is how I learned. It was the only way you could fly until recently. Flying via FPV is intuitive & natural to me. Once the Phantom is in the air & away it's pretty much FPV flying for me. First I understand the aircraft's mechanics, & I also spent countless hours (and $$$) playing computer games. I was an Air Warrior junkie & blew quite a wad racking up kills on the GEnie network under the pseudonyms "Pot Luck" & "Nemesis.". Any kind of flight game I found to be irresistible, particularly things like Flight Simulator, X-wing, & TIE Fighter. My personal favorite addiction was Descent 2 in which the "Icarus" was uncannily similar to flying a Phantom. It was a multi-player free-for-all that I played for days at a time. Oh what I would give for a Gauss cannon & a rack of Shakers slung under my Phantom! :cool:


Ace Combat is probably one of my all time favorite Playstation games. I've spend countless hours playing that game growing up, and when/if they come out with a new version i'll probably pick that up as well. Flying the Phantom is actually a lot like playing these flying games!
 
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Sorry to revive an old thread. I found this while researching night flying. I haven't flown at night but want to do it next week to view the fireworks. I just want to make sure I'm clear on what works and what doesn't. It looks like the only thing that doesn't work at night is the obstacle avoidance?

Thanks!
 
Sorry to revive an old thread. I found this while researching night flying. I haven't flown at night but want to do it next week to view the fireworks. I just want to make sure I'm clear on what works and what doesn't. It looks like the only thing that doesn't work at night is the obstacle avoidance?

Thanks!
Actually, no need to be sorry. If you hadn't brought it back up I probably would not have come across it. Dirty Bird lives very close to me, and seeing his video of the Inner Harbor in Baltimore was pretty awesome as well as inspiring. So I thank you for reviving it!
 
I decided to give it a try about 45 minutes after sunset. Also had mostly cloudy skies. I didn't have any problems. There aren't many lights in my area so I couldn't take any pictures but things looked better when I changed over to video.
 
Thank you Sam I appreciate that. If you're up to join the fray I'm looking to setup a bigger "Leader" mission! :cool:


Man, those videos are incredible!! I just got the new Phantom P4 and want to fly evening videos like you are doing. If you don't mind me asking, what accessories are you using to get that type of distance?? I got the parabolic antenna things but think I need to go deeper into an actual hard wired range extenders.. Are you using boosters? Or just some type of antenna extenders??

Thanks for any info that you can share, I would love to get some long range shots of the swamp on the airboat..

Be Safe and keep those videos coming!!!
 

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