First real outing with the A2S

[BrianA]

A couple of days ago, a friend and I went out with our A2S to fly this state park. It was the first real, non-practice flights for me so I guess this would be sort of a "practice in the real world" for me. I'm still shooting auto with no ND filter and I already notice I need to change that. In two of the short videos, I notice a change in exposure on one and a big color shift on another. I've been a still photographer for about 40 years but the video part is going to be the very BIG challenge for me. That's a whole new world for me but I accept the challenge. Overall eval in these flights is I think I'm going to like this aircraft A LOT! I also have the Mini 2 to keep my manual flying/video skills up to speed. The A2S makes getting good video almost too easy compared to the M2.

 

[slup]

Nice first try

You mentioned auto settings, ND filters, exposure & color shifts ... so here's some reflections around that.

With auto exposure settings you will always risk shifts ... try to use the histogram in the app & then lock in a ISO & a shutter speed manually & expose for the brightest parts. In this way you will get rid of unexpected shifts & if the darker areas becomes a tad too dark they usually are easier to recover than blown out highlights.

And as you mentioned auto settings ... can it be that you also used auto WB settings? If so, that can cause those color shifts you noticed. Set the WB to a fixed value instead, Daytime, Sunny or 5500K or similar that suits best.

ND filter then ... firstly, you will nearly never run into a situation where the MA2s camera shutter can't be faster causing a overexposure, maybe if filming a bright sunlit snowy landscape ... but in general you will not have problems with getting a correct exposure because you don't use a ND filter. The ND is instead a tool to use if you want to regulate the amount of motion blur in the video ... if you read up you will find many pointers towards the "180 degree rule" which setting wise means that you use a shutter speed which is 2x the frame rate you use. So if you go with 30fps you use a shutter of 1/60sec. This "rule" ... or more guidance, gives you a perceived motion blur equal to what you see in reality. So using a ND to regulate motion blur is only important if you actually have motion that creates blur in your video. As a general thumb rule you will not sense motion blur if you're filming further away than 30m from a object ... if flying on 50m height motion blur isn't relevant. Speed of the motion is also playing into this ... but photo drones are usually flown higher & away from objects & ground and the camera (drone) speed is relative low. A ND is a nice tool to have in your bag but far from mandatory in order to produce video.

Then some tips regarding scene timings & total length of the clip ... try to keep up the viewers interest by keeping the cuts around 5-7sec & the total clip around 4 minutes as max. Flying straight ahead for a minute will easily become boring, try to avoid that. It's similar if you pan a full lap, keep it short & feed the viewer with new thing's in a pretty rapid pace.

Good luck with your filming!

 

[BrianA]

Nice first try

You mentioned auto settings, ND filters, exposure & color shifts ... so here's some reflections around that.

With auto exposure settings you will always risk shifts ... try to use the histogram in the app & then lock in a ISO & a shutter speed manually & expose for the brightest parts. In this way you will get rid of unexpected shifts & if the darker areas becomes a tad too dark they usually are easier to recover than blown out highlights.

And as you mentioned auto settings ... can it be that you also used auto WB settings? If so, that can cause those color shifts you noticed. Set the WB to a fixed value instead, Daytime, Sunny or 5500K or similar that suits best.

ND filter then ... firstly, you will nearly never run into a situation where the MA2s camera shutter can't be faster causing a overexposure, maybe if filming a bright sunlit snowy landscape ... but in general you will not have problems with getting a correct exposure because you don't use a ND filter. The ND is instead a tool to use if you want to regulate the amount of motion blur in the video ... if you read up you will find many pointers towards the "180 degree rule" which setting wise means that you use a shutter speed which is 2x the frame rate you use. So if you go with 30fps you use a shutter of 1/60sec. This "rule" ... or more guidance, gives you a perceived motion blur equal to what you see in reality. So using a ND to regulate motion blur is only important if you actually have motion that creates blur in your video. As a general thumb rule you will not sense motion blur if you're filming further away than 30m from a object ... if flying on 50m height motion blur isn't relevant. Speed of the motion is also playing into this ... but photo drones are usually flown higher & away from objects & ground and the camera (drone) speed is relative low. A ND is a nice tool to have in your bag but far from mandatory in order to produce video.

Then some tips regarding scene timings & total length of the clip ... try to keep up the viewers interest by keeping the cuts around 5-7sec & the total clip around 4 minutes as max. Flying straight ahead for a minute will easily become boring, try to avoid that. It's similar if you pan a full lap, keep it short & feed the viewer with new thing's in a pretty rapid pace.

Good luck with your filming!

Thanks for the tips. The color shift I saw in one of the vids was not in temperature per se. It was more in the saturation level. Of course, that might have been auto exposure changing that caused it. I was never really into the video thing and have always been a still photographer. But, now that I've got a couple of drones that do both, I will dive right into the new challenge. I've recently retired and need a new distraction to take up more of my now unlimited free time. Could be a dangerous thing as I see drone photography being an expensive add-on to an already expensive hobby. ;-)