Long Exposure Tips

[Vroom66]

Hi - had a try last night but v blurry. Does it need to be in tripod mode? i.e. does it hover more stably in tripod mode? Or is the problem just that I was a bit close (it was a house and basically filled the frame). Tried a few settings, the longest exposure was 2.5 secs but even at 1/25 it was blurry.

 

[WolfgangStiller]

You can try increasing the iso to use faster shutter speeds but that will increase the sensor noise. Low light photography is tricky.

 

[Mako79]

Hi - had a try last night but v blurry. Does it need to be in tripod mode? i.e. does it hover more stably in tripod mode? Or is the problem just that I was a bit close (it was a house and basically filled the frame). Tried a few settings, the longest exposure was 2.5 secs but even at 1/25 it was blurry.

Because its dark, the vision system wont lock. The VPS at <10m holds very well in lit environment.
Your best bet is to find the calmest days with zero wind. The more movement, the more blur.
Try a higher iso, with less shutter opening times. Just remember thtat the higher the iso, the more noise and artefacts you will see.

 

[Rom3oDelta7]

A shutter of 1/25 is too slow for a drone. For handheld camera shots, 1/30 is about as slow as most people can do without blur. I typically set the shutter to a higher speed (say 1/100) and increase the ISO to get the shot, assuming the wind will cooperate. Yes, you get sensor noise, but a lot of this can be cleaned up in post. Be sure to shoot in RAW and then use Adobe Lightroom to reduce the noise (or perhaps Nik tools from Lightroom). An old saying in the photo business is that noise hides in the darkness - your dark areas will exhibit much more noise than the more exposed areas. Depending on how large your final image will be, noise may or may not be apparent.

The camera in the Mavic is good, but has a fairly limited dynamic range. This is one of the reasons I got a Phantom 4 Pro also.

 

[Bibs]

For handheld camera shots, 1/30 is about as slow as most people can do without blur.

The rule of thumb to eliminate motion blur is that the shutter speed should be the reciprocal of the focal length of the lens, eg 200mm lens, 1/200th, 30mm lens, 1/30th etc.