Are camera (still) and video settings not completely independent?

[MicheleStapleton]

Longtime 35mm photographer, new Mavic owner, I plan to shoot both stills and videos.

As I watched YouTube videos tonight about the best camera/video settings and played around with settings in the DJI Go 4 app, it seems to me that when you go in and make choices for your camera (still) settings and your video settings, they are not completely independent of each other.

For instance, I'd love to set my video at 24 fps and 1/50 sec, but I might want to set still photos for a much higher shutter speed like 250 that would in fact freeze any motion and not give me any possible motion blur. I might even want to set different ISOs for each.

Looks to me that even those you press the little icon with the arrow around it and it takes you to either still camera or video, some of the settings stay the same.

Also, if I choose RAW, should all of the Color settings (like D-Log or D-Cinelike) be irrelevant?

Am I doing something wrong or am I not able to chose different settings for stills and video? It would be a pain to keep having to change back and forth mid-shoot.

 

[Plawa]

The camera on the mavic doesn't have variable aperture so the only way you can reduce your shutter speed for video is by using ND filters. You can shoot stills in Manual mode but again, you can only change ISO and shutter speed to adjust your EV, not aperture..

Coming from DSLRs it feels very restrictive at first but you're essentially using a pinhole camera so don't expect the results to look anything like 35mm... not like you were going to get any bokeh or shallow DOF on a wide lens with a tiny sensor that's pretty much always relatively far away from the subject..

 

[MicheleStapleton]

I understand that. My Polar Pro filters came today.

But, you're being told that for the best-looking video you should purposefully aim for a low shutter speed that will introduce motion blur. That blur is a killer for still photos. So, you could conceivably put on the filters and shoot at 1/50 @ 100 ISO to get that blur in video, but want ISO 400 for your stills so you can crank your shutter speed up to 1/200 to eliminate the blur.

Sorry I wasn't clearer in the original post.

 

[MicheleStapleton]

Is there a place here or on the DJI website for feedback/feature requests? I'd love to ask them to separate the settings, so that you can make totally different selections for stills and video without having one override the other.

 

[Plawa]

The official DJI forum...

However... give the Mavic a month and then tell me if you actually need it What do you expect to shoot primarily? Landscapes? Sports? remember it's a tiny sensor so you don't want to crank the ISO up if you can help it..

 

[MicheleStapleton]

The official DJI forum...

Is this your way of saying they read everything and just making this post is all I need to do?

 

[beachcombing]

Is this your way of saying they read everything and just making this post is all I need to do?

No. They are saying that you would need to post your request/suggestion on the OFFICIAL DJI Forum in order for them to see it.

 

[MicheleStapleton]

Cool. I didn't know there was such an animal. I thought this was the real thing. Thanks.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Longtime 35mm photographer, new Mavic owner, I plan to shoot both stills and videos.

As I watched YouTube videos tonight about the best camera/video settings and played around with settings in the DJI Go 4 app, it seems to me that when you go in and make choices for your camera (still) settings and your video settings, they are not completely independent of each other.

For instance, I'd love to set my video at 24 fps and 1/50 sec, but I might want to set still photos for a much higher shutter speed like 250 that would in fact freeze any motion and not give me any possible motion blur. I might even want to set different ISOs for each.

Looks to me that even those you press the little icon with the arrow around it and it takes you to either still camera or video, some of the settings stay the same.

Also, if I choose RAW, should all of the Color settings (like D-Log or D-Cinelike) be irrelevant?

Am I doing something wrong or am I not able to chose different settings for stills and video? It would be a pain to keep having to change back and forth mid-shoot.

For the most part I've become accustomed to choosing what my mission will be for a given flight, either video or stills. Then I land and reconfigure for the other. Before I re-launch, I reset the settings for whatever I am doing this time. Presets or profiles would indeed be nice but the settings aren't all that hard to negotiate at that point. I am on the ground anyway to change battery or remove, install the ND.

 

[MicheleStapleton]

Robert Mitchell from BBH?

In my limited experience so far (12 flights) I have shot mostly video, but I'd love to be able to grab some stills every now and then. My biggest issue so far is just keeping my fingers warm (Maine winter) and not having my iPhone give out before my supply of Mavic batteries is exhausted. The phone battery is the weak link in the chain so far.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Robert Mitchell from BBH?

In my limited experience so far (12 flights) I have shot mostly video, but I'd love to be able to grab some stills every now and then. My biggest issue so far is just keeping my fingers warm (Maine winter) and not having my iPhone give out before my supply of Mavic batteries is exhausted. The phone battery is the weak link in the chain so far.

No, I'm from Western NC. Visited your wonderful state for the first time this summer.

Anyway, stay warm and enjoy when you can.

 

[gjhick]

Hi Michele, I recently got a Mavic and initially had the same reaction. But ... keep in mind the Mavic has a fixed aperture, and rapid drop-off in quality if you increase ISO above 100 (so you really don't want to be raising ISO unless absolutely necesary!). Which means you are stuck with manually applying ND filters to get low shutter speed for video - and once those are on they will require the same slow shutter speed for your stills too, if you want to shoot some.

So as Robert says, and as you have discovered, you have to pick settings video (with ND) or stills (with higher shutter speed) as your priority for each individual flight.

 

[gjhick]

Oh, your other question - there is no RAW option for video, but you can select D-Log, Cinelike and other profiles.

There is a RAW option for stills, and in that mode the ISO and color profile settings do not affect raw data captured. (They may however affect the "as shot" default appearance of the image when it opens in ACR ... I'm not 100% sure about that.)

 

[MQuinn]

I mainly shoot stills on my Mavic and have been an avid dSLR shooter for the past 20 years. Having had the Mavic for well over a year now flying it almost daily I would say for stills keep the ISO as low as possible. Personally I don't use the filters much (Have the polar pro 4 piece set.) I shoot it in RAW and jpeg and manually set the WB, and exposure. I also like to use the AEB (Exposure Bracketing) because the mavic sensor doesn't have the dynamic range as modern dSLR's. Given the limitations and the ability to get pretty much any where in the sky to get that picture I love it. I took this one this afternoon.

 

[Qoncussion]

I would add to this conversation ~ I learned quickly how to change camera settings while in flight, between video and photo shoots. It takes seconds to do, once it's burned into your memory. I often use an ND8, to bridge the gap between perfect photos and video shutter speed.

 

[MicheleStapleton]

Oh, your other question - there is no RAW option for video

Sorry for the confusion there. The question about picking RAW was an option is only for stills. (You aren't given RAW as an option for video.) The question / statements was that all those color, style settings (like D-Log) should be irrelevant if you choose RAW capture for stills.

Sorry I wasn't more clear. I guess I just assumed folks know RAW is a still thing.

 

[4wd]

In theory only exposure and (maybe) white balance affect the RAW.
However Mavic RAWs are pretty strange IMO and not as flat as you'd expect.
Still much better than the JPGs as a rule though.

 

[LivinLarge]

It would be nice if you could change ISO with one of the dials.
Maybe a compromise would be to shoot 1080 at 50 or 60 fps, use an ND filter that would get you a shutter speed that is twice the frame rate (1/100 or 1/120.) Since the lens is wide angle and mounted on a gimbal, that should get you reasonably sharp stills when you switch to photo mode.

 

[Plawa]

It would be nice if you could change ISO with one of the dials.
Maybe a compromise would be to shoot 1080 at 50 or 60 fps, use an ND filter that would get you a shutter speed that is twice the frame rate (1/100 or 1/120.) Since the lens is wide angle and mounted on a gimbal, that should get you reasonably sharp stills when you switch to photo mode.

You can program C1/2 to switch between ISO/Shutter when you're in manual mode, it changes the function of the right wheel on the RC (what's normally EV)

 

[LivinLarge]

You can program C1/2 to switch between ISO/Shutter when you're in manual mode, it changes the function of the right wheel on the RC (what's normally EV)

I read that it does not actually work. I will have to try it.