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

[Plawa]

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

I tried it, it did work for me.

 

[toddellis]

that's what i did - worked for me.

 

[LivinLarge]

Just tried it and indeed it does work but only in manual mode. You have to press once and use the right dial for adjusting Shutter Speed and then press again to adjust ISO. It would be handy to have it work in Auto so that you only had to make one adjustment and have the other change automatically.

 

[Kilrah]

It would be nice if you could change ISO with one of the dials.

You do NOT want to change ISO, on the Mavic it's best left at 100 at any time unless you absolutely have no other choice. Way better to use a less than ideal shutter speed than increase ISO.

Note that given the gimbal stabilization it is not a problem at all to take a still at 1/50 or 1/25 as long as you stop the aircraft before shooting, which you'd usually always be doing anyway.

 

[davidewarner]

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.

Heck, my fingers give out (upstate NY) LONG before my phone battery Best deal ever? Hunters gloves in Bass Pro Shops. Hands stay warm, the covers for the fingers can be off independently from the thumbs. Saved my little finger tips last time from frost bite.

 

[Alastair]

I agree with Kilrah’s response above. Since the aperture is fixed and the ISO is essentially fixed at 100 for the least noise, you will have a limited range of shutter speeds for correct exposure whether or not you have a ND filter on the camera. Do a search for night photos on this site and check out how sharp these photos are even with shutter speeds over 1 second! The stabilization of the Mavic’s gimbal is amazing. If you are flying for the sole purpose of taking stills, you are subject to the same restraints as when taking videos. Leave the ND filters off for the most flexibility.

 

[dfb]

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.

You might find a compromise for general flights shooting stills and video. The Mavic is very stable, I have shot time exposures at night 4-8 seconds. Unless your subject is moving fast, or you can't stop to shoot, don't use an ND filter.

Only stills can be RAW. Settings are applied JPG, not RAW. Video is made from JPGs, every setting matters. Use Manual settings. Auto Color balance can shift in the same shot. Exposure can be tweaked on the fly with the right wheel.

ND filters are the only way to drop the shutter speed (keep iso at 100), but motion blur is not always a needed. Certainly it can be with fast motion of either the Mavic or the subject. This usually happens flying low and fast, or panning too fast. Without ND's the shutter can be over 1/1200 on sunny days. The slower the frame rate, the more you need motion blur. 24fps and high shutter speeds cause stutter.

Shooting at 4k and 24fps adds more bandwidth and can prevent compression flickering. It is caused by too much differential in the subject. If your shooting at 24fps, stay in tripod mode, pan so slow that it makes you crazy. The Mavic can move unbelievably slowly even in normal flight modes.

It's great fun!

 

[LivinLarge]

You do NOT want to change ISO, on the Mavic it's best left at 100 at any time unless you absolutely have no other choice. Way better to use a less than ideal shutter speed than increase ISO.

Note that given the gimbal stabilization it is not a problem at all to take a still at 1/50 or 1/25 as long as you stop the aircraft before shooting, which you'd usually always be doing anyway.

I completely agree as long as your subject is not moving, then 1/50 or 1/25 will be too slow.

 

[HighlandsVideo]

I wonder why would you want to shoot both video and stills when it is so much simpler to just extract stills from the video with an editor? Unless the aspect ratio difference is somehow critical, the best video settings will yield equal quality stills in 16x9 with no chance of motion blur.

 

[Plawa]

The resolution of stills (4000×3000) ia higher than even 4k video (4096×2160) which I don't always shoot, stills are not as heavily compressed plus you can shoot RAW

There's not going to be any difference in blur, if a certain combination of shutter speed and ISO gives you certain exposure in video you will get the same exposure (and motion blur) in a still photo

 

[LivinLarge]

View attachment 29162

I wonder why would you want to shoot both video and stills when it is so much simpler to just extract stills from the video with an editor? Unless the aspect ratio difference is somehow critical, the best video settings will yield equal quality stills in 16x9 with no chance of motion blur.

That works OK if you want to reduce the images for posting to the web or something. The full size Jpegs are awful and the captures from video will be as bad. The still images from DNG are actually pretty good considering the small sensor size.

 

[dfb]

View attachment 29162
That works OK if you want to reduce the images for posting to the web or something. The full size Jpegs are awful and the captures from video will be as bad. The still images from DNG are actually pretty good considering the small sensor size.

You can increase the "sensor size" by taking multiple shots. When I shoot stills intentionally they are RAW and in portrait mode. Three or 4 overlapping shots,can be quickly taken and stitched to a higher resolution.
Good point made earlier, that stills can be take from video. Some users may not realize that, it no different than shooting jpgs. They may be 16:9 but that's more compelling than 4:3. I usually crop stills to 3:2 or more commonly know 4x6.

 

[Plawa]

Good point made earlier, that stills can be take from video. Some users may not realize that, it no different than shooting jpgs.

I may be petty.. But it is different. Set the camera to 4k/30fps, shoot 10s of video, look at the file size. Then take 300 jpegs and compare the total size...

The difference in quality is not exactly huge but there still is a difference between a reasonably high quality jpeg and a still from a low bitrate h.264 stream.

 

[LivinLarge]

You can increase the "sensor size" by taking multiple shots. When I shoot stills intentionally they are RAW and in portrait mode. Three or 4 overlapping shots,can be quickly taken and stitched to a higher resolution.
Good point made earlier, that stills can be take from video. Some users may not realize that, it no different than shooting jpgs. They may be 16:9 but that's more compelling than 4:3. I usually crop stills to 3:2 or more commonly know 4x6.

I am aware of that and have been doing it for years before I had a drone. The problem with the Mavic stills is not the size but the stupid noise reduction they add to Jpeg images. If you view them at full resolution, they look like watercolor paintings. They are only useful if reduced. The DNG images are fine. See below (DNG on the left.)

 

[dfb]

I may be petty.. But it is different. Set the camera to 4k/30fps, shoot 10s of video, look at the file size. Then take 300 jpegs and compare the total size...

The difference in quality is not exactly huge but there still is a difference between a reasonably high quality jpeg and a still from a low bitrate h.264 stream.

Plawa

Video frames are stored differently than single jpgs. Only changes are stored after the first frame. That alone makes the images smaller. Sometimes if the stream starts to fall behind, more compression.

BUT, I totally agree with you. There is more compression applied to video than stills. AND settings like color scenes, sharpness, color balance and more are applied. SO, even though it's nice to know that stills can be extracted from video, ( like those times Bigfoot runs between the trees) it should never be anyone's standard procedure!

 

[Plawa]

Plawa

Video frames are stored differently than single jpgs. Only changes are stored after the first frame. That alone makes the images smaller. Sometimes if the stream starts to fall behind, more compression.

BUT, I totally agree with you. There is more compression applied to video than stills. AND settings like color scenes, sharpness, color balance and more are applied. SO, even though it's nice to know that stills can be extracted from video, ( like those times Bigfoot runs between the trees) it should never be anyone's standard procedure!

I knew I should have mentioned key frames

 

[Jstsal69]

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.

This would only make sense so that you would not have to continue to change the settings from stills to video. I’m new to the Mavic and drones and have just started shouting videos and stills....I got frustrated with adjusting settings. Hopefully a fix will be made.

 

[MicheleStapleton]

Definitely shoot the stills in RAW.