Best camera settings for Mavic 2 Pro (guide)

[UnlimiteDrone]

Greetings

I would like to share with you my camera settings guide. Take a look and tell me what you think about it. Was it helpful. Do you have suggestions or something to add or?
Let me know it and thank you!

Link below
Best camera settings for Mavic 2 Pro

 

[lilewis]

Thank you for this article. I just printed it for future reference.

 

[UnlimiteDrone]

Thank you for this article. I just printed it for future reference.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[GringoLoco]

I'm new to video so it is pretty helpful for me. One thing though, wouldn't stopping all the way down to f/11 kill sharpness with diffraction? I thought you'd want to run around f/4 and use an ND filter.

 

[Sockeye]

Apertures smaller than f4 reduces the image quality. 4K FOV reduces the image quality to 2.7K
And why do you recommend sharpness +1 for post?

 

[Roamer105]

I use DlogM with style 1,1,0 or 2,1,0 depending what it is i am shooting. I DON'T use ND filters on the M2P. For the most part, the only reason you may want to use ND filters is to achieve a motion blur effect while videoing which is often referred to as "cinematic effect". Personally, I don't like blurring up my video. Clarity is what I am looking for especially given that almost all newer TV sets have excellent motion compensation. So blurring does nothing to me. Consequently I am trying to keep the Aperture between 2.8 and 5.6 which does produce the best quality image with ISO 100. The rest I do by speeding up the shutter to wherever it balances out with the exposure requirements.

 

[Sockeye]

I DO use ND Filters, at least on my other cameras, as I am still waiting for high quality ones for the M2P. And the motion blur with 1/50 of a second exposure time is not really noticeable if you are not flying fast and low.
I film with 25fps. The balance in a moving picture between exposed and unexposed being 1:1 makes it for the eye much smoother to consume. So for me, the sweet spot is a shutter of 1/50.

 

[Roamer105]

Please help me here... if there is no noticeable motion blur - why would it be more cinematic? At the exact same frame rate, one complete still frame every 1/25 of a second. One recorded at 1/50 of a second shutter and the other with 1/2000 for example. Difference? The only thing I can think of is motion blur.

 

[Dmbrody]

H.265 saves 50% more information than H.264 thus preserving more details.

I’d phrase this differently. Something like this:

H.265 is designed to deliver the same subjective image quality at half the bit rate of h.264. Put another way, H.265 delivers twice the image quality at the same bit-rate as h.264.​

 

[Dmbrody]

In reality, the sweet spot for best looking image quality is using F4.

I have not had time to test myself, but I thought F5.6 was the sweet spot for the Mavic Pro, which makes sense if you think about it. Anyway, what is the general consensus? Is it really F4?

 

[Sockeye]

Well that is at least how I learned it. It is the way the eye consumes motion. If something is moving, e.g. a car passes by on the road. At every point in time it has a different position moving on.
As you film it, it has a specific position when you expose it, then moves on while the shutter is closed and gets exposed again with the next frame. Now choosing a shutter of 1/1000 of a second means the film will later show the position, then omit information for 999/1000 of a second and "jump" to the next frame. This mismatch (1/1000 information vs 999/1000 non information) makes the eye believe the object jumps from one frame to the other. You can see this effect in many videos... (I call it micro jitter)
The ideal balance for the eye / your brain to think something is constantly moving is half the frame rate. So for my 25fps the ideal shutter speed is 1/50 resulting in 1:1 between information and non information. But yes with an exposure of 1/50 you will get some motion blur with it. But it is not the motion blur which makes the smooth movement impression it is the balance.
Means using 60fps and an exposure of 1/120 will result in less blur in single images and smooth movement.

 

[Dmbrody]

Well that is at least how I learned it. It is the way the eye consumes motion. If something is moving, e.g. a car passes by on the road. At every point in time it has a different position moving on.
As you film it, it has a specific position when you expose it, then moves on while the shutter is closed and gets exposed again with the next frame. Now choosing a shutter of 1/1000 of a second means the film will later show the position, then omit information for 999/1000 of a second and "jump" to the next frame. This mismatch (1/1000 information vs 999/1000 non information) makes the eye believe the object jumps from one frame to the other. You can see this effect in many videos... (I call it micro jitter)
The ideal balance for the eye / your brain to think something is constantly moving is half the frame rate. So for my 25fps the ideal shutter speed is 1/50 resulting in 1:1 between information and non information. But yes with an exposure of 1/50 you will get some motion blur with it. But it is not the motion blur which makes the smooth movement impression it is the balance.
Means using 60fps and an exposure of 1/120 will result in less blur in single images and smooth movement.

Adding to what you said, I’d just comment that folks often confuse “motion blur” with “blur”. Even at 1/50 or 1/60 you can get very sharp images for anything in frame... that isn’t in motion. For elements that are in motion, most people feel unsettled by a super sharp image. With this in mind, some directors will use high shutter speeds at key moments in a film to illicit feelings of tension and anxiety.

Anyway, if you are flying slow and smooth, a shutter of 1/60 will give you nice sharp and clean images for parts of the frame that are generally static. But other parts of the image, like a passing car or a water fall, that are in motion will get motion blur. That’s all in the same frame. It looks great. Obviously if the camera is sweeping quickly across the ground, the whole image will have motion blur. In that case you may want to dial up shutter speed a touch - but not too much! I won’t go into the reasons why (because you basically covered that in your post).

Some of this has to do with what we as consumers are used to seeing in movies. Maybe if we all grew up in a motion-blur free world, we would feel differently.

I’d also like to add that we shouldn’t be slaves to the 180 degree rule. Exactly doubling frame rate for shutter speed was a mechanical limitation of the analog age (you had to drill holes on exactly opposite sides of spinning disk). Anayway, a good exposure is much more important. So if shooting at 30fps, feel free to crank shutter speed as high as 1/100 or even 1/120 if you need to. Obviously you could land and swap on an ND filter, but that’s a hassle.

Edit: deleted this “and you’re adding more glass between the real world and your sensor” because on M2P you swap the ND for the glass it ships with.

 

[parkgt]

So if shooting at 30fps, feel free to crank shutter speed as high as 1/100 or even 1/120 if you need to. Obviously you could land and swap on an ND filter, but that’s a hassle and you’re adding more glass between the real world and your sensor.[/QUOTE]

Actually no more glass since the ND replaces the stock clear piece of glass. I have measured and they are the same thickness.

My testing has shown that without an ND in bright light to stay down in the f4 range one might have to run the shutter as high as 240 when filming in 4k 30 fps. No reason to land and swap, start with an ND16 on, about the only time you will need to take it off is after sunset or before the sun is up a little.

I imagine the ND16 will be on mine 75% of the time.

 

[SteveCA]

So if shooting at 30fps, feel free to crank shutter speed as high as 1/100 or even 1/120 if you need to. Obviously you could land and swap on an ND filter, but that’s a hassle and you’re adding more glass between the real world and your sensor.

Actually no more glass since the ND replaces the stock clear piece of glass. I have measured and they are the same thickness.

My testing has shown that without an ND in bright light to stay down in the f4 range one might have to run the shutter as high as 240 when filming in 4k 30 fps. No reason to land and swap, start with an ND16 on, about the only time you will need to take it off is after sunset or before the sun is up a little.

I imagine the ND16 will be on mine 75% of the time.[/QUOTE]

I also have found F4-4.5 to be the sharpest on my MP 2 pro. F5.6 is also very good but it tails off from there

 

[Dmbrody]

Actually no more glass since the ND replaces the stock clear piece of glass. I have measured and they are the same thickness.

Oops! Good point. I’m still waiting for my filters to arrive, but the instant I read that I remembered it’s a swap, not additional glass.

 

[Hiflyer808]

People talk about drone cameras as if they were used in the same way as regular cameras, which leads to misconceptions. For example, they talk about getting more shallow depth of field by having a 1" sensor and/or changing lens aperture. But shallow depth of field is only a factor when you are close to a subject, while at typical drone distances of at least 30 ft. or so everything is in focus if anything is, whether you're at f11 or f2.8, or using a 1" sensor or a smaller one. Same goes for shutter speed and motion blur, pretty much. You are not going to get strobey, flickering images even at a 1/500 shutter speed for the great majority of drone shots, because the subject matter is not moving quickly through the frame as you observe from far away. For fast moving shots relatively close to the ground, you do want that 180 degree rule, otherwise don't worry about motion blur. For drones, the advantage of a 1" sensor is mostly for low light and dynamic range, and hardly at all for shallow dof, and the advantage of the variable aperture is mostly for those few situations where you do want motion blur, while shallow dof is almost completely a non-factor. Same with ND filters; only use them for those few situations where a), motion blur is a needed and b), you would have to stop down to f/11 to get the slow shutter speed required. (Since the image gets much softer at f11 due to diffraction.)

 

[Sockeye]

I second you on the DOF, but not on the "majority" of shots not suffering from 1/500 shutter speed. We should not forget we are shooting in 4K and the amount of pixels moving quite fast. Lets look at the standard POI shot, circling around an object at a speed the viewer does not get bored with...

Now here around 90% of the image information is moving quite fast, and the grass is carrying many details. It will never look smooth without appying the 180° rule... Same for nearly all the "quickshot" modes.
I am with you, flying at 300ft over a valley with the Mountains 10 miles away in the background will look perfectly fine at 1/500... as long as you do not start to pan....

 

[Roamer105]

I’d phrase this differently. Something like this:

H.265 is designed to deliver the same subjective image quality at half the bit rate of h.264. Put another way, H.265 delivers twice the image quality at the same bit-rate as h.264.​

Don’t forget 10bit video requires about 20% more data for the same amount of detail. Also HEVC encoding has a wide range of efficiency starting from just a little bit better than H264 to much better where the latter consumes an enormous amount of processing typically not achieved by in camera processors. With the P2 having a more powerful image processor it is likely that the encoder is a bit more efficient than on the P4P, but some of that is consumed by 10bit.

 

[Dmbrody]

Don’t forget 10bit video requires about 20% more data for the same amount of detail. Also HEVC encoding has a wide range of efficiency starting from just a little bit better than H264 to much better where the latter consumes an enormous amount of processing typically not achieved by in camera processors. With the P2 having a more powerful image processor it is likely that the encoder is a bit more efficient than on the P4P, but some of that is consumed by 10bit.

I think that would all be valuable for him to add to his article although it may be more in depth than he wants. Since he asked for feedback, my post was with respect to one line in particular in his blog post. Pretty much since it was first conceived the goal for HVEC/h.265 was 50% reduction in bit-rate for same "subjective" quality. The increase in computational complexity is the necessary cost. I don't know what limits JCT-VCs / ISO/MPEG's put on added complexity.

 

[MikeS]

Generally, camera settings remain the same for most cameras. If shooting in bright sunlight I don't know why you would not use an ND filter if you want the cleanest sharpest video. The general settings I use can be used on almost any drone camera if those settings are available. One example is the Mavic Pro that does not have the Fstop adjustment so the only way you can get the best video and pictures is to use an ND filter. If you are shooting at 30fps then your shutter will be set at 60 which cuts down on jittery/skipping video and provide the smoothest results. If shooting 24fps then set the shutter at 50. The sharpest Fstop will be between 4 and 7. Other people may have a different view on the Fstop settings but 4 to 7 will get you well inside the ballpark. Most real estate photographers think that 8 is the sweet spot when shooting inside homes. So, if you are using your camera with these settings then the only way you can get your exposer correct is to use an ND filter. I also have an Inspire 1 Pro using an X5. I can set the camera up using my suggested settings with a variable ND filter. I point the camera in the general area I'm going to video and then use the histogram to adjust the variable ND filter to get the proper exposer. I always get great results. Of course, if you don't have a variable ND filter or one that matches the shooting environment, you can always micro adjust the Fstop inside the sweet spot to get the best exposer but I would keep the shutter speed at 60 if shooting at 30 frames. Many people think the ND filter is only to achieve the blurring waterfall effect but if you want to get the most out of the Mavic 2 Pro or other drone cameras then you need to invest in a good set of ND filters and use the histogram to check for proper exposer. Hope this helps.