Best camera settings for Mavic 2 Pro (guide)

[Hiflyer808]

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....

I'll give you that, with the caveat that only roughly approximating the 180 degree rule is good enough for avoiding strobing. Such as 1/125th. I shoot weddings (regular camera) on aperture priority, letting the shutter speed move around, and action shots look fine as long as I only stray moderately from 180. 30 fps at 125th looks just fine with fast moving objects, but yeah, a 500th is no good.

 

[Hiflyer808]

As I said above, you only have to roughly approach the 180 degree rule to get smooth looking action. So for the most part (and I say this as a photographer very interested in good image quality), going all manual with shutter speed and aperture is overkill. If it's a sunny day slap an nd8 filter on there, set your iso at 100, do aperture priority and set it at f5.6, and let the shutter speed control exposure. Use exposure compensation to adjust exposure on the fly for when autoexposure is fooled by things like backlighting. Your shutter speed will not get high enough to violate the 180 rule severely. While with full manual of course you have the most precise control, but on the other hand some shots can be ruined because you do things like not shifting exposure quickly enough when the light changes quickly such as when a cloud blocks the sun. I think a higher percentage of shots are ruined by incorrect exposure than by the shutter speed getting a little too high, and, I want to focus on controlling the drone flight and composing my shots.

 

[Spy_Corfu]

I have a few questions also regarding the mavic 2 pro and video / photos taking:
Is the ND filter necessary for video taking in bright conditions or it would help for photos also?
Why would i need an ND filter with the mavic 2 pro now that it has variable aperture? Before it was necessary in order to get the iso & speed to a desirable level as the aperture was fixed, but now you can change all that manually.

 

[4wd]

You'll find even with smallest aperture F11 you can't get the shutter to 1/50th by quite a way if it's a bright day.
For photos with a drone there is no real need for ND filters, if it's bright it won't matter much but making shutter slower deliberately can only increase the chance of motion blur.

 

[FMR]

If only the Mavic 2 Pro shot 4K 60fps **

 

[Mister Pink]

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

Just had a quick glance so far but I can already see that it looks clear and easy to read/navigate and there's useful content there too. Thanks

 

[Aerial West]

i enjoyed this refresher, and even learned a few things.

I would suggest different terminology on this one sentence:

"For a bit of a slow-motion, you can opt for 2.7k at 60fps, or 1080p at 120fps for much slower footage."

I would call it higher FPS, maybe even mention that is good for slowing down, and why, but not just call it slow footage.

 

[UnlimiteDrone]

i enjoyed this refresher, and even learned a few things.

I would suggest different terminology on this one sentence:

"For a bit of a slow-motion, you can opt for 2.7k at 60fps, or 1080p at 120fps for much slower footage."

I would call it higher FPS, maybe even mention that is good for slowing down, and why, but not just call it slow footage.

Very good point! Thanks for the feedback.

 

[UnlimiteDrone]

I have a few questions also regarding the mavic 2 pro and video / photos taking:
Is the ND filter necessary for video taking in bright conditions or it would help for photos also?
Why would i need an ND filter with the mavic 2 pro now that it has variable aperture? Before it was necessary in order to get the iso & speed to a desirable level as the aperture was fixed, but now you can change all that manually.

ND filter are mostly used for videos.

 

[Aerial West]

Very good point! Thanks for the feedback.

oh yeah,. the other side of that is 60fps gives you buttery smooth footage. less 'cinematic,' but buttery.

 

[WithTheBirds]

While with full manual of course you have the most precise control, but on the other hand some shots can be ruined because you do things like not shifting exposure quickly enough when the light changes quickly such as when a cloud blocks the sun.

Im struggling to think of examples where this might be an issue. Usually the opposite applies where auto constantly adjusting the exposure with changing light makes the footage look a little off- your eyes don't instantly adjust to changing light so we don't expect to see that in film. Setting your exposure before flying a take for the brightest part of the scene and locking it should give you much more natural looking footage.

 

[robbyusa]

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

how about one for stills?

 

[SteveCA]

I have a few questions also regarding the mavic 2 pro and video / photos taking:
Is the ND filter necessary for video taking in bright conditions or it would help for photos also?
Why would i need an ND filter with the mavic 2 pro now that it has variable aperture? Before it was necessary in order to get the iso & speed to a desirable level as the aperture was fixed, but now you can change all that manually.

yes but the lens is not sharp at many of the F stops. It has been pretty well established that this lens is only sharp from F 4.0-5.6 with 4.0-4.5 being tack sharp. F8 and above are not sharp, and neither is 2.8. In bright scenes, you may need ND filters to use the sharpest apertures. NDs are also used to blur water and create motion blur on hyperlapses.

 

[UnlimiteDrone]

how about one for stills?

working on it

 

[Prmath]

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?

Time for some R&D.........
I like 5.6 myself and they are very close in size.
5.6 will give some better DOF. Good test for us to do in various lighting conditions

 

[Cliff_622]

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?

+1 sharpness cuts back on that bad noise reduction. Using 0 or -1 or even worse -2 will brutalize and scrub the life out of your trees and bushes. It will turn them into a ball of wax. So....doing +1 sharpness WILL bring in more noise but you will bring shadow details and trees and bushes back. You can remove noise more acurately in post than the Mavic image processor can do in real time. DJI's teal time noise reduction is sloppy and inefficient.

 

[Meta4]

5.6 will give some better DOF. Good test for us to do in various lighting conditions

Depth of field is of no concern with such a wideangle lens in aerial photography.

 

[Aerial West]

Im struggling to think of examples where this might be an issue. Usually the opposite applies where auto constantly adjusting the exposure with changing light makes the footage look a little off- your eyes don't instantly adjust to changing light so we don't expect to see that in film. Setting your exposure before flying a take for the brightest part of the scene and locking it should give you much more natural looking footage.

yeah, thats called 'chasing the light' if i rem correctly, and you dont really do that for cinematic stuff. i know broadcast might though.

 

[Aerial West]

Depth of field is of no concern with such a wideangle lens in aerial photography.

unless your subject is close. ive flown 3 feet from the weeknds face

 

[WithTheBirds]

yeah, thats called 'chasing the light' iof ii rem correctly, and you dont really do that fort cinematic stuff. i know broadcast might though.

Your going to find it’s the opposite... imagine a reveal where you fly I’ve and out clearing some trees in a forest- would you think it’s normal that the area below the tree canopy is rendered with the same brightness as the sun and clouds in the sky? If your exposure is set so the brightest area of the sky just retains the highlight detail you will get a nice dramatic and natural looking effect.