Camera Settings Dial Adjustments Questions

quister · Oct 2, 2021

I'm feeling a bit on the lazy side to try to dive into the the realm of screen and photo/video brightness adjustments....so I was hoping some of you could provide a quick explaination. I'm curious specifically about the Camera Setting Dial on the remote control. All I can find in my owners manual is a one-sentence explaination on page 34...basically stating one can contol ISO and shutter speed with the dia. I certainly understand ISO and shutter speed, but what exactly is happening when adjusting the dial? Is just ISO being adjusted sperately or shutter speed seprately, or is there some combination of both going on? Is there a toggle somewhere on the screen that you can chose which one is being adjusted. We all have issues with our mobile device screen reflection while flying and I'm finding I'm not always where I want to be with my dial adjustments when I get home and review my photos or videos on the the computer. So I'm tyring to learn more about this and would love to hear any tips or advice to be more accurate with my adjustments.

quister · Oct 2, 2021

I just stumbled on to this previous post which answers my basic question. But I'd still like to hear any further discussions anyone might have. Exposure Composition Dial or Camera Dial on Rightside of Controller and Histogram Question

brett8883 · Oct 2, 2021

quister said:
I'm feeling a bit on the lazy side to try to dive into the the realm of screen and photo/video brightness adjustments....so I was hoping some of you could provide a quick explaination. I'm curious specifically about the Camera Setting Dial on the remote control. All I can find in my owners manual is a one-sentence explaination on page 34...basically stating one can contol ISO and shutter speed with the dia. I certainly understand ISO and shutter speed, but what exactly is happening when adjusting the dial? Is just ISO being adjusted sperately or shutter speed seprately, or is there some combination of both going on? Is there a toggle somewhere on the screen that you can chose which one is being adjusted. We all have issues with our mobile device screen reflection while flying and I'm finding I'm not always where I want to be with my dial adjustments when I get home and review my photos or videos on the the computer. So I'm tyring to learn more about this and would love to hear any tips or advice to be more accurate with my adjustments.

The Mavic Pro has two exposure modes: Auto and Manual exposure. What that dial does depends on what mode you are in.

In auto mode the camera chooses the shutter speed and iso automatically and will change shutter AND ISO settings automatically to compensate for changing lighting conditions by maintaining a constant Exposure Value or EV. You can use the exposure dial to increase or decrease the exposure which will brighten or darken the exposure respectively. The camera will then maintain that exposure value by changing the shutter speed and ISO. If you want the camera to instead use only shutter speed to compensate for changing light you can manually set ISO in the camera settings menu while in Auto exposure mode.

In Manual mode you have to specify the shutter speed and ISO yourself and the camera will not change settings to compensate for changing light. Using the exposure dial in manual mode will change shutter speed or ISO depending on which one it is set too. I believe you can set one of the custom buttons to switch the dial from controlling ISO to shutter speed when in Manual exposure mode.

Getting correct exposure is mainly an issue when the sun is low in the sky. In that case using spot metering can be really helpful as well and using the histogram to get an objective evaluation of the exposure.

quister · Oct 2, 2021

Thank you "brett". That was very helpful additional info. So now that I know more about the adjustments and choices I'll experiment with those. I have never used Auto Exposure so I'll start experimenting with that. Also, you are corrrect about the sun being low in the sky...that is the time I am "working the dial" most. Your mention of the histogram is new to me. Is that easily accessable on the flight screen during flying? If so, how do you access it? I'm busy enough watching all the other data during flying FPV...but hey, what's one more thing to worry about, lol? Thanks again.

brett8883 · Oct 2, 2021

quister said:
Thank you "brett". That was very helpful additional info. So now that I know more about the adjustments and choices I'll experiment with those. I have never used Auto Exposure so I'll start experimenting with that. Also, you are corrrect about the sun being low in the sky...that is the time I am "working the dial" most. Your mention of the histogram is new to me. Is that easily accessable on the flight screen during flying? If so, how do you access it? I'm busy enough watching all the other data during flying FPV...but hey, what's one more thing to worry about, lol? Thanks again.

You can activate the histogram from the camera settings menu. With practice you really only need to glance at it to give you the information you need.

With Photos you’d usually stop, compose the photo, look at how the image appears on the screen, verify what you see on the screen with the histogram, adjust exposure if necessary, take photo.

For video you’d do the same thing before each clip but you’d want to avoid having a clip where the drone is pointed at the sun in part of the clip and then faces away from the sun in another part of the clip. Better to start a new clip and adjust exposure first.

You will almost never see a Hollywood movie or tv show where the camera pans more than 90 degrees without cutting to a new clip or camera. When you do see that its for some specific effect such as a whip pan. The most common mistake you see with amateurs is they think they have to move the camera for a shot to be interesting and do so too much and too quickly.