Camera settings?

[al.pereira]

I have now owned my mavic pro 2 for a week and doing my first scenery flight today in a beautiful place called tobermory Ontario , Canada

I am an absolute rookie and have basic knowledge with photography.

I would like the best camera settings and when I search I come across many however don’t have a clue which one to choose.

Any suggestions of a possible link which I could follow and learn along with step by step instructions .

I am not a photographer however just a dude looking to have fun today .

Thank you

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

If you don't really want to learn the mechanics of photography, just leave it all on full AUTO and the settings will try to adjust to your environment and change when you turn the craft.

However, getting the "the best camera settings" and not wanting to know the why (just having fun) aren't compatible. Each time you fly, the conditions can be different / requiring different settings, and you have to know the why to know that (if you really want to do that).

"Any suggestions of a possible link which I could follow and learn along with step by step instructions ."

Basic photography. The topics to google are are:

• The exposure triangle (shutter, aperture, ISO)
• Using a histogram to help control / monitor exposure
• White balance
• Video recording / color mode, advantages
• The Mavic owners manual for
  • Changing exposure / recording settings
  • How to focus (manual, auto, continuous)

More advanced topics are:

• How to post process RAW files (DNG still images), unless you just want to accept the JPGs
• How to process Video footage
• How / why to set the FPS (low FPS vs. higher speed)

Flying modes for photographers

• Tripod mode (Mavic owners manual)
• Cinematic mode (Mavic owners manual)
• Google: better yaw settings for smoother panning. Better gimbal settings for smooth movement.

Chris

Chris

 

[al.pereira]

Makes sense , not as easy as I thought.
Should invest some time and learn what I have .

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Makes sense , not as easy as I thought.
Should invest some time and learn what I have .

Previous DJI products produced "not bad" stuff on auto, had settings like "vivid" so that you could get some gosh wow out of the box. But the Mavic 2 Pro seems to be dialed down to the pro crowd a little more, so you may need to roll up your sleeves.

Chris

 

[Thomas B]

I’m no whiz at it... took a minimal learning curve though.
If you go manual: start with ISO at 100 and stay below 200, sweet spot in aperture seems to be 4-5 or so. If you go manual you’l find a number of situations where you’ll need a filter. I find that The new variable filters work well at quality as well as reduced cost.

 

[WithTheBirds]

I’m no whiz at it... took a minimal learning curve though.
If you go manual: start with ISO at 100 and stay below 200, sweet spot in aperture seems to be 4-5 or so. If you go manual you’l find a number of situations where you’ll need a filter. I find that The new variable filters work well at quality as well as reduced cost.

Give us one of the filter required situations...... Looking for motion blur is probably it and that applies to auto also.

 

[Thomas B]

For example... if I need more stops to obtain the exposure (Fstop) and shutter desired. The filter will allow slower shutter, or better color saturation depending on the situation. Lots of really bright sun in AZ.
For motion blur I use free hyperlapse where shutter can be set to 8 seconds or more.... then capture stills if needed. Welcome

 

[WithTheBirds]

For example... if I need more stops to obtain the exposure (Fstop) and shutter desired. The filter will allow slower shutter, or better color saturation depending on the situation. Lots of really bright sun in AZ.
For motion blur I use free hyperlapse where shutter can be set to 8 seconds or more.... then capture stills if needed. Welcome

Im not sure what filter you may be using to improve colour saturation however the effect would also be available shooting Auto. I like the idea of your using hyperlapse for motion blur. If you had a need for greater than 4K resolution in the final image shooting multiple frames in photo mode and performing a simple align/stack/blend in post will give the same effect with more pixels. Its a lot more fiddling around in the air though.

 

[al.pereira]

I just read you can fully adjust camera
Movement by touching the screen Instead of positioning the drone or using the side dial up or down . Apparently it’s a not commonly discussed feature .

Anyone try it ?

 

[Thomas B]

I just read you can fully adjust camera
Movement by touching the screen Instead of positioning the drone or using the side dial up or down . Apparently it’s a not commonly discussed feature .

Anyone try it ?

I do all my adjustments on my CS. Is that what you mean?

 

[brettbrandon]

I think he's referring to panning and tilting the camera by touching and dragging on the screen.

 

[al.pereira]

I think he's referring to panning and tilting the camera by touching and dragging on the screen.

That is correct.

Thank you.

 

[macfawlty]

If you're just shooting photos, shoot RAW and let the camera do the rest. Work the magic in Lightroom. I never shoot auto-anything, but no need to complicate things when you're starting out.

If you're shooting video, it's more complicated as you need to go full manual and have an assortment of ND filters to achieve a shutter speed of 1/50 (@24fps) or 1/60 (@30fps). Plenty of YouTube videos on the topic.

 

[Thomas B]

If you're just shooting photos, shoot RAW and let the camera do the rest. Work the magic in Lightroom. I never shoot auto-anything, but no need to complicate things when you're starting out.

If you're shooting video, it's more complicated as you need to go full manual and have an assortment of ND filters to achieve a shutter speed of 1/50 (@24fps) or 1/60 (@30fps). Plenty of YouTube videos on the topic.

I shoot Jpeg+RAW easy to use the former and the latter is great for editing.

 

[spicciani2]

I'm a simpleton so I too use jpeg (for now)+ raw (for when i learn to play with editing)

 

[GadgetGuy]

Flying modes for photographers

• Tripod mode (Mavic owners manual)
• Cinematic mode (Mavic owners manual)
• Google: better yaw settings for smoother panning. Better gimbal settings for smooth movement.

Chris

Awesome tutorial!
I just can't find the "Google" flying mode in GO 4....

 

[GadgetGuy]

brettbrandon said:
I think he's referring to panning and tilting the camera by touching and dragging on the screen.

That is correct.

Thank you.

It's not commonly discussed because there is no easy way back to straight forward, if you drag the camera left or right, instead of yawing the aircraft. You cannot see how far away from straight it is, and also cannot even drag it back to neutral, because there is no displayed lateral angle scale, like there is for the gimbal elevation. Instead, the only solution is to flip the camera straight down, and then flip it back up to horizontal, after programming one of the custom buttons to do that. Using that reset function will ruin any continuous video recording. Don't use the lateral onscreen camera drag! You'll most likely end up flying crooked afterwards, and run into something just out of view of the sensors!

 

[macfawlty]

I'm a simpleton so I too use jpeg (for now)+ raw (for when i learn to play with editing)

10 minutes on YouTube will teach you most of what you'll use in Lightroom. The Adobe Creative Cloud Lightroom/Photoshop combo is $10/mo. subscription. Worth every penny.

 

[spicciani2]

I just purchased lumafusion for video hoping to find something free and easy for photos

 

[GadgetGuy]

10 minutes on YouTube will teach you most of what you'll use in Lightroom. The Adobe Creative Cloud Lightroom/Photoshop combo is $10/mo. subscription. Worth every penny.

If you qualify for an academic version (easy to do, as enrolling in even a single online college class, that you drop on the first day of class for a refund, makes you eligible to purchase it for 6 months thereafter), for $10 more per month, you get the entire Creative Suite, which includes Premiere Pro CC.