Dark Video

[stanbrown333]

Newbie flying MA2. Have been having a world of fun with it, but today I ran into a problem. Bright, sunny afternoon. When shooting stills the exposure is great. When in video mode it is so dark I can barely make out any details on the iPhone. I thought it must be the phone screen so kept shooting. Then I did a couple of Quick Shots without changing any settings and the exposure on the phone screen was great.

When I got home I downloaded everything into my PC. The videos are still much too dark to watch except for the Quick Shots - they are fine. All of the still shots are also fine with correct exposure.

I was using the ND64 filter.

I did a search and could not find this exact topic anywhere but I apologize in advance if it has been covered before.

 

[Speed750]

I think the 64 filter is way to much. I use a 8 or 16 in bright Florida sun. Single shot can compensate but it might be to much for video.

 

[Kilrah]

You probably had the exposure compensation turned way down in video mode. And ND64 is too much unless you're basically shooting snow in full sun...

 

[stanbrown333]

Update: after some correspondence with DJI, which proved to be useless, I discovered that I had somehow switched to manual settings in the video mode. Not sure how I did that, but in any event they were all messed up. When I went back to auto settings, the problem was cleared up and no issues since then. I will experiment with manual settings as time and circumstances permit but for now I am a happy camper. Thanks very much for the responses.

PS I have not used an ND since then but will also experiment with those.

 

[Thomas B]

Newbie flying MA2. Have been having a world of fun with it, but today I ran into a problem. Bright, sunny afternoon. When shooting stills the exposure is great. When in video mode it is so dark I can barely make out any details on the iPhone. I thought it must be the phone screen so kept shooting. Then I did a couple of Quick Shots without changing any settings and the exposure on the phone screen was great.

When I got home I downloaded everything into my PC. The videos are still much too dark to watch except for the Quick Shots - they are fine. All of the still shots are also fine with correct exposure.

I was using the ND64 filter.

I did a search and could not find this exact topic anywhere but I apologize in advance if it has been covered before.

Take the filter off.
In the deserts of Arizona I rarely use over ND16.

 

[stanbrown333]

Take the filter off.
In the deserts of Arizona I rarely use over ND16.

I understand, and thank you. At the time I was trying to photograph and video a nearby church. It is a white building that faces west and it was late in the day so the front of the church was very bright. I put the ND filter on, hoping it would help with the exposure, but then everything went dark. Really dark.

Experience is a great teacher. I learned some lessons from this.

 

[Kilrah]

The only reasons you would put an ND filter are to get motion blur in video or to do long still exposures, there is no need for any otherwise, the camera can expose correctly with any amount of light on its own.

 

[rxlawdude]

The only reasons you would put an ND filter are to get motion blur in video or to do long still exposures, there is no need for any otherwise, the camera can expose correctly with any amount of light on its own.

Not sure I agree. I came from the orginal Mavic Air, which pretty much produced great video on auto without any tweaked settings like exposure control.

The MA2 seems to be a bit more finicky, and at least some of my video shot on auto looks flat (those taken before I got the ND filter), and much much improved, even on auto with ND16 in sunny to partly sunny skies.

YMMV.

 

[stanbrown333]

The only reasons you would put an ND filter are to get motion blur in video or to do long still exposures, there is no need for any otherwise, the camera can expose correctly with any amount of light on its own.

Likewise not sure I agree. The MA2 was exposing for the dark trees and woods around the church, so the church itself was very much over exposed with the setting sun shining directly on it. I still think an ND filter is the way to go, but perhaps on auto exposure. I haven't had a chance since then to try to duplicate the situation but will report back when I do.

 

[Kilrah]

The MA2 was exposing for the dark trees and woods around the church, so the church itself was very much over exposed with the setting sun shining directly on it.

That's a choice the camera makes regarding exposure, adding a filter won't do anything, there will be less light and the camera will just bump up exposure accordingly to get the same result. You need to use exposure compensation in this case.

The MA2 seems to be a bit more finicky, and at least some of my video shot on auto looks flat (those taken before I got the ND filter), and much much improved, even on auto with ND16 in sunny to partly sunny skies.

OK, the dynamic range on some models might be a bit limited and in that case it would help.