Drone Aparure Questions?

[bmoore1118]

I just got a Mavic 3 Classic and upgraded from an Air 2s. I am a 15-year pro photographer, so it was always weird not having an aperture that could be changed. Now with the classic, I have some freedom. Is there anything that I should know about apertures and drones, or is it fairly similar to DSLRs? Also I am excited now not to have to use an ND filter nearly as much for video. With shooting video, can you go all the way to f/11 in a bright scene, and it still looks good?

Lastly, does DJI allow aperture or f-stop priority when shooting, or is it only auto and pro?

Thank you for any help!

 

[Paul2660]

As with any camera the smaller the aperture (F11) the greater amounts of diffraction (softness). I would attempt to stay in the F2.8 to F 5.6 range. You might see if there are any neutral density filter sets available for the drone.

Paul

 

[slup]

...Is there anything that I should know about apertures and drones, or is it fairly similar to DSLRs?

Yeah... the fact that it's nearly pointless unfortunately.

Drones in general, with wide angle lenses, small sensors & long focus distances will in practice give an unlimited focal depth... so you can't play with DoF at all. The most useful is that you might manage without a ND filter while videoing to slow down the shutter in some occasions... but as said, it will come with a quality loss usually.

You really can't compare a DSLR & it's user cases with drone photography...

 

[brett8883]

You can play with shallow depth of field on objects close to the lens but the lens doesn’t render out of focus areas in a particularly pleasing way. Bokeh is not good.

I have accidentally used it at f/2.8 and it’s noticeable soft at lower apertures and you can notice the shallower depth of field but it’s not pleasing to the eye. Stopping down to f/5.6 and up to f/8 yields the best results.

The major benefit of having the adjustable aperture on a drone is that you can use the wider apertures at night for low light capability while also getting better lens performance during the day by stopping down. Also, as someone else mentioned earlier, you might be able to get away with stopping down over using ND filters in some circumstances, or to have some leeway in exposure without changing ND filters in video but I wouldn’t go outside the f/5.6-f/8 to do that.

 

[brett8883]

Oh and also, I don’t think anybody answered this, yes there is an aperture priority mode or rather, pro mode will allow you to set Aperture, ISO, and shutter speed to specific value or your can set any of them to auto. So if you set aperture to your specific chosen value you can then set shutter speed to auto effectively making an aperture priority mode.

 

[Meta4]

Lastly, does DJI allow aperture or f-stop priority when shooting, or is it only auto and pro?

The choice is yours.
You can choose which parameters to lock down and which to allow the camera to control.
If you want aperture priority, set the shutter speed to Auto like this:

If you want shutter priority, set the aperture to Auto