Exposure question (and distance/safety question)

[SeaOfStatic]

Hi, I had posted a link to this video before of my first day flying last week. I set my iso to 100 and my shutter to 24fps (4k) and used a 16 ND filter, but a lot of my footage was still blown out. Any suggestions?

Also, I think that bridge with cars is about a half mile away, do you think it’s safe to fly over it or is that pushing my distance and I could lose contact with the drone. Thanks for any help!

 

[SeaOfStatic]

Also, I am aware that my gimbal was off. I took off and saw how blown out it was then landed and put on my filter without recalibrating. Rookie mistake, I’ll learn.

 

[LivinLarge]

Are you using auto or manual exposure? On auto, the ND filter does not change brightness of the image, since the camera will adjust the shutter speed to compensate. If using manual exposure, you may want to point the camera at a middle tone subject and lock it.
One other thing that you should check is to see if you have accidentally moved the exposure compensation.

 

[Qoncussion]

You might be experiencing a known user-error problem, whereby you may be inadvertently rolling on the right thumb-wheel on the controller. Check your EV value. It appears both in the app and on the RC screen. If it's higher than "0" (zero), then you need to roll it down to zero before shooting.

 

[Mike4884]

That Horizon thooo

 

[Robert Mitchell]

You shouldn’t lose contact at a half mile but shouldn’t fly over traffic regardless.

 

[SeaOfStatic]

You shouldn’t lose contact at a half mile but shouldn’t fly over traffic regardless.

I understand. Wasn’t sure what the laws were there or if it’s just a general safety issue. Thought it would be a cool shot if the camera was looking straight down.

What is the max distance you would trust?

 

[SeaOfStatic]

Are you using auto or manual exposure? On auto, the ND filter does not change brightness of the image, since the camera will adjust the shutter speed to compensate. If using manual exposure, you may want to point the camera at a middle tone subject and lock it.
One other thing that you should check is to see if you have accidentally moved the exposure compensation.

Is there a button to lock it while flying?

 

[Robert Mitchell]

I understand. Wasn’t sure what the laws were there or if it’s just a general safety issue. Thought it would be a cool shot if the camera was looking straight down.

What is the max distance you would trust?

For recreational flying, going over moving traffic falls into that category of careless and reckless, especially if your Mavic decides to lose a motor, or auto land into a 70mph moving car windshield.

Your safe range will depend on several factors, but if you keep it line of sight, you should easily get well over a mile before even loosing a bar of signal. That said, you should watch your signal bar carefully as you progress, and remember LOS and VLOS are two different things and carry their own set of risks, having nothing to do with signal.

 

[LivinLarge]

Is there a button to lock it while flying?

There is an AE lock icon on the screen that that you can tap to lock the exposure settings to what the camera is seeing at the moment when in Auto, or you can switch to manual exposure and set things there.