Filming the Solar Eclipse

[Mavic90701]

Solar Eclipse is coming. Hoping to get the Mavic up high and get some good images/video/time lapse. Outside of the "30° gimbal up setting" any other suggestions for getting some good shots?

Camera setting? Video settings? Time lapse photos? Long video? Any thoughts?

 

[2nckayakers]

I thought about the same thing for about 2 minutes and then realized that it really is a waste of time. First of all you have the whole 30 degree limit you have to deal with and second you can do a much better job with a standard camera. The most important thing is; sometimes it is just better to leave all the cameras alone, leave your Mavic on the ground, and experience something with your own eyes with no distractions. The last total eclipse that I ever saw was in 1979 I think, and this one is probably the last one I will ever see in my lifetime. I am sure there will be plenty of pictures and video that someone else has taken that I can look at later, but this one I am going to just sit there and watch it with my own two eyes and enjoy the moment.

 

[PT_Mavic]

Solar Eclipse is coming. Hoping to get the Mavic up high and get some good images/video/time lapse. Outside of the "30° gimbal up setting" any other suggestions for getting some good shots?

Camera setting? Video settings? Time lapse photos? Long video? Any thoughts?

Isn't the Mavic lens the equivalent of a 32mm lens on an SLR, approximately? The eclipse would appear as a dot in the distance of a big sky.

More effective might be to capture a view of the ground, with maybe some sky, as the shadow edge appears. You'll be able to download about a thousand different professional photos within an hour or two anyway, so why not capture something unique to your area?

 

[360iViews]

I am not even going to attempt it, because I may have monitor several still cameras set up depending on our viewing location. What I might do is some "blue hour" before and after aerial video, also depending on our viewing location.

 

[Mavic90701]

I like the "film the ground" idea. But maybe 2nckayakers has the right idea and I should just watch it. Hmm.

 

[Zoro]

Im gonna stay home pull down the shades, fast, and not let the light touch me.

 

[BerndM]

taking into consideration that the Moon is 250,000 miles away and the Sun is 93,000,000 miles away, do you honestly think going up a couple of hundred feet will make a lot of difference? I seriously doubt it.
If you want to use the mavic's camera, why not just set it and leave it on a table with a view of the sky and shoot to your heart's content.
I promise that the eclipse will look exactly the same, NOT taking into account any ground scenery you may want in the video.

 

[Mavic90701]

taking into consideration that the Moon is 250,000 miles away and the Sun is 93,000,000 miles away, do you honestly think going up a couple of hundred feet will make a lot of difference? I seriously doubt it.

Was more thinking about getting up above Los Angeles smog, any light cloud cover, etc. Honestly, I don't know if it would do any good (which is why I was asking), but it doesn't hurt to give it a try.

More effective might be to capture a view of the ground, with maybe some sky, as the shadow edge appears. You'll be able to download about a thousand different professional photos within an hour or two anyway, so why not capture something unique to your area?

And I think this is an awesome idea.. which is what I came here looking for. Thanks for the constructive ideas PT (and the rest of the thread).

 

[BerndM]

Since you (and I) appear to be in the LA/OC area, we are only going to see at most a 50% coverage.

 

[Erock]

Well, I'm at Ground Zero in Depoe Bay Oregon and have been wondering the same things discussed here. I really like the idea presented of just videoing the surrounding area as the light changes (in hyperlapse perhaps?). It may be the only thing we get. Being a small coastal town, we are subject to morning fog during the summer so seeing the sun may not be an option. That being said, I still plan to plant the Mavic on the pitch of the roof which is oriented just right to give me some tilt and pan options during the eclipse to shoot the sun. However, it was mentioned earlier about the focal length of the camera so I suspect the dramatic effect of the eclipse will be greatly diminished. So, rethinking things, I'll go for a 400' view of the area for greatest effect. I won't even talk about the 100's of thousands of people that will be swarming into the area....lawsey, lawsey, lawsey.

 

[Erock]

Solar Eclipse is coming. Hoping to get the Mavic up high and get some good images/video/time lapse. Outside of the "30° gimbal up setting" any other suggestions for getting some good shots?

Camera setting? Video settings? Time lapse photos? Long video? Any thoughts?

It just occurred to me that to catch the full effect of the light change, I'll have to lock the exposure settings so the Mavic doesn't compensate for the diminishing / increasing light. It would suck to have a 2+min vid of the surroundings perfectly exposed during this rare celestial event !

 

[BerndM]

10:21 AM will be max eclipse in the Portland area, so hopefully your morning fog will have disappeared by then.

 

[Mavic90701]

Since you (and I) appear to be in the LA/OC area, we are only going to see at most a 50% coverage.

True. But I bet it's still going to be pretty amazing.

 

[BerndM]

True indeed. I took these 2 pics back in 2012 (top) and 2014 (bottom) from my backyard here in Orange County, California during those events.
Not too shabby if I do say so myself

 

[Joola]

True indeed. I took these 2 pics back in 2012 (top) and 2014 (bottom) from my backyard here in Orange County, California during those events.

Those are awesome! What was your setup?

 

[BerndM]

Thanks.
Both were shot using solar filters which is the only safe way to do it. The camera was a point & shoot Sony HX-100V superzoom. Both were at full zoom (30X) in Auto mode. The top pic was taken using just the camera on a sturdy tripod, while the bottom pic was shot with the camera attached to a 10" Meade LX200 GPS GoTo telescope.

 

[Himynameismarv]

It just occurred to me that to catch the full effect of the light change, I'll have to lock the exposure settings so the Mavic doesn't compensate for the diminishing / increasing light. It would suck to have a 2+min vid of the surroundings perfectly exposed during this rare celestial event !

So what settings should be used?

 

[BerndM]

The eclipse from start to finish is almost 3 HOURS
A 20 minute video from a Mavic is a bit of an underachievement.
Also there is no point whatsoever to use the quad for aerial video of the event unless you are trying to get a particular background setting which would itself be almost impossible since the sun will be quite high in the sky at the peak of the eclipse.
A timelapse video shot on a tracking mount would be the best option to capture the entire event so that it plays back in about 5 minutes, instead of 3 hours.

 

[2nckayakers]

Also there is no point whatsoever to use the quad for aerial video of the event .

I thought the same thing until I did it! The Mavic was autonomous once it was on station so I didn't miss a single second of watching the actual eclipse, but even though what happened on the ground paled in comparison to actually seeing the full eclipse, it was still pretty amazing. Into Darkness and Light