Flying at night. Safety and camera tips?

[Ben_McPhee]

I want to take my Mavic Air 2 for a spin at night and get some cool footage.

Do all the sensors/return to home etc work as normal? (Probably not going to be flying anywhere near anything I could hit, but still curious what would happen if a tree unexpectedly appeared.)

Anything I need to know from a flying perspective?

And camera wise, any tips to keep the image nice and clean? (Most images will probably be of buildings at night, so the range between the lit interiors and signage and the night sky in general will be pretty far apart. But I want to avoid clipped highlights, and crushed blacks.

 

[Starz]

Sensors don’t work well at night. Probably will get that message from the app. Simple search for night settings for camera will help.

 

[slup]

Regarding camera settings ...

Stills: You mainly need to stay with a longest shutter speed of 1-2sec ... & even there you will need to take several pics until you get one sharp without to much motion blur. All settings in the camera needs to get those 1-2sec shutter at maximum, if the shutter still is longer for getting the result you want you need to bump up the iso value until you get it there. The dynamic range is what it is ... during a night shot it's very likely that you need to chose between the highlights & the blacks.

Video: In general the same as for stills but here with the difference that you can't (shouldn't) set a shutter slower than the frame rate ... i.e. if FPS is 25 the slowest shutter will be 1/25. So it's likely that you with videoing will have to use a much higher iso than for stills (depending on the much quicker shutter). With videoing you also need to consider the increase in motion blur going that slow with the shutter ... either you fly very slowly or stay further away from what you're filming.

And ... for night shots you leave all ND filters off, you want as much light as possible, not shield it out from the sensor.

 

[StantonZ]

I'll add one thing to the other (good) comments: I would invest in a decent strobe light (or set) if you are serious about night-time flight. I don't do a lot of night flying, but I have used my Firehouse strobe (a single light) during the day on occasion.

 

[MA2 317]

A strobe light(s) will aid in keeping an eye on it and orientation of the drone.

Don't forget about the landing light on the bottom to help aid in landing in the dark.

 

[Starz]

There is one that’s brighter than firehouse.

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[tlswift58]

No real issues other than the DJI warnings about being in low light conditions and no real OA - so best to keep in real close in VLOS. Strobes as mentioned would be good - as the arm lights are not very bright once you hit like 50-100 feet up. The landing light is an option - but watch battery power as it should drain it faster than normal.

I do a good amount of sunset / evening photos / vid's and the MA2 has done very well. Never had to super slow down shooting speeds either. Going in Auto may help there. Just don't use 1080p at 4x zoom in video after sunset. REALLY BAD / GRAINY video.

 

[muchuckwagon]

I would suggest flying in a wide open space that you have flown before in the day for your first night flight. The more I fly, the more confidence I gain but I'm a still little nervous flying and carrying on a conversation with other people at the same time....it is distracting. Maybe it is me, but I'm not very relaxed flying at night simply because I don't have enough experience. I'm always concerned there is an obstacle I might miss because it is dark.....I even try to scout the flight path during the day before flying at night.

 

[MA2 317]

...I even try to scout the flight path during the day before flying at night.

Me too.

Power lines and guy wires are tough enough to see during the day and they disappear at night.

 

[NDWildBill]

Does the FAA requirement for a strobe visible for three miles at night only apply to 107 pilots? I thought this applied to everyone.

 

[hiflyer201]

make sure you remove any filter that you have installed and don't launch or land in dark tight confined areas as the drone is a little more drifty than you might be used to.

 

[muchuckwagon]

Me too.

Power lines and guy wires are tough enough to see during the day and they disappear at night.

I‘m glad to hear that I’m not the only one. There is always some part of me that is worried about the possibility that I could crash the drone and injure someone or damage property.