Impressive Result with 8 Second Exposure

[js47]

In my experience, shooting exposures longer than about 1 second is risky. And anything slower than about 2s is a total crapshoot. Luckily, DJI permits up to 8s exposures with the Mavic 3, allowing us to roll our own dice.

Here is a shot I took a while back at 8s. Not a great photo, but I am delighted that it is perfectly sharp!

 

[SethB]

Agreed, it’s really not bad at all!

If I try slow handheld exposures in terrestrial photos I always make a few, hoping one will be sharp. Is that what you did, or just lucky with not much drone movement?

 

[js47]

Agreed, it’s really not bad at all!

If I try slow handheld exposures in terrestrial photos I always make a few, hoping one will be sharp. Is that what you did, or just lucky with not much drone movement?

I always shoot a few identical frames if the exposure is longer than 1s. If it is windy I'll shoot redundant frames for anything slower than 1/20s. Sometimes I even have to use that technique with a camera on a sturdy tripod! I particularly remember having to take this shot about 25 times before finally getting one that was usable — that was frustrating.

I only shot this particular image 3 times (twice at 8 seconds and once at 2 seconds to have a banker). I didn't shoot more because I wasn't overly thrilled with the composition, plus multiple 8 second exposures can take a really long time! This is the only image of the 3 that was sharp so there was definitely a bit of luck involved. As a Buddhist monk once told me: "It is difficult but possible."

 

[Vic Moss]

I've done that too. Played with it as dusk as I was burning a battery down. Pretty amazing results. Less than a 10% success rate, but the shots that were sharp were very surprising.

Nice shot!

 

[Duncan McCall]

I always shoot a few identical frames if the exposure is longer than 1s. If it is windy I'll shoot redundant frames for anything slower than 1/20s. Sometimes I even have to use that technique with a camera on a sturdy tripod! I particularly remember having to take this shot about 25 times before finally getting one that was usable — that was frustrating.

I only shot this particular image 3 times (twice at 8 seconds and once at 2 seconds to have a banker). I didn't shoot more because I wasn't overly thrilled with the composition, plus multiple 8 second exposures can take a really long time! This is the only image of the 3 that was sharp so there was definitely a bit of luck involved. As a Buddhist monk once told me: "It is difficult but possible."


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This photo of the Pensacola Lighthouse is a 2-second exposure with the 60mm (3x) lens. These drones are amazing.

 

[MS Coast]

This photo of the Pensacola Lighthouse is a 2-second exposure with the 60mm (3x) lens. These drones are amazing.

Very nice shot. You got the range marker in there, too.