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Long exposures time limit

lee82gx

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Last evening I flew for a very close mission and as a habit I'm doing AEB at 100 iso to capture the blue dusk and cityscape. I noticed after flying that at 5 shots bracketing, the longest exposure came up to 6s+. They turned out to be blur. I had a few more shots at around 4s that were also a little blur. I noticed from sight that at 100m height at the time the aircraft was more or less steady, not really drifting. Wind wise it was very low, trees were perfectly still even at on the hill tops.

Obviously camera shake is the cause of blur, so I'm wondering how long an exposure time is practical at say 5m/s wind or even at minimally almost no wind?
 
I was interested in shooting long expose day-time shots with the MA a while back; the consensus seems to be it is indeed possible to get good results with the MA but it is challenging. There are a few fantastic shots that have been shared by members proving that it is indeed possible. But you ought to be shooting individual photos, preferably in burst mode to maximize your chance of getting a few good ones out of many. I am not sure AEB would be the best mode since some blurring will invariably occur in at least one or two of the individual exposures and that makes the merged HDR unpleasant. My advice, keep your ISO at 100, and shoot raws in burst mode - and shoot plenty of them. You will get good results in the 1" - 3" range but anything above that will be a difficult task

These are pictures in the threads I linked below

An 8" exposure
lrm_export_129533514865934_20190703_060513709-jpeg.78794


a 3.2" exposure

4c5d3193-b810-47cc-b163-0c94b20924a7-jpeg.43690


A 3" exposure
img_20180204_203612_708-jpg.34131


A 1.3" exposure
ecc5225a-681e-421b-8d13-39cb0fe3def4-jpeg.33310


A good amount of discussion on the topic of long exposure with the MA can be found in these threads


 
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Obviously camera shake is the cause of blur, so I'm wondering how long an exposure time is practical at say 5m/s wind or even at minimally almost no wind?
5 m/s is what 11 mph or 18kph? As far as I'm concerned anything over a second is a big ask.
 
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Recently I experimented with the Mavic air camera by hand holding it and taking long exposure pictures in quite dark conditions in my room. I found that as unknown pilot pointed out 1s seems to be roughly the limit.
Here’s how I experimented.
With manual settings I tried to set the iso vs shutter time such that the exposure is “correct”. Then while handheld I took a burst of 7 shots, while the camera is shooting I tilted and moved the aircraft slightly in my hands by a few degrees here and there and a few centimetres in all directions too, to mimic wind and motor speed variations.

with 3 sec exposures I didn’t get a single sharp photo, and with 1 sec exposure I could get 1 or 2 sharp photos.
This is by no means super scientific of course in long exposure photos, spamming is the key.

it also tells me that a AEB at night will result in many blur photos on the high exposure range if I don’t select the iso by myself.
 
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