Mavic Air - no ND filter in bright sunlight - photo vs video

[chippenpuepp]

I noticed that it is essential to use an ND filter in bright sunlight to get decent photos.

Was flying without ND filter yesterday, the photos would have required at least ND 4 to look good. The strange thing is that video footage from the same location using the same manual settings looks fine. I don‘t understand why.

Anyone have an explanation?

Thanks!

 

[zocalo]

Can you post some of the EXIF data and samples of the images that didn't work as it's kinda hard to tell otherwise?

At a guess though, this is usally down to either an inadvertant exposure setting error - e.g. you manually had too much +ve exposure comp or too long an exposure time dialed in - or some kind of metering error led the drone to overexpose.

 

[Meta4]

I noticed that it is essential to use an ND filter in bright sunlight to get decent photos.
Was flying without ND filter yesterday, the photos would have required at least ND 4 to look good. The strange thing is that video footage from the same location using the same manual settings looks fine. I don‘t understand why.
Anyone have an explanation?

I don't understand why either since an ND filter won't make any difference to your photos being over-exposed.
You slap on the filter and the camera or metering simply adjusts to a slower shutter speed to match the reduced light level.

The data requested above may be helpful.
How are you exposing .... manually or which of the auto settings?

ps .. using an ND filter isn't going to help you take better photos.
You really don't need to use them.

 

[CanadaDrone]

I noticed that it is essential to use an ND filter in bright sunlight to get decent photos.

Was flying without ND filter yesterday, the photos would have required at least ND 4 to look good. The strange thing is that video footage from the same location using the same manual settings looks fine. I don‘t understand why.

Anyone have an explanation?

Thanks!

For photos you don't need an ND filter unless:

- You want to slow the shutter speed down enough for a 'long' exposure, of say, a waterfall
- The drone's maximum shutter speed is still too slow for your desired settings in a given scenario

The exposure itself with or without a ND filter will be identical (within the limits of the camera of course) because the camera's meter does not know there is a ND filter there and still exposes correctly.

If your photos looked bad and your videos looked good, you very likely had a mistake in your exposure settings. I suggest turning on the histogram so you always have that information.

 

[chippenpuepp]

Thanks for your replies, have been travelling.

Will look at the exif data tomorrow.

As I said, video footage looks fine, photos are mostly overexposed.

Did some bracketing, hopefully I‘ll understand what happened