Mechanical aperture?

[frankbiganski]

Hi.

I'm going to eventually upgrade to a Mavic 3E that provides an adjustable aperture and mechanical shutter, but does anyone know if the aperture is also mechanical or, are all DJI drones with variable apertures (f/2.8-f/11) mechanical or are all electronic.

Thanks much!

Frank

 

[GadgetGuy]

What is the relevance of aperture control mechanism?
It's the shutter that needs to be mechanical, for mapping while in motion, and it is on the Mavic 3E.

 

[frankbiganski]

I'm not mapping, so perhaps I'm looking at the wrong drone?

I'm a photographer who demands to have control over both shutter speeds and apertures, but I'm old-schooled so I'm assuming mechanical shutters and apertures are better than electronic.

 

[Filmarik]

Hi.

I'm going to eventually upgrade to a Mavic 3E that provides an adjustable aperture and mechanical shutter, but does anyone know if the aperture is also mechanical or, are all DJI drones with variable apertures (f/2.8-f/11) mechanical or are all electronic.

Thanks much!

Frank

Aperture on main Hassy camera is true mechanical.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'm not mapping, so perhaps I'm looking at the wrong drone?

I'm a photographer who demands to have control over both shutter speeds and apertures, but I'm old-schooled so I'm assuming mechanical shutters and apertures are better than electronic.

Indeed! Electronic shutters are in 99% of the cameras used by the best photographers in the world today. No need for the Enterprise version of the Mavic 3. Save some money, and get the Mavic 3 Pro instead. It is a drone photographer's dream camera and lens combination, of a 24mm, a 70mm, and a 166mm equivalent lens!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Aperture on main Hassy camera is true mechanical.

Are you referring to all the Mavic 3 series, or only the Enterprise version?

In any event, whether the aperture is electronic or mechanical shouldn’t make any difference for a photographer choosing the best drone for photography. No need for the Enterprise series, which are for commercial use, with mapping being a priority, requiring a mechanical shutter, with an entirely different app and a different controller.

 

[Meta4]

I'm not mapping, so perhaps I'm looking at the wrong drone?

I'm a photographer who demands to have control over both shutter speeds and apertures, but I'm old-schooled so I'm assuming mechanical shutters and apertures are better than electronic.

You would be disappointed with the Enterprise version.
It is not a photographer's camera and doesn't give you the same control abilities that you get with any of the other Mavic 3 series.
Mavic 3 main cameras have old-fashioned controllable apertures.
They have electronic shutters, but it would be very rare that this would make any difference to your drone photography.

 

[frankbiganski]

I've been droning since 2018 and when was just 100-200 feet above a home using my Mavic Air 2, that home and surrounding area looked tack-sharp for real estate and online marketing purposes. But now I'm getting more into landscape and city images and the fixed aperture on my Mavic Air 2 is starting to bother me. Sure I can fix it in LR and PS, but I'm now seeing I need to upgrade to a drone with a better camera.

So I honestly have not yet given the time to read-up on whether there's a difference between electronic and mechanical apertures and shutters on drones in the less than £$3,000 - £$3,500 price range, but my early searching brought me to the Mavicpilots forums where I found folks discussing the Mavic 3 series as providing adjustable apertures and shutters.

So you think the Mavic 3 Pro would suffice? I can read on whether there's a huge technical difference between mechanical or electronic but if that's negligible, that's what LR and PS are for! LOL

Thanks!

 

[Meta4]

So you think the Mavic 3 Pro would suffice?

It's an excellent drone for photographers.
You can see a couple of recent examples of what it can achieve in this post:

Mavic 3pro or Air 3?

I've got a collection of comparison images from the three cameras of the Mavic 3 pro that show the differences between the wide, short and long tele cameras. The short tele of the Air 3 is the same camera as the Short tele on the Mavic 3 pro. See the comparisons here...

mavicpilots.com

 

[frankbiganski]

Those images are impressive but the noise level is surprisingly bad, especially for images taken at ISO 100. The clarity is better than my Mavic, but the images are less than 1MB in size? It seems the tele may digitally zoom in, thus reducing the overall image size.

I also saw 1/2500th and 1/1600 sec shutter speeds, but aperture not recorded. I'd love to see an image taken without the tele at SO 100 and f/8 or f/11. Do you have anything like that? Are these original jpg images or from DNG?

Attached is my unedited jpg image taken with my Mavic Air 2, ISO 100, f/2.8 (fixed), 4.5MB, 1/1000 shutter.

Thank you for your input and images. Much appreciated! I imagine that what I'm looking for I cannot afford! LOL! What I'd really like is to attach a $12,000 Hasselblad onto an Inspire 3 but heck, one can dream!

 

[SmilingOgre]

For photography, an electronic shutter works very well. Where an electronic shutter can cause problems is with video. Called a rolling shutter in the video world, it can bend lines during panning. This is most often called "jello". As sensor scan speeds become faster over time video cameras are getting better at not causing the "jello" effect.

 

[Meta4]

Those images are impressive but the noise level is surprisingly bad, especially for images taken at ISO 100. The clarity is better than my Mavic, but the images are less than 1MB in size? It seems the tele may digitally zoom in, thus reducing the overall image size.

You were looking at reduced images, even if you clicked to enlarge them.
The smallest is 2MB - a cropped image from the long tele.
Digital zoom was not used at all.

I also saw 1/2500th and 1/1600 sec shutter speeds, but aperture not recorded. I'd love to see an image taken without the tele at SO 100 and f/8 or f/11. Do you have anything like that? Are these original jpg images or from DNG?

You can find the full-sized image files here:

Mavic 3 sample images - Google Drive

drive.google.com

I slipped a few extra ones in too.
Their exposure settings will be in the metadata.
The highest aperture used was f5.6 and the tele cameras have fixed apertures.
All were shot as jpg files.

I imagine that what I'm looking for I cannot afford! LOL! What I'd really like is to attach a $12,000 Hasselblad onto an Inspire 3 but heck, one can dream!

Drone photography is all about compromising.
You' probably couldn't lift the Hasselblad and the gimbal it would need with the Inspire.
The gimbal wouldn't be compatible with the Inspire and you wouldn't be able to see what the camera was looking at.

 

[frankbiganski]

Thanks for sharing those images Meta4 and those really show off what the Mavic 3 can do! I'm sold as there's a lot more latitude in post with images like that. Cheers!

 

[umanbean]

Thanks for sharing those images Meta4

Remember the old commercials from the '70s with the tagline:

When EF Hutton talks, people listen.
(Search youtube, they're good)

I'm the same about @Meta4

 

[rawman001]

Indeed! Electronic shutters and apertures are in 99% of the cameras used by the best photographers in the world today. No need for the Enterprise version of the Mavic 3. Save some money, and get the Mavic 3 Pro instead. It is a drone photographer's dream camera and lens combination, of a 24mm, a 70mm, and a 166mm equivalent lens!

Sweet so I'm finally in the 1%. Oh wait you said "best pohtographers." Never mind.

I'd love to see where this statistic came from though. Mechanical aperture is still very much a thing. Even the lenses designed for mirrorless versions of Canon, Nikon, and Sony cameras still have mechanical aperture blades.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Sweet so I'm finally in the 1%. Oh wait you said "best pohtographers." Never mind.

I'd love to see where this statistic came from though. Mechanical aperture is still very much a thing. Even the lenses designed for mirrorless versions of Canon, Nikon, and Sony cameras still have mechanical aperture blades.

I meant electronic shutters. The aperture part was inadvertently included, and doesn't specifically state "electronic apertures," just apertures, although it can be read that way. I have edited it to remove it.

 

[brett8883]

Hi.

I'm going to eventually upgrade to a Mavic 3E that provides an adjustable aperture and mechanical shutter, but does anyone know if the aperture is also mechanical or, are all DJI drones with variable apertures (f/2.8-f/11) mechanical or are all electronic.

Thanks much!

Frank

I’ve never heard of an electronic aperture. Are you talking about like the background blur function on a phone?