Motion Blur - Auto Shutter Speed or Auto Aperture?

CalebLA · Oct 17, 2023

When filming on a Mavic 3 Pro in manual mode, is it best to have the shutter speed on auto but ISO and aperture settings on manual, or have the shutter speed (s/100f, 50fps) and ISO set on manual but the aperture set on auto?

I was just wondering because I tend to move the camera up and down frequently, so If I don't set one of these on auto, the video might be too dark or too light at times.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Caleb

akdrone · Oct 17, 2023

In terms of motion blur the critical thing is control of the shutter speed. Planning the shoot takes care of your ability to maintain a manual setting for everything. In a worst case scenario allow the ISO to change automatically as long as it doesn't go over 400. A test flight will tell you that. If it goes over 400 reset the aperture so it doesn't. Hopefully you can pull that off but full manual is always preferred when possible.

landmark orbiter · Oct 18, 2023

Put one of exposure (if not fixed), shutter speed or iso onto one of the wheels on the remote to make it easy to change during a shot.

CalebLA · Oct 18, 2023

Thanks for the replies!

I'm filming in D-log and the lowest ISO is 400 so I probably shouldn't have that on auto.

So is it preferable to constantly change the shutter speed or constantly change the aperture (like on the wheel?)

Thank you!

Caleb

landmark orbiter · Oct 18, 2023

Depends on your subject matter but for me it's change the aperture first to keep motion blur all good with a shutter speed of around 1/60 or 1/120 if at 50fps.

mavictk · Oct 18, 2023

I was experimenting in this same area and I switched the exposure to compensate for the changing light. As a result I saw the light change occur in the video. Wasn't happy with how I did this and was wondering how you make the changes in full manual subtlety.

Note that with my Air2S the exposure change was from 0 to .3 or 0 to -.3. Is this a large change? Maybe exposure wasn't the knob I should have been adjusting.