Need help! How much light is required to get a good footage?

[Gareth Chan]

Hi,

I wanted to ask how much light is required to get a good sharp image? Ive tried various settings for my Mavic which I got 2 weeks ago and I cant seem to get a crystal sharp image even when when i shot it on clear sky day. Here are some samples.


DAY 1
(Weather was a little gloomy)

SETTING
Auto White Balance
4K
(Basically I keep it on auto camera setting)
ISO: 800
Shutter: 30
Color Mode: D-Cinelike Custom (-2, 0, 0)

Tried adding a LUT after. Sucks even more

DAY 2
Weather was good clear sky around (5pm Sun was heading down)

SETTING
Auto White Balance
HD 1920x1080
(Basically I keep it on auto camera setting)
ISO: 800
Shutter: 30
Color mode: None

(top shot flying above trees - terrible looking... The details of the trees are just a mush..)

(before lifting off)

Yea I'm pretty upset with these images. Ive been trying to get it right but I can't.. I feel like the image is not sharp at all in terms of the details of objects inside the image like even the trees. The color is all bad.. I dunno if I'm doing something wrong but I was expecting this camera to do more which I'm pretty confident it can as Ive seen a lot of amazing footages on youtube before buying this. I'm gonna try again tomorrow on a more sunny day..

But I just wanna see if anyone knows what could be the problem? Or anyone experienced this? Or I'm just unlucky getting a faulty one? >< ..

 

[shredzoo7]

It kind of looks out of focus, except for when you have it on the ground. If you for sure focused while flying, then I would reload the firmware and reset all your camera settings to factory before you go up again and see if that makes a difference.

 

[4wd]

You shouldn't need ISO800, always best to aim for ISO100
The higher ISO is like boosting gain digitally for darker conditions than this - and gives a more grainy look.

 

[Gareth Chan]

It kind of looks out of focus, except for when you have it on the ground. If you for sure focused while flying, then I would reload the firmware and reset all your camera settings to factory before you go up again and see if that makes a difference.

Yes I always tap my focus before I start moving! Reload the firmware as in reinstall the APP?

 

[Gareth Chan]

You shouldn't need ISO800, always best to aim for ISO100
The higher ISO is like boosting gain digitally for darker conditions than this - and gives a more grainy look.

So if I use ISO 100 and the image is pretty dark thats pretty much not enough light for a good shot?

Ive been watching this video and I'm quite amazed by the image it can take..

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but i'm not too sure what ISO is used in here.

 

[4wd]

Slow the shutter - let in more light.
During the day it would be unusual not to be able to get a bright enough image on ISO100 or at most ISO400
For video a slower shutter gives a smoother look, for stills 1/100 or faster is better.

 

[shredzoo7]

Yes I always tap my focus before I start moving! Reload the firmware as in reinstall the APP?

No don't reinstall the app. Just follow this video:

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Just to start from scratch, so you're not going through batteries to troubleshoot camera settings. It should definitely look better then that, even on those current camera settings. Like 4wd said, you shouldn't need that high of an ISO, I'd say absolute max in a pinch use 800, but 400 is my max.

 

[Gareth Chan]

No don't reinstall the app. Just follow this video:

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Just to start from scratch, so you're not going through batteries to troubleshoot camera settings. It should definitely look better then that, even on those current camera settings. Like 4wd said, you shouldn't need that high of an ISO, I'd say absolute max in a pinch use 800, but 400 is my max.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Gareth Chan]

Slow the shutter - let in more light.
During the day it would be unusual not to be able to get a bright enough image on ISO100 or at most ISO400
For video a slower shutter gives a smoother look, for stills 1/100 or faster is better.

Thanks I shall try that tomorrow!

 

[FlashGJ]

It is best to never use auto camera settings if you want the best footage the Mavic can produce. Keep your iso as low as possible, as mentioned by others ISO100 or 200 is best if the light allows. And when filming, try to keep your shutter at 60 (1/60), this may require a set of ND filters to accomplish this. I have found that when ISO starts getting over 400, things start to turn to mush pretty quickly. I am not sure why on a clear sky day, like the OPs examples show, the auto camera setting chose to use ISO800 and a speed of 30, but I have found this combination will give a "mushy" result. I admit that I am still learning how to get the best out of the mavic camera and low light does seem to give me the biggest challenge. Having said that, I have seen some very good night footage from the Mavic (I haven't tried it yet) but have never seen what settings they used. I doubt it was on auto though because the MP tends to immediately jump to high ISOs when the light is low and my experience so far as never been favorable at the higher ISOs.

 

[FlashGJ]

I just noticed that the OP also was using Cinelike at a custom setting of -2,0,0. With the sharpening turned down to -2, you might need to do a little sharpening in post production. This is generally a good idea, don't allow the MP to do the sharpening because you can get better results sharpening in post versus in camera and you can always sharpen to your liking in post, but you cannot unsharpen footage that has been over sharpened while filming.

 

[Gareth Chan]

I just noticed that the OP also was using Cinelike at a custom setting of -2,0,0. With the sharpening turned down to -2, you might need to do a little sharpening in post production. This is generally a good idea, don't allow the MP to do the sharpening because you can get better results sharpening in post versus in camera and you can always sharpen to your liking in post, but you cannot unsharpen footage that has been over sharpened while filming.

Slow the shutter - let in more light.
During the day it would be unusual not to be able to get a bright enough image on ISO100 or at most ISO400
For video a slower shutter gives a smoother look, for stills 1/100 or faster is better.

You shouldn't need ISO800, always best to aim for ISO100
The higher ISO is like boosting gain digitally for darker conditions than this - and gives a more grainy look.

I just did a camera setting reset and tried again.

I pretty much turned on all possible lights in my house. I mean to my eyes its pretty bright here.

4K (not the max 4k so shutter cant go to 25)
ISO 400
Shutter 30

It still seems pretty dark for ISO 400..

4K (not the max 4k so shutter cant go to 25)
ISO 100
Shutter 30

Basically too dark cant really see much.

4K (not the max 4k so shutter cant go to 25)
ISO 400
Shutter 30

So I'm not exactly sure how I can pull off shooting with ISO 100 when 400 is kinda tight too.. Or do I have to rely on post and boost the brightness in post with ISO 400?

Also I wanna ask whats that straight white line across the middle? It appeared after I reset camera settings.

 

[FlashGJ]

It may seem very light inside with all the lights on, but the modern camera is no match to the sensitivity of the human eye and brain. To the human eye, what appears to be very well lite can in fact be very dark in comparison to outside, natural light. Before the days of modern digital cameras shooting indoors and getting good results pretty much required strobes or flashes. Now with the high sensitivity available in high quality digital cameras we can shoot at 1600 ISO or sometimes higher and get great results with just the natural light. Unfortunately the mavic's sensor is not large enough or of the quality to shoot at the higher ISOs. It starts to suffer at anything much over 400ISO. Keep the ISO as low as possible to expose correctly, but understand its limitations.
But don't underexpose by too much and try to bring it up in post, this will degrade the images also. From my experience so far, the MP does great in bright light and starts to suffer as the light begins to fade. Still useable in a lot of circumstances, but we have to understand and except it's limitations.

 

[Rich Hudman]

You need to turn on your histogram


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[Gareth Chan]

It may seem very light inside with all the lights on, but the modern camera is no match to the sensitivity of the human eye and brain. To the human eye, what appears to be very well lite can in fact be very dark in comparison to outside, natural light. Before the days of modern digital cameras shooting indoors and getting good results pretty much required strobes or flashes. Now with the high sensitivity available in high quality digital cameras we can shoot at 1600 ISO or sometimes higher and get great results with just the natural light. Unfortunately the mavic's sensor is not large enough or of the quality to shoot at the higher ISOs. It starts to suffer at anything much over 400ISO. Keep the ISO as low as possible to expose correctly, but understand its limitations.
But don't underexpose by too much and try to bring it up in post, this will degrade the images also. From my experience so far, the MP does great in bright light and starts to suffer as the light begins to fade. Still useable in a lot of circumstances, but we have to understand and except it's limitations.

Does it act like this on a Phantom too? Or is it a Mavic thing?

 

[Kilrah]

Phantoms (except the new P4 Pro) are actually worse in that regard from comparisons people have posted.

 

[Gareth Chan]

I did another test today on a even more gloomy weather but with low ISO this time. ISO 400 was the max I would allow with shutter speed between 30-60 and here are some of the results.

D-Cinelike color mode and in post I slightly boosted saturation to get the green out.

Tell me if you guys think this looks a lot more normal now in how the drone should perform compare to my previous pics earlier in this post. I feel like it looks a lot better now and can see a lot of details in the video. I'm just thinking if theres still even more room for improvement. Thanks : )

Can't wait to try it when its actually a sunny day.

 

[FlashGJ]

That appears to be much better than your first post. Did you leave it at -2,0,0 in custom style? If so, I would play with a little bit of post sharpening. Just be careful not to do too much. Some people like things over sharpened, but it can start to look fake. Everyone's taste is a little different, so my suggestion is to start off with just a slight sharpening and then play with it from there and find what looks good to you. But overall, much better and about what I seem to get at ISO400.

 

[Gareth Chan]

That appears to be much better than your first post. Did you leave it at -2,0,0 in custom style? If so, I would play with a little bit of post sharpening. Just be careful not to do too much. Some people like things over sharpened, but it can start to look fake. Everyone's taste is a little different, so my suggestion is to start off with just a slight sharpening and then play with it from there and find what looks good to you. But overall, much better and about what I seem to get at ISO400.

Sweet thanks a lot