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Night Footage is BAD!!!

Nice job on the Comparison, they were close , a little more clarity on no the Phantom at times but a job well done by the AIR 2S .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly the AIR 2S in the RAIN and LAND on the Water.
 
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Pitch black golf driving range with 1500 lumen spot light at 200ft. Air2S
 

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That's the problem with the fixed aperture!
The ISO needs to blow up and this causes a lot of noise in the picture. Also the drone will not be a stable enough platform for long exposures.
That's a problem with high ISO and has nothing to do with a fixed aperture, particularly since the aperture is already relatively fast at f2.8.
 
The fixed aperture at 2.8 results in a very shallow depth of field so a large area is out of focus causing much noise.
On the contrary, the lens has more depth of field than you can use.
And even if it was capable of giving shallow DoF, that doesn't create noise.
 
Not sure what light that is ? Can you post a picture of that light on the drone ?
Pic of The Air2S in flight with my Klarus G15 5oz Pocket LED light attached to the side of the drones main body. It's attached with 10lb rated velcro bought from Lowes. I used balsa wood to make the legs long enough for the drone to land and take off while the light is attached. The light has a 4000 lumen turbo mode, with a sustained light of 1500 lumens. I got it from Amazon for $89.00 usa. I reposted the pitch black golf range with the light attached, flying at 200ft. It's amazing how well the setup acts like a search light and can take decent photos. I can show more photos of pitch dark places lit up if you want. I live in florida, I've used it mainly to search for animals in the woods, but mostly pesky black bears that get into the our trash. I also use it to patrol the neighborhood (neighborhood watch) with the consent of the neighbors of course.
 

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Pic of The Air2S in flight with my Klarus G15 5oz Pocket LED light attached to the side of the drones main body. It's attached with 10lb rated velcro bought from Lowes. I used balsa wood to make the legs long enough for the drone to land and take off while the light is attached. The light has a 4000 lumen turbo mode, with a sustained light of 1500 lumens. I got it from Amazon for $89.00 usa. I reposted the pitch black golf range with the light attached, flying at 200ft. It's amazing how well the setup acts like a search light and can take decent photos. I can show more photos of pitch dark places lit up if you want. I live in florida, I've used it mainly to search for animals in the woods, but mostly pesky black bears that get into the our trash. I also use it to patrol the neighborhood (neighborhood watch) with the consent of the neighbors of course.
More Night Shots w Air2S with 5oz Klarus G15 spot light attached.
 

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On the contrary, the lens has more depth of field than you can use.
And even if it was capable of giving shallow DoF, that doesn't create noise.
Thanks for correcting this obvious misinformation. Im often amazed by the confidence of the ill-informed on this forum. Recently someone "explained" to me that jpeg's were simply RAW files that had been correctly processed thereby making RAW redundant.

Incredible.
 
Wow, just did a little night flight to confirm what I've been hearing. The Air 2S looks bad at night. It's worst then the M2P which was worse then the P4P V2. So all this time later the Phantom 4 Pro still has better night video then anything in the Mavic line. Wondering if and when the 3 Pro comes there will be much improvement. I'd like to retire the P4P but can't so far.
if the air 2s is bad what about the P4 pro in this direct comparison ? ;)
 
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ok one thing i do notice in night footage,sometimes i can pickup the pulsing of the navigation LED lights on my video playback,anyone notice this at all.
 
ok one thing i do notice in night footage,sometimes i can pickup the pulsing of the navigation LED lights on my video playback,anyone notice this at all.
Most DJI models allow you to turn off the front LEDs for just that reason.
 
That's the problem with the fixed aperture!
The ISO needs to blow up and this causes a lot of noise in the picture. Also the drone will not be a stable enough platform for long exposures.

The camera just needs sufficient light to work properly.
Besides night flights is a No-No we're I'm from.

Check out the Topaz software for Denoise and Sharpen: good results.

Success

Ruud

Actually, since the aperture is fixed at a very wide open f/2.8 the ISO doesn't have to be boosted relative to an aperture that's higher, say f/4.0. Most lenses for consumer grade stuff don't go much wider than f/2.8.


Brian
 
Most DJI models allow you to turn off the front LEDs for just that reason.
ive made another thread on this as mine only turn off when taking a picture or video if the the motors are not running !!! not really any reason for that i can see.
 
ive made another thread on this as mine only turn off when taking a picture or video if the the motors are not running !!! not really any reason for that i can see.
Maybe , I was wrong. I was just checking my DJI FLY app. Couldn't find any option to turn off the front LEDS. EVO2 lets you turn both front and back LEDS off.
 
The fixed aperture at 2.8 results in a very shallow depth of field so a large area is out of focus causing much noise. Being able to close the aperture makes a larger part of the scene in focus and therefore less soft.
That is incorrect. An aperture of f 2.8 *can* result in less depth of field, but out-of-focus effects are visible only if the lens's DOF is less than that presented by the subject.

Nearly all objects in an aerial are near as darn to infinity focus. DOF plays no part unless the subject has components closer than a hundred feet or so. This is especially true with relatively small sensors like the 2S.

"a large area out of focus" does not "cause much noise." It might make it more visible, but it doesn't cause more noise.
 
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