Night photos/footage minimums......

[shondoo]

Went down to catch what I thought would be some great night images at the high school football stadium last weekend with my Mini, but was completely disappointed. After some research, it appears it's not an issue with the settings, but rather just how it is,

What's the next MINIMUM jump that I will need to make in order to get good night time footage/photos? I capitalize the word, "minimum" because I don't want to make any bigger of a jump than I need to at this point since I'm still pretty new at this. Does the Mini 2 address this issue or do I need to go better/higher than that?

Thanks,

Sean D

 

[djitigger]

With no light, night shots will be difficult (with any camera). If there is some light, you could play with the camera settings - and see if that helps. I'm not certain if the Mini 1has manual settings - but I know the Mini 2 does.

Manual Camera settings Explained

A quick video explaining how to set your drones camera with the latest Dji Firmware:

mavicpilots.com

 

[offtheback]

Went down to catch what I thought would be some great night images at the high school football stadium last weekend with my Mini, but was completely disappointed. After some research, it appears it's not an issue with the settings, but rather just how it is,

What's the next MINIMUM jump that I will need to make in order to get good night time footage/photos? I capitalize the word, "minimum" because I don't want to make any bigger of a jump than I need to at this point since I'm still pretty new at this. Does the Mini 2 address this issue or do I need to go better/higher than that?

Thanks,

Sean D

Small sensors like the mini are at a disadvantage to larger as the Mavic 2 Pro.For stills see what lower shutter speed you can get away with without total motion blur.Bump ISO If you can.

 

[shondoo]

Small sensors like the mini are at a disadvantage to larger as the Mavic 2 Pro.For stills see what lower shutter speed you can get away with without total motion blur.Bump ISO If you can.

I have watched a handful of videos where the operators maxed out the ISO and shutter speed and got very little improvement, but I will double-check that.

You mention the Mavic 2 Pro; is that the next step to take where the sensors are better for night images, or is there something in between? I guess what I'm asking is what model in the chain addressed this particular issue and did a good job of it?

Sean D

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

Mavic Air 2 has a slightly larger sensor than most 12MP cameras. That might be the next logical step up...the lower the ISO you can shoot, the better.

 

[offtheback]

I have watched a handful of videos where the operators maxed out the ISO and shutter speed and got very little improvement, but I will double-check that.

You mention the Mavic 2 Pro; is that the next step to take where the sensors are better for night images, or is there something in between? I guess what I'm asking is what model in the chain addressed this particular issue and did a good job of it?

Sean D

I have had good results on stills with the M2P at night.I amazed that in still winds you get get a sharp photo at 1-3 seconds.Taking seceral of same shot is a good idea at those longer exposure times as the drone might just be steadier at one than the others.I try to limit the ISO to 200 but better an image than a memory!

 

[offtheback]

I have watched a handful of videos where the operators maxed out the ISO and shutter speed and got very little improvement, but I will double-check that.

You mention the Mavic 2 Pro; is that the next step to take where the sensors are better for night images, or is there something in between? I guess what I'm asking is what model in the chain addressed this particular issue and did a good job of it?

Sean D

Here's one of a bridge taken at 2.5 seconds ISO 200 F/2.8 and one of buildings and water at 5 seconds.The 5 second one amazed me.Not tack sharp but pretty good.

 

[shondoo]

Here's one of a bridge taken at 2.5 seconds ISO 200 F/2.8 and one of buildings and water at 5 seconds.The 5 second one amazed me.Not tack sharp but pretty good.

That's MUCH better than the shot I took of the football stadium when it was all lit up.......

Sean D

 

[offtheback]

That's MUCH better than the shot I took of the football stadium when it was all lit up.......

Sean D

Not sure if it really does anything but often even after hitting pause the MPH might read a very low number and I flick the altitude stick down for a fraction of a second and the number disappears.

 

[vindibona1]

Went down to catch what I thought would be some great night images at the high school football stadium last weekend with my Mini, but was completely disappointed. After some research, it appears it's not an issue with the settings, but rather just how it is,

What's the next MINIMUM jump that I will need to make in order to get good night time footage/photos? I capitalize the word, "minimum" because I don't want to make any bigger of a jump than I need to at this point since I'm still pretty new at this. Does the Mini 2 address this issue or do I need to go better/higher than that?

Thanks,

Sean D

When you say "jump" do you mean upgrade to a more expensive drone? For now I'll assume you meant that.

The thing is that, to the best of my knowledge, all DJI drones with built-in cameras have a maximum f2.8 aperture. So that leaves shutter speed and ISO to deal with low light situations to capture images and video. I'm not sure what the slowest shutter speeds all the drones have but I'll assume from a practical standpoint they're all pretty much equal. That leaves ISO, so all you can do is bump the shutter speed down to the lowest setting that is reasonable and bump the ISO to where it needs to be to get a decent exposure. Obviously noise issues come into play and there are some things you can do about it in post. And obviously a Mavic 2 Pro with the larger sensor will deal with low light better than the cameras with smaller sensors.

 

[dozzn]

That's MUCH better than the shot I took of the football stadium when it was all lit up.......

Sean D

Could you post the pictures you took?

 

[RuudF]

Hey Vindibona,
The Mavic 2 Pro has an aperture between f 2.8 to f 11. That is the same as the Phantom 4 Pro.
The Mavic 2 Zoom f 2.8 to f 3.8
The other Mavic's have a fixed aperture at f 2.8

For night photography a low f-stop number is necessary.
Best shoot in RAW for best result in post production.

I know of a trick to artificially create "night" photographs.
Shoot the pics in the twilight, when the ambient lights have come on.
In post production you can change the shadow and the highlight sliders in such a way that it seems the photographs were taken much later during the night.

Ruud

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

When you say "jump" do you mean upgrade to a more expensive drone? For now I'll assume you meant that.

The thing is that, to the best of my knowledge, all DJI drones with built-in cameras have a maximum f2.8 aperture. So that leaves shutter speed and ISO to deal with low light situations to capture images and video. I'm not sure what the slowest shutter speeds all the drones have but I'll assume from a practical standpoint they're all pretty much equal. That leaves ISO, so all you can do is bump the shutter speed down to the lowest setting that is reasonable and bump the ISO to where it needs to be to get a decent exposure. Obviously noise issues come into play and there are some things you can do about it in post. And obviously a Mavic 2 Pro with the larger sensor will deal with low light better than the cameras with smaller sensors.

It seems 8 seconds is the max shutter speed on most drones. I guess that's as long as they can reliably hold still for a photo without it blurring. This is a photo I took at 8 seconds a couple of years ago. It's not bad but you can see it is slightly soft.

 

[vindibona1]

Hey Vindibona,
The Mavic 2 Pro has an aperture between f 2.8 to f 11. That is the same as the Phantom 4 Pro.
The Mavic 2 Zoom f 2.8 to f 3.8
The other Mavic's have a fixed aperture at f 2.8

For night photography a low f-stop number is necessary.
Best shoot in RAW for best result in post production.

I know of a trick to artificially create "night" photographs.
Shoot the pics in the twilight, when the ambient lights have come on.
In post production you can change the shadow and the highlight sliders in such a way that it seems the photographs were taken much later during the night.

Ruud

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I have a M2P so I know about the variable aperture, one of the reasons I went for the M2P. I don't know how the mechanics of the M2Z lens, but functionally it is similar to zoom lenses that lose 1/2 stop when zoomed out. . But in terms of night shooting under very low light conditions it is irrelevant as the camera would want to be full open except for special effects shots requring ultra long shutter speeds. What I was trying to say is that at night, barring those special effect shots, the aperture will be pinned open to its widest setting, in this case f2.8, leaving the exposure controls entirely in the realm of shutter speed and ISO. FWIW in the past week or so I've done a couple test night flights.

In thinking about this thread I learned some details I hadn't paid attention to before. While the M2P has a max ISO of 6400 (video) and 12800 (photo), the M2Z has max ISO of 3200 (video and 3200 (photo). Interestingly the MA2 has a max ISO of 6400 for video but only an ISO of 3200 for stills. The Mini 2 is limited to ISO 3200 across with a minimum shutter speed of 4 seconds, compared to 8 seconds of it's bigger brothers.

I'd posted a clip in another thread in regard to handling noise in Davinci Resolve, so I dug it up and the original footagge and did a screen shot with the camera settings listed which I think it might illustrate what I was saying in conjunction with the noise reduction in the video. It was shot with a M2P, the ISO bumped to 1600, the aperture pinned open at f2.8 and shutter at 1/25. It was pretty noisy.

 

[shondoo]

Could you post the pictures you took?

 

[shondoo]

Could you post the pictures you took?

The above shots were 1-day apart, with the one on the left being the night shot I had issues with, obvioiusly.

Man, you guys are talking WAAAAAAAY above my head with all these terms/numbers you're throwing down. I have a lot of homework to do to even begin to understand what I need to be looking at, but I can't stress enough how much I appreciate the participation. I'll get there at some point.

Sean D

 

[shondoo]

When you say "jump" do you mean upgrade to a more expensive drone? For now I'll assume you meant that.

The thing is that, to the best of my knowledge, all DJI drones with built-in cameras have a maximum f2.8 aperture. So that leaves shutter speed and ISO to deal with low light situations to capture images and video. I'm not sure what the slowest shutter speeds all the drones have but I'll assume from a practical standpoint they're all pretty much equal. That leaves ISO, so all you can do is bump the shutter speed down to the lowest setting that is reasonable and bump the ISO to where it needs to be to get a decent exposure. Obviously noise issues come into play and there are some things you can do about it in post. And obviously a Mavic 2 Pro with the larger sensor will deal with low light better than the cameras with smaller sensors.

Yes, that's essentially what I'm asking. If I can't get decent night shots with the Mavic Mini, what level of drone do I need to get to in order to get shots that are the quality of what vindibona1 posted? I feel like if I had those capabilities, my shot of the football stadium would've ended up like what I was looking for.....

Sean D

 

[vindibona1]

Yes, that's essentially what I'm asking. If I can't get decent night shots with the Mavic Mini, what level of drone do I need to get to in order to get shots that are the quality of what vindibona1 posted? I feel like if I had those capabilities, my shot of the football stadium would've ended up like what I was looking for.....

Sean D

It might be helpful if you posted a few seconds of what you were shooting to get a better idea of your expectations and the lighting conditions that you're referring to. I'm having difficulty visualizing what you were trying to do. I suspect that the Mini 1 will be similar in terms of exposure and noise as all the other 1/2.3" sensors, the difference being 2.7k video.

I have had the luxury of owning a Mini (1- now sold) and a Mavic 2 Pro. For low light conditions I'm not sure if any of the other drones will be much better in terms of low light as they all seem to (correct me if I'm wrong) have the same sensor except the Mavic 2 Pro which has a larger sensor. But even so, there is a limit to what you can expect.

 

[shondoo]

It might be helpful if you posted a few seconds of what you were shooting to get a better idea of your expectations and the lighting conditions that you're referring to. I'm having difficulty visualizing what you were trying to do. I suspect that the Mini 1 will be similar in terms of exposure and noise as all the other 1/2.3" sensors, the difference being 2.7k video.

I have had the luxury of owning a Mini (1- now sold) and a Mavic 2 Pro. For low light conditions I'm not sure if any of the other drones will be much better in terms of low light as they all seem to (correct me if I'm wrong) have the same sensor except the Mavic 2 Pro which has a larger sensor. But even so, there is a limit to what you can expect.

All I was trying to do was get a nice still shot of the football stadium when it was all lit up at night, but you can see above what it turned out looking like. Obviously nothing close to what you posted in post #14. I wasn't trying to do any video, just some still shots, so I don't have anything that's "a few seconds", which I'm assuming you mean video.....

Sean D

 

[vindibona1]

All I was trying to do was get a nice still shot of the football stadium when it was all lit up at night, but you can see above what it turned out looking like. Obviously nothing close to what you posted in post #14. I wasn't trying to do any video, just some still shots, so I don't have anything that's "a few seconds", which I'm assuming you mean video.....

Sean D

I didn't see if you've posted the metadata with ISO and shutter speed. I'm thinking there is still more in that camera in terms of bumping the ISO for better exposure. Of course you will instroduce more noise as the ISO increases, but is something that can partially be handled in post with the right software.

I downloaded your image to see what detail might be there already. You might be able to see the huge amount of noise, while there is more image. I suspect that if you can increase the ISO you'll have some noise, but not as much as trying to increase the brightness of an underexposed image. But I think there is more there. Can you provide metadata?