Night shots very dark?

[GB1Yorkshire1]

Taking photos or video at night is challenging even using a pro camera.
The quality or definition of any camera is dependent on two things 1 the amount of light that can be gathered by the lens and the speed of the film/sensor
All but the pro level drones are limited as to weight=size of camera, so you are limited to the DJI specifications
I would suggest that you override the Auto settings of the ISO to max on manual and by trial back this off, until the quality is acceptable.
There is no easy fix as the sensors look at the whole picture and calculate the ISO and shutter speed to the total light received. Add this to a constantly changing picture with a flying drone.....

Camera

• Sensor
• 1/2.3” CMOS
  Effective Pixels: 12 MP
• Lens
• FOV: 83°
  35 mm Format Equivalent: 24 mm
  Aperture: f/2.8
  Shooting Range: 1 m to ∞
• ISO Range
• Video:
  100-3200 (Auto)
  100-3200 (Manual) Photo:
  100-1600 (Auto)
  100-3200 (Manual)
  
  

 

[Reginald E Johnson]

Does anyone else find shooting footage at night on the Mavic Air 2, to be very dark?

Footage seems to be better on the Mavic Mini at night.

I have the Mavic Pro, Mavic Pro 2 Zoom and the Mavic Mini! The original Mavic Pro shoots better Video and Pictures at night and you can manually change the exposures on the run with the C2 Thumbwheel! Something I miss on the Mavic Pro Zoom 2 and the Mini!

 

[sar104]

I have the Mavic Pro, Mavic Pro 2 Zoom and the Mavic Mini! The original Mavic Pro shoots better Video and Pictures at night and you can manually change the exposures on the run with the C2 Thumbwheel! Something I miss on the Mavic Pro Zoom 2 and the Mini!

The thumbwheel works fine to change exposure on the M2P - are you sure it doesn't work on the M2Z?

 

[Dave Maine]

The problem you are dealing with is exposure control. It has nothing to do with resolution. All the drones I have flown with have exposure compensation available in the camera controls when manual camera control is selected. Make sure this is something you can do and understand.

Then what you need to do is experiment using these controls, again in manual exposure control, to get an image you like. If you use the histogram tool, you will see that there is no way in a night shot with lights to avoid clipping of either the blacks or the whites. There is just too much difference in luminosity. Your last example is a clear example of raising the blacks to get shadow detail, and badly clipping the highlights. You can always get this effect by increasing exposure.

 

[Reginald E Johnson]

No it doesn’t, the C2 Thumbwheel is for the Zoom, not for exposure!

 

[sar104]

No it doesn’t, the C2 Thumbwheel is for the Zoom, not for exposure!

Of course - that makes sense. I'd forgotten that the zoom had a zoom.

 

[GadgetGuy]

The thumbwheel works fine to change exposure on the M2P - are you sure it doesn't work on the M2Z?

While the right thumbwheel on the M2Z is irreversibly dedicated to Zoom function, the 5 way button easily replaces that function, by programming the 5 way button to increase and decrease exposure compensation by pushing it left and right or forwards and backwards.

Bottom line, the M2Z has the same exposure compensation capability as the M2P!
It's just on a different button. ?