Recommend camera settings

[TotalExposure]

Hey guys and gals!

So I’m just starting out on my MP2 journey and trying to work out the plethora of settings the things has!
What sort of defaults is everyone running?
I have full adobe cloud package so for editing purposes this shouldn’t be a factor (well at least I hope)

Thanks in advance

 

[PortCanaveralFlorida]

Hey guys and gals!

So I’m just starting out on my MP2 journey and trying to work out the plethora of settings the things has!
What sort of defaults is everyone running?
I have full adobe cloud package so for editing purposes this shouldn’t be a factor (well at least I hope)

Thanks in advance

The "search function" will always be your friend.

 

[FatherXmas]

The "search function" will always be your friend.

Both here and in YouTube. There are several YouTube videos that go through the settings in great detail.

 

[Meta4]

So I’m just starting out on my MP2 journey and trying to work out the plethora of settings the things has!
What sort of defaults is everyone running?

The reason for all the settings is to cater for all the possible subjects, lighting conditions and photographic techniques.
There's no magic one-size-fits-all setting.
If there was, you wouldn't need all the rest.

 

[Prmath]

Hey guys and gals!

So I’m just starting out on my MP2 journey and trying to work out the plethora of settings the things has!
What sort of defaults is everyone running?
I have full adobe cloud package so for editing purposes this shouldn’t be a factor (well at least I hope)

Thanks in advance

Youtube...... Jeff Greene videos for complete setup guides
Also, Ed Ricker has good stuff on YouTube........
Hope this helps

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

I would recommend one important setting for photos. Make sure you're set to record both JPG and RAW (DNG). Your best results will come from processing the RAW files yourself.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Your camera/video settings are going to be different for every scene - I think if you try to use a catch-all you will be frustrated far more often than not. What you need to do is understand the exposure triangle and how it relates to both photos and video. From there, you can adjust things as necessary for every scene very quickly and easily.

For video you will want to be around 1/60sec (for 4K30P), going slightly faster if you are flying close to your subject and don't want it blurred too much. Always use base ISO, and only raise it as an absolute last resort when it is still too dark to get a correct exposure without a ND filter.

After F4, diffraction starts to negatively affect the M2P image. Beyond F5.6 this is going to be very noticeable, so try to stay within F2.8-F4.0 as much as possible. F5.6 is OK in a pinch but I wouldn't be going any higher than that unless there is no other way to get the shot. By F8-F11 the image is garbage, at least by my standards.

Invest in a decent set of ND filters (such as Polar Pro but there are others too) so that you can stay within the above parameters as much as possible.

If you also have a newer iPad and like to edit on the go, definitely invest in LumaFusion - it's a cheap yet fully professional video editing app.

Also make sure your memory card is U3 / V30 rated or you will have dropped frames. Ignore the manufacturer advertised maximum transfer speeds (those mean nothing) and just look for the symbols on the card.

Congrats on the new purchase!

 

[TotalExposure]

Your camera/video settings are going to be different for every scene - I think if you try to use a catch-all you will be frustrated far more often than not. What you need to do is understand the exposure triangle and how it relates to both photos and video. From there, you can adjust things as necessary for every scene very quickly and easily.

For video you will want to be around 1/60sec (for 4K30P), going slightly faster if you are flying close to your subject and don't want it blurred too much. Always use base ISO, and only raise it as an absolute last resort when it is still too dark to get a correct exposure without a ND filter.

After F4, diffraction starts to negatively affect the M2P image. Beyond F5.6 this is going to be very noticeable, so try to stay within F2.8-F4.0 as much as possible. F5.6 is OK in a pinch but I wouldn't be going any higher than that unless there is no other way to get the shot. By F8-F11 the image is garbage, at least by my standards.

Invest in a decent set of ND filters (such as Polar Pro but there are others too) so that you can stay within the above parameters as much as possible.

If you also have a newer iPad and like to edit on the go, definitely invest in LumaFusion - it's a cheap yet fully professional video editing app.

Also make sure your memory card is U3 / V30 rated or you will have dropped frames. Ignore the manufacturer advertised maximum transfer speeds (those mean nothing) and just look for the symbols on the card.

Congrats on the new purchase!

Thanks for the advise, I will look into the iPad software. I do have a full adobe cloud account so will try premier pro and see how I get on.

I purchased a class 10 u1 128gb card. Well in fact I got 5 of them. I thought they worked with both u1 and u3?

 

[CanadaDrone]

Thanks for the advise, I will look into the iPad software. I do have a full adobe cloud account so will try premier pro and see how I get on.

I purchased a class 10 u1 128gb card. Well in fact I got 5 of them. I thought they worked with both u1 and u3?

U1 cards are too slow, you need U3. Sounds like you're thinking of UHS, which is the bus speed, and that doesn't matter - the slot is only UHS I speed anyway, so a UHS II card won't do anything but cost you more. UHS I is more than fast enough. The "U1 and U3" ratings are different and refer to write speed.

The drone writes video at 100Mbps which is 12.5MB/s. You need a minimum sustained write speed of at least that, plus some headroom.

Class 10 and U1 both mean the minimum sustained write speed is only 10 MB/s, which is too slow. U3 and V30 ratings mean the minimum sustained write speed is 30MB/s, which is much better. There are no U2/V20 cards, otherwise those would probably be fine too.

It's very important to ignore both the name of the card (I.e. "Extreme") and also the manufacturer's claimed maximum transfer speed (which is irrelevant for our purposes). They don't do anything to help make it less confusing, but if you just stick to the labels you will never have a problem. U3 or V30, and you're good to go. Ignore every Class 10 label because they appear even on adequate cards. U1 is too slow. U3/V30 cards are cheaper than ever, so no worries there, just make sure you have the proper symbols.

Also every 15 minutes of 4K footage is approximately 11.3 GB, so you can pick your desired card size based on that. Personally I use 64GB cards to avoid having too many eggs in one basket. You can run through all 3 batteries in the Fly More Combo and not even come close to filling one 64GB card - after that you should probably be offloading your footage anyway for safe keeping.

See my more detailed post on memory cards here: Tips for New Flyers