Video settings

Grungymike95 · Apr 27, 2017

Anyone on this forum shoots in D-Log? Seems like most threads are about hardware, lets talk about video settings a little bit. Feel free to share how you go about shooting videos on your Mavic, (as far as white balance, exposure, etc. Do you leave everything on automatic or manual camera controls?)

Filmscum · Apr 27, 2017

All manual settings all the time including white balance, use ND filters to keep ISO at or very neat 100 and shutter at or near twice your frame rate. I shoot D-Log because it gives me more options in post with color timing, but if you don't want to mess with it there are a few nice presets. There's a thread here regarding the noise filter kicking in if you have your sharpness set to 0 or below, but honestly I'm not seeing it and I have mine set to -1 to curtail the moire/aliasing. Yes in low light situations it can get a bit mushy but that's normal with a sensor this small.

treytexag · Apr 27, 2017

Filmscum said:
All manual settings all the time including white balance, use ND filters to keep ISO at or very neat 100 and shutter at or near twice your frame rate. I shoot D-Log because it gives me more options in post with color timing, but if you don't want to mess with it there are a few nice presets. There's a thread here regarding the noise filter kicking in if you have your sharpness set to 0 or below, but honestly I'm not seeing it and I have mine set to -1 to curtail the moire/aliasing. Yes in low light situations it can get a bit mushy but that's normal with a sensor this small.

This is a question. Wouldn't the addition of an ND filter by definition cause the ISO to increase? Or are you saying - and I really am asking here so I can learn - that u set ISO to 100 and put on an ND filter?

Reason I ask is I just received PP cinematic ND's and I'm not quite sure how to use them yet,

Filmscum · Apr 28, 2017

Since the camera doesn't have an aperture you only have iso and shutter speed to get exposure. So setting the ISO manually to 100, the filters will make you adjust your shutter speed to get the proper exposure. Like I said most have the best luck with your shutter speed being twice the frame rate (this mimics a 180° shutter on a motion picture camera), so if you're shooting at 30 fps you'll want a shutter speed at or near 1/60. I've found that a little over that is fine (just don't let it go under 1/50), but if you're shutter speed is really high you'll probably get rolling shutter effect or jello. Likewise if you need to up your ISO to 200 or even 400 youll be fine, it's just the higher the ISO the more noise you're going to have especially in your darks. The EV reading is a great tool, it will be 0 if your properly exposed (again a little over or under is fine). I find it best to be under exposed as opposed to over. Once your whites get blown out there's nothing you can do, but you can always adjust levels and curves in post to bring detail out of your darks.

Of course when you're flying your exposure will change depending on all kinds of factors, that's why nothing is set in stone as far as settings. Hope this has cleared things up for you a bit.

treytexag · Apr 28, 2017

OK, this is good. Thanks FScum for the detailed explanation. Appreciate you taking the time to write it down . . . . I get it now!!

Hogbert_1999 · Apr 28, 2017

Definitely a big thanks here too great info and again appreciate the time taken to document it in a way that makes it easier to understand

Ziggy01 · Apr 28, 2017

All manual always. Plus 1 sharpness and style set to cine. DaVinci post with some nr applied. Very little required if the exposure is set correctly. Polar Pro nds and 50 over 25fps at 100 ISO whenever possible.

Filmscum · Apr 28, 2017

On my Mavic at least, +1 sharpness is way too sharp, and I get moire and aliasing with anything 0 and over. I have mine set to -1 and unless I'm in a low light situation I don't get the noise filter mushiness people talk about. 30 years in the motion picture industry makes me believe I have a pretty good eye for these things. When the weather clears here I plan to do a + 1/-1 sharpness comparison video to see if this NR filter thing is an issue in all Mavics or just some.

This was all shot with -1 sharpness. Despite the Vimeo compression I think it's pretty sharp.

Ziggy01 · Apr 28, 2017

Nice video. -1 would be mush on my mavic. What format are you shooting (style)? The shadows read blue on my monitor, is that auto WB?

avanti1963 · Apr 28, 2017

Looks great, really nice work!

Grungymike95 · Apr 28, 2017

Blades said:
I set up like this off a youtube video

Thanks for that. My mavic is being delivered this Monday. Will try the settings you've listed for sure.

esquire · Jun 4, 2017

Filmscum said:
On my Mavic at least, +1 sharpness is way too sharp, and I get moire and aliasing with anything 0 and over. I have mine set to -1 and unless I'm in a low light situation I don't get the noise filter mushiness people talk about. 30 years in the motion picture industry makes me believe I have a pretty good eye for these things. When the weather clears here I plan to do a + 1/-1 sharpness comparison video to see if this NR filter thing is an issue in all Mavics or just some.

This was all shot with -1 sharpness. Despite the Vimeo compression I think it's pretty sharp.

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This video is insane. I obviously have something really mucked up with my Mavic because my videos look like s*** by comparison. You da man!

Marco Cantieni · Jun 5, 2017

After going through all this mess with the Mavics 4K issues, I've finally found a good workflow:

1. It starts with filming in 2.7K, ISO100, 60-120fps using an ND16 filter, sharpness +1 contrast -1, saturation -1, color profile ART.

2. I've colorgraded the footage using mLUT from motionvfx.

3. I've reduced the GOP effect and removed existing noise with NeatVideo using the profile specifically created for the Mavic "The Film Poets"

This is the result: