Hello Fellow Mavic Pilots,

Anyone have some great tip on capturing clean night video with the Mavic.  My 1st attempt while shooting the Chicago skyline was super noisey.  Thanks in advance

Was using 2.7K, auto focus, all standard settings out the box.

To decrease noise, first thing will be to shoot in manual mode, so you can get the ISO to the lowest setting.

chalde Posted at 2017-7-19 11:20
To decrease noise, first thing will be to shoot in manual mode, so you can get the ISO to the lowest setting.

Thanks for the tip, Ill test it out tonight

The ISO range for video for the Mavic is only 100 to 3200.
ISO 3200 is totally inadequate to avoid image noise in low-light conditions.
The Mavic photo specs are even worse: maximum ISO 1600.

Special software exists that will be able to clean out image noise, but you will lose some image sharpness.

I have had great results using the highest ISO settings for both pics and videos. They look pretty clean without having to loose to much details when applying noise reduction. Look at my work and you'll see that you dont have to be affraid of using the higher ISOs

I usually use 3200 ISO for night video shooting, anything less than that and your video will be very under exposed. I alsp try shooting in 4k 24fps so I can get the most light and details.

The problem with the mavic is its a low budget action camera hanging off it.  Generally even ISO200 produces noisy and sometimes unusable results.  This generally means in low light you're going to be forced to up the ISO and are going to have lots of noise.  You can try adding post processing NR but it is going to wash out lots of detail.

Manual settings. ISO100, shutter start with highest and then start going down and see how the pictures change until you find your best settings. It also depends on each location how strong and how far the light is etc... So it is up to you to practice and get familiar with your drone.

Asainz320 Posted at 2017-7-19 16:39
I have had great results using the highest ISO settings for both pics and videos. They look pretty clean without having to loose to much details when applying noise reduction. Look at my work and you'll see that you dont have to be affraid of using the higher ISOs

where is your content posted?

Photography 101...  In photography, lots of  light is usually your very best friend. If you have too much, you can always filter it, reduce aperture (Mavic can't do that), reduce ISO, or increase shutter, and using any of these controls will make your images even better. When you don't have enough light, the problems stack up quickly and every fix requires compromise. Too much ISO makes images grainy, large aperture gives less focusability, slow shutter will blur your images. The only way to capture stunningly professional images at night, is to have a large lens to actually capture more light. If night shots are your thing, and if you want them to look like they do in the magazines, you need to fork out some serious cash and buy an Inspire.

STRIDE8 Posted at 2017-7-25 07:49
where is your content posted?

Here.

This video was shot at 3200 ISO with no noise reduction in post. It is noisy but still with lots of details and good color.

gnirtS Posted at 2017-7-19 17:10
The problem with the mavic is its a low budget action camera hanging off it.  Generally even ISO200 produces noisy and sometimes unusable results.  This generally means in low light you're going to be forced to up the ISO and are going to have lots of noise.  You can try adding post processing NR but it is going to wash out lots of detail.

It's not so much that the camera is low budget, but that it's small. They made it small to create a lightweight portable drone. Larger lenses tend to capture more usable light with less compromise.

TrevorSK Posted at 2017-7-25 09:28
Photography 101...  In photography, lots of  light is usually your very best friend. If you have too much, you can always filter it, reduce aperture (Mavic can't do that), reduce ISO, or increase shutter, and using any of these controls will make your images even better. When you don't have enough light, the problems stack up quickly and every fix requires compromise. Too much ISO makes images grainy, large aperture gives less focusability, slow shutter will blur your images. The only way to capture stunningly professional images at night, is to have a large lens to actually capture more light. If night shots are your thing, and if you want them to look like they do in the magazines, you need to fork out some serious cash and buy an Inspire.

An Inspire with the updated camera right? I did a shootout with an Inspire 1 and let me tell you that the image quality is the same or slightly less than the Mavic! The lens on the Inspire is a bit wider so when we did the test the Inspire had to get a lot closer to the subject to capture the same frame as the Mavic. When  the shots were compared on the PC I was stunned to see that the Mavics quality was the same and in some instances better than the Inspire 1.

TrevorSK Posted at 2017-7-25 09:28
Photography 101...  In photography, lots of  light is usually your very best friend. If you have too much, you can always filter it, reduce aperture (Mavic can't do that), reduce ISO, or increase shutter, and using any of these controls will make your images even better. When you don't have enough light, the problems stack up quickly and every fix requires compromise. Too much ISO makes images grainy, large aperture gives less focusability, slow shutter will blur your images. The only way to capture stunningly professional images at night, is to have a large lens to actually capture more light. If night shots are your thing, and if you want them to look like they do in the magazines, you need to fork out some serious cash and buy an Inspire.

I guess ill be grainy then.. LOL I have seen people with great video shot with the Mavic

Asainz320 Posted at 2017-7-25 09:32
Here.

This video was shot at 3200 ISO with no noise reduction in post. It is noisy but still with lots of details and good color.

OHHH You are the Miami pics guy.. Yeah your stuff came out nice.  Thanks for the tip

STRIDE8 Posted at 2017-7-25 11:39
OHHH You are the Miami pics guy.. Yeah your stuff came out nice.  Thanks for the tip

LOL! Yeah Im the Miami pics guy!

Dirty Bird.. So if you are on auto, how can you keep the iso locked?

Dirty Bird Posted at 2017-7-25 16:37
I generally just leave the camera in full auto * get decent results.  Try locking your ISO @ 1600.

https://youtu.be/9LC2zrmaSmc

Looks pretty good. Did you clean up any graininess in post?

Dirty Bird Posted at 2017-7-25 16:37
I generally just leave the camera in full auto * get decent results.  Try locking your ISO @ 1600.

https://youtu.be/9LC2zrmaSmc

Thats a great video!!! I had to read the description on the YouTube video to see what you did. I was already thinking there was no way you could have been flying that far and behind buildings and still keep a feed lol! Awesome work!

Wow... decent result... can you share the sharpness contrast saturation setting? And which firmware did you use? Thanks

I mean for Dirty Bird