Spent 10 minutes testing the camera today between showers, the aim of which was to establish the slowest practical shutter speed in mild windy conditions.  This was taken at 1/6 sec which I thought would be borderline or just plain blurry from vibration or motion of the drone in the wind.  I have to say it's pretty remarkable!  If you view the full size image (click the link) you'll see it's totally sharp.  Looks like I'll have to do it again because I didn't expect to get that slow without blur.

Camera settings: 1/6 sec, ISO100
Wind speed: 11.5mph, max gust: 20mph



http://nigelwilkinsphotography.com/images/DJI_0467-226223.jpg

Thanks for this. This is hopeful!

Gorgeous photograph!  Well done!

Nice sharing ! Thank you !

So what is the max wind speed you'd fly in for photos? I know DJI says don't fly in winds beyond 5 mph but what is people's real experience? Similarly lowest temp for safe flying?

mrginhop Posted at 2016-1-12 04:00
So what is the max wind speed you'd fly in for photos? I know DJI says don't fly in winds beyond 5 m ...

That needs testing & experience  to judge.  I have little with the Phantom, but I'm happy to try 20mph now, in ATTI mode.  If I won't do it in ATTI mode, I won't do it at all.  As far as taking photos is concerned the wind speed won't be the limit.  You can just use a faster shutter speed to compensate if needed & raise the ISO, depending on light levels.

5mph seems a bit low, I'm pretty sure it's higher than that.

nigelw Posted at 2016-1-12 13:45
That needs testing & experience  to judge.  I have little with the Phantom, but I'm happy to try 2 ...

The challenge is doing low light photography (e.g. lighthouse right after sundown) & being able to keep the ISO for this device at max ISO 800 since the noise is soo bad on these cameras beyond 800. Also, I like shooting with a slow speed to soften the water movement as well as better catch the lightbeam from the lighthouse. So my question is how low can the shutter speed go while keeping ISO at 800 without motion blur from the P3A. I'll be trying all this out soon but just seeing what bothers have found. Thanks

nigelw Posted at 2016-1-12 13:45
That needs testing & experience  to judge.  I have little with the Phantom, but I'm happy to try 2 ...

The challenge is doing low light photography (e.g. lighthouse right after sundown) & being able to keep the ISO for this device at max ISO 800 since the noise is soo bad on these cameras beyond 800. Also, I like shooting with a slow speed to soften the water movement as well as better catch the lightbeam from the lighthouse. So my question is how low can the shutter speed go while keeping ISO at 800 without motion blur from the P3A. I'll be trying all this out soon but just seeing what others have found. Thanks

mrginhop Posted at 2016-1-12 20:31
The challenge is doing low light photography (e.g. lighthouse right after sundown) & being able to  ...

Just had a thought. Does anyone know if these cameras or the gimbal have vibration reduction (VR) like on most digital cameras?

mrginhop Posted at 2016-1-11 23:00
So what is the max wind speed you'd fly in for photos? I know DJI says don't fly in winds beyond 5 m ...

Actually the manual states max wind speed at 10 m/s or about 36 kmph( 22.5 mph) not 5 mph.
If using a fast shutter speed the higher wind still gets good results. Slower shutter gives a surreal effect if done right. Best to experiment and see what you can do. Its fun

mrginhop Posted at 2016-1-13 01:31
The challenge is doing low light photography (e.g. lighthouse right after sundown) & being able to  ...

Yes, same here.  I didn't like ISO800 much though so probably won't go that far.  It'll be interesting to see if carbon props make any difference in still conditions as well, as I'm told they run quieter, which implies smoother.

The camera doesn't have image stabilization built in.  You can be sure they'd market it if it did (& bump the price up).  The gimbal reduces vibration effects very well.

Went out today & managed some 2 second exposures, which is unbelievable especially as the wind was ~12mph!

Camera settings: 2.0 sec, ISO100
Wind speed: 12.2mph, max gust: 16.3mph

Full sized image

I can't find the post anywhere, but there was a post a couple days ago from someone who had done 3sec shots that still lokked great.

The gimbal does have image stabilization, just not on as many planes as typical in camera IS. If it didn't you would never be getting 2-3 second shots. The gimbal stabilizes roll on all three Axis, it just doesn't stablize forward/back side to side and up and down motion. You could however say that the drone itself stabalizes these movements via GPS when hovering, just no where near as effective or accurate as the gimbal or an in camera IS system.

pantera989@gmai Posted at 2016-1-20 20:06
I can't find the post anywhere, but there was a post a couple days ago from someone who had done 3se ...

3 Seconds should be easy if the wind drops.  Any movement I had on longer exposures was due to the aircraft moving or rotating slightly rather than vibration (you can see the image trails are quite large).  8 seconds is feasible given the right conditions.

Good to know this. It does seem that the P3 can be used at 2-3 sec shutter speeds if carefully done. Hope to try even longer but when wind is way down.