Hi everyone.

New poster, soon to be new user.  I am starting up an Aerial Photography company here in Ireland, and I have chosen the Inspire 1 as my initial device to get me off the ground, if you will excuse the pun!  

My question is, ahead of me getting my Inspire, has anyone ever tried long exposure night photography with the Inspire 1.  Is the gimble stable enough for 10-30 sec exposures?  Is it even possible?

Thanks.

Great night shots: yes! There are many examples out there.....

10-30 second exposures: no....

http://www.dji.com/product/inspire-1/spec

Check out the specs....

You aren't going to get any sort of acceptable sharpness out of anything over 1-2 seconds...you're just asking far too much of the gimbal and GPS to get you 10-30 seconds.  Even on firm ground, that requires a rock-solid tripod.

Thanks guys.  I knew it was a longshot, but you never know until you ask (or read the specs!!)

That was always going to be a side-project, as I do a lot of long exposure work with my regular setup.  

Just in case you didn't look......you will get great shots if you have some experience with night or low-light photography. There are many examples on RCGroups forum and DJI website.


Max exposure time  is 8 seconds on this camera. It's rock solid in air for long exposures. Mileage will very with your experience ....

Have a look here:  https://www.skypixel.com/photos/altweilnau-night

This was a shot done with 4 seconds exposure time and some post production work in Photoshop.

r-preusser Posted at 2015-4-15 09:16
Have a look here:  https://www.skypixel.com/photos/altweilnau-night

This was a shot done with 4 sec ...

Technical Comment : Good shot, but probably not as sharp as an SLR on a tripod.  Not bad tho.  Can't wait to have a go myself.
Content Comment : What the hell is that shadow in the background.  I'm intrigued!!  Excellent composition.

If I wanted something as sharp as an SLR on the ground , I would use an SLR on the ground. But if you old get that SLR up 400 feet and compare, I would be even more impressed.

Hi!
This two shots was taken at long exposure:

First:  1sec , 100ISO
Second: 3,2 sec. 200ISO

REDBARON Posted at 2015-4-16 05:08
If I wanted something as sharp as an SLR on the ground , I would use an SLR on the ground. But if yo ...

I tend to agree.  I suppose there is always going to be a trade-off between stability and perspective!!

giero Posted at 2015-4-16 05:33
Hi!
This two shots was taken at long exposure:

Nice shots, well done.  I'm becoming more encouraged as I see more results.  As I said above, there is a trade off between stability and perspective, but that trade-off is getting smaller and smaller.

Exactly what I was getting at..

jon.rauschenber Posted at 2015-4-15 05:30
You aren't going to get any sort of acceptable sharpness out of anything over 1-2 seconds...you're j ...

I have done 2second pianos and when you layer a few images the results are excellent.

How do you configure the exposure?

So I have a long exposure project in mind. I've read the specs on the phantom 3, a lil dissapointed that 8 seconds is the longest achievable but I can work around this by laywering  multiple exposures.

My goal and I have permission to do so already is to fly the drone to the roof top of buildingsI idea is to land it on the edge of the ledge on top of the roof, at which point I turn off the blades so there is no movement and begin long exposure.
in order to achieve a sharp, crisp long exposure it has to be completely at a stand still. Building manager has given me clearance to access the roof top at which point I'll fly the drone another 100ft up where I can rest it on the flat ledge of a platform thats about 20ft wide, plenty of room to land. climbing up to this ledge will be difficult but flying and landing it there is easy plus i'll have direct line of sight.

i've never flown these drones so i'm not too familiar with that part

my question is:
if i fly this drone, land it on a ledge...can i turn off the blades so there is no movement?
goal is to angle to camera and have drone close enough to the edge where the angle of view has a clear shot on the city skyline with hope i can angle it downward for tilt shift like and long exposures of the city down below. My aim is to reproduce a tripod by simply landing it, turninf off blades than begin long exposure so its rock solid still.

can anyone shed some light if this can be done?

or does the drone only take pictures while its hovering?
can I land the drone, stop the blades and than take pictures?

Yes, the camera has full functionality as long as the inspire is powered up.  You will however have to land, pointing in the general direction of interest as the landing gear will have been lowered and you dont want that in your shot.  you should also note that you will probably have the ground that you have landed on in your shot also due to the short distance of the camera from the landing surface.

Jason

both are 8 sec exposures. with post processing in adobe photoshop of course.

Nice shots!

Here's a shot I got of the Philadelphia skyline with about a 1 second exposure.