Montfrooij
 Captain
Flight distance : 2560453 ft
Netherlands
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Hahahahahahaha.
Where to start?
Everything is about the light that hits the sensor so that can get as much information to convert to a digital picture.
With the Mavic you have 1 way to control the amount of light that hits the sensor.
Shutterspeed. (faster shutterspeed = less light hitting the sensor = darker image)
So 1/100s shutterspeed will allow less light to hit the sensor than 1/20s
The side effect of (longter) shutterspeed is the 'risk' of motion blur. As the world has more chance to move a bit during a longer shutterspeed you might say that faster shutterspeed will give you sharper (less blurry) images.
The other thing that involves light is the ISO (sensitivity) of the sensor. If you increase the sensitivity your sensor needs less light to get a more bright image.
But the main side effect of higher ISO values is noise in your picture. (because the pixels are more sensitive, they also react to each other)
So when you bump the iso from 100 to 400 you will need less light, to get a bright image, BUT you also get more noise.
(always a tradeoff)
With other camera's (or the mavic 2 pro) you also have the aperture, but I won't include that since the original Mavic Pro does not have that.
Some other things that are important are about the lens itself.
It is used to focus your image. Unfortunately the Mavic Pro has a focus mechanism. So you need to make sure you focus your lens before pressing the shutter / rec button.
Otherwise your image is 'out of focus' and looks blurry.
Actually you wouldn't need a focus mechanism for most of the drone shots, since you will want everything to be in focus and set your focus to 'infinity' anyway.
The other thing that is important is the 'focal length' of your lens (some translate that to 'field of view' or 'zoom'). With the original Mavic Pro you can't change that. So you don't need to worry about it, until you get the Mavic 2 Zoom. That has the ability to change the focal length of the lens and change the field of view from 'wide' to 'tele'.
So much for the main settings you can change.
- Shutterspeed (faster shutterspeed = less light hits the sensor = darker image and sharper image)
- ISO (higher ISO value = you need less light BUT you get noise in return)
- Focus (make sure you tap your subject before pressing REC / shutter and see the green square to know you are 'in focus'
Now for a little bit of limitations of the sensor.
The main limitation you need to know about is the limited 'dynamic range' of the sensor of the Mavic Pro. Why is that important? When you fly around, you often get a (very) bright sky and a (rather) dark ground in your image.
Now for the sky you would need a fast shutterspeed (1/1000s) and low ISO (100), but for the ground you would need a slower shutterspeed (1/25s) and maybe even a higher ISO (400 or so) because your sensor can't deal with the difference between the bright sky and dark ground.
Especially when you shoot 'into' the sun and the sky is even brighter.
This results in either a totally white sky (blown out) or a black ground (under exposed).
What can you do about that?
Not much really, other than set your ISO to the lowest value (that will get the best dynamic range), set your camera to an 'average' exposure and live with the (too) bright sky and (too) dark ground.
Some post processing might help a little, but once your sensor has registered true white or true black, it can never get those details back.
So it is usually best to not shoot into the sun (so the ground and the sky have roughly the same brightness)
But if you really want that : make sure you dive into the picture profile and lower the contrast and saturation a bit.
(that does require post processing to make your image look better).
Auto settings
As a beginner, I would totally focus on flying the drone and not worry about the footage / images. So the 'best' thing might be to start with auto everything.
Now there are some things you can do to improve your output:
- I personally like to set my EV compensation to -0.7 / -1 so I get a bit darker image. This usually results in a more pleasing image if you ask me.
- Use your right dial to change the EV compensation if you find the image too bright / dark. (experiment with that while hovering or even with the drone on the ground)
- I like to set my picture profile to D-cinelike and lower the contrast and saturation a little. That will give me more dynamic range and less risk of blowing out the lighter parts or getting too much black that I can't work with later on.
(you will need to edit your footage in post to make it look nice)
If you are ready for 'manual' settings, these are the things to consider:
I like to get my shutterspeed as fast as possible while keeping the ISO as low as possible. (to get a sharp, low noise image)
So I usually set my shutterspeed at 1/50s or faster and the ISO as low as possible.
Sometimes there is just not enough light around and I move my shutterspeed lower (1/25s) and bump the ISO a little.
Now there are far more details to consider, but this should get you started.
Just play around with the settings. Possibly when you are NOT flying (drone on the table or so) and make sure you watch the result indoor on a bigger screen (laptop etc).
Make sure you know what your are doing with the camera system (lens, sensor) when you see a bright or dark image and want to correct this.
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lvl.4
) on the flying part and put all your attention to the camera part.