MA-2 Night flying.

Mazdaman323lx said:

Hello folks , looking for advice on night flying with the Mavic air 2. Obviously +3 with the exposure , but should I be shooting in 4k , what frames a second etc to get best results.
Footage I got so far a bit grainy and sodium lights seem very red unless the gimbal angled down.
As always any advice suggestions appreciated.

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Frame rate needs to be as low as possible, as that sets the minimum video shutter speed. Certainly do not use 60fps!

Mazdaman323lx said:

Hello folks , looking for advice on night flying with the Mavic air 2. Obviously +3 with the exposure , but should I be shooting in 4k , what frames a second etc to get best results.
Footage I got so far a bit grainy and sodium lights seem very red unless the gimbal angled down.
As always any advice suggestions appreciated.

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Thanks for this, I've just recently become interested in night flying (built up the nerve to do ? ) .

MA2 is not the best recording at night because the size of the sensor. I will do not raise the ISO more than 400 because the video will be garbage with so much noise unless you have no choice.

zeusfl said:

MA2 is not the best recording at night because the size of the sensor. I will do not raise the ISO more than 400 because the video will be garbage with so much noise unless you have no choice.

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Any video taken at night will most likely be at ISO 3200, even at 24fps. No choice, without gross under exposure, unless it is a well illuminated stadium.

Yup, that’s why I say if you have no choice.

zeusfl said:

Yup, that’s why I say if you have no choice.

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Technically, you do have a choice, if you shoot in manual mode. However, the result will be gross underexposure.

If you want quality, shoot hyperlapse which is essentially still photos. Otherwise, don't expect too much on image quality. You will get a "4K" footage, that's all.

Apart from the problems of exposure, if you haven’t placed one already you will need a strobe mounted on the top per FAA

boblui said:

If you want quality, shoot hyperlapse which is essentially still photos. Otherwise, don't expect too much on image quality. You will get a "4K" footage, that's all.

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On that suggestion, could the hyperlapse waypoint path be created during the daytime then saved for recovery later at night, to be flown then? That would cover the safety aspect.

I agree taking night time videos with the MA2 is challenging. I shot this hyperlapse of the full moon last month after taking sunset shots that same afternoon. It was shot from our local flying field but I didn't buzz around or worry about hitting anything just rose straight up to about 300 ft., aimed at the moon and started shooting. It's grainy I know but I'm new to video editing and haven't learned how to clean up the graininess yet. Nonetheless it's the best night recording I've done so far and I thought it was good enough to publish on my YouTube page and share here since the subject is night flying and video quality.

nice stuff !!!! Thank for sharing.

rcourtney671 said:

I agree taking night time videos with the MA2 is challenging. I shot this hyperlapse of the full moon last month after taking sunset shots that same afternoon. It was shot from our local flying field but I didn't buzz around or worry about hitting anything just rose straight up to about 300 ft., aimed at the moon and started shooting. It's grainy I know but I'm new to video editing and haven't learned how to clean up the graininess yet. Nonetheless it's the best night recording I've done so far and I thought it was good enough to publish on my YouTube page and share here since the subject is night flying and video quality.

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I think this would have been less grainy had you used an ND filter.
I recently returned from Portland where I got some night shots (with a ND 8 as I recall?) on a river that have almost no graininess and the brightness is about the same as I could see with my naked eye.

Noted, thanks. Actually I recently received my order of Freewell Variable ND filters and I'm anxious to try using them in the different outside light environments this weekend.

You'll think you've gone blind or that your drone camera is kaput if you try to use ND filters at night.
The FAA requires anti-collision lighting at night and from years of flying I know that the lighting on the Air 2 looks as effective as a lot of anti-collision lighting on some aircraft as long as it's not disabled for video. Some rotating beacons on aircraft are dismal to say the least but legal.
Video at night is what it is..do you want to only see bright lights or do you like the night vision effect with noise. You're not going to get video like you see in the Movies because as anyone who has watched night filming will tell you...you can see the lights from the shooting location ..ten miles away.

G Randy Brown said:

I think this would have been less grainy had you used an ND filter.
I recently returned from Portland where I got some night shots (with a ND 8 as I recall?) on a river that have almost no graininess and the brightness is about the same as I could see with my naked eye.

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All an ND filter does is reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor, so you definitely wouldn’t want to use one at night.

Drumsagard said:

All an ND filter does is reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor, so you definitely wouldn’t want to use one at night.

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I stand corrected, I was thinking about long exposure photos at night...sorry

rcourtney671 said:

I agree taking night time videos with the MA2 is challenging. I shot this hyperlapse of the full moon last month after taking sunset shots that same afternoon. It was shot from our local flying field but I didn't buzz around or worry about hitting anything just rose straight up to about 300 ft., aimed at the moon and started shooting. It's grainy I know but I'm new to video editing and haven't learned how to clean up the graininess yet. Nonetheless it's the best night recording I've done so far and I thought it was good enough to publish on my YouTube page and share here since the subject is night flying and video quality.

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The video you posted was 1080P, did you shoot it in 1080P? It probably would have looked a little sharper had it been 4K or did it get converted when you processed it? It does look pretty good, though, course there are just limits what you can do still.