Night shots very dark?

Mcc1218 · Jul 12, 2020

Does anyone else find shooting footage at night on the Mavic Air 2, to be very dark?

Footage seems to be better on the Mavic Mini at night.

hiflyer201 · Jul 12, 2020

I don't have a lot of experience flying at night. I had to use a pretty high IS0 to video fireworks. 6400 I think. Actually I screwed up at first and forgot to remove the ND filter.

sar104 · Jul 12, 2020

Is it because it's dark at night?

Mcc1218 · Jul 12, 2020

Hi thanks for the response, well yes it is dark outside at night however the footage is practically unusable. Whereas the same shots from a Mavic Mini seems to show more detail and video image.

I've attached two screen caps of similar shots to show the difference in night shot quality.
Both drones were being operated and taking these shots at the same time.

k9kids · Jul 12, 2020

We’re both shot in auto or manual mode?

Mcc1218 · Jul 12, 2020

Both shot in auto, I tried to adjust the Mavic Air 2 but still not much luck...

I can also confirm no filters were used.

k9kids · Jul 12, 2020

Hmmm.

Only difference could be how DJI treats the larger sensor vs the smaller Mini.

Could be an algorithm difference choosing best exposure.

sar104 · Jul 12, 2020

Mcc1218 said:
Hi thanks for the response, well yes it is dark outside at night however the footage is practically unusable. Whereas the same shots from a Mavic Mini seems to show more detail and video image.

I've attached two screen caps of similar shots to show the difference in night shot quality.
Both drones were being operated and taking these shots at the same time.

View attachment 107602 View attachment 107603

Are you shooting in raw or JPEG? And how could adjusting the exposure on the MA2 not have made a difference? You can always increase ISO or exposure time. I would get some raw images, which have a greater bit depth, and change the exposure compensation to +1 or +2, and then see how much more detail is in the shadows.

Mcc1218 · Jul 12, 2020

I've tried to adjust the settings manually and there is no change regardless of how extreme I change the settings.

I may to contact DJI and work out if it's a defective drone...

k9kids · Jul 12, 2020

Since the Mini doesn’t shoot in RAW, these are just JPEG images.

What resolution was the Air 2 pic.

sar104 · Jul 12, 2020

Mcc1218 said:
I've tried to adjust the settings manually and there is no change regardless of how extreme I change the settings.

I may to contact DJI and work out if it's a defective drone...

It's more likely that you have it set up incorrectly. Can you post a screen shot of the camera settings?

Mcc1218 · Jul 12, 2020

Both of these are screen captures of the final recorded video. The screen captures are only to highlight and demonstrate the difference in quality between my two drones.

Mavic Mini - 2.7k resolution
Mavic Air 2 - 4k resolution

k9kids · Jul 12, 2020

Here’s a thread talking about shooting in 2.7K vs 4K.

Apples to Oranges

Mavic Resolution 7 Details comparison 4k vs 2.7k ; JPG vs. DNG

Hi ! I made some effort to gt a feeling if 4k delivers more Details then 2,7k. If that would NOT be the case then i better go for 2,7k as the "per pixel" compression ratio is better. I even had "compression sharpness pumping" in my maiden flight bt i am very picky aout it (60% grass, 30% trees...

mavicpilots.com

sar104 · Jul 12, 2020

Mcc1218 said:
Both of these are screen captures of the final recorded video. The screen captures are only to highlight and demonstrate the difference in quality between my two drones.

Mavic Mini - 2.7k resolution
Mavic Air 2 - 4k resolution

It looks like you forgot to attach any images.

k9kids · Jul 12, 2020

He did at the beginning.

Mcc1218 · Jul 12, 2020

Well these are screenshots from my phone of my drone in my apartment with my room lights on for each ISO setting.

I appreciate the responses received so far and I wondered if anyone else could shed some more light on my issue.

sar104 · Jul 12, 2020

Mcc1218 said:
Well these are screenshots from my phone of my drone in my apartment with my room lights on for each ISO setting.

I appreciate the responses received so far and I wondered if anyone else could shed some more light on my issue.

Right - so you have shown that you can alter the settings and get different results.

Mcc1218 · Jul 12, 2020

sar104 said:
Right - so you have shown that you can alter the settings and get different results.

Is this normal, in terms of the video only being visible at 1600 ISO despite being in a well lit room?

sar104 · Jul 12, 2020

Mcc1218 said:
Is this normal, in terms of the video only being visible at 1600 ISO despite being in a well lit room?

It's not possible from the images to tell how well lit that room is. But yes - not obviously abnormal. Here's an M2P in a room with a normal level of lighting at night:

jmorales71 · Jul 13, 2020

Mcc1218 said:
Does anyone else find shooting footage at night on the Mavic Air 2, to be very dark?

Footage seems to be better on the Mavic Mini at night.

I have this one , I think is fine

Mcc1218 said:
Does anyone else find shooting footage at night on the Mavic Air 2, to be very dark?

Footage seems to be better on the Mavic Mini at night.

I have this one I think is fine , what do you think?