First Flight: Wonderful, but a question...

gwhiz2k · Mar 10, 2015

So, a month after I got my Inspire, I finally took her up (temp was above 5C yesterday). Launched her off my case (snow was a little deep), and landed her on the road.

After reading about so many issues, I printed off 2 of the checklists I got from this site, and paid attention to every little detail. I let the bird warm up for minute while idling on the ground, then hovered for another minute. I noticed a slight change in the sound in that minute, as if it was "warming up" a bit. I didn't push the batteries too much, knowing that LiPo's don't like cold.

Had a wonderful flight. This thing is super-responsive. I few in both GPS and ATTI (although a little too windy for ATTI, got pretty scared a few times). Went through 2 batteries getting about 14-15 minutes (I assume it was low due to the cold).

Couple things I noticed:

1. Could NOT see my tablet. Even on a darker overcast day. I need a hood. I'd like to make my own.
2. All my vids came out very dark. Maybe because I had the ND filter on? Are you not supposed to use than on an overcast day? Since I couldn't really see the tablet all that well, my camera settings might have been off too... I was more concerned with flying than video on my first few flights.

3. Really need to have the gimbal set to "follow". I had on FPV, and I noticed every yaw movement, it jerked the video.

I also didn't go very far, because I still don't have my tracker.

Here's my embarassing first vid. I post only for someone to maybe help me with the ND filter question. This vid has had the contrast/brightness turned up in Premiere. Originals were actually darker.

gwhiz2k · Mar 10, 2015

Oops... I posted this in the wrong section. Mods, can you possibly move this for me into General?

tubaornottuba · Mar 10, 2015

I dunno where you live, but it looks awesome. And nice vid, I'm excited to get my Inspire on Thursday!

It's entirely possible that the bright snow confused the camera which made it meter the scene incorrectly (thinking there was a lot more light in the scene than usual) so it decreased the exposure to compensate. You would probably have to increase the exposure by a stop or so to override it.

Even on an overcast day the snow is going to be very bright to a camera's sensor (it expects most scenes to be a mix of light and dark stuff).
It seems that when you panned to where there were a lot of trees in the vid, it brightened the scene a little.

Kilrah · Mar 10, 2015

Likely wrong camera settings.
With a mostly white subject you should manually add some positive EV compensation, same with any photography tool.

Mazz · Mar 10, 2015

gwhiz2k said:
Oops... I posted this in the wrong section. Mods, can you possibly move this for me into General?

Ask and you shall receive....

I think everyone should start their videos with a quick hello to the cam. Liked that

.

gwhiz2k · Mar 10, 2015

Kilrah said:
Likely wrong camera settings.
With a mostly white subject you should manually add some positive EV compensation, same with any photography tool.

Thanks

I'll try again when I get back out to the cabin. Transport Canada has made flying anywhere near my house ("built-up area") next to impossible, but now that I know it flies well, I won't always need to find a big open area like that.

Would have helped me if I could actually SEE the tablet...

gwhiz2k · Mar 10, 2015

Mazz said:
Ask and you shall receive....

I think everyone should start their videos with a quick hello to the cam. Liked that .

My first "Dronie".

gwhiz2k · Mar 10, 2015

tubaornottuba said:
I dunno where you live, but it looks awesome. And nice vid, I'm excited to get my Inspire on Thursday!

It's entirely possible that the bright snow confused the camera which made it meter the scene incorrectly (thinking there was a lot more light in the scene than usual) so it decreased the exposure to compensate. You would probably have to increase the exposure by a stop or so to override it.

Even on an overcast day the snow is going to be very bright to a camera's sensor (it expects most scenes to be a mix of light and dark stuff).
It seems that when you panned to where there were a lot of trees in the vid, it brightened the scene a little.

Should I have used the ND filter at all on a shoot like that?

I'm in Winnipeg, MB, Canada, but that was shot a ways north of here (where it's legal to fly

)

tubaornottuba · Mar 10, 2015

gwhiz2k said:
Should I have used the ND filter at all on a shoot like that?

I'm in Winnipeg, MB, Canada, but that was shot a ways north of here (where it's legal to fly )

Ah, very nice place to be!
we don't get much snow here (mostly just rain) in England, but I would reckon if you were going to film at 60fps then you could probably have got away without it. However I'm not a very experienced videographer at all so I can't be sure until I learn more about the science behind it.

I certainly don't think you were wrong for using it in heavy snow, you would have to do a test with the nd and exposure compensation, and no nd filter..see which results you prefer.

For snow you'd probably be better off with a polariser, but as I understand it DJI don't make one for the Inspire yet. Again, not sure how this affects video compared to stills!

Michael Dicker · Mar 10, 2015

ND Filter during daytime if not too dark is almost a MUST-use to get to 100/120 shutter when filming in snow. So, yes use it.

gwhiz2k · Mar 12, 2015

Well, now I feel stupid. I fired her up to take the picture on my avatar today, and when I had a chance to look at the camera settings, even though I thought I had everything set to "auto", it turns out Exposure compensation was set to -1. Don't know how that happened, I don't ever remember changing it. Is there a button on the remote that controls that?

Funny how after fixing that, I could even see the tablet a bit better today. Took a couple photos and they were nice and bright. ND filter was on.

tubaornottuba · Mar 13, 2015

gwhiz2k said:
Well, now I feel stupid. I fired her up to take the picture on my avatar today, and when I had a chance to look at the camera settings, even though I thought I had everything set to "auto", it turns out Exposure compensation was set to -1. Don't know how that happened, I don't ever remember changing it. Is there a button on the remote that controls that?

Funny how after fixing that, I could even see the tablet a bit better today. Took a couple photos and they were nice and bright. ND filter was on.

I believe the right-hand jog wheel on the shoulder of the controller is set to exposure compensation by default (when the camera is in auto), in manual you can switch it between settings shutter/exposure comp/iso
It's number 12 on the attached image.

The controller in the picture is upside-down, In case you've just woken up like I did when I tried to read it!

Edit: image now working..