Your Drone Camera Settings are Probably Wrong

5 Comments

1. Great introductory video! I was going to comment about using a neutral-density filter after going through the exposure triangle section but was happy to see that you touched on it when talking about the 180 rule. It may have been worth also including a quick discussion about neutral-density filters at the end of the aperture discussion as it can allow you in sunny conditions to have both a wider aperture and slower shutter speed, something that can be useful not just with video but with still photography as well. The classic example is when shooting waterfalls.

2. Great video Jason!! And a great job by John as well. A very informative video about camera settings.

3. Hey Doug, with digital we are applying gain which is a boost in the electricity sent to the sensor. There are both positive and negative gains. For example, the Canon C500 has a native ISO of 850. To shoot at ISO 100, a negative gain (decrease in amount of electricity applied to the sensor) is applied to the sensor, so it has more noise at ISO 100 than ISO 850. If shooting at a higher ISO more electricity is applied. Both situations lead to more noise, which is similar to grain in a way. I loved to push process slide film when I used it to increase graininess back when I shot film.

4. A question…Since ISO is a setting that comes from film camera days, how do digital sensors relate to ISO? I ask because when you use film, you buy the film based on your ISO needs. A high ISO number means your developed image will be more grainy. Literally, the small grains that make up the film emulsion are larger the higher the ISO number. This is similar to the number of pixels available in a digital camera sensor. (like 24K or 48K for example)
   So what is actually happening when you increase or decrease the ISO number on a digital camera? You can't possibly be changing the number of pixels on the sensor like you can if you buy a different ISO numbered film in a traditional film camera. I'm curious about this because I am an old film camera user and I'm trying to wrap my head around what is really happening to the image in a digital camera. Obviously, the image isn't getting more or less grainy when I change the ISO setting.
   What I see in your video is it just makes the image have more or less contrast…

5. Thanks for the info.

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