Aperture.. ND filter?

jimmyjimmyv · Nov 19, 2017

So, I see that this P4P/A has an adjustable aperture. Does this mean I could get away with carrying less ND filters? I mean, would a 8 & 16 do, because I could just stop the aperture down? Also at what ISO does noise start becoming a problem?

one more, sorry.. with the mavic, I had to slow down the gimbal movements. Is there a sweet spot on these P4P's ?

With The Birds · Nov 19, 2017

If your shooting with the sun high and open sky you would need an ND8 to have a shutter of 1/50s at f11 (assuming your looking for a frame rate of 24fps). Given the experience of those who have tested the P4P for diffraction limited performance it seems f5.6 is the smallest aperture you may whish to employ for acceptable sharpness. You would probably get away with an ND16 and 32. Noise seems performance seems good up to around 400ISO (confirmed by DXO labs testing (400 actual, the camera depicts a higher ISO across the whole range).

msinger · Nov 19, 2017

KevMo Photog · Nov 19, 2017

jimmyjimmyv said:
So, I see that this P4P/A has an adjustable aperture. Does this mean I could get away with carrying less ND filters? I mean, would a 8 & 16 do, because I could just stop the aperture down? Also at what ISO does noise start becoming a problem?

one more, sorry.. with the mavic, I had to slow down the gimbal movements. Is there a sweet spot on these P4P's ?

An 8 and a 16 is most you'll ever need unless your shooting desert or snow scenes imo. This keeps formula of double your shutter of frame rate right in there at the best apertures on this lens. Which seem to be F4- F5.6 1/2 And then just use the stock clear for your night time stuff if you shoot it.

jimmyjimmyv · Nov 19, 2017

I just shot some video at f/8.0, 1/160, ISO 400 and it looked great.. not perfect but I wouldn't have been able to do that with the Mavic.

With The Birds · Nov 19, 2017

jimmyjimmyv said:
I just shot some video at f/8.0, 1/160, ISO 400 and it looked great.. not perfect but I wouldn't have been able to do that with the Mavic.

Why not F4 ISO100? You would have had 7db better SNR and close to 2 stops more dynamic range to play with.

KevMo Photog · Nov 19, 2017

jimmyjimmyv said:
I just shot some video at f/8.0, 1/160, ISO 400 and it looked great.. not perfect but I wouldn't have been able to do that with the Mavic.

I would shoot in 100 ISO as much as possible as long as you have aperture to go to. F4 is great like with the birds guy said. No need for F 8 on vid at all. Its a wide lens and everything is in focus anyway. At night time I will shoot vid in 1600 ISO at F 2.8. And it looks pretty darn good. But def wouldn't up ISO in daytime.

jimmyjimmyv · Nov 19, 2017

KevMo Photog said:
I would shoot in 100 ISO as much as possible as long as you have aperture to go to. F4 is great like with the birds guy said. No need for F 8 on vid at all. Its a wide lens and everything is in focus anyway. At night time I will shoot vid in 1600 ISO at F 2.8. And it looks pretty darn good. But def wouldn't up ISO in daytime.

With those settings, my exposure was dead nuts at 0..
I wouldn't normally shoot at f/8, I don't have ND filters yet and wanted to see what happened with that small of an aperture. Turns out, it still looks pretty decent. My other hobby is photography so I'm pretty well versed in the exposure triangle.

With The Birds · Nov 19, 2017

KevMo Photog said:
I would shoot in 100 ISO as much as possible as long as you have aperture to go to. F4 is great like with the birds guy said. No need for F 8 on vid at all. Its a wide lens and everything is in focus anyway. At night time I will shoot vid in 1600 ISO at F 2.8. And it looks pretty darn good. But def wouldn't up ISO in daytime.

The DXO labs testing on the P4P revealed that actual ISO at the 1600 setting was 1200 and that 1200 was the maximum regardless of what higher settings were dialed in. At 1200 ISO you loose around 3 stops in DR with 12db reduction in SNR. It’s better to have the image though and do what you can in post if the circumstances don’t allow a lower ISO.

KevMo Photog · Nov 19, 2017

jimmyjimmyv said:
With those settings, my exposure was dead nuts at 0..
I wouldn't normally shoot at f/8, I don't have ND filters yet and wanted to see what happened with that small of an aperture. Turns out, it still looks pretty decent. My other hobby is photography so I'm pretty well versed in the exposure triangle.

yeah F 8 is fine as long as your shutter is close to double frame rate. To get the cine look. Frame rate vs shutter speed is what is effecting the blur between frames.