Aperture Phantom 4 Pro Megathread

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I recently upgraded from a phantom 3 pro to phantom 4 pro and with this upgrade, comes the addition of an aperture setting. My understanding is that the phantom 3 pro had a fixed aperture at F2.8.

My main question is when would you ever need to use a smaller aperture than F2.8? I understand that decreasing the aperture decreases the light coming in to the sensor, but does this also make the photo blurry?

Can someone explain or post a link to what aperture setting is appropriate for different types of photos?
 
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I recently upgraded from a phantom 3 pro to phantom 4 pro and with this upgrade, comes the addition of an aperture setting. My understanding is that the phantom 3 pro had a fixed aperture at F2.8.

My main question is when would you ever need to use a smaller aperture than F2.8? I understand that decreasing the aperture decreasing the light coming in to the sensor, but does this also make the photo blurry?

Can someone explain or post a link to what aperture setting is appropriate for different types of photos?
The lense probably performs best at f4 or f5.6. The aperture controls how much light hits the sensor and is also a good option to using nd filters to reduce shutter speed. F4 halves the light compared to f2.8 (and can he compared to nd2) f5.6 halves noe more time (comparable to nd4) and f8 halves again (nd8). F11 again but now we start to get potential side-effects.

Note for video we normally aim at a shutter speed = 1 /(frame rate * 2) for a smooth, cinematic look. 30 fps goes very well with 1/ 60 shutter speed and a nd filter and / or aperture helps in this regard.
 
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I recently upgraded from a phantom 3 pro to phantom 4 pro and with this upgrade, comes the addition of an aperture setting. My understanding is that the phantom 3 pro had a fixed aperture at F2.8.
My main question is when would you ever need to use a smaller aperture than F2.8? I understand that decreasing the aperture decreasing the light coming in to the sensor, but does this also make the photo blurry?
Can someone explain or post a link to what aperture setting is appropriate for different types of photos?
There's often lots of light or even too much.
Leaving the aperture full open is not always the way to get the best images.
Changing the aperture can change the way the image looks and it helps to achieve a particular shutter speed you might want for effect.
Here's a simple explanation of how a variable aperture is used in photography:
What Is Aperture? | Understanding Camera Aperture from Nikon from Nikon
And here's another good guide to some photography basics:
Understanding ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture - A Beginner's Guide
 
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Thanks for the great input so far. From your statements above, it seems like aperture is another way to adjust the light that gets to the sensor, like a filter would do.

Does the aperture effect the focus or depth of field in any way? Forgot to bring this up in the original question.
 
Thanks for the great input so far. From your statements above, it seems like aperture is another way to adjust the light that gets to the sensor, like a filter would do.

Does the aperture effect the focus or depth of field in any way? Forgot to bring this up in the original question.

Aperture is not only to control light. Depth of field is directly affected by aperture. The bigger the aperture (small number) less in focus you have, less DOF. The smaller the aperture (high number) you have more in focus, bigger DOF.

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Thanks for the great input so far. From your statements above, it seems like aperture is another way to adjust the light that gets to the sensor, like a filter would do.
Does the aperture effect the focus or depth of field in any way? Forgot to bring this up in the original question.
Yes ... it's all explained in the links I included.
 
There's often lots of light or even too much.
Leaving the aperture full open is not always the way to get the best images.
Changing the aperture can change the way the image looks and it helps to achieve a particular shutter speed you might want for effect.
Here's a simple explanation of how a variable aperture is used in photography:
What Is Aperture? | Understanding Camera Aperture from Nikon from Nikon
And here's another good guide to some photography basics:
Understanding ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture - A Beginner's Guide
Nice job on the links. A fantastic sUAS pilot still needs photography 101.
 
Your lens is going to perform best within a certain range. You can adjust it a little to change DOF but with the P4P, you're not going to notice much. With the P4P, your best off trying to keep aperture in working range and use NDs as appropriate reduce light coming into the sensor.
 
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I typically shoot urban landscape shots. The article suggests using a large f stop (f11) to make sure everything in the photo is in focus. I will try this


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I typically shoot urban landscape shots. The article suggests using a large f stop (f11) to make sure everything in the photo is in focus. I will try this
Try all kinds of things.
Lenses of different focal lengths have different Depth of Field characteristics.
The very wideangle lens on the P4p already has a lot of depth of field before you start adjusting the aperture.
This shot was taken at F5.6 and is sharp all over.
DJI_0205a-X2.jpg

Stopping down the aperture on the Phantom only increases DoF a little because it is already good.
 
Thanks for the input. This is exactly the type of input I was looking for on this thread. I'm sure other people agree
DoF is a huge concern with longer lenses but not so much with very wideangle lenses which already have a lot of depth of field.
Adjusting the aperture on the Phantom will change the DoF, but not as much as you might imagine.
Here are some numbers to show what the actual effect is:
At f2.8 and focused at 50 feet - everything from 12ft - infinity is in focus
At f5.6 and focused at 50 feet - everything from 6ft - infinity is in focus
At f11 and focused at 50 feet - everything from 3ft - infinity is in focus​
With the Phantom, Depth of Field is only a real concern if you are focusing on a very close subject.
For general aerial photography where everything in the picture is distant, it doesn't make much difference.
 
Gotcha. Based on your comment above, It seems like it's more of a tool to get different levels of light to the sensor more than anything, almost eliminating need for filters


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Gotcha. Based on your comment above, It seems like it's more of a tool to get different levels of light to the sensor more than anything, almost eliminating need for filters

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Diffraction makes an image softer. Diffraction happens when you close a len's aperture past a certain level. Different lens have varying threshold but for P4P lens, diffractions starts as early as F8.
 
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Diffraction makes an image softer. Diffraction happens when you close a len's aperture past a certain level. Different lens have varying threshold but for P4P lens, diffractions starts as early as F8.

I have done some experiments with different apertures. I would recommend that you stay below F8. By the time you get to F11 the image is very muddy.
 

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