Thanks! Was hoping the Milky Way would be over the cabin but it was in the opposite direction obscured by trees, so did the star trails instead.
Chris
Night Milky Way Landscapes with the P$P?
- Thread starter RickCo
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Thanks! Was hoping the Milky Way would be over the cabin but it was in the opposite direction obscured by trees, so did the star trails instead.
Chris
Let’s call f1.8 f2, close enough- that would give you 30s @ 400 ISO. While your looking at the EXIF data drag a few into an editor and look at the histogram, I think you will find you are nowhere near clipping.
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It’s an interesting idea but as others have said, 2-3 seconds is about the max I can get in the p4p with s y sort of consistency. In addition, both p4p I’ve had so far have had very jumpy/twitchy gimbals. I’ve been playing with DeepSkyStacker - Free recently and very impressed with what it can do, but I don’t think even with software like that we could pull enough light at 3 secs at f2.2 iso1600.
Plus, if you get 20 good minutes of 5sec interval shooting (the max for RAW) that’s 240 pics. Even at a generous 10% hit rate that’s 24 pics. I’d think you’d need 100+ if there was any chance of pulling out enough info with the short exposures and the noise at 1600.
All that said ... you do make me curious.
from my own experience I would def not recommend buying a p4p if you are doing sonthinking you can create those shots. But it’s possible, maybe, just maybe, with utterly perfect conditions and 3 days of post processing?
Plus, if you get 20 good minutes of 5sec interval shooting (the max for RAW) that’s 240 pics. Even at a generous 10% hit rate that’s 24 pics. I’d think you’d need 100+ if there was any chance of pulling out enough info with the short exposures and the noise at 1600.
All that said ... you do make me curious.
from my own experience I would def not recommend buying a p4p if you are doing sonthinking you can create those shots. But it’s possible, maybe, just maybe, with utterly perfect conditions and 3 days of post processing? 
Rick: First of all, just get a P4P. It will open up various avenues for photography. (I began my photography career, after first learning on a Pentax K1000, with the Nikon F4 back in the days of slide film, so I know quality. The P4P is “good enough”.)
We’re in the perfect spot on our nature reserve, very close to the South African National Observatory, altitude 5,500ft above sea level, no light/industrial pollution. But I’ve only done a bit of astrophotography - from the ground. The Milky Way is better here than seen from Sudan, Australia, Utah USA, etc. So I get why you want to do the photography.
What I don’t understand is why shoot the Milky Way from the air? Is it to get the ground part of the image from a different angle, which would be different. The stars part would be the same as taken from the ground. Apologies if I’m being thick and missing something obvious!
As Chris has said above, you can’t get an all-sky viewpoint as the gimbal has certain restrictions.
We’re in the perfect spot on our nature reserve, very close to the South African National Observatory, altitude 5,500ft above sea level, no light/industrial pollution. But I’ve only done a bit of astrophotography - from the ground. The Milky Way is better here than seen from Sudan, Australia, Utah USA, etc. So I get why you want to do the photography.
What I don’t understand is why shoot the Milky Way from the air? Is it to get the ground part of the image from a different angle, which would be different. The stars part would be the same as taken from the ground. Apologies if I’m being thick and missing something obvious!
As Chris has said above, you can’t get an all-sky viewpoint as the gimbal has certain restrictions.
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I’ll def second “just get it” for the same reasons as above. I had the original phantom and it was “fun” but the p4p (and Mavic) are solid cameras that have inspired me with so many new ideas.
Re: night sky from air - dunno about op but from where I live in northeast US it’s quite difficult to find a wide open view of the sky. I could def see wanting to get a nice combo ground/sky shot w. The milky way from the air around here.
Ps can I come visit in S Africa?? Sounds lovely there!
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Your drone, even stabilized, is not a tripod which is a requirement for any shooting of the night sky.
I have backed/ordered one of these:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/...lest-astronomy-camera-photography/x/8225207#/
Drawbacks:
1) It's a crowd-funding project, so it might not ever arrive (but they have been giving regular updates, and have started manufacturing components and publishing the software). Current ETA is by April 2018.
2) Not sure how to trigger an exposure in flight, but it will have a time lapse mode, so presumably I can just set it to take an exposure every X seconds.
3) I will have to rig up some kind of mount
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/...lest-astronomy-camera-photography/x/8225207#/
Drawbacks:
1) It's a crowd-funding project, so it might not ever arrive (but they have been giving regular updates, and have started manufacturing components and publishing the software). Current ETA is by April 2018.
2) Not sure how to trigger an exposure in flight, but it will have a time lapse mode, so presumably I can just set it to take an exposure every X seconds.
3) I will have to rig up some kind of mount
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If you succeed, I’d love to see your shots. When I want to capture “night” video shots, I find, to minimize dynamic range, I fly at pre-sunset times and darken the video in post processing to suit my needs. Trying to do still images with long time exposures would seem difficult ... even in a no wind condition. I look forward to anyone’s examples of success in filming the Milky Way with they drone
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