P4A - working with focus, aperture, iso, shutter speed

[shuggins]

Even though this forum is for P4P...is it ok to post about Phantom 4 Advanced here? It has the same optics as the P4P....

I knew upgrading from a Phantom 4 Standard to P4A would be a step up....but WOW. I had no idea it's totally in another galaxy as far as the camera is concerned. Anyone have decent tips on when to use Auto Focus, manual focus, and also a decent rule of thumb on "depth of field" (f-stop)?

I knew all this would be new, having had a P4S for quite a while which is much simpler to set camera and just go, but any quick tips for you P4A or P3P owners? I watched a lot on youtube, but it's just a bit over my head at this point. If I could just have a decent knudge in the right direction for getting all this right with my P4A, I'd very much appreciate it! Just something to start with.

Despite not having a clue on much of this, the quad's camera is seriously something special. Man o man... if I put the work in earning how to set the camera up before flying, then it'll be even more awesome...

Thanks for reading and happy flying!

 

[Meta4]

Even though this forum is for P4P...is it ok to post about Phantom 4 Advanced here? It has the same optics as the P4P....

It has the same everything as the P4 pro (except for a couple of trivial details).

I knew upgrading from a Phantom 4 Standard to P4A would be a step up....but WOW. I had no idea it's totally in another galaxy as far as the camera is concerned.

It's really quite similar.
It just has the ability to control the aperture and the lens is able to be focused.

Anyone have decent tips on when to use Auto Focus, manual focus, and also a decent rule of thumb on "depth of field" (f-stop)?

Auto-focus has served me well for three years and I've not had to use manual focus.
You don't need to think about depth of field as the lens has more DoF than you'd need at any aperture.

I knew all this would be new, having had a P4S for quite a while which is much simpler to set camera and just go, but any quick tips for you P4A or P3P owners?
If I could just have a decent knudge in the right direction for getting all this right with my P4A, I'd very much appreciate it! Just something to start with.

If you want a good place to start that will get great exposure most of the time, without being too complicated, try this for most subjects and situations in daylight.
Set your ISO manually to 100
Set your exposure method to A for Aperture priority
Set your aperture to f5.6
Using aperture priority, the camera will select an appropriate shutter speed to match the lighting conditions at the aperture you have selected.

That should get good results most of the time.
When/as you gain experience, you can take things further and make changes like opening the aperture when you need more light in dim situations.
Or if your exposures are consistently a little over-exposed, you can set the exposure compensation to slightly underexpose from what the camera wants to use.

When you get an image that doesn't work, try to identify the problem and work out ways to do it better.
A common example is people shoothing sunsets with half of the image too bright and the other half too dark.
To the camera's meter it's OK because it's looking at an average of bright and dark.
Sometimes you have to think a little further than the meter can.

 

[shuggins]

Meta4- Thanks a ton! After reading your post, I looked up Aperture Priority. Many simple youtube video demonstrations for P4P Drones on this - as well as for DSLR cameras. Never woulda known about it.

Nice that with iso locked down on 100, and only Aperture being adjusted, that the shutter will automatically be set. So really, in the daylight hours, f-stop is the only thing to worry about.

So how did you come up with F5.6? Is it because that is right in the middle for the Aperture? Sorry for newbie questions.

 

[Meta4]

So really, in the daylight hours, f-stop is the only thing to worry about.

And you don't need to worry about it much at all.

So how did you come up with F5.6? Is it because that is right in the middle for the Aperture?

There's no magic or calculation involved.
It's just a good aperture that works well in daylight with this camera.
Except for a couple of night or low-light shots, almost all the images in this gallery would have been shot with those settings:

Shipping Photography Examples - Above & Beyond Photography

This gallery hosted by SmugMug; your photos look better here.

abovephotos.smugmug.com

 

[shuggins]

Dang! So those photos are all yours? Spectacular. I'm excited to get going with this... tomorrow I will be trying Aperture Priority.

Thanks again. Maybe with a bit of experience I will get some shots like your shipping examples. Those are real good.