To get the most detail and depth out of you videos and stills, always shoot in either D-Log or D-Cinelike
With regards to the other settings, the most important is the Sharpness setting.
It is advisable to set the Sharpness setting to +1.
If the Sharpness setting is set to 0 or below, the Mavic’s Noise Reduction kicks in and tends to make details look very mushy, especially in the dark areas (such as trees or other high contrast areas).
You can of course correct the Sharpness afterwards in post production if you feel the result is too sharp by adding a small amount of Gaussian blur (or similar blur)
As for the other two settings Contrast and Saturation, I tend to use -1 for Contrast and 0 for Saturation.
The image/video off the SD Card will look quite flat, even more so if using D-Log, but this does give you a lot more depth in the greys/blacks and with a little Post Production work will result in an amazing image/video.
I’m currently snapping pics in JPG format, would I still see a benefit in changing the sharpness value? And without any filters? (I don’t have any yet)
You’re spot on though, all the pics I’ve taken of trees and woodland look pretty dire With that exact mushy effect that you’ve described there.
The reason for my JPG format? Quit simple… I’d never even heard of D-Log or D-CineLike before I got my Mavic
JPEGs are fine if you just want to quickly show someone an image you have shot. But JPEGs are a lossy format and are processed in camera when created.
Much better to shoot RAW and spend 5-10mins on it in Lightroom (other 3rd party apps are also available) to get the most out of what the sensor has captured.
Here is a link to a how-to on my general work flow with Mavic Pro stills:
Hi I’m new to my mavic pro.
Whats the best setting roughly for filming as when I film the auto white balance changes the colours as I turn due to the light or I believe it is. I might not have got this in correct terms as I’m only just learning.
Thanks
Set white balance manual. (Sunny, cloudy etc).
This sets it a specific Kelvin number so that will help.
Exposure wise more difficult. With a still picture you can set exposure relatively easily using thumb wheel until you get a good exposure. With the fact you could be with facing sun or sun behind for example while your flying it gets bit more difficult.
A rule of thumb for getting realistic blur and non jittery movement when filming is to set your shutter speed twice the value of frame rate. 24fps would 1/48 but 1/50 shutter speed is fine. This is done with settings in manual mode and would require a ND filter on the camera to reduce shutter speed.
Polar pro do an app which can help figure out which ND filter you need to use.
Plenty of tips on YouTube. I’m by far no expert but take a look on there. You’ll soon get to grips with it all.
I generally set to cloudy for the main unless its really sunny, again its one of those settings you need to have a play with and see what works for you.
Stills not so much of a problem, but for video AVOID auto, you don’t want it changing mid shot, it can look nasty when its going from bright areas to shadier ones
Unless there’s a good reason, I pretty much leave white balance on cloudy.
Covers most conditions acceptably without adjusting in post, and can improve sunset/sunrise pics/video.
Just a white balance correction is perhaps one of the easiest things in post.
With that exact mushy effect that you’ve described there.
