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Typhoon H & Phantom - Low Light Video quick test

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I often wondered how the Typhoon H and Phantom would perform in pretty much total darkness (3 hours after sunset). Most of us will fly in the evening and point the camera at the setting sun to film, but what if you point the camera in the opposite direction... how much image noise do you get??? If you take Photos, you can leave the shutter open to capture nice images, but what if you only wish to capture video and there are no bright objects immediately near, but rather far away and the sky is now 100% black everywhere? Here is a quick test and the results are not that bad... the video footage would be useable.

Note: I did not use the NIGHT mode for the Typhoon H because I find that all it does is turns up the exposure and lets in much too much noise.

 
Interesting and well done again Captain, thanks!
But be careful flying in the evening or the night ;)
 
Very interesting, good job, Cap. Low light is something I'd been wondering about. As you said, not much difference. I might give the first set to the H, but the last was a dead heat for sure.

Because you are always upfront, your comparisons and other videos are educational and...FUN!
Now I gotta go back outside and finish blowing leaves off my driveway with my H.
 
While I appreciate the comparison, you say she will be flying a Phantom and flash the Phantom 3 (cant tell what flavor of the 3) and when you say Phantom you show a picture of the 4. IMHO that's a bit confusing. She was obviously flying the 3 which doesn't have what is esentially the X3 camera in it which is different with some optical tweaks that were made to the Phantom 4 which IMHO takes a much better low light shot than 3. I won't make any judgements about it compared to the H though because I would have to see my own comparisons for that judgement. But as an owner of a Phantom 3 Pro and a P4 (and now 2 H's lol), I can say with asurity that the P3 does not do as well as the P4 in low light so just wanted to make sure there was no confusion.

(To be fair, I haven't watched the whole video yet as I have to go pick up my daughter but I noticed this at the beginning of the video and just thought I would mention it). Looking forward to watching it in all when I get back!
 
Very interesting, good job, Cap. Low light is something I'd been wondering about. As you said, not much difference. I might give the first set to the H, but the last was a dead heat for sure.

Because you are always upfront, your comparisons and other videos are educational and...FUN!
Now I gotta go back outside and finish blowing leaves off my driveway with my H.
Thanks!
 
While I appreciate the comparison, you say she will be flying a Phantom and flash the Phantom 3 (cant tell what flavor of the 3) and when you say Phantom you show a picture of the 4. IMHO that's a bit confusing. She was obviously flying the 3 which doesn't have what is esentially the X3 camera in it which is different with some optical tweaks that were made to the Phantom 4 which IMHO takes a much better low light shot than 3. I won't make any judgements about it compared to the H though because I would have to see my own comparisons for that judgement. But as an owner of a Phantom 3 Pro and a P4 (and now 2 H's lol), I can say with asurity that the P3 does not do as well as the P4 in low light so just wanted to make sure there was no confusion.

(To be fair, I haven't watched the whole video yet as I have to go pick up my daughter but I noticed this at the beginning of the video and just thought I would mention it). Looking forward to watching it in all when I get back!

I put a note in the video description to clarify this. The plan was to have the Phantom 4 but it's in the DJI shop due a motor problem. My sister (in the video) has the Phantom 4 and I can honestly say that to my eyes there is almost zero noticeable difference in video or picture quality between the Phantom 4 and Phantom 3 Professional. In low light the differences are difficult to see. This was not a comparison video but rather just a video to show how these cameras operate in such conditions. The reason that you will rarely see true honest video low light comparisons between a Phantom 3 Professional and a Phantom 4, is because if the exact same settings are used and both cameras are pointing in the exact same direction with the same lighting, it's difficult to see any difference, unless you really zoom into the photo.
 
I put a note in the video description to clarify this. The plan was to have the Phantom 4 but it's in the DJI shop due a motor problem. My sister (in the video) has the Phantom 4 and I can honestly say that to my eyes there is almost zero noticeable difference in video or picture quality between the Phantom 4 and Phantom 3 Professional. In low light the differences are difficult to see. This was not a comparison video but rather just a video to show how these cameras operate in such conditions. The reason that you will rarely see true honest video low light comparisons between a Phantom 3 Professional and a Phantom 4, is because if the exact same settings are used and both cameras are pointing in the exact same direction with the same lighting, it's difficult to see any difference, unless you really zoom into the photo.

Please conduct a real test between a P4 and the H and remove this video as it is only confusing people. I am looking into buying the H yet decided to wait until some of the reported issues are being fixed. This video will only confuse people like me who want a true side-by-side comparison.
 
I've certainly been impressed by low light videos - they're still comparatively rare and the cameras we have on these drones do surprisingly well in the conditions.
 
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Please conduct a real test between a P4 and the H and remove this video as it is only confusing people. I am looking into buying the H yet decided to wait until some of the reported issues are being fixed. This video will only confuse people like me who want a true side-by-side comparison.

Ahhh.... but my video is not a camera comparison test.

Most long time Phantom owners (Phantom 1, Phantom 2, Phantom 2V+, Phantom 3 Pro, Phantom 4) out there know that there is no camera difference (that the eye can detect) between the Phantom 3 Professional and the Phantom 4. When DJI made the Phantom 4, the differences were the gimbal & obstacle avoidance & tap/follow me features which was the only reason for the upgrade. Many hoped that the camera was also upgraded, but soon found out that it was just "tweaked" rather than upgraded since the Phantom 3 Pro camera was already amazing. The Phantom 5 will be the one with a fully new camera.

If you wish to see what a Phantom 4 sees in the dark and a Phantom 3 Professional, just do a seach on YouTube for any NIGHT videos of New York City. People there always try to capture the city at night. Sadly you'll see that everything looks the same. This is also why there really are only a handful of camera comparison tests between the P3 Professional and the Phantom 4, because the results are pretty much identical. You'll also noticed that the people doing the comparisons make the typical newbie mistakes of actually flying the drone vice just placing it on the ground and comparing the camera's with the same lighting and pictures, pointing in the same direction as you would in any camera comparison test.
 
I've certainly been impressed by low light videos - they're still comparatively rare and the cameras we have on these drones do surprisingly well in the conditions.
This is true. I fully expect there to be a pile of noise and artifacts in the image when the light is low or next to non-existant, but it's actually pretty clean.
 
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