Hello Fellow Yuneec Pilot!
Join our free Yuneec community and remove this annoying banner!
Sign up

VIDEO - How to set Shutter Speed, ISO & White Balance

Joined
Apr 4, 2016
Messages
1,358
Reaction score
961
Age
61
Location
Ottawa, Canada
With the past two firmware updates for the Typhoon H, there have been a few changes as to how manual camera settings work. In this video I keep it very basic and show how to quickly set the White Balance, ISO and Shutter Speed.

At the end of the video is a two minute sample of video I have taken using the manual settings. I did not post process the video nor did I use ND filters. Also, the stock Typhoon H camera lens was used. Every video clip you see was filmed in "Gorgeous" and for 90% of the clips, the White Balance was set to SUNRISE/SUNSET.

 
With the past two firmware updates for the Typhoon H, there have been a few changes as to how manual camera settings work. In this video I keep it very basic and show how to quickly set the White Balance, ISO and Shutter Speed.

At the end of the video is a two minute sample of video I have taken using the manual settings. I did not post process the video nor did I use ND filters. Also, the stock Typhoon H camera lens was used. Every video clip you see was filmed in "Gorgeous" and for 90% of the clips, the White Balance was set to SUNRISE/SUNSET.
Hey Captain, thanks again for the helpful vids. Two questions:

1. In your video you gave some examples shot over the last 2-3 months. You said all was shot in gorgeous mode. Why do you use this mode as opposed to normal mode? Just to avoid post processing? Just wondering.

2. Do find yourself wishing there was a way to set a custom White Balance on the TH? You know, using a 15% gray card or something like that? I often find I don't like the looks of my WB using any of the presets, including Auto or Sunrise/Sunset. Again, just wondering what your thoughts are on this. Thanks again!

Edit: After viewing your video a second time I see there is lot's of stuttering in the footage. Guess you can thank YouTube and their crappy compression algorithm for that.:mad:
 
Thanks for the tips. Your videos look great. In watching your videos I noticed some videos appeared to be jerky while other were smooth. The first video of the soccer field during the day seemed a little jerky. While the video of the lighthouse and marina were sharp and smooth. I have an HD dash cam in my truck and I get the same effect when I play back my videos. I called the manufacturer and was told that it is normal. That is caused by all the digital processing going on in the HD camera and the camera is constantly adjusting focus and white balance depending on the situation. I guess the same hold true for the CG03+. I am not a photographer and for the most part always leave my setting in auto.
 
Thanks for the tips. Your videos look great. In watching your videos I noticed some videos appeared to be jerky while other were smooth. The first video of the soccer field during the day seemed a little jerky. While the video of the lighthouse and marina were sharp and smooth. I have an HD dash cam in my truck and I get the same effect when I play back my videos. I called the manufacturer and was told that it is normal. That is caused by all the digital processing going on in the HD camera and the camera is constantly adjusting focus and white balance depending on the situation. I guess the same hold true for the CG03+ also.
@Drone On More likely than not it's a result of how YouTube compresses your videos once they've been uploaded. You see this problem much less with the Vimeo service.
 
2. Do find yourself wishing there was a way to set a custom White Balance on the TH? You know, using a 15% gray card or something like that? I often find I don't like the looks of my WB using any of the presets, including Auto or Sunrise/Sunset. Again, just wondering what your thoughts are on this. Thanks again!
It is easy to set WB using a grey card. I place a grey poster board underneath the H and point the camera downward so that it is seeing only the grey that is illuminated by the sun. Tap the "Lock" button on the screen and this will set your WB. Make sure you do not have the grey card shaded by the H. Areas which are shaded will be too blue as they are illuminated by the blue sky.
 
It is easy to set WB using a grey card. I place a grey poster board underneath the H and point the camera downward so that it is seeing only the grey that is illuminated by the sun. Tap the "Lock" button on the screen and this will set your WB. Make sure you do not have the grey card shaded by the H. Areas which are shaded will be too blue as they are illuminated by the blue sky.
Hey Riverrunner. That's a really good idea but the bummer is that you have to do this each time you land the TH and change out batteries. Worse, if you should accidentally Unlock your WB setting while flying, don't you then lose your grey poster WB setting until you land and do it again? That's why I wish there were a Custom WB setting that you could use for a particular flying session.
 
Hey Captain, thanks again for the helpful vids. Two questions:

1. In your video you gave some examples shot over the last 2-3 months. You said all was shot in gorgeous mode. Why do you use this mode as opposed to normal mode? Just to avoid post processing? Just wondering.

2. Do find yourself wishing there was a way to set a custom White Balance on the TH? You know, using a 15% gray card or something like that? I often find I don't like the looks of my WB using any of the presets, including Auto or Sunrise/Sunset. Again, just wondering what your thoughts are on this. Thanks again!

Edit: After viewing your video a second time I see there is lot's of stuttering in the footage. Guess you can thank YouTube and their crappy compression algorithm for that.:mad:

1. When the Typhoon H first came out, Gorgeous mode was terrible. Then after the first firmware update it became a bit better. Then when Yuneec added the D-Pad functions, the Gorgeous mode was almost perfect. It was at this point I no longer needed to post-process video from the Typhoon H. Of course if I used Gorgeous mode and shot in Auto Exposure and White Balance, it looked only good about 30% of the time.

2. Yeah, the WB adjust on the Typhoon is pretty much hit or miss. What I would prefer is just a selector switch where I can dial in the kelvin temperature (warm/cool), like on a normal camera. I do find though that the auto white balance is pretty good when you first turn on the ST16 & Typhoon H... as long as the camera is facing away from the sun (light source) and objects are far off in the distance (grass field, dirt, trees, cars, whatever). It seems to get the WB pretty much correct. I've locked it in on several occasions and it's been great. Then when flying if it seems to be a bit off (too warm or cool), I then just switch to SUNRISE/SUNSET.
SUNNY & CLOUDY are for a planet other than planet earth because they are too warm and too cool of a white balance.

I noticed the jitters as well. Oh well, when you upload in 4K to Youtube, the bitrate gets terribly reduced as does the file format so that it can be streamed to computers quickly. One of the side effects will always be not so smooth motion. The only fix is if you can force YouTube to accept a higher bitrate. I don't bother because it would then take 5 hours to upload a 5 min file.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: JohnL
Hey Riverrunner. That's a really good idea but the bummer is that you have to do this each time you land the TH and change out batteries. Worse, if you should accidentally Unlock your WB setting while flying, don't you then lose your grey poster WB setting until you land and do it again? That's why I wish there were a Custom WB setting that you could use for a particular flying session.
I agree. I wish there was a way to save all camera settings. I like to keep exposure compensation at -0.5.
 
Thanks for the tips. Your videos look great. In watching your videos I noticed some videos appeared to be jerky while other were smooth. The first video of the soccer field during the day seemed a little jerky. While the video of the lighthouse and marina were sharp and smooth. I have an HD dash cam in my truck and I get the same effect when I play back my videos. I called the manufacturer and was told that it is normal. That is caused by all the digital processing going on in the HD camera and the camera is constantly adjusting focus and white balance depending on the situation. I guess the same hold true for the CG03+. I am not a photographer and for the most part always leave my setting in auto.

The CGO3+ should never produce a jerky or jittery image. At my end (original footage), it's smooth as butter. The problem is YouTube and bitrates for 4K files. If I upload a 5 min 4K file at an average bitrate it will take 5 hours to upload.... for this reason I use a lower bitrate and compression format which only takes 20 mins. YouTube uses it's compressing algorithm on my already compressed video to squeeze it even smaller so that it can be streamed via the internet.... so lots of data is lost at this point that YouTube algorithm decides to leave out, hence jerky video when doing slow movements.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jcommstudios
It is easy to set WB using a grey card. I place a grey poster board underneath the H and point the camera downward so that it is seeing only the grey that is illuminated by the sun. Tap the "Lock" button on the screen and this will set your WB. Make sure you do not have the grey card shaded by the H. Areas which are shaded will be too blue as they are illuminated by the blue sky.

I like that! I will have to give that a try. Thanks!
 
I like that! I will have to give that a try. Thanks!
I expect it would work with a white card as well. I wish it would lock exposure in the same way. It is difficult to judge in manual mode just looking at the screen. I uppose I could use a handheld light meter to measure exposure from the grey card and manually set the camera to that value.
 
Thanks once again for the tips CD. I've had my H since May and haven't yet tried using the gorgeous setting since I thought it was too saturated. Looks like I need to look at it again. I started using the sunrise/sunset pre-set because of your original video and also found it works best most of the time.

As for 4K, because few have playback devices that can deliver a 4K image and that even fewer web sites can effectively stream it I shoot video in 1080. For still pictures I always set video to 4K because it seems to generate a much better still photo. Vimeo is indeed the way to go for the best viewing experience.

Edit:
Having a break in the weather this morning I stepped out the front door to give your suggestions a try. WOW! I had difficult conditions with a deepening cloud deck, sunrise poking through, and a lot of water vapor and smoke but I really liked the results for both video and still photos. I did a test video in 1080 keeping he H stationary, using the gimbal for a 360* rotation to establish how changing light impacts everything. I liked what it delivered. I'll put it up on Vimeo and post here a bit later. If anyone wants to check barrel distortion, take a look at the fruit transport crates that appear in the last half of the video at the bottom of the video. Not the best video, all the suspended moisture diffuses focus and most everything was still in sunrise shadow, but it definitely supports what you are sharing with us.

Thanks for all your efforts and sharing your experiences with us. You make it a lot easier for a great many!

For those that haven't visited Vimeo before, you can select playback resolution by clicking on the "HD" letters. Works best if you go directly to Vimeo by clicking on "Vimeo" on the right side of the control bar. Going direct to Vimeo also permits full screen viewing. When provided, audio is adjusted by clicking on the vertical lines on the right side of the control bar. No ads or annotations thrown over your videos at Vimeo, ever. Vimeo has several user levels. There's a free membership version that has limited upload, and a couple of pay versions with each providing more and more upload sizes. If you are a commercial operator you can show the cost of membership as a business expense.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
I expect it would work with a white card as well. I wish it would lock exposure in the same way. It is difficult to judge in manual mode just looking at the screen. I uppose I could use a handheld light meter to measure exposure from the grey card and manually set the camera to that value.
I find the exposure very simple on these drones. Exposure usually is the sum of Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed. On all the hobby drones to date, the aperture is fixed, which makes the exposure setting even easier. For most days where the sun is shining and the sky looks blue (not white), I set it at 1/640 second and everything is great. Here is a tip: Most times you want the exposure to be darker vice lighter, so when you look at your ST16 screen and you're trying to set the shutter speed between 1/800 or 1/640 and both look good.... go with 1/640.
 
I find the exposure very simple on these drones. Exposure usually is the sum of Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed. On all the hobby drones to date, the aperture is fixed, which makes the exposure setting even easier. For most days where the sun is shining and the sky looks blue (not white), I set it at 1/640 second and everything is great. Here is a tip: Most times you want the exposure to be darker vice lighter, so when you look at your ST16 screen and you're trying to set the shutter speed between 1/800 or 1/640 and both look good.... go with 1/640.
Kind of like the "Sunny 16" rule in the days of film. If you were without a light meter, on a sunny day, you could get a good exposure using 1/shutterspeed at f/16. Digital media behaves more like slide film in that it better tolerates underexposure rather than overexposure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JohnL

New Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
20,954
Messages
241,586
Members
27,284
Latest member
csandoval