This document describes the exposure setting procedure for drone mapping missions with DJI M300 and P1 camera.
In the very beginning of photogrammetry mission, pause the mission and switch from the map view to the camera view by tapping the video preview in the lower left corner of the screen.
Go to the Camera Settings menu by tapping the Camera settings button:
Make sure the Aperture Priority mode is enabled.
ISO setting:
ISO 100 if it is sunny weather
ISO 300 if it is overcast weather
ISO 500 if it is very dark weather
ISO level above 500 will produce too much ISO noise. We want to avoid that.
Change the EV setting to:
-0.7 if it is sunny weather
-0.7 if mapping a bright building (Inflights Roof Mapping)
-0.3 if it is slightly overcast weather
0 if it is dark weather
0 if you are mapping dark objects like coal stockpiles or other dark objects
0 for agriculture field mapping projects
Make sure this is a negative value! You can do it by clicking the minus button under the EV setting.
Now slide the Aperture value:
Aperture 2.8 if it is overcast weather (sky fully or mostly covered by clouds)
Aperture of 4.0 or a bit more if the weather is very sunny (if you see the Shutter Speed value more than 1/1000s).
DJI P1 camera switches the shutter it uses for Electronic Shutter once the shutter speed is set to be faster than 1/2000s.
Electronic Shutter produces distortions on a moving drone so keep you shutter speed in a range from 1/320s to 1/2000s.
If you see Shutter Speed lower than 1/320 then limit the drone speed!
Now resume the mission!
Make sure that the drone speed is set according to the shutter speed!
Flying speed: Set the Flying Speed according to shutter speed to minimize the motion blur. We don’t accept blurry images!
- Shutter speed 1/100: 1.5 m/s
- Shutter speed 1/120: 2 m/s
- Shutter speed 1/160: 3 m/s
- Shutter speed 1/200: 4 m/s
- Shutter speed 1/240: 5 m/s
- Shutter speed 1/320: 6 m/s
- Shutter speed 1/400: 6 m/s
- Shutter speed 1/500: 10 m/s
- Shutter speed 1/640: 10 m/s
- Shutter speed 1/800: 10 m/s
- Etc.
- NEVER FLY FASTER THAN 10 M/S (due to minimum required time between captures)
If you want to learn more check out our YOUTUBE channel for free tutorials: