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Best Settings for 7 bracket to get full HDR range on Anafi

Plastic3D

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Hello Parrot World!

I am really enjoying my first drone experience! After weeks of learning to work with the app in bracketing photos, I am now at the point where I have seven bracketed images to combine into one HDR image, however the EV variance ranges only from -1.8 to +1.8, and the last two images in this bracket are clones of image #5. Ideally the image range would go even brighter, and even darker, increasing the dynamic range and to take full advantage of all seven images. Using iPhone8 and latest FreeFlight 6 v6.6.9

I locked ISO to 100 and set white balance to sunny/clear for this HDR series.

1. Are there any setting recommendations such that I can eke out even more EV range out of this camera?
2. Why is the EV only limited to -1.8 to 1.8 and not the full -3 to +3 range that is suggested in the documentation?
3. What are the physical limitations of the the shutter speed with this camera? (ie is 1/4115 the fastest shutter speed?)

Any thoughts or suggestions would be most appreciated!!
Cheers,
Eric

EV Settings Bracketing.JPG
 
Hello Parrot World!

I am really enjoying my first drone experience! After weeks of learning to work with the app in bracketing photos, I am now at the point where I have seven bracketed images to combine into one HDR image, however the EV variance ranges only from -1.8 to +1.8, and the last two images in this bracket are clones of image #5. Ideally the image range would go even brighter, and even darker, increasing the dynamic range and to take full advantage of all seven images. Using iPhone8 and latest FreeFlight 6 v6.6.9

I locked ISO to 100 and set white balance to sunny/clear for this HDR series.

1. Are there any setting recommendations such that I can eke out even more EV range out of this camera?
2. Why is the EV only limited to -1.8 to 1.8 and not the full -3 to +3 range that is suggested in the documentation?
3. What are the physical limitations of the the shutter speed with this camera? (ie is 1/4115 the fastest shutter speed?)

Any thoughts or suggestions would be most appreciated!!
Cheers,
Eric

View attachment 4287
The Anafi has a fixed lens aperture. This allows you to adjust the exposure with two values: ISO and shutter speed.
Because he put one in the manual position, he could only control the shutter speed, which reached the maximum at photo 5.
 
I read on an Anafi review site that the shutter speed is capable of 1/10,000 of a second. I wish the bracketing would go ahead and access that capability, otherwise bracket shots 6 and 7 are completely wasted.

Has anyone ever had a full successful bracketing?! I can only get 5 brackets, even when using the 7 bracket setup (the last two are clones of shot #5).

Cheers,
Eric
 
I read on an Anafi review site that the shutter speed is capable of 1/10,000 of a second. I wish the bracketing would go ahead and access that capability, otherwise bracket shots 6 and 7 are completely wasted.

Has anyone ever had a full successful bracketing?! I can only get 5 brackets, even when using the 7 bracket setup (the last two are clones of shot #5).

Cheers,
Eric
Try lower ISO or AUTO ISO mode
 
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Thanks Gipsz! I'm already at 100 ISO, the lowest possible ISO, the top bracket maxes out at about 1/4000 of a second or just 1.8 EV.. why isn't it going up to the full advertised +3 EV, or down to the -3 EV? Is it a limitation of the firmware? I wish there could be a bracketing override feature.
 
Try a higher iso!
Try 200 /400 for a test.
That could give you the information, if 1/4115 is the quickest, not the 1/10000 it is saying in the manual


I have/had that too, the last 3 pictures are pretty much the same on 1/4115s
Funny thing, it is still saying that the exposure bias is -1/-2/-3 step
 
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Thanks Ana! Unfortunately it just gets worse at higher ISOs. Here is 7 bracketing results on a blue sky day with a few clouds, using ISO 800. I'm beginning to think that this is an inherent problem with the Anafi, at least with the firmware, it is not nearly reaching the full +/- 3 EV as advertised. I have written technical support and will report back with their response.

I also tried 160 ISO but the results were similar to ISO 100 as earlier posted, with even less difference between shot #4 and #5.

EV Settings Bracketing_ISO800.JPG
 
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I am still getting the same results with 7-bracket. Only a +/- 1.8 maximum variation under ISO100 lock. Has anyone shot a successful 7-bracket series that uses the full +/- 3EV spectrum? I have shot over 80 tests and cannot achieve this.
 
In reply to Zandoli and Gipsz suggestion, here is a series with full auto-everything. I *do need* to put a lock on something because I am shooting and stitching 360s, and without a lock, every photo will have variables and will not stitch properly.

Notice that even with full auto and a blue sky with clouds, the Anafi limits itself to +/- 1.8 EV, and the last two images are just clones of #5

Time after time, in over twenty hemispherical sky captures using all Auto, I received similar results with limited EV range.

EV Settings All Auto.JPG
 
So, what do you get in a row of 5, only?
Is that the same like the first 5 in the row of 7?
 
Ana789 that is a great question and I finally did a test.

5 Bracket only gives *three* unique exposures, see here:bracket5.JPG

and 7 bracket in the same composition yields *four* unique exposures:
bracket7.JPG

If firmware / software engineers are reading this, I believe what we need in order to fix this problem is a user-defined bracket settings page... so there could be an *auto* bracket mode, and a custom bracket mode - where user can enter the upper / lower limits for the bracketing.

Has anyone else other than Ana and myself experienced the same issues? It may not be an isolated problem.
 
Do you have ND filters?
It looks more and more, that 1/4115s is the max speed, the electronic shutter can be switched on/off in
So using filters could be the only chance, to get a bracket with 5 or 7 different pictures?

Edit:
But looking at the 5 bracket: there is even the brightest picture missing!
I assume a coding problem in the app/fw!
 
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I do have filters, but that will miss the point of my needs for HDRI. These will be used for lighting 3D environments, and I need the full brightness of the sun to do that.
Ana, I find your thought process very clever though, because the only times I can achieve near full dynamic range with all seven unique exposures, and that is when the sun is low in the sky, and the sky is dark - near sunset time. Even in this example, I am only getting +/- 2.5EV


seven exposures in dark sky.JPG
 
Anafi is obviously NOT be able to do quicker as a 1/4115 s
That is not even half of the advertised speed!

" Shutter speed: electronic shutter 1 to 1/10000s "

Edit:
I better write "some Anafi"!
Because that can be one "bad" delivery with slightly changed specifications for the "electronic switch" (shutter), which can restrict this shutter speed to 1/4115s.
Which is still very fast, though!
 
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Are there *some* batches of Anafi that can reach 1/10000s or do you think they are all limited by the electronic switch?
 
Are there *some* batches of Anafi that can reach 1/10000s or do you think they are all limited by the electronic switch?
I just know, things can happen.
And I just dont know any (imperial?) time measurement , that can be mistaken with 1/4115s, so that someone in France thought, it might be 1/10000s

Think about it, this shutterspeed is twice as slow as advertised.
I really doubt that a company, selling the products in the US and aiming for a contract with the US military , would do that any other way, then by an "honest mistake"!

:eek:
 
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This is a bummer.. I may sponsor a "competition" thread here to see how fast shutter people can get.
I thought Parrot was against military use, but I guess now that I think about it, they may want to charge a premium for military use. Just recently FLIR got a $30 million contract for military use mini drones for the battlefield.
 
I did several tests today. Very sunny and my results were the same. The last 3 photos all had the same EXIF info. This left 4 photos to make a HDR. I have always found anything over 3 is over kill for my needs but the OP is correct if the setting is there it should work as advertised. I suggest sending in your findings to Parrot and see if they can relay it to the developers.
 
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