EVO II 6K Low Light Panorama Test (Photography)

[herein2021]

I finally had time to test the lowlight performance of the EVO II 6K in lowlight and at the same time I decided to not only test the lowlight capabilities of the sensor, but also to test the stability of the EVO II when there is no wind. A good test for that is to try to shoot and stitch a panorama.

All I can say is that this drone has finally truly impressed me. The lowlight performance and quality is better in my opinion than the Inspire with its M43 sensor at least at lower ISOs. The stability was pretty incredible too, it only took me seconds to stitch the images together and I didn't look closely but I did not see any obvious stitching errors that would have needed Photoshop to fix..

Here is an individual image in case you are on a cell phone since the panorama is too big to properly display on a cell phone.



This panorama is composed of 5 individual images stitched together.

View attachment Project-02092021-AP-LowLightTest (1) Panorama.jpg

 

[robertmarcos]

That's a fabulous image, very inspiring and great to know it's something we can do. Thanks for sharing it!

 

[herein2021]

That's a fabulous image, very inspiring and great to know it's something we can do. Thanks for sharing it!

Thank you. Also in case anyone is wondering how to get the most out of their EVO II 6K camera for lowlight / night drone photography here is what I recommend:

• Perfectly Calm Day - For a clear lowlight picture you need a slower shutter speed, any wind will make the image blurry at those lower shutter speeds.
• Balanced Props - If there is anything wrong with your props (chips, bent, previous crash, etc.) the drone will vibrate more than is normal while in the air, I don't recommend flying with damaged props at all but if you do, then your night footage will greatly suffer due to the shutter speed requirement.
• Shoot Manual Mode - this pretty much goes without saying, but you need to shoot manual mode to get the best image.
• Shoot RAW Images - this kind of goes without saying as well, you need to shoot in RAW and develop the image in a RAW image processor (i.e. Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture One, Luminar, etc.) to get the best image.
• Camera Settings - This one of course is the most important; I recommend not going over ISO 800, set the Aperture to F2.8, and set the shutter speed to 1/20s. For White Balance use either Daylight or set it manually to 3600K. I did not test it, but it may be possible to drop the shutter speed all the way down to 1/10s or 1/5s and lower the ISO to 400 but you could start to lose sharpness if the drone is moving in the slightest.
• Use Available Light - All cameras need light....no exceptions. So if you live in the middle of nowhere with no lights you simply will not be able to take pictures with the drone after the sun sets. I see people send the ISO to 1600+ all the time and then blame the camera for not taking perfect images. If you want good lowlight images you need to still get as close to a light source as possible; cityscapes, building lights, civil twilight remaining light, etc.
• Use Civil Twilight - To get an image that looks like it was shot in the middle of the night without violating any Part 107 restrictions, (like my sample one) shoot 20min before civil twilight ends then bring down the blacks until it looks like it was the middle of the night unless you have a Daylight Operations Waiver. Starting 1 March though Daylight Operations waivers will no longer be needed for anyone that takes the new recurrent exam so night footage will become more common.

 

[gschulzuio]

Starting 1 March though Daylight Operations waivers will no longer be needed for anyone that takes the new recurrent exam so night footage will become more common.

Note the new regulation does not go into effect until March 16, 2021 and only for those who have taken the new 107 recurrency training (from the FAA site) which becomes available March 1. After you take the 107 recurrency online training (via the FAA site), have strobes visible from 3 miles turned on, then on or after March 16, 2021 you would no longer need a waiver. For those of us with 107.29 waiver, there is a 60 day grace window starting March 16 allowing time to take the 107 recurrency online training from FAA site.

 

[herein2021]

Note the new regulation does not go into effect until March 16, 2021 and only for those who have taken the new 107 recurrency training (from the FAA site) which becomes available March 1. After you take the 107 recurrency online training (via the FAA site), have strobes visible from 3 miles turned on, then on or after March 16, 2021 you would no longer need a waiver. For those of us with 107.29 waiver, there is a 60 day grace window starting March 16 allowing time to take the 107 recurrency online training from FAA site.

Yes I know the full text of the regulation; I just condensed it a bit since it is a photography thread not an analysis of the latest FAA rulemaking policy. Also, according to the local FSDO who I called to discuss the new regulations he looked up the exact effective date and stated it goes into effect on 1 March 2021 not 16 March 2021. These particular rules were released with an effective date of 45 days from being published to the Federal Register and the rules were published on 15 Jan 2021 so 45 days from 15 Jan 2021 is an effective date of 1 March 2021.

The strobe requirement hasn't changed since the availability of the 107.29 daylight operations waiver so to me it wasn't relevant to the discussion.

 

[gschulzuio]

Yes I know the full text of the regulation; I just condensed it a bit since it is a photography thread not an analysis of the latest FAA rulemaking policy. Also, according to the local FSDO who I called to discuss the new regulations he looked up the exact effective date and stated it goes into effect on 1 March 2021 not 16 March 2021. These particular rules were released with an effective date of 45 days from being published to the Federal Register and the rules were published on 15 Jan 2021 so 45 days from 15 Jan 2021 is an effective date of 1 March 2021.

The strobe requirement hasn't changed since the availability of the 107.29 daylight operations waiver so to me it wasn't relevant to the discussion.

You might want to double check that. Its March 16, 2021, 60 days after the publish date of the rule which was 1/15/21. What is March 1, 2021 is the availabity of the new training which takes place of existing 107 recurrent testing every 2 yrs, and also includes the new night time stuff.

For those interesting in seeing the official version (e.g. the federal register) of the new regulation (its a long read) that includes the nighttime, operation over people (oop) and other items here it is: Operation of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Over People

 

[herein2021]

You might want to double check that. Its March 16, 2021, 60 days after the publish date of the rule which was 1/15/21. What is March 1, 2021 is the availabity of the new training which takes place of existing 107 recurrent testing every 2 yrs, and also includes the new night time stuff.

Well I am not going to argue with you, the local FSDO himself told me the date for the new test and the new rules are effective on the same date and I sat with him on the phone while he researched it to be sure and explained why it was 45 days and not 60, so unless you are an FSDO I'm going to go with the information that my FSDO provided. Also, every website I have seen provides the same date.

Drone Pilot School - Effective Date

 

[gschulzuio]

Well I am not going to argue with you, the local FSDO himself told me the date for the new test and the new rules are effective on the same date and I sat with him on the phone while he researched it to be sure and explained why it was 45 days and not 60, so unless you are an FSDO I'm going to go with the information that my FSDO provided. Also, every website I have seen provides the same date.

Drone Pilot School - Effective Date

You can believe what you want, however the official sites including the federal register have it at 60 days. There has been some confusion and info still flowing out. Happy to chat offline if you like.

For anyone wanting to see the actual rule publication (its a long read), here's the official version that covers new nighttime, and operation over people among other things: Operation of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Over People

 

[Admund]

I finally had time to test the lowlight performance of the EVO II 6K in lowlight and at the same time I decided to not only test the lowlight capabilities of the sensor, but also to test the stability of the EVO II when there is no wind. A good test for that is to try to shoot and stitch a panorama.

All I can say is that this drone has finally truly impressed me. The lowlight performance and quality is better in my opinion than the Inspire with its M43 sensor at least at lower ISOs. The stability was pretty incredible too, it only took me seconds to stitch the images together and I didn't look closely but I did not see any obvious stitching errors that would have needed Photoshop to fix..

Here is an individual image in case you are on a cell phone since the panorama is too big to properly display on a cell phone.

View attachment 9762

This panorama is composed of 5 individual images stitched together.

View attachment 9760

What settings did you use and what pano mode?

 

[herein2021]

What settings did you use and what pano mode?

F2.8, ISO800, WB Daylight, Shutter 1/20s. raw images.

I do not use the pano modes I simply overlap each image by 20% while shooting then use Lightroom to process the raw images, PTGui to stitch the images, then Paint.Net to crop the pano, reduce the resolution, and convert to the final JPG image that's small enough to quickly load from an Internet connection. It sounds complicated but its pretty quick. usually about 5min from import into Lightroom to the finished product.

It only gets complicated if it was windy while creating the images and the drone drifted at which point I have to use PS to correct stitching errors.

 

[Admund]

F2.8, ISO800, WB Daylight, Shutter 1/20s. raw images.

I do not use the pano modes I simply overlap each image by 20% while shooting then use Lightroom to process the raw images, PTGui to stitch the images, then Paint.Net to crop the pano, reduce the resolution, and convert to the final JPG image that's small enough to quickly load from an Internet connection. It sounds complicated but its pretty quick. usually about 5min from import into Lightroom to the finished product.

It only gets complicated if it was windy while creating the images and the drone drifted at which point I have to use PS to correct stitching errors.

Thx for settings. Nice job at night. Generaly i know how to make the post with pano. I also use LR and then PTGUI. Beacouse of the HDD space i am not using RAW.

 

[herein2021]

Thx for settings. Nice job at night. Generaly i know how to make the post with pano. I also use LR and then PTGUI. Beacouse of the HDD space i am not using RAW.

LR is not very useful if the images are not RAW. You could always delete the RAWs once you process them in LR and have exported them to JPG. Some people never even copy them to their HD, they process them right on the SD card then export the JPG to their local HD.

 

[VdoMemories]

Greetings, I'm on Beta 2.7.30 firmware.
A. Precision landing doing great, Bravo Simply Great Autel ! !
B. While in Panorama Mode when I tried to just take picture, it would not ! Please fix it.
C. The Panorama feature is Great, can you incorporate it in to Video Panorama Mode, Please.
1. Give us the choice of selecting the speed at which the drone turns around from say 6 seconds to 36 seconds for a complete 360* turn ! !
2. The Drone to start moving very very gradually from a stop still to the above speed selected from 1 seconds to 6 to 8 seconds and at the end again gradually slow down to a stop still right after completing a complete 360*
D. When doing Panorama pictures, some times even tho it says " Stitched " the actual picture is not stitched at times ! !
1. I just did another test this morning and found out the second Wide Panorama fails to stitch after it says stitching, please correct the issue,
The " Red Go " should only light after 100% stitching is done !
2. How long after it says " Go " and stitching done should we wait for the second Panorama to " Hit Go " ? ?
E. I had pointed my camera downwards to take a Wide Panorama to cover houses below, when I came back home only to find out the houses below were totally skipped even tho I had aligned my position and the camera facing downwards before I hit " Go "
F. The Drone to Controller screen orientation arrow not working 100%, please fix and change it to a Airplane instead of Arrow !
If I with the remote in my hands turn around the Arrow ( Plane ) should follow the orientation.
G. The Zoom needs to be very gradual and like a Rocker arm on a video camera, not jerky steps 2x, 3x, 4x etc copy that feature from DJI Air 2 for $700
H. The horizon always off by 1.7, should not have to fix in every picture.
Batteries after being charged after a few days only have 16 minutes, not 40 minutes or even 32 to 33 minutes.
Before you know the Drone is coming home due to battery not holding charge !
After charging, two to 3 days later the battery is only showing 23 minutes on a newer battery under a year old and in warrantee,
* * A week to 10 day after charging the battery only good for 12 to 13 minutes flight time.
*-* What do you recommend, should we top it off to 100% right before using the 6 to 10 days back charged batteries that are only good for 12 to 13 flight time ?
**--** AUTEL YOU LIED AND CHEATED US AND OWE US ALL A BATTERY AS A GESTURE OF " GOODWILL "
I had bought two EVO2 Pro's and don't forget you owe me TWO Batteries ! !
I. My newer 7 inch Lenovo will not work as there is too much delay, useless Autel Explorer, Wake up and Fire a few Goofing off people.
Let those Gofer's go work for DJI and bankrupt them , instead !
* * * We are the Field Lab and helping you develop that Magical Drone that even DJI will try to copy ! !
*--* When Fuji started making S-2 SLR it was an instant hit for Skin tone, out of nowhere when Fuji came out with S-3 model they surprised us all with a $550 dedicated Flash in the mail, learn to reward and give back to your loyal customers ! !
You guys are doing great just keep listening and improving ! !
Best regards,
Ajay
Precious Video Memories

 

[herein2021]

Greetings, I'm on Beta 2.7.30 firmware.
A. Precision landing doing great, Bravo Autel !
B. While in Panorama Mode when I tried to just take picture, it would not ! Please fix it.
C. The Panorama feature is Great, can you incorporate it in to Video Panorama Mode, Please.
D. When doing Panorama pictures, some times even tho it says " Stitched " the actual picture is not stitched at times ! !
E. I had pointed my camera downwards to take a Wide Panorama to cover houses below, when I came back home only to find out the houses below were totally skipped even tho I had aligned my position and the camera facing downwards before I hit " Go "
F. The Drone to Controller screen orientation not working 100%, please fix and change it to a Airplane instead of Arrow !
G. The Zoom needs to be very gradual and like a Rocker zoom on video camera, not jerky steps 2x, 3x, 4x etc copy that feature from DJI Air 2 for $700
H. The horizon always off by 1.7, should not have to fix in every picture.
Batteries after being charged after a few days only have 16 minutes, not 40 minutes or even 32 to 33 minutes.
Before you know the Drone is coming home due to battery not holding charge !
You guys are doing great just keep listening and improving ! !
Best regards,
Ajay

I think most of what you listed should probably be listed in the Autel Feature Requests forum. or maybe there is somewhere else you can provide feedback. But I can at least help with one of your findings; the batteries are supposed to start discharging when in storage. LiPo batteries cannot stay fully charged for long or they will go bad. So by design, most if not all drone LiPo batteries have discharge circuitry which will discharge them if they are stored fully charged. This is why you should always fully charge your drone batteries before use.

 

[gschulzuio]

I think most of what you listed should probably be listed in the Autel Feature Requests forum. or maybe there is somewhere else you can provide feedback. But I can at least help with one of your findings; the batteries are supposed to start discharging when in storage. LiPo batteries cannot stay fully charged for long or they will go bad. So by design, most if not all drone LiPo batteries have discharge circuitry which will discharge them if they are stored fully charged. This is why you should always fully charge your drone batteries before use.

Good point about the LiPro and discharge, something else to keep in mind is dont store them in enclosed places, cases or elsewhere where they cant get air and keep cool as they discharge.