[Aerial Mapping] What is best Sony Nex 5 setting for Aerial Mapping mission?

Dear All,

I was using Cannon S100 previously for mapping purpose with CHDK, 1/2000 shutter speed, IS turned off and focus set to Infinity but still get around 50% blurry image.

Now I will use Sony Nex 5n camera on Flatmap1 gimbal with 16mm stock fixed lens and IR triggered from APM for more ground coverage and quality image (hope so..)

Please share your Nex 5n camera setting (Auto or manual or shutter priority?) and any experiences, pros & cons using Nex 5n for mapping purpose.

Let me start from what I was reading from some forum (forgot the link):

Sony Nex 5 series Camera Setting for Mapping:

Mode: Aperture Priority (by Krajst)
ISO: 400 or 800 (by Krajst) (if you want faster shutter speeds, you'll have to increase your ISO) check: http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Your-Digital-Camera%27s-ISO-Setting
White balance: Daily/Sunny or Cloudy (by Krajst)
Sharpness: infinity (but it is tricky with 16mm lens so I use auto (by Krajst)

Recommendations:

IR Shutter from Hobbyking (by iskess)
Use high speed SD: SANDISK EXTREME PRO SDHC SD 16GB, 95MB/s (by iskess)

Pros:

More pixel compare with S100 = More ground coverage
Fixed lens 16mm = less blurry image result
??

Cons:

Heavier compare with S100
No GPS onboard
Nex 5n Time between shutter > 2 sec = S100 faster < 2 sec (if you need to fly really fast)
??

I will update first page regularly that may be useful for others.

Many thanks in advance for your contribution.

Waladi

Replies

- - - - Krzysztof > Waladi September 24, 2014 at 3:14am
        
        I have not tested with that speed and with parameters mentioned above, though I put Nex5 into Skyhunter fixedwing but the camera was set in auto mode. The speed was 15m/s and some of the pictures were sharp some of them blurry.
iskess September 23, 2014 at 11:28pm

I found that different IR triggers have different speeds. The HobbyKing one is actually the fastest I tried.
- Waladi > iskess September 24, 2014 at 12:19am
  
  Thanks iskess for the hint, do you mean this IR Shutter from Hobbyking ?
  - iskess > Waladi September 24, 2014 at 12:40am
    
    That's the one. I found that I was sometimes missing a shot due to my Flightmap 2 roll gimbal being in the wrong position relative to the IR trigger. I just bought a second IR trigger to wire in parallel so I can get a good angle either side. I haven't tested this yet. At some point when I get the courage, I will probably do the shutter button mod on the camera so I don't need to use the IR anymore at all.
    - Waladi > iskess September 24, 2014 at 12:43am
      
      Really interested with the second IR using Y parallel cable?
      
      Do you use Nex-7 on mapping mission?
      
      If yes, care to share the camera setting when shoot for mapping?
      
      Will put your recommendation on the original post.
      
      Thanks.
iskess September 23, 2014 at 10:21pm

I didn't realize the NEX-5 was so slow. I have the NEX-7 and it triggers 2x/sec (.5 sec). I'm surprised that the NEX-5 is 4 times slower. Are you sure?
- Waladi > iskess September 23, 2014 at 10:28pm
  
  Perhaps it's because the setting on my Nex 5 was not optimum enough for speed < 1 sec, any suggestions?
  
  If I shoot on burst / continuous mode, it will shoot just like Nex 7 but since it's triggered using IR then I should select Remote mode which is not continuously shoot the image (one every shutter signal from APM).

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[Aerial Mapping] What is best Sony Nex 5 setting for Aerial Mapping mission?

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