Understand what ISO is and how it impacts your drone survey data. This crucial camera setting controls image brightness, but setting it too high introduces digital "noise" or grain. This guide explains why low ISO is critical for accurate photogrammetry and how to manage it.
What is ISO?
A camera’s ISO value controls its sensitivity to light. A lower ISO value means that the camera needs more light to capture a bright image. A higher ISO value can produce a brighter image with less environmental light, but this introduces noise (grain) into the photo, which can negatively affect photogrammetry processing.
When Shutter Priority mode is enabled on your drone’s camera per our recommendation, the ISO value (and aperture) will be automatically adjusted to compensate for the locked shutter speed.
Recommended ISO Settings for Drone Surveys
The best way to keep your ISO value low is to fly at the brightest possible time of day. This can sometimes be difficult, especially during the winter months. In situations where you must fly in a low-light environment you can reduce your shutter speed from 1/1000 to 1/800 to increase the amount of light hitting the camera’s sensor. When reducing your shutter speed, be sure to reduce your mission speed by a similar amount to compensate for potential motion blur.
High ISO values will lead to a warning or error message during your survey upload. For most DJI drones, a warning is displayed when the ISO value exceeds 800, and an error is displayed when the ISO exceeds 6400.
If you encounter a high ISO message during your upload, double check that your drone’s camera settings are aligned with our recommendations and try to plan your next survey for a brighter time of day.
I still can't do it!
We wrote these articles to equip you with everything you need to get the job done on your own, but we understand that sometimes this isn't sufficient.
If you're stuck, the Propeller hardware support team may be able to help. You can contact them by emailing hardwaresupport@propelleraero.com.au.
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