Even though DJI Mavic Air is a comparably mini drone, it is still capable of capturing professional-looking footage. Also, you can set up the Mavic Air camera settings manually to match your needs.
Even though DJI Mavic Air auto camera settings are pretty good, you have to set up them manually to capture footage for professional-looking footage and ease the post-production. Therefore, in this article, we would talk about what are the best camera settings for DJI Mavic Air for photography and videography.
Best DJI Mavic Air Camera Settings
Let’s look at have a quick glance at what are the best camera settings for DJI Mavic Air and talk deeply about important settings.
Aperture Camera Settings
Tap on the aperture icon on the camera settings menu and enter the aperture settings. Then change the Aperture settings from Auto to Manual.
| Aperture Settings | Value |
| ISO | 100 (Night-time Max- 400) |
| Shutter Speed | 24fps->50 / 30fps->60 |
| EV | 0 |
ISO
ISO digitally brightens the footage. If you set a higher ISO value, more disturbing noises would be visible.
- For night footage, choose a value between 100-400. The daytime ideal value for ISO is 100.
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is how many times the sensor opens to the light in a second. Follow the below formula to calculate the shutter speed that matches your frame rate.
Shutter speed = 2 X Frame rate.
- Choose the closest value to that as the shutter speed.
- Ex: If you chose 24fps, choose 50 as the shutter speed.
EV
Negative EV values make the image dark and positive EV values make the image bright.
- Most of the time optimum value for EV is 0.
Advanced Camera Settings
Tap on the video icon on the camera settings menu and enter the advanced settings.
| Advanced Camera Settings | Value |
| Video Size | 3840 X 2160 | 30fps |
| Video Format | PC users choose MP4/ Mac users should choose MOV |
| White Balance | Auto/ Choose according to the weather of the day. |
| Style | Custom (Sharpness: -1 , Contrast: -1 , Saturation: -2) |
| Color | None |
Video Size
Choose the video quality as high resolution as possible.
- Ulta HD (3840 X 2160): Fits with a 16:9 ratio screen. So no black bars. Also, This offers 24fps and 30fps frame rates.
- 2.7K (2720 X 1530): If you can’t handle the 4K file size but you still need to have a quality drone shot, choose this quality.
- 1080P/720P: Offer you low video size and low quality compared to the above video sizes. Also, you can record at a high frame rate.
Video Format
This depends on the OS you are using for post-production.
- If you are using Windows OS, choose “MP4”.
- If you are using Mac or IOS, choose “MOV”.
White Balance
This setting must be set before the flight because this would differ from day to day. (if it is not Auto). Use Auto white balance or pre-set profiles.
- Sunny/ Cloudy/ Incandescent/ Fluorescent: These are pre-set white balance profiles that support those environments and situations. Choose one of them that matches the current environment and situation.
- Custom: This option would able you to manually white balance customization. Lower the value, the cooler the footage going to be.
Style
Setting up the correct style would reduce some workload and ease post-production. There are pre-set style profiles which are Standard, Landscape, and Soft. If you are ok with them, choose one of them.
- If you choose “Custom”, you would be able to smooth style customization.
- Sharpness: Recommended value is -1. Changes the digital sharpness.
- Contrast: Recommended value -1. A higher contrast value would lose details of the shot and look black. This could vary according to the location.
- Saturation: Recommended value -2. Changes the temperature of the footage.
Color
You can choose D-Cinelike or None as the color profile.
- I think you should stick with the None color profile if you don’t do any post-production process. If you do, choose D-Cinelike.
Extended Settings
Click on the gear icon on the menu and enter extended settings.
| Extended Settings | Value |
| Histogram | Enable |
| Front LEDs Auto Turn off | Enable |
| Over Exposure Warning | Enable |
| Grid | Grid Lines |
| File index mode | Continuous |
Histogram
The histogram should be always enabled. This luminosity histogram shows the overall brightness of the shot. Usually, you should set up camera settings to bring histogram graphs peaks to the mid of the histogram.
- If peaks exist on the left side of the histogram, the sensor is underexposed and too dark. If peaks exist on the right side of the histogram, the shot is overexposed and too bright.
Important: Use the ND filter for your Mavic Air.
If you have a bright camera view after setting these camera settings to your Mavic Air, there is too much light is coming to the sensor. Therefore you should use an ND filter for your Mavic Air. If you are serious about videography or photography, ND filters are a compulsory thing you should have.
