21 Nov 2016 – My first long exposure shot with DJI Phantom 4

So, my 3-week-long Iceland trip is just less than 2 weeks away and due to shipment delays, it seems like I won’t be able to get my Mavic Pro and Phantom 4 Pro before the trip. As I’ve never flown a drone before and I didn’t want to risk crashing my drone in Iceland, I decided to purchase the Phantom 4 here so I can learn how to fly it properly before my trip. And as it turns out, I’m so glad I did.

Since I reckon I will be doing a lot of night photography in Iceland (because I only have 4 hours of daylight), I guess I really need to hone my night photography skills with it. So I brought my drone to Gardens by the Bay East and flew it to Marina Bay Sands to try out long exposure drone photography. I must say the drone managed to handle it so well that it managed 4 seconds exposure at ISO100 without much issues.

I tried to flew it further for my third shot but the drone lost connection with my controller! Return-To-Home (RTH) was activated and it attempted to flew back on its own. When I finally managed to be able to view the video feed and take control over my drone, and to my horror, the drone was so close to crashing into Ritz Carlton Hotel!!! Then I realised I was flying in Sports mode and in this mode, the drone’s obstacle avoidance system will be disabled. Lessons learnt! Check out the behind-the-scene raw video below. I sped up the video by 1000% so you don’t have to waste 15 minutes of your life watching this. Enjoy!