A couple of photography questions

[PanoVolo]

If you've had problems stitching a water horizon, that got nothing at all to do with camera movement and everything to do with the software being unable to find identifiable points to match.

or rather, it found the points, but the points have shifted between the shots as they were in waves.

 

[Robert Prior]

or rather, it found the points, but the points have shifted between the shots as they were in waves.

I've found the hardest spherical panoramas to stitch are those where the drone is over water. Those with fast-moving clouds are the next hardest.

 

[Robert Prior]

I've never been interested in the full 360° pano's which an INSTA 360 will do a far better job of a lot quicker.

I've found that Insta360s require lots of post-processing around the seam between the two fisheye images. This is for indoor images, where parallax is a serious problem. I haven't tried the version that mounts two cameras on a drone which has the stitch line at the horizon.

I'll also note that the 360° equirectangular images I shoot with my Mini 3 Pro are 18000 x 9000 pixels, which is bigger than the Insta360 image for even the latest camera.

If you are a beginning photographer then don't worry about all of it. Learn to fly safely, have fun, and explore new places.

This is the most important point. Safety and fun, in that order.

The only thing I'd add is that exploring new viewpoints of familiar places is one of the joys of flying a drone. (I view my drone as more of a 120 m tripod.)

OK, one more thing to add: don't discard images. Storage is cheap, and as your editing technique gets better you can reprocess old photos to produce better final images. I've reprocessed slides I shot in the 80s to good effect.

 

[Chrislaf]

OK, one more thing to add: don't discard images. Storage is cheap, and as your editing technique gets better you can reprocess old photos to produce better final images. I've reprocessed slides I shot in the 80s to good effect.

Definitely agree with this last point. I have images including panos I took from my first digital camera, a Kodak DC40 (756x504 resolution, <0.4 megapixels!) that I have been meaning to go through of a trip to Wales many years ago.

Chris

 

[mrfish]

I've found that Insta360s require lots of post-processing around the seam between the two fisheye images. This is for indoor images, where parallax is a serious problem. I haven't tried the version that mounts two cameras on a drone which has the stitch line at the horizon.

I'll also note that the 360° equirectangular images I shoot with my Mini 3 Pro are 18000 x 9000 pixels, which is bigger than the Insta360 image for even the latest camera.


This is the most important point. Safety and fun, in that order.

The only thing I'd add is that exploring new viewpoints of familiar places is one of the joys of flying a drone. (I view my drone as more of a 120 m tripod.)

OK, one more thing to add: don't discard images. Storage is cheap, and as your editing technique gets better you can reprocess old photos to produce better final images. I've reprocessed slides I shot in the 80s to good effect.

I've ordered the same 256gb memory card I have in my fuji X-H1. When I fill them up i just buy another one, they are only £17. What's the purpose to the micro sd card slot in the RC controller? Thanks

 

[MS Coast]

I've ordered the same 256gb memory card I have in my fuji X-H1. When I fill them up i just buy another one, they are only £17. What's the purpose to the micro sd card slot in the RC controller? Thanks

You might want to consider external solid state drives, SSDs, for storage. One TB drives are $60 - $120. They're certainly more convenient that four 256 GB cards.

 

[mrfish]

I've found that Insta360s require lots of post-processing around the seam between the two fisheye images. This is for indoor images, where parallax is a serious problem. I haven't tried the version that mounts two cameras on a drone which has the stitch line at the horizon.

I'll also note that the 360° equirectangular images I shoot with my Mini 3 Pro are 18000 x 9000 pixels, which is bigger than the Insta360 image for even the latest camera.


This is the most important point. Safety and fun, in that order.

The only thing I'd add is that exploring new viewpoints of familiar places is one of the joys of flying a drone. (I view my drone as more of a 120 m tripod.)

OK, one more thing to add: don't discard images. Storage is cheap, and as your editing technique gets better you can reprocess old photos to produce better final images. I've reprocessed slides I shot in the 80s to good effect.

I digitised some old photos I took back in the film days. Here's one I took in Belfast back in 1989.
DSCF8159 Churchill Street Belfast Aug 1989 by william Heron, on Flickr

 

[PanoVolo]

You might want to consider external solid state drives, SSDs, for storage. One TB drives are $60 - $120. They're certainly more convenient that four 256 GB cards.

not recommended to use flash memory for long term archival storage. Use magnetic drives in raid.

 

[MS Coast]

not recommended to use flash memory for long term archival storage. Use magnetic drives in raid.

Interesting. Thanks. Is "long-term" mean months, years, or decades?

I seem to remember that years ago there were discussions about periodically refreshing the data on magnetic drives by reading and writing the data. Am I remembering accurately? Is there something similar that might be done with SSDs?

 

[PanoVolo]

flash memory is fine if you don't power it down. Once it is powered down, charges start to dissipate. Ok for short term, not ok for long tern.

JEDEC JESD218A specifies that powered down, SSD should keep the data to the maximum of 101 weeks at 25 C or 13 weeks at 40 C (Enterprise class of devices).

So if your thumb drive sat in a hot drawer for more than a year, the standard does not guarantee the data retention on that drive.

 

[mrfish]

flash memory is fine if you don't power it down. Once it is powered down, charges start to dissipate. Ok for short term, not ok for long tern.

JEDEC JESD218A specifies that powered down, SSD should keep the data to the maximum of 101 weeks at 25 C or 13 weeks at 40 C (Enterprise class of devices).

So if your thumb drive sat in a hot drawer for more than a year, the standard does not guarantee the data retention on that drive.

Enlighten the ignorant please. Does that include micro SD?

 

[PanoVolo]

Yes they are the same type of memory, but sd cards don't have the same level of data protection as ssd-s, so they degrade faster. They are fine to store the data for a few weeks, but you are pushing your luck if you keep images for months and over a year without backup.

The above applies to "cold storage". If you power on the card/ssd/thumb drive for a while, the charges will be refreshed and you will reset the clock.

Waiting for someone to bring an anecdotal evidence of their thumb drive from 2007 that is still "totally fine and readable".

 

[Robert Prior]

I've ordered the same 256gb memory card I have in my fuji X-H1. When I fill them up i just buy another one, they are only £17. What's the purpose to the micro sd card slot in the RC controller? Thanks

Personally, I copy the images on the SD card to my computer every day, and back up those files immediately. My drone is much more likely to crash somewhere I can't retrieve it than a singe HD to fail, let alone two (plus cloud storage).

Slot in RC controller appears to store low-res data. Useful I guess if you lose your drone. Mine is empty.

Confused by 2 Micro SD card slots

Hi all, Just unpacked the new Mini3 Pro with the RC. I noticed that the RC and the drone each have a Micro SD slot. Why? What is going on with each? Am I getting the same recording on both? Are both necessary to capture imagery and video? If only one is required, which one? Thank you in...

forum.dji.com

 

[Robert Prior]

I digitised some old photos I took back in the film days. Here's one I took in Belfast back in 1989.
DSCF8159 Churchill Street Belfast Aug 1989 by william Heron, on Flickr

If you feel like playing, you can likely pull more information out of the negative or slide by scanning at different exposures and doing some exposure-blending or tone-mapping with the images. I've seen what David Morgan Mar did with some of his old images back when he worked at Canon, recovering details from shadows that he thought for years were pure black.

Might be more enjoyable experimenting with happier pictures, though.

 

[New England Droning]

Interesting. Thanks. Is "long-term" mean months, years, or decades?

I seem to remember that years ago there were discussions about periodically refreshing the data on magnetic drives by reading and writing the data. Am I remembering accurately? Is there something similar that might be done with SSDs?

I have two CF cards (8GB) in front of me with images recorded on them from 2015 or 9 years ago. I switch to a new camera at this point and the images are fine

 

[kramme]

I just saw this post about doing panoramas. I had no idea one could do that (I also have a Mini 3 Pro). I am going to try that out!

 

[PanoVolo]

We have a quick guide to get you started with drone panoramas

How to Record and Stitch Drone Panoramas : Panorama Stitching Tool for Drone Photography

How to Record and Stitch Drone Panoramas General tips for recording drone panoramas Safety First: Always prioritize safety and legality when flying your drone. Familiarize yourself with the local regulations and guidelines. Location and Subject: Choose a captivating location and subject, keeping...

www.panovolo.com

remember that many pano settings are only available when the drone is in the air. Def switch to RAW+JPEG mode so you have DNG files for best quality results.