DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Tips for smooth camera movements?

KiterTodd

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2017
Messages
506
Reactions
234
I've been flying the Mavic for about a month now, and had a toy drone before that. So, thus far I've been very comfortable with the flight controls. I've taken/shared some very nice still photos, but to date the videos have been just shown to people from my phone. They're interesting, but I had not done any editing.

I'm working on my first video and realized how jerky movements are when I rotate the mavic or the gimbal. The sweeping shots when I'm just climbing or cruising are great. So it may be that I just have to plan my shots better.

Anytime I initiate a rotation (left stick sidewise movements, default stick setup) that moment is unusable. In fact, even when i thought I was doing a smooth rotation pan i find that I am actually moving too fast and the image isn't crisp. At the time, I thought I was rotating slowly and on the display during the flight it looked that way.

I am aware that I can dumb down the stick controls so that input results in less movement, but I do like the most agility I can get for flight controls. ? I haven't messed with stick calibration, but perhaps if I could set it for gradual movements for <50% actuation and full speed for >50% actuation, that would help.

I may have answered most of my own questions, but I'm open to advice. Thumbswayup
I suspect when many of you sat down to edit your first video you unexpectedly found yourself looking at the same steaming turd. :)
 
The sticks already are (by default) softer at the center than at the edges.

I think people who are used to video games expect the R/C sticks to be "all or nothing." If you move the stick 2%, it actually does equate to a motion command on the drone. It's not 2% but it's definitely not zero. Just practice going slower and slower and slower with little hair-sized movements of the stick.

You can definitely adjust the sticks to be more dull in the center than they already are. But with the default settings, you should be able to get nice smooth gradual motions on everything except maybe the gimbal pitch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KiterTodd and BD0G
I've been flying the Mavic for about a month now, and had a toy drone before that. So, thus far I've been very comfortable with the flight controls. I've taken/shared some very nice still photos, but to date the videos have been just shown to people from my phone. They're interesting, but I had not done any editing.

I'm working on my first video and realized how jerky movements are when I rotate the mavic or the gimbal. The sweeping shots when I'm just climbing or cruising are great. So it may be that I just have to plan my shots better.

Anytime I initiate a rotation (left stick sidewise movements, default stick setup) that moment is unusable. In fact, even when i thought I was doing a smooth rotation pan i find that I am actually moving too fast and the image isn't crisp. At the time, I thought I was rotating slowly and on the display during the flight it looked that way.

I am aware that I can dumb down the stick controls so that input results in less movement, but I do like the most agility I can get for flight controls. ? I haven't messed with stick calibration, but perhaps if I could set it for gradual movements for <50% actuation and full speed for >50% actuation, that would help.

I may have answered most of my own questions, but I'm open to advice. Thumbswayup
I suspect when many of you sat down to edit your first video you unexpectedly found yourself looking at the same steaming turd. :)

I had the same issue with panning but now I look at the screen while panning and it makes it easier to see if you are panning too fast.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KiterTodd
You can actually use 3D printed stick extenders as well. They will lengthen and give a larger stick surface which will make it easier to develop "micro movements" within the Remote control sticks.

There is also the card trick. Take a card. Cut a Circle in it that fits over the remote controllers stick. Slide it over and then just place your finger over the card while it is pressed down over the remote controller stick. Then just slide the card over to initiate a yawing movement and hold that card in the same position to create a uniform yawing rate.

I dialed down my stick as I think they are way to responsive even when moved small degrees.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KiterTodd
You will have to practice practice practice. I used the settings posted in the first video listed however; what I found was that the settings while although "softer" made the Mavic less optimal in getting out of the way of things or if you had to "chase" something down I wasn't able to get the object in time. I did a lot of flying over the last week, more flying on consecutive days than I've even done with the Mavic and nothing helped more with smooth movements other than practice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cimp65
You will have to practice practice practice. I used the settings posted in the first video listed however; what I found was that the settings while although "softer" made the Mavic less optimal in getting out of the way of things or if you had to "chase" something down I wasn't able to get the object in time. I did a lot of flying over the last week, more flying on consecutive days than I've even done with the Mavic and nothing helped more with smooth movements other than practice.
Thanks. Yeah, that was my fear also. I want agile flying the instant I need it, but have to figure out to also be able to get smooth shots. Yaw? Okay, got it.
 
Oh man, if I thought that was bad, I just watched footage of me trying to follow/track a snowmobile. Completely unusable. Every time I adjusted yaw to keep him in the frame...forget it.
First time, but worse than imagined. Practice, though! It's all practice....
...if we can't laugh, we cry. :)
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,588
Messages
1,554,135
Members
159,591
Latest member
Albrecht0803