360 Spherical Video with the dji Mavic Pro

[DonLandis]

360 Degree Spherical Video for Virtual Reality is very new and cameras fior this have only been out for a short time at Consumer pricing. Google Earth has had the capability in still images for some time. I became fascinated with the technology after seeing a few early adopter cameras at CES a couple years ago. I had a Giroptic 360 camera on preorder for a year as the company took their good old time getting the camera to work properly. I've done a few videos with it on my YT channel both hand held and tripod mounted. The Giroptic360 uses 3 cameras for a total of only 2048x1024 pixels. I'm still learning how to shoot this technique and now have a preorder in for an 8 Camera 3D version that is claimed to be 4K x 2K. Hopefully it will arrive next month.

I thought wouldn't it be great for the Mavic Pro to haul the Giroptic360 into the air and travel at low altitudes for a smooth dolly 360° view that the viewer would control up down and all around?

I set about testing this with a simple mount to put the Giroptic360 on top, piggyback, to the Mavic Pro. I wanted to mount underneath but realized the camera would block the downward sensors so on top it must go.

My first test did not work as I had used a 5" high tube. It never got off the ground. Just tipped over into the grass and props stopped, Nothing broken. See my failure pics.

Good it crashed on the ground. So I wasn't sure what the weight lift capability of the Mavic was but a YT video where an owner did a test of the lift capability and found it to safely lift 3 to 4 pounds. I was encouraged as the Giroptic only weighs 180 grams. So it must be that I needed to lower the center of gravity.

The next test with the Giroptic mounted only 1" above the Mavic worked. Here is the video of my second test flight. I had a moderate breeze, and took it to 175 feet above ground. The handling was not even impaired. I could see the city skyline about 7 miles away. And our local TV stations antenna farms 7 miles away in another direction.

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The Giroptic360 camera is not a 4K system. It is 2K in full panorama view and less than a third of that in spherical view with goggles or Google You Tube player with the navigation access. So these videos are nowhere near the quality of the Mavic Pro's 4K camera. Some You Tube players do not support the spherical view with navigational controls. The best most fun view, I have found is the 360 VR goggles with 6" iphone screen. It's not the best image quality, but it is lots of fun just looking around. This technology will improve in image quality as the cameras get higher resolution. I have ordered a 4K 360 camera now that has 8 cameras as opposed to the Giroptic's 3 cameras. This will permit a full HD resolution in 360 Spherical view.

If you have navigation control on your YT player, scan around. Best quality will then be to set your YT player to 4K 2160p mode and do not go full screen. 360 VR is only designed to be seen big screen immersive with VR goggles, not on the theatrical flat screen.

I edited this with Cyberlink Power Director which has a really nice 360 spherical editing capability. The picture inserts were shot with my Sony AX53.

Resources:
360 Degree Camera | US Store - Giroptic.com
Vuze Camera - 3D 360 camera and Virtual Reality Kit
https://www.walmart.com/ip/SUNNYPEA...6-Plus-6-Samsung-Note-4-Galaxy-LG-H/543862943
My You Tube Channel: DonLandis

 

[CamNYC]

Hi, I m know this is an old post but I just found it. Nice footage and experiment.

This might be old news for me to post, as you’ve probably seen other 360 videos on the web that were shot with the Mavic.

I have myself attached my Gear 360 (2017 model - the second one) to my Mavic. Unlike you I attached it to the bottom though, the only thing important to remember is that in that setup one needs to turn OFF the visual sensors underneath the bird, which is easily find on the DJI Go app. It’s 4K but 360 degrees, which means that it’s not as high resolution as “proper” 4K of a rectangular image. So it’s not as the unbelieavablr resolution of a 360 panorama stitched from dozens of still shots, but then again it’s video, so it’s not a “faked 360”, as it’s actually showing a moving, living 360 degree VR feed (like yours above), which is pretty awesome.

Also, with the long protruding camera underneath, I had to take off from a cardboard box, with the feet on the edges and the camera in the box. I landed it by hand grabbing the camera, which served as a “handle” for the Mavic...

 

[Raul3d]

Looks cool but there's a lot of vibration on the video. Does anyone use a mounting system which absorbs all vibration? I'm looking to mount an Insta360 One X on a Mavic Air on the bottom.

Thanks in advance!