Adjusting to new M3

[Chrislaf]

Finally made the jump to the Mavic 3. Got the standard package with a few extra bits. It's a big jump up from a Spark and a P3 for me but has been a planned upgrade for awhile.

Finally got out today after almost a week after getting it due to bad weather. I'm no stranger to flying in bad weather but did not want the first flight to be a bad weather flight. A few observations: very stable in the air but I find the breaking behaviour very abrupt even when gently easing up on the sticks. Neither my Spark nor P3S do this so this will take some getting used to. I always manually land when I do not hand catch so when I came into land and tried to line up over my landing pad (I was on a snow covered lake), I could only lower the drone so far and then the drone would not go any further due to obstacle avoidance system I assume. I would have liked to have gotten lower before commencing landing to make sure I was lined up over my landing pad but once I held the left stick down and the drone began to land I could have just moved the landing pad to make sure the drone was landing on it. This works in a wide open space but in a tight space this won't work, so I need to figure out a better solution. If I turn precision landing off, will I be able to come down closer to my landing pad to line up better?

For the first flight, I just left the camera on auto and took a few photos and a manual pano while I tried to get used to where things were in the Fly app. I tried out the tele camera at various 'zoomed in' settings. Very pleased with the dynamic range that I can work with on the main camera compared to my other two drones. Didn't try any video settings as I am mostly a stills photographer.

Planning another flight soon to try out more stuff but so far quite pleased. Just wish I could do something about the braking.

Chris

 

[JoelP]

There are settings to adjust the sensitivity and smoothness of roll, pitch, yaw and gimbal. I have yet to find the ideal settings for this. On one end you get that drastic motion like abrupt braking and on the other you get overshoot from too much smoothness. I would think that if you play with the setting for pitch, you could get the braking action you desire.

I have written to this forum asking the expert cinemaphotographers with the MA3 to suggest the ideal settings for these and have yet to see a reply.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

And in fact, you may have adjusted your old Phantom for that and forgot about it.

 

[Chrislaf]

There are settings to adjust the sensitivity and smoothness of roll, pitch, yaw and gimbal. I have yet to find the ideal settings for this. On one end you get that drastic motion like abrupt braking and on the other you get overshoot from too much smoothness. I would think that if you play with the setting for pitch, you could get the braking action you desire.

I have written to this forum asking the expert cinemaphotographers with the MA3 to suggest the ideal settings for these and have yet to see a reply.

Thanks for your reply. I have been reading threads about this and likely have read the thread that you posted. I even watched a video posted in one of the threads detailing the adjustment of the EXP settings for each flight mode (C,N,S) but it is mostly for adjusting the sensitivity of how the drone gains speed when you push the right stick, it does nothing to adjust the sensitivity on release. I will make adjustments to the camera after I get some more flight time in and see how it behaves.

Chris

 

[Chrislaf]

And in fact, you may have adjusted your old Phantom for that and forgot about it.

I made adjustments to the gimbal but not to the sticks on the controller. I guess if I was more into video, I would have made those adjustments.

Chris

 

[JoelP]

In addition, I bought longer telescoping sticks to improve my control and it seems to help a little.

 

[Lasidora]

If you have Obstacle Avoidance set to bypass this make for very jerky stop & start flight, switch it to off & try again, but make sure you are high enough to avoid any such obstacles first, will be much smoother.

 

[Chrislaf]

If you have Obstacle Avoidance set to bypass this make for very jerky stop & start flight, switch it to off & try again, but make sure you are high enough to avoid any such obstacles first, will be much smoother.

I had it set to Brake. Was out on a frozen lake so no obstacles at all - wide open space.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

I don't own a M3 yet, nor have I used DJI Fly. I have a M2P and use DJI Go 4.

But with the older models, braking speed was separate from EXP settings. I think for the Phantom (I also have a P3P), it was under sensitivity. I think it was under Settings > Advanced > Sensitivity > Braking. I don't know if DJI Fly has it, but I would look for something like that.

Chris

 

[Yaros]

Don't forget this: Set your Obstacle Avoidance mode to Brake, not Bypass because there is a bug that Bypass makes the drone very jerky!

 

[Chrislaf]

I don't own a M3 yet, nor have I used DJI Fly. I have a M2P and use DJI Go 4.

But with the older models, braking speed was separate from EXP settings. I think for the Phantom (I also have a P3P), it was under sensitivity. I think it was under Settings > Advanced > Sensitivity > Braking. I don't know if DJI Fly has it, but I would look for something like that.

Chris

Not at home right now but I’ll check either tonight or tomorrow to see if it’s there.

Chris

 

[Chrislaf]

Don't forget this: Set your Obstacle Avoidance mode to Brake, not Bypass because there is a bug that Bypass makes the drone very jerky!

It’s set to Brake.

Chris

 

[Starz]

nor have I used DJI Fly.

You’re in for an eye opening experience.
I’ll cross my fingers for you. Been there and not going back.

 

[Chrislaf]

Don’t really mind the Fly app, just have to find where things are after using GO for so many years. I also use Dronelink lots and have used AutoPilot and they too took some adjusting to.

The main camera upgrades that the M3 provides far outway any quibbles I may have with Fly.

Chris

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

You’re in for an eye opening experience.
I’ll cross my fingers for you. Been there and not going back.

There's always LITCHI, eh?

The main camera upgrades that the M3 provides far outway any quibbles I may have with Fly.

Chris

M3 compared to what, the M2P? If so, is it really that much of an upgrade for you (I'm concerned mostly about still photography)?

I'm still on the fence.

Chris

 

[MS Coast]

There's always LITCHI, eh?



M3 compared to what, the M2P? If so, is it really that much of an upgrade for you (I'm concerned mostly about still photography)?

I'm still on the fence.

Chris

Litchi won't be available for the M3 until DJI releases the SDK (software developer's kit). Based on previous models that could take a year or so.

 

[Chrislaf]

There's always LITCHI, eh?



M3 compared to what, the M2P? If so, is it really that much of an upgrade for you (I'm concerned mostly about still photography)?

I'm still on the fence.

Chris

Litchi won't be released for the M3 until DJI releases the SDK, which will likely not be for quite a while.

The M3 camera upgrade compared to my Spark and P3 is a major upgrade for me. I have only had one flight with the M3 due to weather in overcast dull conditions but being able to work with the image and recover some of the detail in the snow and sky was much more than I could do with a similar image shot in similar conditions with a JPEG from my Spark. I don't have an M2P so can't compare but had been considering it for a long time but when the M3 came out I waited then finally decided to jump in. The variable aperture was important to me as was the tele camera.

Like you I am mostly into still photography. I do take the odd video but don't even have a computer that can handle 4K processing. I am an avid hobbiest photographer into landscape, astro, nature, panoramas, drone light painting, and photographing ruins and abandoned places. The secondary tele camera will come in handy for some of the types of photography that I like to do. I do not sell or make money from my photos.

Chris