Asking DJI to code a TRUE High Res Mode for Air 3 please vote. No hardware changes required...

[Bussty]

Hello there. I have started a poll over on the DJI forum to ask DJI to have a mode that will capture a grid of tele photo lens images to match the 24mm wide angle view providing a true 65MP image (unheard of in a drone of the Air 3's class). You can do this now manually of course but my vision is to have an icon on the screen when in Photo mode representing "TRUE High Res Mode" and all you have to do is frame up in 24mm then hit the icon and the drone would switch to the 70mm and capture a grid you could stitch yourself to provide an impressive 65MP image. That's DSLR quality or better in some cases.

The link to the poll is here https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=299192&extra=page=1&filter=typeid&typeid=922&typeid=922 so to help the cause would be hugely appreciative if you could vote in favour.

There are examples there but to show you here is a standard 24mm on the right and on the left is a stitch of about 16 images using the 70mm to match the 24mm...

Here is a close up comparison of the two images. Left hand is the a 200% crop of the stitched series of 70mm images and on the Right hand side is 24mm single shot at about 490% to match the scale of the stitched image…



As you can see there is a massive difference. I would be so grateful if you could vote DJI seem to have actually been listening to feedback lately with changes to their drones so fingers crossed.

Many thanks

Andrew Busst

 

[GadgetGuy]

DJI has already done this for Spherical Panos on the Mavic 3 Pro on the 70mm 3x telephoto lens in the latest FW update. 118 images take 3.5 minutes to shoot. Hovering for that long really makes everyone within earshot nervous! Prepare for Karen confrontations! LOL!

 

[Bussty]

Yeah that's the whole point of having a quick 16 shots to match the 24mm... get in, line up using the 24mm, hit the True High Res icon camera flips into 70mm mode captures just the 24mm view with 16 shots and done in less than 20secs. Just what we need and your image is 65MP. Feels like a very intuitive and user friendly approach so hoping DJI can oblige.

 

[rddl]

Hello,

Between your request and your full manual procedure is another way to perform what you want !

You can prepare a mission with Litchi Mission Hub at home on your computer, save it, duplicate your mission and move it where you want.
You save it using a new name, then export this new mission.
Now, you convert your mission csv file for DJIFLY, you copy it in the right RC2 folder.

Fly your drone, open the waypoint mision (DJIFLY) and just click "Go"

You can re use your mission where you want, but you need a computer to prepare it first.

I am not sure your picture is perfectly sticched ... this is another possible problem !

 

[Bussty]

(sorry misread your post you are only using Litchi to create the CSV then running in DJI Fly. Hmmm some of the below is not relevant then but some still would be)

Hi rddl I have thought about that but I see four problems...

• Air 3 hasn't got an SDK yet so can't use Litchi
• will Litchi create relative or absolute gimbal and drone changes to cover the 24mm view? It will need to be relative as camera could be pointing anywhere and needs to be dynamically changed via relative settings added to current camera position.
• what if you own the RC-2 controller and can't instal Litchi when it arrives? I went out and purchased an RC-N1 controller for my Mini 3 Pro (on top of my DJI RC) to run the new Litchi Pilot software but that is already out of date I can't us that on the Air 3 or Mini 4 Pro :-(
• it will be way slower to put that in action when flying a variety of sites whereas for what I imagine is a small software change at any time in Photo mode wherever and whenever you push one icon and the job is done for you, probably very quickly. Seems like such a powerful, overlooked and simple to instigate feature.

Fingers crossed

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yeah that's the whole point of having a quick 16 shots to match the 24mm... get in, line up using the 24mm, hit the True High Res icon camera flips into 70mm mode captures just the 24mm view with 16 shots and done in less than 20secs. Just what we need and your image is 65MP. Feels like a very intuitive and user friendly approach so hoping DJI can oblige.

How much image overlap is there between each of the adjacent 16 images in your 4x4 grid?

 

[Bussty]

Works on 33% just based on the grid lines initially in the camera viewfinder. You would think total MP would be 12MP X9 if a 3x lens so around 109MP but in practice it's only 65MP so I'm guessing it's not an exact 3x difference (2.somethingX) and/or there is cropping involved. Either way 65MP is pretty decent

 

[GadgetGuy]

Works on 33% just based on the grid lines initially in the camera viewfinder. You would think total MP would be 12MP X9 if a 3x lens so around 109MP but in practice it's only 65MP so I'm guessing it's not an exact 3x difference (2.somethingX) and/or there is cropping involved. Either way 65MP is pretty decent

The 65MP is likely the compressed JPG version of the full 109MP stitch. 12MP sensor JPG's aren't 12MP either.

 

[Bussty]

The 65MP is likely the compressed JPG version of the full 109MP stitch. 12MP sensor JPG's aren't 12MP either.

That's a really good point I forget to mention this test was off jpegs so TIFFs off DNG's would be better still and as you say higher res presumably

 

[rddl]

(sorry misread your post you are only using Litchi to create the CSV then running in DJI Fly. Hmmm some of the below is not relevant then but some still would be)

Hi rddl I have thought about that but I see four problems...

• Air 3 hasn't got an SDK yet so can't use Litchi
• will Litchi create relative or absolute gimbal and drone changes to cover the 24mm view? It will need to be relative as camera could be pointing anywhere and needs to be dynamically changed via relative settings added to current camera position.
• what if you own the RC-2 controller and can't instal Litchi when it arrives? I went out and purchased an RC-N1 controller for my Mini 3 Pro (on top of my DJI RC) to run the new Litchi Pilot software but that is already out of date I can't us that on the Air 3 or Mini 4 Pro :-(
• it will be way slower to put that in action when flying a variety of sites whereas for what I imagine is a small software change at any time in Photo mode wherever and whenever you push one icon and the job is done for you, probably very quickly. Seems like such a powerful, overlooked and simple to instigate feature.

Fingers crossed

1 Litchi Mission is on your computer, no need of an SDK
2 Litchi allows you to set gimbal orientation
3 you only need a smartphone to register Litchi with an account, you copy the converted file in the RC2, it does work, I already performed some missions prepared with Litchi using my RC2 / Air3.
4 copy and paste is not that long, but you need a computer.

That was just a suggestion, because of course, your true high res mode request would be MUCH better.

 

[GadgetGuy]

That's a really good point I forget to mention this test was off jpegs so TIFFs off DNG's would be better still and as you say higher res presumably

The TIFF file stitch from DNG's would be much larger in size, but not necessarily higher resolution. It's only lacking the compression of the more efficient JPG display, where you can also select 100% quality, if you so choose, to make the file size larger than whatever default percentage JPG compression you previously chose for the stitch.

 

[Ridgeback65]

Yes! Already doing this manually and the resolution is epic!

 

[Bussty]

Yes! Already doing this manually and the resolution is epic!

Excellent to hear! Hopefully DJI will start to change the way we can create photos from the air making this process a lot faster/easier.

 

[Wreckhunter]

Excellent to hear! Hopefully DJI will start to change the way we can create photos from the air making this process a lot faster/easier.

DJI will do what DJI wants and that is the end of it.

 

[Bussty]

DJI will do what DJI wants and that is the end of it.

Forum posters have said the same about return of tripod mode, 360 obstacle avoidance on a mini drone, waypoints on a mini drone, a tele lens on an Air, automated taking of pano with the Mavic 3 Pro Tele but all these things have been introduced on drones and those things not requiring hardware changes added retrospectively so I have hope.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Forum posters have said the same about return of tripod mode, 360 obstacle avoidance on a mini drone, waypoints on a mini drone, a tele lens on an Air, automated pano stiches with the Mavic 3 Tele but all these things have been introduced on drones and those things not requiring hardware changes added retrospectively so I have hope.

Automated pano stitches on the Mavic 3 Tele, ie., the 7x telephoto?
That's news to me!
When was this introduced?
Only the Mavic 3 Pro has a pano shooting option on the 3x telephoto, but even it does not stitch the resulting 118 images!

 

[Bussty]

Automated pano stitches on the Mavic 3 Tele, ie., the 7x telephoto?
That's news to me!
When was this introduced?
Only the Mavic 3 Pro has a pano shooting option on the 3x telephoto, but even it does not stitch the resulting 118 images!

Sorry my bad knew it was one of them, automated taking of the images you still have to stitch, that's all we want on the Air 3 but with a specific short burst to match the 24mm view so you know exactly what you are getting. Point is we asked for a feature and DJI delivered you wouldn't want your drone sitting in the air stitching 118 images I doubt it could even do it.

 

[Droning on and on...]

The TIFF file stitch from DNG's would be much larger in size, but not necessarily higher resolution. It's only lacking the compression of the more efficient JPG display, where you can also select 100% quality, if you so choose, to make the file size larger than whatever default percentage JPG compression you previously chose for the stitch.

Not able to follow you guys.

Above you were talking jpeg affecting resolution, which made no sense. Now you're referring to file size.

Just what are you all talking about?

 

[Wreckhunter]

Automated pano stitches on the Mavic 3 Tele, ie., the 7x telephoto?
That's news to me!
When was this introduced?
Only the Mavic 3 Pro has a pano shooting option on the 3x telephoto, but even it does not stitch the resulting 118 images!

Never was introduced

 

[Wreckhunter]

Sorry my bad knew it was one of them, automated taking of the images you still have to stitch, that's all we want on the Air 3 but with a specific short burst to match the 24mm view so you know exactly what you are getting. Point is we asked for a feature and DJI delivered you wouldn't want your drone sitting in the air stitching 118 images I doubt it could even do it.

You may want that feature if it would even work.But not everyone would even care about it.