Cable cam like 3dr Solo?

Staplehawk · Sep 13, 2018

Was playing around with Hyperlapse using Waypoints with my Mavic 2 last night. It's so close, if they would just integrate that on the fly waypoint function with gimbal pitch, they've got it.

Staplehawk · Sep 18, 2018

I found this last night and tried it out. It's pretty much cable cam as 3DR Solo uses. I got pretty good results last night, including with cam tilts. It held the subject in frame pretty decently. It's not as simplified or accurate as 3DR, but this is going to get my upcoming job looking good, I hope. I didn't realize while in 'Waypoints', that the C1 button can set M2P position points.

Lohmatij · Sep 18, 2018

Staplehawk said:
I found this last night and tried it out. It's pretty much cable cam as 3DR Solo uses. I got pretty good results last night, including with cam tilts. It held the subject in frame pretty decently. It's not as simplified or accurate as 3DR, but this is going to get my upcoming job looking good, I hope. I didn't realize while in 'Waypoints', that the C1 button can set M2P position points.

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Try it before you work. It looks good on paper (and videos), but can be not what you want for actual job.

Staplehawk · Sep 18, 2018

As I said before, Tried it out last night and got pretty good results. I'm doing another bigger test today at lunch. If I get enough time I'll post some footage.

Staplehawk · Sep 18, 2018

Here's my test we ran at lunch. Trying to visualize a dogleg right golf course hole, with the building at the end being the green. I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out. I can tweak the flight path to get it better, but it had 3 point, rising elevation and ended with the gimbal pointing down. I'm just happy I can do this with the M2P.

Dropbox - DJI_0013.MP4

parkgt · Sep 21, 2018

Today I tried a close in arced 4 point Cable Cam using the Litchi iOS Beta for my M2P. The framing drifted quite a bit as it moved through the 4 WPs.

Disappointingly I have not yet found Litchi to be anywhere close the Solo CC in accuracy or smoothness.

Bhally · Sep 22, 2018

parkgt said:
Today I tried a close in arced 4 point Cable Cam using the Litchi iOS Beta for my M2P. The framing drifted quite a bit as it moved through the 4 WPs.

Diappointingly I have not yet found Litchi to be anywhere close the Solo CC in accuracy or smoothness.

Yes the Solo Smart shots are the king as far as that goes, now if only I could have a Mavic Pro with Solo's Smart shots that would be the holy grail ;-)

Staplehawk · Sep 26, 2018

Just returned from filming a golf course in Florida. I used the the "Cable Cam" in Litchi and it worked great, for what I was working on. The difference I'm seeing from Solo and this is, 3DR is really great with small close shots as well as long distance shots. They really nailed down the scalable Spline between points. Litchi works great if your points are pretty good distances apart.It's seem like at least 50 feet. If they are close together, it just doesn't seem to handle it well. Ah Solo, how I miss thee.

parkgt · Sep 26, 2018

Staplehawk said:
Just returned from filming a golf course in Florida. I used the the "Cable Cam" in Litchi and it worked great, for what I was working on. The difference I'm seeing from Solo and this is, 3DR is really great with small close shots as well as long distance shots. They really nailed down the scalable Spline between points. Litchi works great if your points are pretty good distances apart.It's seem like at least 50 feet. If they are close together, it just doesn't seem to handle it well. Ah Solo, how I miss thee.

Thanks for the report; that at least confirms that it wasn't me doing something wrong. It is too bad Solo was limited to the GoPro series 4. My GP4 Black was pretty nice when it came out, but just doesn't cut it now. The MP2 camera has its problems but still takes better pictures and video than the GP4B does.

Can't have it all; but like you I sure miss the smooth Cable Cams of the Solo. I almost bought a P4 but the CCs are what made me buy a Solo to begin with.

wsalopek · Wednesday at 12:40 PM

Kilrah said:
Which is why as menitoned there are already apps doing it. Autopilot calls that "zip line".

Ancient thread

Bhally said:
Old Solo guy here to and was amazed that the Mavic Pro did not control gimbal pitch, I have never seen anything else out there that comes close to the Solo's cablecam!

Checking back in after SEVEN YEARS.

Anyone know of any progress in the DJI world? Does the Skydio 2 and/or 2+ do as good a job as Solo Smartshots / cablecams?

I'm seriously thinking of buy a Solo just to reclaim the smooth cable cam capabilities - or maybe splurge on a Skydio.

Thanks...

parkgt · Wednesday at 2:30 PM

No, nothing I am aware of comes close. I had a Mavic 2 back when you could run all of the 3rd party apps for autonomous flying. I tried both Litchi and Dronelink. Good enough for some but not like the Solo cable cam. The newer DJIs do not support the 3rd party apps so the level of control is not there. The Solo ramped in and out of transitions in pitch and yaw better than anything. Unfortunately being stuck with a Go Pro and old batteries is now the downside.