Mavic 2 Pro Panorama and other questions

[dawaske]

Hello everyone!

I've been thinking about upgrading from a Mavic 1 to a Mavic 2 Pro these days, but wanted to clarify a few things before doing so:

• How do spherical panorama shots on the M2P compare to the Mavic 1? I saw that the Pro 2 only takes 26 pictures instead of 34, and also read that the maximum upward pitch of the gimbal is only 13° compared to 30° on the M1, resulting in a lot less sky being captured. Especially the latter would be a problem in situations like the following:

• Waypoint 2.0 seems to be a significant improvement over Waypoint v1 - at least in theory. In practise, videos shot in this mode often appear to be unusable due to the non-smooth camera work. Can you guys confirm that?
• How much do you miss the "Course Lock" flight mode?
• Does Active Track 2.0 also force automatic camera settings (ISO, shutter speed etc.) like Active Track v1? Just yesterday I noticed again how overexposed videos often are in this mode on the M1...

What do you think?

Cheers,
Daniel

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Concerning panoramas, I am not aware of the fact that the M2P does not tilt all the way up to 30° ... my 180° degree panos just turn out like yours here on the M1 (will post a picture in the evening) ...
You can also do vertical panoramas with +30° to -90° ...
When you try to do a sphere it's just the same, that +30 ° cannot catch the zenith.

Only downside to the M1 is that the gimbal cannot be rotated to vertical images ...

 

[Starz]

Also to consider will be the picture quality.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Indeed, the quality of the M2P is quite superior ... will post image soon.

 

[brett8883]

Hello everyone!

I've been thinking about upgrading from a Mavic 1 to a Mavic 2 Pro these days, but wanted to clarify a few things before doing so:

• How do spherical panorama shots on the M2P compare to the Mavic 1? I saw that the Pro 2 only takes 26 pictures instead of 34, and also read that the maximum upward pitch of the gimbal is only 13° compared to 30° on the M1, resulting in a lot less sky being captured. Especially the latter would be a problem in situations like the following:

• Waypoint 2.0 seems to be a significant improvement over Waypoint v1 - at least in theory. In practise, videos shot in this mode often appear to be unusable due to the non-smooth camera work. Can you guys confirm that?
• How much do you miss the "Course Lock" flight mode?
• Does Active Track 2.0 also force automatic camera settings (ISO, shutter speed etc.) like Active Track v1? Just yesterday I noticed again how overexposed videos often are in this mode on the M1...

What do you think?

Cheers,
Daniel

All of these concerns are answered with the purchase of the Litchi app. Litchi allows to program the number of columns and rows of photos so you can make it whatever you want. Usually with panos the less # of photos that will get the job done the better.

Waypoints 2.0 still stinks in reality, Litchi is like Waypoints 10.0 comparatively.

Litchi has course lock mode.

I have never noticed that active track forces automatic camera settings. If that’s the case I was unaware of it and sure Litchi can do this too.

As far as the gimbal tilt the Mavic Pro doesn’t tilt +30degrees during panos either. It’s like +15 degrees tops. You’d get the props in the shot if it did.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

As far as the gimbal tilt the Mavic Pro doesn’t tilt +30degrees during panos either. It’s like +15 degrees tops. You’d get the props in the shot if it did.

Are you sure? If I tilt it up facing straight ahead, it is displayed +30 and no props show ... but that's while hovering (what it usually does when taking panoramas), while flying, the degree may be limited due avoid damage.

 

[dawaske]

If I tilt it up facing straight ahead, it is displayed +30 and no props show

Which drone are you using?

 

[brett8883]

Which drone are you using?

That wasn’t me that said that. I said props WILL show if you tilt +30. This is a misquote

 

[dawaske]

You’re right, of course, sorry about that. I meant @globetrotterdrone.

 

[Robert Prior]

I've been shooting manually and stitching myself. More work, but it gives me more control. My older computer limits me to 25000x12500 equirectangular panoramas — larger ones overload it.

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After I shoot the raw images (typically 50-150 depending on bracketing) I stitch an equirectangular panorama using PTGUI Pro (masking out the props).

Photo stitching software 360 degree Panorama image software - PTGui Stitching Software

PTGui is image stitching software for stitching photographs into a seamless 360-degree spherical or gigapixel panoramic image

www.ptgui.com

After adjusting control points etc I output a TIFF image for every exposure plane and tone-map them using Photomatix.

HDR Merge Software for Real Estate & Landscape Photography | Photomatix

Turn any high-contrast scene into a perfectly exposed HDR image. Includes merge to HDR, batch processing and HDR presets for real estate photography.

www.hdrsoft.com

Then I take that image and process it using Affinity Photo (which can handle spherical panoramas, which is great for compositing in the zenith from a shot from the ground).

Best Photo Editing Software | Affinity Photo

The first-choice photo editor of millions of photographers, artists, and other professionals around the world – try Affinity Photo for free today!

affinity.serif.com

Takes an hour or so for an image (longer if there are many stitching errors).

 

[dawaske]

Oh may that really does sound like a lot of work! My workflow looks *a little* different:
1. Shoot the 360° Pano in DJI Go
2. Stich everything together in AutoPano GIGA
3. Post-process using AirMagic (I can really recommend that one for people unexperienced in photo editing)
4. Apply the final touches in Apple Photos

Takes about 15min altogether, but then again I only get a 2D-Image instead of a full 360°x180° panorama. The main reasons I'm not doing the latter is that

1. I often take pictures with my Mavic at places that are not right above me, which makes it kind of difficult to shoot the missing sky part from the ground...
2. I don't post the panoramas online (I don't use fb or Instagram), and if iMessage and Whatsapp can only send 2D pictures as far as I know.

But still, thank you for sharing your panorama workflow, I actually didn't know about PTGui and that Affinity Photo can process spherical panoramas so this is definitely something I'm going to try!

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Just checked the latest pano pictures ... +30 up, no props ... if I do it manually with a single image, there are also no props, so I wonder why should there be with pano mode?
The camera tilts up and down and the drone also turns for further coverage.

Edited (LR & PS) and downsampled from 104 MP to UHD ...

 

[Robert Prior]

Oh may that really does sound like a lot of work! My workflow looks *a little* different:
1. Shoot the 360° Pano in DJI Go
2. Stich everything together in AutoPano GIGA
3. Post-process using AirMagic (I can really recommend that one for people unexperienced in photo editing)
4. Apply the final touches in Apple Photos

Takes about 15min altogether, but then again I only get a 2D-Image instead of a full 360°x180° panorama. The main reasons I'm not doing the latter is that

1. I often take pictures with my Mavic at places that are not right above me, which makes it kind of difficult to shoot the missing sky part from the ground...
2. I don't post the panoramas online (I don't use fb or Instagram), and if iMessage and Whatsapp can only send 2D pictures as far as I know.

But still, thank you for sharing your panorama workflow, I actually didn't know about PTGui and that Affinity Photo can process spherical panoramas so this is definitely something I'm going to try!

Does DJI Go shoot 360 panos automatically? I didn't find that in the documentation but I might have missed it. That's one of the things that it would be handy to have automatic, as I've often screwed up a pano by accidentally missing a slice when manually rotating the drone.

I looked at AutoPano but settled on PTGUI because a pro-photographer friend used it (which gave me free tech support).

I'll be getting AirMagic when I upgrade my computer (it won't run on OS 10.10). I might be able to do better myself but there are times when I don't have time for lots of post-processing.

I'm not on social media. I like Roundme enough that I've paid for an account there, but their free service is pretty good.

You might like Graeme Davidson's work:

RoundMe ▷ A mobile app to watch sports in VR

Download the RoundMe app: Dive into the action and experience your matches fully immersed from your living room with Virtual Reality!

roundme.com

He's a better photographer than me, and lives in a really photogenic area.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Of course, there's the point 'Sphere' when you choose Panorama in the picture preferences (be sure to also check 'Save Original Panorama' RAW)
However it's not a complete sphere as the camera can't point up 90° for the zenith, but one could fill that most likely with a post shot.
Turning manually seems like a very hard and not that precise possibility to do it ...

 

[dawaske]

@ globetrotterdrone

Which drone was that? This looks amazing!

I just checked my Mavic Pro (1) and it tilts the camera max. 19°-20° upwards:

Compare that to the M2P, which only goes 13° upwards as can be seen HERE.

@ Robert Prior

Yes, DJI Go actually offers several automatic panorama modes. See HERE for more details!

 

[globetrotterdrone]

@dawaske
It's my Mavic 2 Pro. However I took the original RAW, stitched it in LR (had to do it a 2nd time as the first showed stitching errors in the background for no obvious reason) and edited in Photoshop. It's not the generated JPG from the drone itself.

I will have a look next time I do a panorama, if the head gimbal goes up to 30° ... but what would be the reason, that it won't fully tilt up? ?

 

[dawaske]

I will have a look next time I do a panorama, if the head gimbal goes up to 30°

Is there any way you could quickly test this today (even indoor like I did)? I'd really appreciate that!

I seriously don't understand those limitations given that the DJI Go itself allows a (manual) gimbal tilt-up of 30°...

 

[globetrotterdrone]

I tried but panorama will only work after a lift off.
I did however check the telemetry and it really looks like it won't fully tilt up to 30°, it's more like you describe between 12 - 15° ... that's really strange, because I see no reason for not getting more of the sky.?

 

[Robert Prior]

Of course, there's the point 'Sphere' when you choose Panorama in the picture preferences (be sure to also check 'Save Original Panorama' RAW)
However it's not a complete sphere as the camera can't point up 90° for the zenith, but one could fill that most likely with a post shot.
Turning manually seems like a very hard and not that precise possibility to do it ...

Thanks. I'll try that when it stops raining on a weekend.

It looks like it stitches the image into a panorama for you? Unless the stitching is very good I think I'd also want the individual raw images so I could manually stitch them (to deal with things like ghosted objects, seams, etc.). Do you know if that is possible? If he mentioned that I missed it.

Also, as I'm making HDR equirectangular panoramas none of the options he demonstrated would do what I want unless I can get the individual images. (I do make spherical panoramas, but as a byproduct of the equiprectangular ones I need for VR rendering.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Any panorama always gives you a stitched JPG but you can enable to save the original DNG too for later stitching in post production ... first time you activate, it will warn you that it might consume a lot of space (what it does). The horizontal panorama above has 104 megapixel in total.