Mavic 3 spotlight/POI problems locking on

[jephoto]

Hi All. Been testing evertyihng on the M3. Now that the 7x Tele has Spotlight and POI I've been trying to use it, but have not been able to get it to lock on to anything while in the 7x Tele mode.
Anyone have tips or tricks on this? Love to hear.

Yesterday was flying, bright sunny day. Had the 8x ND on so I could keep shutter at 1/120 for 60FPS. Plenty of light. Was shooting at a construction site and wanted to do some POI & Spotlight on the big crane on the roof. Could not get a lock on either the crane or selected areas on the roof.
With the RC pro and how I've adjusted the Expo settings for the sticks Ive been able to do very good manual POI, but its frustrating when I want to use the Intelligent flight modes.
Also happened on the normal lens too here, but usually I can get that to work.

Also if any of you using the tele lens a lot have some tips on getting decent color from the tele lens, also want to hear that. Even on sills from raw files they just don't have the same color depth or contrast. Acceptable, but not really great.
Here is a normal lens vs the 7x Tele. Not exactly same angle, but similar light shot within 20 min

 

[Ralph thompson]

I have the 3 Classic but there are several things I don’t understand in yr post.
- did you try using the normal camera & without the filter?
- why do u want to use 120FPS, which is for slow motion video. There’s nothing fast moving in yr scene.
- the telephoto camera does significantly lower quality images with its smaller sensor than the regular camera, why not get closer and use 5k 30p on the regular camera then zoom digitally in post.
i have read that there are a few limitations when using the telephoto camera.

 

[jephoto]

I have the 3 Classic but there are several things I don’t understand in yr post.
- did you try using the normal camera & without the filter?

Not this time. But I have had better luck with the spotlight/POI with the main lens , but not always. It surprised me a few times when I just could not get a lock on a subject even in very good light and no ND. It’s possible that I was a bit too far away, and I need to start my spotlight selection much closer in and then back off.

- why do u want to use 120FPS, which is for slow motion video. There’s nothing fast moving in yr scene.

You misunderstood me. I said I wanted to keep it at one 1/120th of a second for the shutter as I was doing 60 FPS for video. 2×60 is 120 for the proper “cinematic“ look on video.

Not trying to do a slow motion at all. I’m able to do pretty slow motion in cinematic mode already if anything, I would want parts of the video to ramp the speed up. But that’s a postproduction thing.

- the telephoto camera does significantly lower quality images with its smaller sensor than the regular camera, why not get closer and use 5k 30p on the regular camera then zoom digitally in post.
i have read that there are a few limitations when using the telephoto camera.

There are indeed many limitations to that camera. But in spite of that, he still can get a sharper image of some thing zoomed in that much with a telephoto camera. Then you can with the 5K zoomed in from the same position.
And then there’s the compressed perspective you get with a telephoto lens compared to a wide angle. It’s a very different look.

Look at the two photos I posted above. The first one is the telephoto aimed at that Crane with the Baha’i temple, quite distant in the background.
The dome of the temple (I think) would look much smaller using the main 24mm equivalent.
But I will do some testing and compare it

 

[Ralph thompson]

Unless there is something in the scene thats moving quickly, there's no need 60FPS. 30 or 24FPS will work fine. You don't mention the SW yr for post but FCPX, DaVinci Resolve & Premier will handle slow ramps with various interpolation options. It's up to you but yr generating huge files unnecessarily.
Sorry not trying to be argumentative but from a science point of view, image compression is identical whether the image is optically enlarged or if it's digitally enlarged. Optical enlargement is better if all else is equal but in this case the lens, sensor and processing are quite different.
Although this has not been said by DJI, in my opinion (looking at the specs) the telephoto lens on the M3 was designed for the my uses of industrial inspection but not for photography/videography. Just my thoughts.

 

[jephoto]

Unless there is something in the scene thats moving quickly, there's no need 60FPS. 30 or 24FPS will work fine.

I have a client that specifically wants me to shoot 60FPS. Thats what they want, that's what I give them.

You don't mention the SW yr for post but FCPX, DaVinci Resolve & Premier will handle slow ramps with various interpolation options. It's up to you but yr generating huge files unnecessarily.

I am trying to learn DaVinchi 18 now. Once I get familiar with that I can play with that stuff. And the client I mention above - they do school websites - also this year told me that 1080P is fine as they never go larger (I had been doing 2K with my P4P) and often smaller for the things they want from me. So 1080P/ 60FPS isn't much of a strain on file storage.

Sorry not trying to be argumentative but from a science point of view, image compression is identical whether the image is optically enlarged or if it's digitally enlarged. Optical enlargement is better if all else is equal but in this case the lens, sensor and processing are quite different.
Although this has not been said by DJI, in my opinion (looking at the specs) the telephoto lens on the M3 was designed for the my uses of industrial inspection but not for photography/videography. Just my thoughts.

And you may be right on all of it.
My purpose now is to see what the capabilities of my new craft are so I can use it to its full abilities - and know where the shortfalls are. I do this with any new equipment or camera. Not going for academy awards, just to get the best results possible with what I have. And not be surprised when I need to concentrate on shooting.