Mini 2 - can you pan the camera without turning the drone ?

MavicAir2Marc · Nov 11, 2020

PhiliusFoggg said:
Yeah the M2's can, in fact they can turn so far you get a LOVELY view of the corresponding front leg lol. It's a really nice feature. The MM has up and down control so I am wondering if it is just a software thing that is 'missing '?

karlblessing · Nov 11, 2020

Least according to the manual, the Mini and likewise the Mini 2, only allows for the pitch to be user-controlled. The yaw (panning) and roll while the other two options of the gimbals 3-axis stabilization isn't controllable by the user. I too think that would be kind of cool to be able to control that manually least for short clips where the gimbal would be steadier than rotating the actual aircraft.

DanMan32 · Nov 11, 2020

brett8883 said:
For the record you do not need two remotes to move the gimbal independently of the aircraft on either Inspires. The Inspire 2 has more advanced functions for single operators to control the gimbal more precisely independently of the aircraft.

You said "inspires" which would include the Inspire 1 but you only attribute the more advanced functions for single operator to the I2. Can you move the gimbal on the I1 with only one remote?

dwallersv · Nov 11, 2020

passedpawn said:
In the M2P you can touch the screen and move the gimbal left and right. Not a great idea because there's no simple way to make it go back to "center" again. I did it once, just to see, then never tried again.

I didn't know this! Or that it works on the M2P as well.

I can think of all sorts of applications of this feature where hovering in place is necessary, and surveying/filming the FOV available with the full gimbal tilt/pan control available covers the area of interest.

Think surveillance during an event. Capturing nature (animals, etc.) imagery. Sporting events. So many more, you just have to think of the beast as a CAMERA that can be placed anywhere in 3D space, rather than an AIRCRAFT that must be flown to be, well, used.

I can recall a few situations in the past when I could have used this...

brett8883 · Nov 11, 2020

DanMan32 said:
You said "inspires" which would include the Inspire 1 but you only attribute the more advanced functions for single operator to the I2. Can you move the gimbal on the I1 with only one remote?

Yes. You can move the gimbal with both the Insipre 1 and Inspire 2 by tap and drag on the screen like on the M2. The rate and smoothtrack of the gimbal when using this method can be customized on the I2 but on the I1 it is super fast and basically worthless. On both the I1 and I2 you can control the gimbal yaw with the left gimbal wheel by toggling one of the custom trigger buttons. Which button does this can be customized in the app. You toggle it on and off to switch between the controlling gimbal tilt or gimbal yaw with the left wheel.

Both I1 and I2 can be set either FREE or Follow mode. FREE mode maintains the gimbal direction even if the aircraft turns. On the I1 eventually you can wind up the gimbal so that it can’t turn any further. On the I2 if you reach this point the aircraft will “quick spin” to unwind the gimbal while continuing on its original trajectory. If it weren’t for the fact that the app warns you when this is about to happen and when it happens you may not realize it even happened unless you are watching the live feed from the FPV camera or watching the aircraft VLOS. In follow mode the camera will yaw with the aircraft but you can move the gimbal to some offset position from the aircraft heading.

On the Inspire 2 there are several functions not available on the Inspire 1. In Tap Fly mode there is a setting that allows you to use the right stick (in mode 2 at least) to control the pitch and yaw of the gimbal when flying as a single pilot in Tap Fly mode. Since the aircraft direction and speed is already being controlled by Tap Fly you don’t need the right stick to control the aircraft. You can turn this feature off however with a button so you can adjust adjust aircraft speed and direction like on the M2.

Also somewhat related, Spotlight Pro can be initiated in any flight mode. Spotlight Pro is kinda a mix between POI mode on the M2 and Activetrack Spotlight mode. You draw a box around the focus subject and the camera will stay fixed on that object. You can specify whether you want the camera to pan to follow the subject (free mode)or you want the whole aircraft to turn to follow the subject(follow mode). In Spotlight Pro follow mode you can orbit around your subject by pushing the right stick right or left.

What makes Spotlight Pro unique is that is not a flight mode and can be initiated on top of any flight mode including Sport mode. For instance you can initiate Spotlight Pro in Waypoint mode so the camera stays fixed on some object while it is flying through the waypoints.

In actual POI mode on the Inspire 2 you can specify if you want the aircraft’s heading to be facing the center of the POI arc or facing the direction the aircraft is heading while the camera is pointed toward the center POI circle (you may want the latter so that the vision sensors will prevent the aircraft from running into something or to see where the aircraft is headed in the FPV live view.) You can still set FREE, Follow, or Spotlight Pro mode for the camera though so lots of options.

With the Cendence remote (which only works with the Inspire 2) both the right and left finger wheels are the same (they are physically like the gimbal tilt wheel on the Mavic series and return to center when released and have no clicks). Camera exposure control is moved to the front on the remote using some of the buttons that are unique to the Cendence remote. This means you can program one of the gimbal wheels to control gimbal tilt and the other to control gimbal yaw. You can program which side does which.

There did I clear that all up? lol