My first shared video...flying off our boat!

Kupe · May 12, 2019

Hey gang-

First shared video shot from my Mavic Air! I bought the MA a few months ago- ultimate goal is to use it to capture video while sailing. But I'm taking this slow, so this was shot with our boat at anchor.

I should add that my Mavic Air was wearing protection- i.e. a Getterback device. It is attached very securely to a rear Arzroic landing gear strut. I've flown with it on exclusively for over a month to ensure no issues. Combined with DJI Care Refresh- and lots of practice- I feel fairly good about it.

I would love some thoughts on two issues I've noticed and wondering if maybe I need to get some ND filters. The first issue is the flare (I think maybe called vignetting) at 1:14 and also in the video thumbnail image. The other is the washed out- or maybe it is oversaturated color- at around 1:44 and some other spots around then. The water is actually rather greenish thanks to early Spring algae bloom, but it isn't as green as it looks in the oversaturated areas.

I should add that I did all the editing in DJI Go4 on my iPad Pro. Video was shot at 1080p/30fps

Anyhow, here it is! Thanks for any insights or suggestions!

Porky · May 13, 2019

Nice yacht, I’m sure someone will give you some feedback on filter choice while filming, I don’t do vids so can’t help?

Drbobk · May 13, 2019

Don’t even THINK about trying to land that while you’re sailing!

Porky · May 13, 2019

The best approach while sailing and flying your drone is hand catching, takeoff/landing. Get your better half to sail while you film/take photos of your yacht. Looking forward to seeing more footage?

Infotraker · May 13, 2019

Very nice place to be ! I have had my air for about a month. I slowed down the gimbal movement in setting , had been moving it to fast. Also a learned while Pan To to move very slow . Just Learning also, takes lots of try’s to get vids looking good,

Bruce Lythe · May 13, 2019

I think three suggestions might help, as well as the more involved use of ND filters.

1) do not use auto camera settings for video. Choose a shutter speed that gives you an EV of +-.7 when pointing the drone at the area you want to photograph

2) do not use auto white balance. Set to sunny or cloudy depending

3) use a polarising filter and rotate it (while holding the drone) to give you the effect want

If you want to go to the next stage you want to video in say 4k at 24fps and a shutter of twice that ie 1/50. That makes it look cinematic....To achieve that I guess you need ND 32 in those conditions. So an ND 32 polarising would be ideal.

I use Newver filters and I have 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and the corresponding PLs. Not a huge investment.

The other things you need to do are slow down the gimbal and change the EXP settings of the drone flight controller. On YouTube I like ianinlondon and a scot dronefilmguide

Hope this helps. Key word is slow and smooth.....

Madmax229 · May 13, 2019

Hopefully after a bit of sailing you don"t hit RTH. Very nice boat!

Kupe · May 13, 2019

Bruce Lythe said:
I think three suggestions might help, as well as the more involved use of ND filters.

1) do not use auto camera settings for video. Choose a shutter speed that gives you an EV of +-.7 when pointing the drone at the area you want to photograph

2) do not use auto white balance. Set to sunny or cloudy depending

3) use a polarising filter and rotate it (while holding the drone) to give you the effect want

If you want to go to the next stage you want to video in say 4k at 24fps and a shutter of twice that ie 1/50. That makes it look cinematic....To achieve that I guess you need ND 32 in those conditions. So an ND 32 polarising would be ideal.

I use Newver filters and I have 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and the corresponding PLs. Not a huge investment.

The other things you need to do are slow down the gimbal and change the EXP settings of the drone flight controller. On YouTube I like ianinlondon and a scot dronefilmguide

Hope this helps. Key word is slow and smooth.....

Wow thank you Bruce! It will take me some time to digest all that, but that's what I was hoping for. I looked at some filters and surprising how the price jumps between a set with 4,8,16 and 4,8,16,32.

With regard to yaw and panning, do you think Cinematic mode would do the trick as well?

I will look forward to experimenting with your camera settings as well!

Cheers!

Kupe · May 13, 2019

Madmax229 said:
Hopefully after a bit of sailing you don"t hit RTH. Very nice boat!

Thank you MadMax! She's a 1984 Tartan 28. A labor of love, and she sails like a dream.

WRT RTH, my plan when I do finally fly my Mavic Air when we are sailing is to set RTH to Hover. If we disconnect for some reason, we can probably tack about and sail back to the Mavic rather than having the Mavic heading to a home point that isn't there anymore. Well, that's my theory LOL!

Kupe · May 13, 2019

Infotraker said:
Very nice place to be ! I have had my air for about a month. I slowed down the gimbal movement in setting , had been moving it to fast. Also a learned while Pan To to move very slow . Just Learning also, takes lots of try’s to get vids looking good,

Thanks!

One thing I'm not clear on is the relationship between gimbal movement and the aircraft yaw rate. For a user standpoint, my impression is that we can only control the gimbal pitch (i.e. up/down). My gut feeling is I need to slow down or desensitize yaw response of the Mavic. Does the gimbal also move in response to yaw commands?

Nautidawg · Jan 19, 2020

While doing a search on boat flying I found this post...and said Wow looks like a Tartan!

Thanks for sharing that video all the way to landing. I was impressed with how you took off so close to the forestay and then landed right there! I will have to try this when/if I get the confidence! For editing were you using iMovie?

Kupe · Jan 21, 2020

Thanks Nautidog for the kind words. Yep- our 1984 Tartan 28.

With regard to maneuvering near the stays, shrouds, rails, mast, and the rest. I practiced quite a bit at our dock, and the only way to do it with a sailboat IMHO is to turn off Visual Obstacle Avoidance and Landing Protection.

With Visual Obstacle Avoidance turned on, the Mavic simply goes bananas with all the obstacles. It won't takeoff or move. On a flat topped or open deck powerboat, that probably wouldn't be necessary. But on a sailboat there are simply too many obstacles.

And the problem I found with Landing Protection is that on final approach to land as you come over the rails, you get a small vertical bump or hesitation as it senses the sudden change below. But you cannot afford that with so many obstructions overhead.

But of course once airborne, you will need to turn on Visual Obstacle Avoidance to enable the Intelligent Flight Modes for circling, etc. So you should be able to activate and deactivate those modes almost blindfolded since you certainly can't be fumbling with the controller with all this going on.

Couple other things. I set RTH to Hover. And I also set the battery warning up to around 40% or so.

Regarding Editing, no, not iMovie. I transferred the hi-def video from my Mavic's SD card to my iPad Pro using an SD-card to Lightning adapter. Then I did the editing in the DJIGo4 editor. It seems like I'm about the only person who uses it, but it was my first effort and I was fine with it.

Alas, shortly after I shot the video I broke my foot and didn't fly for a few months. Then a new job at work, and now winter. So I never did get a chance to fly while sailing. Maybe this Spring!

Cheers,

Kupe

Nautidawg · Jan 22, 2020

Alas, shortly after I shot the video I broke my foot and didn't fly for a few months. Then a new job at work, and now winter. So I never did get a chance to fly while sailing. Maybe this Spring!

Cheers,

Kupe
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Thanks for all that info! Awesome info. Sorry to hear about your foot though. Spring will be here soon enough (unless you're in the tundra like me)