SD Card Slot Question

[Jay808]

Sorry if this is a dumb question... I can't figure out what the SD Card Slot on my Mavic Smart Controller has an advantage for? Little background... I have a Mavic 2 Zoom with a 128GB card installed into the drone. Whenever I'm done flying and recording, I pop it out and download all pics and vids to my PC. Since I had an extra 128GB card, I decided to install it into the controller. It prompted and asked if I wanted it to default to save to the card. Now looking at it after my last flight, it has the exact same contents from my drone. Any advantages to this that I cannot see? Does it use more battery life since it's recording? Any clarifications or explanations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!! (And again, sorry if this is a dumb question. I've read the entire manual for the drone and controller, and as I understand... it's just a redundant backup?)
Jay

 

[TSUPD]

The slot does a couple of things. 1)you can remove the SD card from the drone and immediately view the footage if you are storing it on the drone. 2)you can locally cache the video/footage to the RC, then download it onto the SD card for storage or whatever you want it for. If you locally cache it, then it will record on the drone and cache on the RC, then for example if you are on public safety and let's say the fire dept wanted the footage for training or investigations, then you could download the cache of the RC right there and give it to them. It's convenience and for professional use.

Sorry if this is a dumb question... I can't figure out what the SD Card Slot on my Mavic Smart Controller has an advantage for? Little background... I have a Mavic 2 Zoom with a 128GB card installed into the drone. Whenever I'm done flying and recording, I pop it out and download all pics and vids to my PC. Since I had an extra 128GB card, I decided to install it into the controller. It prompted and asked if I wanted it to default to save to the card. Now looking at it after my last flight, it has the exact same contents from my drone. Any advantages to this that I cannot see? Does it use more battery life since it's recording? Any clarifications or explanations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!! (And again, sorry if this is a dumb question. I've read the entire manual for the drone and controller, and as I understand... it's just a redundant backup?)
Jay

 

[raven swe]

you don't need to pop it out the drone, just plug the cable into drone and pc and transfer that way, saves damage or losing the card

 

[ff22]

I guess in the event of a drone loss (water), you'd have a second, or at that point, only copy on the Smart Controller. While flying, you can also download already taken photos or videos to the SC, again, as insurance. Be aware that while photos download quickly, video do take some minutes to download and, yes, that uses battery power and the controller is busy with the download process.

And I agree with Raven SWE, I don't mess with the little drone door and the tiny, thin card on the drone. I generally use a cable if you are not limited to working in the field.

 

[Jay808]

GREAT advice from all of you... Thanks!!!

 

[paulatkin73]

so, what i do is this... insert sd card into the SC, as it senses it, i configure it as an internal storage. by doing it all the android data files will be transferred to the card. i do it as it gets, as a part of it, all the telemetry logs - in the \DJI\dji.go.v4\FlightRecord folder.
it makes it very handy to retrieve - i do not need to power it up to get anything, just get card to the reader and copy logs over. downside - you should not be powering SC up with no card in it, if it was setup this way.

second thing - SC has a microphone. i activate local video caching - the video itself is useless, as quality is not good and blotchy, but, you get the audio feed, and in some cases, if you want to have voice over and comments on what you fly - you can get this video from the SC and use it in the davinci resolve as an audio track source to mix it up with the proper video.

photo cache is not very usable or useful.

 

[paulatkin73]

I don't mess with the little drone door and the tiny, thin card on the drone. I generally use a cable if you are not limited to working in the field.

so, that is not a good advice. card reader is relatively sturdy and its connectors are pretty much, well, can be considered more or less immortal. you can pull that card in and out million times with no impact.
not so much that usb connector. i would not use it much, the less you connect to it - the better, as if you`ll ruin it - you will not be able to update the drone anymore.

 

[Jay808]

ALL of your guys advice is awesome! So now,... trying to get the best of all of your advice,... This is what I am 'planning' on doing. Firstly, I don't have any difficulties in removing the SD card from the drone. (I have 2 dash cams, that are in tighter quarters, in which I remove the same size SD cards.) Next, I find that all of your experiences are so very useful. At first, I didn't want to keep on connecting the drone to my PC via USB. However, 2 (two) points that I found. 1-It is a USB "C" port, so much easier! 2-(Downside) Have to power on drone. I rather be charging the battery while I download that pics/vids.

I understand what you all are conveying to me, and I thank you for it. My goals are: 1.-Best battery life for the SC. And 2.- Getting 'good' pics/vids with the M2Z, (regardless if I lose the drone and can't retrieve it.... so data is lost if the drone crashes.)

End plan,- take out 128GB card from SC, and utilize it for the drone, since I have 3 (three) batteries. (Understanding that AS LONG AS I GET THE DRONE SAFELY BACK, it will save me battery life on the SC, and have better resolution in the Drone Card anyway.) Thank you so much for your input. Please let me know how you guys / girls feel. Thanks!!!
Jay