Some Newbie questions

[PacRav]

Hello all. After messing about with cheap "toy" drones, finally bit the bullet and bought the Mavic 2 Pro, with the Fly More Kit. Have had it in the air for a few short and cautious trials and all seems well. But have a few questions:

1. Should I put the SD card in the drone or in the Smart Controller? Or should I buy another card and put one in both? I'm a little confused so far about the recording location defaults and options.
2. Once I have some video or pics in either location, do I upload to my PC from the controller directly by the mini wifi cable, and do the same for any video pics on the drone? I linked using Bluetooth to my PC, connection was made, but every time I tried to upload a video file from the SC to the PC it failed. Haven't figured that one out so if you've seen that let me know.
3. Of the cam filters that come in the Fly More, is it good practise to leave one installed all the time (perhaps a polarizing one) to enhance video and protect the cam lens?

Now that the financial pain is over really looking forward to upcoming flights. I'm on a little island with drone airspace only limited by lots of trees and hungry salt water for fly aways. At least I think that is the case - I'm going to have to acquaint myself with drone regs in this area. We do have float planes coming and going from a bay about 5km away so perhaps there is an issue.

Anyways - glad to be here and looking forward to advice from you experience pilots.

 

[Camino Ken]

Firstly, welcome to the forum. I also have the Mavic 2 Pro but I do not have the smart controller. I fly with the standard controller and my iPhone. I capture all of my photos and video on a 64G SD in the drone. After I am done flying I take the card out and put it into a card reader attached to my iPad and transfer the files and then erase the card for the next time. I will let someone with a SC comment on the card in it.

I believe that you can also connect the drone directly to your computer but actually have never tried to transfer files this way. I have done calibrations this way.

i only use the default standard filter that came with the M2P. I believe it is a UV filter only and yes it protects the camera. The whole ND/polarizing filter discussion can be lengthy and I will leave it others with more experience.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

1. I don't have the Smart controller so can't answer that. I put an SD in the drone
2. I think you'll find that most people here take the SD card out and put it in a card reader, plugged into a computer USB port. Some here connect the drone to the computer (USB cable, not bluetooth or wifi, instructions in the manual), but that's slower and more cumbersome. However, before you get a card reader, the cable will work.
3. The drone already comes with a protective lens filter. You take if off to put on a polarizer or neutral density filter. My recommendation is that you a) learn what those other filters do and then b) use one only when you think you need it for the purpose learned about. In very short and simple terms, neither one of them is just to "enhance" video.

A polarizer cuts glare from glass and other reflective surfaces, such as large bodies of water. A neutral density filter does nothing to the image at all, but it cuts a lot of light from the going through the lens which allows you to slow down the shutter speed and/or frame rate.​

​

You will hear a lot of misinformation on these drone forums about the filters, such as "it's bright down here in Florida, so I use them to tame the sun". That's nonsense -- search the web and find out what they really do.​

Chris

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

You should put a micro sd in the aircraft, this is where your high resolution video / photos will save.
The Smart controller micro sd is for secondary recording, if it is turned on, and it is optional to use this I guess . . . that said, it's not like taking up other phone / ipad type cache space, so I'd certainly use it !!

I found this Smart Controller manual page with a quick search.

I suggest reading the manual for the aircraft and the smart controller fully, both are easily found online via google search.

I'm not 100% sure if the controller micro sd saves full res or (as with other viewing device caches) a lower quality cached res.

Filters.
If you have a UV filter, that is good to leave on all the time, but nothing wrong with leaving a clear PL on either, although it won't work 100% as inteneded unless orientated correctly to the sun, it also won't do any harm to video or photos.