Been surfing threads to get smart on my new hobby and I tip my hat to the aircrew who take the time share a wealth of their technical expertise. It's clear these devices have well surpassed the technology of what I'll call Gen 1 consumer drones and learning how these operate is not unlike getting checked out in a glass panel aircraft.
So I cut the umbilical cord and journeyed out to sea in San Diego to get some eyes on the veritable plethora of juvenile Great White sharks that have decided to call a stretch of our beaches home. A woman got bit Friday and I thought I'd stop on my way home from Cars & Coffee to 'see what I could see' off the coast of Del Mar and ventured 'just to the limit of my visual acuity' while spending a good deal of time on the instruments in the process....until I lost my video feed...
So question #1 is how to diag to find direct cause of the loss of video signal. I got the flight file off my iPhone and unpacked it via the Phantom website and cannot find any data piece that appears out of place. I was about 1,500' away in direct line of sight with the drone off the coast in tripod mode (me on cliff at its 7 o'clock, drone out to sea in fwd motion) with nothing btwn us when the video dropped. Screen went black except for the small box showing relative position/heading. I was relieved to see that I still had control so I hit RTH and it came home. I stopped it a couple times to see if I could get the video back but the video was gone until I landed it and cycled power.
I put together my first production effort and admit I'm better flying than I am painting since I got dropped on my head as a kid so I have a ways to go before I'll profess literacy in videography. Here's my video link on a 6 min FCP effort.
A few questions for y'all:
1. Any switchology tricks to regain video feed while in flight?
2. How many folks add a strobe to their drone? Saw the link to a pretty dandy little strobe card to help with said 'visual acuity'.
3. Shot LOG 4k/30fps using inverse of 2x frame rate for shutter speed and had a Freewell ND/PL 64 filter installed. These 6 min 4k renderings on FCP are 20-25 GB (!). Does everybody have a stack of 2TB external drives or find rendering in lower resolution acceptable?
4. After cutting my teeth on near-BVR flight, I see I need to plan shots a bit better.
So I cut the umbilical cord and journeyed out to sea in San Diego to get some eyes on the veritable plethora of juvenile Great White sharks that have decided to call a stretch of our beaches home. A woman got bit Friday and I thought I'd stop on my way home from Cars & Coffee to 'see what I could see' off the coast of Del Mar and ventured 'just to the limit of my visual acuity' while spending a good deal of time on the instruments in the process....until I lost my video feed...
So question #1 is how to diag to find direct cause of the loss of video signal. I got the flight file off my iPhone and unpacked it via the Phantom website and cannot find any data piece that appears out of place. I was about 1,500' away in direct line of sight with the drone off the coast in tripod mode (me on cliff at its 7 o'clock, drone out to sea in fwd motion) with nothing btwn us when the video dropped. Screen went black except for the small box showing relative position/heading. I was relieved to see that I still had control so I hit RTH and it came home. I stopped it a couple times to see if I could get the video back but the video was gone until I landed it and cycled power.
I put together my first production effort and admit I'm better flying than I am painting since I got dropped on my head as a kid so I have a ways to go before I'll profess literacy in videography. Here's my video link on a 6 min FCP effort.
A few questions for y'all:
1. Any switchology tricks to regain video feed while in flight?
2. How many folks add a strobe to their drone? Saw the link to a pretty dandy little strobe card to help with said 'visual acuity'.
3. Shot LOG 4k/30fps using inverse of 2x frame rate for shutter speed and had a Freewell ND/PL 64 filter installed. These 6 min 4k renderings on FCP are 20-25 GB (!). Does everybody have a stack of 2TB external drives or find rendering in lower resolution acceptable?
4. After cutting my teeth on near-BVR flight, I see I need to plan shots a bit better.
-Use 60 fps for slowing down in post for planned pan shots b/c Cinema flight mode rotation too fast for distant subjects.
-Use a tracking mode for aquatic subjects.
-Get a landing pad or clear the LA a bit more...
5. What is descent to VPS range protocol for low overwater flight when launch point is well above VPS activation altitude?-Land on (dry) 0' MSL spot to see how high the cliff is so you can judge how much altitude you can lose before the drone becomes a submersible.
-Reset gimbal on horizon as you descend to VPS range and shoot for the '3 meters above water' direction from DJI.
-Know how not to initiate emergency landing mode when flying below 3M!
Sorry for the long list but couldn't find anything on video loss; I'll apologize up front if my search skills are more closely aligned with my gap in artistic flair. Thanks for the read and look forward to any questions, comments or smart remarks. I take 'em all!
