Why some of your FreePanos may not show as takeable (solved)

[Bussty]

I learned something today after trying to take several FreePano's in the weekend with the 6x Camera. Anything a little complex or large came up with a message saying the angle was too high or number of images too great. I tested again a few days later and it seemed I could take whatever I wanted in 6x FreePano mode. I thought it was a controller upgrade in the weekend but it was something else. If you have panorama stitching set to Jpeg in the menu (default) you will get issues when trying to take large or high pitch FreePanos however if you switch that setting off Freepano will let you capture anything. Only problem is this setting can only be set when in the air and defaults to "Jpeg" so you have to switch it to "None" everytime you fly the drone if wanting to do FreePanos.

In case you haven't tried FreePano stitches (especially 2.5x and 6x) can give you stunning high quality images of parts of your normal 28mm frame when you stitch a mosaic of images to make up one large high quality image. Is a game changer for Photo users and is like having a much higher quality camera in the sky

 

[GadgetGuy]

I learned something today after trying to take several FreePano's in the weekend with the 6x Camera. Anything a little complex or large came up with a message saying the angle was too high or number of images too great. I tested again a few days later and it seemed I could take whatever I wanted in 6x FreePano mode. I thought it was a controller upgrade in the weekend but it was something else. If you have panorama stitching set to Jpeg in the menu (default) you will get issues when trying to take large or high pitch FreePanos however if you switch that setting off Freepano will let you capture anything. Only problem is this setting can only be set when in the air and defaults to "Jpeg" so you have to switch it to "None" everytime you fly the drone if wanting to do FreePanos.

In case you haven't tried FreePano stitches (especially 2.5x and 6x) can give you stunning high quality images of parts of your normal 28mm frame when you stitch a mosaic of images to make up one large high quality image. Is a game changer for Photo users and is like having a much higher quality camera in the sky

Good information. However, for clarification, you must mean the menu setting for whether or not to save original Free Pano images. The three options should be "Yes" with the option to save them as either JPG or DNG or "None" which saves no images except the in camera created stitch from the original Free Pano photos.

Makes sense, as in order to both save originals and stitch requires JPG for the originals. If you select DNG instead, no in camera stitch is available. Too much processing overhead and DNG's are unable to be stitched in camera.

When using the 2.5x and 6x cameras for exceptionally large Free Panos requiring lots of photos, in order to process such a large stitch, the camera can't simultaneously write all those photos to the microSD card. On large Free Panos you have to forgo saving any of the original JPG images, and hope the in camera stitch worked out well.

Is there an option of a full Spherical Pano using the 6x telephoto, or is that option limited to just the 2.5x and 1x cameras?

 

[Bussty]

Good information. However, for clarification, you must mean the menu setting for whether or not to save original Free Pano images. The three options should be "Yes" with the option to save them as either JPG or DNG or "None" which saves no images except the in camera created stitch from the original Free Pano photos.

Makes sense, as in order to both save originals and stitch requires JPG for the originals. If you select DNG instead, no in camera stitch is available. Too much processing overhead and DNG's are unable to be stitched in camera.

When using the 2.5x and 6x cameras for exceptionally large Free Panos requiring lots of photos, in order to process such a large stitch, the camera can't simultaneously write all those photos to the microSD card. On large Free Panos you have to forgo saving any of the original JPG images, and hope the in camera stitch worked out well.

Is there an option of a full Spherical Pano using the 6x telephoto, or is that option limited to just the 2.5x and 1x cameras?

I think it is different with freepano only two settings there..


Sorry no 6x spherical pano at this point but how many images would that take?

 

[GadgetGuy]

I think it is different with freepano only two settings there..
View attachment 183915

Sorry no 6x spherical pano at this point but how many images would that take?

Output Format refers to the final stitched image which can only be None or JPEG. If you first set Photo Type to RAW the only Output Format option should Off.

So the three options are: 1. Photo Type JPEG with Output Format JPG (Stitch)
2. Photo Type JPEG with Output Format Off (No stitch)
3. Photo Type RAW with Output Format Off (No stitch)

Thanks for clarifying the lack of 6x spherical pano, which would be around 500 images! No technical reason would prevent it, as the images are just shot and saved into a folder for later stitching with software. You could certainly shoot it manually in either JPEG and/or DNG, with enough patience and good technique. Probably 20 minutes shot manually, which could be reduced to 10 with DJI automation.

So, exactly how wide in degrees can you shoot the 6x Free panos, if you set output format to Off?
Can you even do a 90° pano? How about a 180° pano?
If one could just shoot five 90° panos (allowing for 25% overlap), one could then create a 6x Spherical Pano with automation support, but no originals. One would just need to manually stitch together the 5 resulting JPG images.

 

[Bussty]

Output Format refers to the final stitched image which can only be None or JPEG. If you first set Photo Type to RAW the only Output Format option should Off.

So the three options are: 1. Photo Type JPEG with Output Format JPG (Stitch)
2. Photo Type JPEG with Output Format Off (No stitch)
3. Photo Type RAW with Output Format Off (No stitch)

Thanks for clarifying the lack of 6x spherical pano, which would be around 500 images! No technical reason would prevent it, as the images are just shot and saved into a folder for later stitching with software. You could certainly shoot it manually in either JPEG and/or DNG, with enough patience and good technique. Probably 20 minutes shot manually, which could be reduced to 10 with DJI automation.

So, exactly how wide in degrees can you shoot the 6x Free panos, if you set output format to Off?
Can you even do a 90° pano? How about a 180° pano?
If one could just shoot five 90° panos (allowing for 25% overlap), one could then create a 6x Spherical Pano with automation support, but no originals. One would just need to manually stitch together the 5 resulting JPG images.

I'm pretty sure with that stitch option to off the sky is the limit except up and down is limited to 60 degrees. Might test this tomorrow too. I had test runs at 215 images and still no warning it couldn't take them. Encouraging!

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'm pretty sure with that stitch option to off the sky is the limit except up and down is limited to 60 degrees. Might test this tomorrow too. I had test runs at 215 images and still no warning it couldn't take them. Encouraging!

Sounds great! Keep pushing the envelope. Can you select 50MP stills instead of 12MP stills with the same freedom? Find the max field of view the Free Pano will allow or the max images. Try testing a single row going around 180°. Even a 360° single row image stitch would be cool. 3 rows of 180° would make a great image!
Have you had any resulting stitches that had glitches in the stitch, where the horizon or lines in the photo are misaligned?

 

[Bussty]

Sounds great! Keep pushing the envelope. Can you select 50MP stills instead of 12MP stills with the same freedom? Find the max field of view the Free Pano will allow or the max images. Try testing a single row going around 180°. Even a 360° single row image stitch would be cool. 3 rows of 180° would make a great image!
Have you had any resulting stitches that had glitches in the stitch, where the horizon or lines in the photo are misaligned?

Haven't tried the 50MP from what I have seen the magenta / green banding creeps back in, was bad on the mini 3 pro. But I will try this. I'll also put it on Freepano no-stitch and see what horizontal angle I can clock up. I am thinking it will do at least 360.

The cool thing about Freepano is if you select one row it gives you three anyway which is pretty cool as it thinks you want the window view so it goes outside that for convergence errors I guess making sure you get what you want.

As I stitch my own I seldom get stitching errors, using Panorama Studio Pro you can mask out some errors but to be honest with the 6x the stitches should be easier as less distortion.

Will keep you posted.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Haven't tried the 50MP from what I have seen the magenta / green banding creeps back in, was bad on the mini 3 pro. But I will try this. I'll also put it on Freepano no-stitch and see what horizontal angle I can clock up. I am thinking it will do at least 360.

The cool thing about Freepano is if you select one row it gives you three anyway which is pretty cool as it thinks you want the window view so it goes outside that for convergence errors I guess making sure you get what you want.

As I stitch my own I seldom get stitching errors, using Panorama Studio Pro you can mask out some errors but to be honest with the 6x the stitches should be easier as less distortion.

Will keep you posted.

Awesome. I'm using PSP 4, too for interactive web output of the in camera stitches and higher resolution stitches when saving the original images. Automated 360° 3 or more row in camera stitches on the 6x would be very cool. I'd do more testing myself, but flying the Mavic 4 Pro indoors in the living room seems a bit sketchy, with all the prop wash turbulence sending papers flying that could end up in the props! Also need to be away from home with RID broadcasting.

DJI's in camera stitching has gotten really good. I shot some 10 different 360° panos on the Mini 4 Pro last week and was amazed with the stitching quality and the in-camera 45MP Hi-Res result and the virtually indefectible ceiling cloning on a full 360x180 playable in PT Gui's viewer.

 

[Bussty]

Awesome. I'm using PSP 4, too for interactive web output of the in camera stitches and higher resolution stitches when saving the original images. Automated 360° 3 or more row in camera stitches on the 6x would be very cool. I'd do more testing myself, but flying the Mavic 4 Pro indoors in the living room seems a bit sketchy, with all the prop wash turbulence sending papers flying that could end up in the props! Also need to be away from home with RID broadcasting.

DJI's in camera stitching has gotten really good. I shot some 10 different 360° panos on the Mini 4 Pro last week and was amazed with the stitching quality and the in-camera 45MP Hi-Res result and the virtually indefectible ceiling cloning on a full 360x180 playable in PT Gui's viewer.

Ok so did some more testing, THIS time turning off in camera stitching from the start so I knew where I was (so much easier to test!) So I could get the drone in 6x mode to take any sequence I threw at it starting from +60 degrees tilt and pointing North to -60 degrees tilt all the way around to 359 degrees BUT there is a catch. It is smart and if you go 361 degrees it goes "Hmm that's a tiny 1 degree horizontal between C1 and C1 we'll just do that", but if you go just short of the full 360 degrees horizontal it will do it! I got it saying it would want to take 880 images and I pushed go just to see if it would start and it did.

The other good news is it will do all that and use 50MP files but hate to think what that would end up final size at!

The drone is absolutely using a fixed hyperfocal distance in FreePano mode, even looking across the street at the neighbours house and trying a FreePanop just of the house, the target house was not as sharp as the house behind. I'm guessing it is sharp from about 50-60m out which needs to change as the stitch was flawless but the sharpness not there like I have found it on subjects further away. DJI really needs to consider a manual focus option with that camera. My next hobby

I also learned how to do Rectilinear projections in PSP 4 today. The 6x stitches so much better in that mode than Spherical or Cylindrical projections. You are probably all over this but if not head to this menu item after you have rendered...



Shame with in drone stitching getting better that it makes getting a more complex freepano harder.

Cheers

 

[GadgetGuy]

Ok so did some more testing, THIS time turning off in camera stitching from the start so I knew where I was (so much easier to test!) So I could get the drone in 6x mode to take any sequence I threw at it starting from +60 degrees tilt and pointing North to -60 degrees tilt all the way around to 359 degrees BUT there is a catch. It is smart and if you go 361 degrees it goes "Hmm that's a tiny 1 degree horizontal between C1 and C1 we'll just do that", but if you go just short of the full 360 degrees horizontal it will do it! I got it saying it would want to take 880 images and I pushed go just to see if it would start and it did.

The other good news is it will do all that and use 50MP files but hate to think what that would end up final size at!

The drone is absolutely using a fixed hyperfocal distance in FreePano mode, even looking across the street at the neighbours house and trying a FreePanop just of the house, the target house was not as sharp as the house behind. I'm guessing it is sharp from about 50-60m out which needs to change as the stitch was flawless but the sharpness not there like I have found it on subjects further away. DJI really needs to consider a manual focus option with that camera. My next hobby

I also learned how to do Rectilinear projections in PSP 4 today. The 6x stitches so much better in that mode than Spherical or Cylindrical projections. You are probably all over this but if not head to this menu item after you have rendered...

View attachment 183930

Shame with in drone stitching getting better that it makes getting a more complex freepano harder.

Cheers

This is exciting stuff!

So, it appears so far that 6x Free Panos will let you shoot either 12MP JPEG in AEB at 0, 3, 5 or 7 brackets of 0.7EV, or 50MP JPEG's (with AEB bracketing as well? Check this! )or DNG's (with AEB bracketing as well? Check this! ) for up to 880 different images covering the full field of the camera view of 360°x120°!
If it will allow the 7 brackets of each image, it will then save 6,160 images!
You just have to do your own stitch! LOL!

The primary limitation of that many sequential images is the write speed of the SSD which should be faster on the CC 512GB SSD than the 64GB SSD of the regular Mavic 4 Pro.

I wonder if the algorithm ALSO calculates the total shooting time necessary, under your chosen options, vs. calculated remaining flight time, and time to RTH after the shooting! Otherwise, unless you are directly over your Home Point, which minimizes the Low Battery RTH time, it will cancel completion, and stop shooting, and RTH or land. All your images already shot will still be saved. If this were an Enterprise drone, it would be able to resume your Free Pano where it left off, just like a photogrammetry mission covering multiple batteries.

When you pushed Go to start, and It didn't error out, did you then immediately cancel? Or did you let it complete? If so, how long did it take?

So, essentially, the Free Pano on the 6x is acting exactly like the 2.5x camera's Sphere Pano, where it shoots the necessary 150 images, and saves them into their own PANORAMA folder, but also won't stitch them, except there is no AEB possible on that method. However, nothing to stop you from now using Free Pano on the 2.5x camera with AEB bracketing for its 360° by 120° of 150 images!

As long as your closest object of interest is within the close focus distance of the hyperfocal range of the hyperfocal distance from the camera, everything of interest should still be in focus beyond it. Have you been able to determine what that distance is? If it is 50-60m that should be ideal for 99% of situations. For the other 1%, you just need to do your Free Pano manually.

Will check out the PSP rectilinear projections better suited for less than 360x180 panos. PSP's interactive web output files work within all types of panos for scrolling around and zooming into details over the web. Very cool.

Keep testing! This is good stuff!

 

[Bussty]

Certainly is!

I'll check the AEB 6x 50MP FreePano bracketing tomorrow.

Hate to think how long 6160 images would take to shoot Yes true and then there is the massive RAM required to stitch!

Pretty sure will do a RAW too so can check this.

On the 800+ shot pano I just let it run for about 30 secs then cancelled not much of a shot my blurry backyard

Is hard to say but minimum distance definitely more than 30m probably closer to 50m. DJI have confirmed this behavior now. https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=343437&pid=3678504

I kind of have almost a decade of images on Wix now so loathe to change to anything else as there seems to be no easy transfer route in regards to changing how panos displayed.

Sorry only a Windows user so no Apple experience.

Congratulations on securing a Mavic 4 Pro in USA seems to be quite the feat. It doesn't feel like there are the numbers of users on these forums I would expect probably due to the US restriction.

I think I have finally gotten somewhere with DJI Mindy but who knows, but if you do nothing nothing will happen. Have told her I will be posting sample Freepanos on the DJI Forum site to show why Manual focusing should be considered.

Yes super clear skies here in Queenstown but back on New Years Day 2020 our skies were thick with smoke all the way from Australia! Oz Bushfire Smoke on Remarks 2 | QUEENSTOWN LAKES

(In case you haven't noticed have replied to two threads in this one email.)

Will report back tomorrow.

Cheers

 

[GadgetGuy]

Certainly is!

I'll check the AEB 6x 50MP FreePano bracketing tomorrow.

Hate to think how long 6160 images would take to shoot Yes true and then there is the massive RAM required to stitch!

Pretty sure will do a RAW too so can check this.

On the 800+ shot pano I just let it run for about 30 secs then cancelled not much of a shot my blurry backyard

Is hard to say but minimum distance definitely more than 30m probably closer to 50m. DJI have confirmed this behavior now. https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=343437&pid=3678504

I kind of have almost a decade of images on Wix now so loathe to change to anything else as there seems to be no easy transfer route in regards to changing how panos displayed.

Sorry only a Windows user so no Apple experience.

Congratulations on securing a Mavic 4 Pro in USA seems to be quite the feat. It doesn't feel like there are the numbers of users on these forums I would expect probably due to the US restriction.

I think I have finally gotten somewhere with DJI Mindy but who knows, but if you do nothing nothing will happen. Have told her I will be posting sample Freepanos on the DJI Forum site to show why Manual focusing should be considered.

Yes super clear skies here in Queenstown but back on New Years Day 2020 our skies were thick with smoke all the way from Australia! Oz Bushfire Smoke on Remarks 2 | QUEENSTOWN LAKES

(In case you haven't noticed have replied to two threads in this one email.)

Will report back tomorrow.

Cheers

The 50MP should take 4x as long as the 12MP, as would selecting RAW instead of JPEG, assuming both are available for 6x Free Panos. Check also to see if AEB is also available with 50MP and RAW.

The flight time and battery power are the real limitations, after calculating the total shooting time based off the per individual image time, along with low battery RTH, if some distance away from the Home Point. Best executed directly over the Home Point.

I can accept a 50m minimum focus distance on Free Panos. For anything closer, manual focus and manual shooting of the pano is likely best, and easy to accomplish with lots of detail from which to determine 1/3 overlaps using the 9 box grid overlay.

No need to transfer from Wix, but you might consider using another means for displaying future super HiRes panos and upload to Wiz for general sharing.

Turns out the Spherualizer app on the iPad still works to open your 360MB google drive version, but not in full quality.

Yes, I promoted the heck out of the $4650 Creator Combos at Adorama all week long until they finally ran out that Friday around June 27. I suspect at least 20 members here bought one. Didn’t want to miss the party!

DJI Mindy is an airhead. The other guy is good. However, DJI developers do what they want. The DJI Forum suggestions go to the "relevant team" aka the trash can! LOL!

Clear days in the winter after a rainstorm make for the best panos!

Cheers!

 

[Felix le Chat]

The 50MP should take 4x as long as the 12MP, as would selecting RAW instead of JPEG, assuming both are available for 6x Free Panos. Check also to see if AEB is also available with 50MP and RAW.

The flight time and battery power are the real limitations, after calculating the total shooting time based off the per individual image time, along with low battery RTH, if some distance away from the Home Point. Best executed directly over the Home Point.

I can accept a 50m minimum focus distance on Free Panos. For anything closer, manual focus and manual shooting of the pano is likely best, and easy to accomplish with lots of detail from which to determine 1/3 overlaps using the 9 box grid overlay.

No need to transfer from Wix, but you might consider using another means for displaying future super HiRes panos and upload to Wiz for general sharing.

Turns out the Spherualizer app on the iPad still works to open your 360MB google drive version, but not in full quality.

Yes, I promoted the heck out of the $4650 Creator Combos at Adorama all week long until they finally ran out that Friday around June 27. I suspect at least 20 members here bought one. Didn’t want to miss the party!

DJI Mindy is an airhead. The other guy is good. However, DJI developers do what they want. The DJI Forum suggestions go to the "relevant team" aka the trash can! LOL!

Clear days in the winter after a rainstorm make for the best panos!

Cheers!

"...DJI Mindy is an airhead..." LOL! That was polite... I could think of many other terms - all of which would automatically get the '*****' treatment.

 

[Bussty]

The 50MP should take 4x as long as the 12MP, as would selecting RAW instead of JPEG, assuming both are available for 6x Free Panos. Check also to see if AEB is also available with 50MP and RAW.

The flight time and battery power are the real limitations, after calculating the total shooting time based off the per individual image time, along with low battery RTH, if some distance away from the Home Point. Best executed directly over the Home Point.

I can accept a 50m minimum focus distance on Free Panos. For anything closer, manual focus and manual shooting of the pano is likely best, and easy to accomplish with lots of detail from which to determine 1/3 overlaps using the 9 box grid overlay.

No need to transfer from Wix, but you might consider using another means for displaying future super HiRes panos and upload to Wiz for general sharing.

Turns out the Spherualizer app on the iPad still works to open your 360MB google drive version, but not in full quality.

Yes, I promoted the heck out of the $4650 Creator Combos at Adorama all week long until they finally ran out that Friday around June 27. I suspect at least 20 members here bought one. Didn’t want to miss the party!

DJI Mindy is an airhead. The other guy is good. However, DJI developers do what they want. The DJI Forum suggestions go to the "relevant team" aka the trash can! LOL!

Clear days in the winter after a rainstorm make for the best panos!

Cheers!

Will check all those and as you say battery time will be your challenge.

How do you manage the grid thing when no details in that part of the image? I plan to take some images using the inconvenient manual grid mode to show how the photographer sees the shot and then on FreePano as to how it comes out using that convenient mode. They just need to put a little symbol on the FreePano screen different from the Photo Mode, just call it "F" you tap that then what you want to focus on and it takes all the pics at that setting. You don't want AF/MF as if on AF all the shots would have different Focus Points. I guess you could have MF/IF (Manual focus / Infinity Focus)? That make sense plus the users actually know what is going on which I clearly haven't for years!

I do love the 360 Panos the 28mm takes quite the detail compared with my old Mavic 3 Pro.

That pricing lines up with NZD when converted you must have gotten in ahead of the Tariffs? Good job! Is insane what you would have been expected to pay otherwise.

Will keep plugging away, these drones are used by lots of different pilots for lots of different uses cases so I think at this level if small tweaks can be made to suit more pilots who are prepared to pay the price of this drone, why not?

Will report back.

Cheers