Professional Drone Footage

Hand catching is indeed easy (even I can do it) but what I haven't seen on here is a warning about taking off when the boat is moving. If I'm wrong about that, mea culpa for not reading every thread.
Here's the warning. I tried to take off from the foredeck when we were crossing the Doom Bar, only doing 7kts but there was a head wind so apparent wind about 14kts. The thing got about 5 feet in the air before it hit the pilot house windows. Thankfully I had the prop guards on - in fact I always have the prop guards on because I always hand catch and they are really good protection for me - so I only lost 1 prop guard and 1 prop (it was a hell of a smack). What happened was that I didn't fly the thing fast forward to "get away" before the boat caught it up and smacked it down. I have decided that I will in future always stop the boat before taking off.

Edit: If the Lily ever becomes available it will be illegal in the UK because it is advertised as being autonomous and therefore it doesn't comply with the current overriding requirement that drones must always be under the control of the pilot.
 
Last edited:
jfm said:
@hurricane, the important thing about telling it to return home is that it brings the thing nearer to you, but you can switch off return home at any point you want. It's better to switch it off long before it has actually returned home and landed. Especially at anchor, obviously.

As for first flights near pontoons, ahem:encouragement:, here is the near death experience of my first drone, with much crummier software than today's drones. It is (was) a phantom 1. A day after this maiden flight incident it did totally die - I need to upload the death movie to youtube sometime (we managed to retrieve it from the seabed, and the gopro lived to tell the tale).

Click to expand...

I remember that video from before.
Do you know - without your brave early attempts, I don't think we would all have got this far.
I'm really enjoying the drone right now.
 
TwoHooter said:
Here's the warning. I tried to take off from the foredeck when we were crossing the Doom Bar, only doing 7kts but there was a head wind so apparent wind about 14kts. The thing got about 5 feet in the air before it hit the pilot house windows. Thankfully I had the prop guards on - in fact I always have the prop guards on because I always hand catch and they are really good protection for me - so I only lost 1 prop guard and 1 prop (it was a hell of a smack). What happened was that I didn't fly the thing fast forward to "get away" before the boat caught it up and smacked it down. I have decided that I will in future always stop the boat before taking off.
Click to expand...

Yep - been there - well - very nearly anyway.
See this clip - just misses the radar scanner as it takes off.



Guards
I've taken mine off now.
They used to keep getting into the video.
I consider they are a bit like the bike stabilisers we had on our first bikes - now that we can ride we don't need them.
That doesn't mean that we won't fall off or crash - just means that we are "big boys now".
Sorry - I say this with a smile - of course, the guards are safer.
 
Hurricane said:
Yep - been there - well - very nearly anyway.
See this clip - just misses the radar scanner as it takes off.
Click to expand...
That was close! Glad it's not just me. Mind you, your boat is about ten times faster than mine :)
I can't use my P3A for video any more - the last "upgrade" screwed the video link - so now I only take stills and the guards aren't a problem.
 
jfm said:
I think there is a lot of over-worrying on here. You don't need a waterproof drone: as soon as you get the hang of it you will just fly it back to your boat and catch it. You should choose a drone for all other features than waterproofness, otherwise you will get some compromise. Catching the thing is a piece of cake. I've put plenty of videos on here showing that being done - see 2:28 of this one...




and 2:57 of this one (and look at the reflection in the sunglasses)



DJI drones don't fly away because the radio signal that controls the flight has much longer range than the signal transmitting the live video back to your ipad or whatever FPV device you are using. so in normal recreational use, you just go as far as you can until the picture pixelates, then you go no further. You never lose flight control in all this.

To land it easily on a boat you just hit "fly home", if you haven't moved far. The thing flies towards home and you switch off "fly home" when it is 50 metres away and fly the last bit manually. It's dead easy, really. It's so much better to buy a drone that is reliable and simple to fly, with a good camera, than to buy one that is waterproof.
Click to expand...

That's all good reassuring stuff, thanks. Can't wait to get mine and have a go!

The P4 Pro has appeared on Amazon UK available for pre order very recently and now says available. I've heard a couple of people say they're expecting theirs from Amazon next week, so hopefully UK deliveries are starting.
 
TwoHooter said:
That was close! Glad it's not just me. Mind you, your boat is about ten times faster than mine :)
I can't use my P3A for video any more - the last "upgrade" screwed the video link - so now I only take stills and the guards aren't a problem.
Click to expand...

That doesn't make sense.
I did a full update a couple of days ago.
Are you sure you are upgrading everywhere.
There are three places to do the upgrade.
1 - the drone itself.
2 - the app from either Google Play or iTunes
3 - the remote controller.

1 is done by downloading the latest firmware onto a microSD card (after unzipping the downloaded file, put the .bin file in the root of the card). Then insert the card into the drone and switch it on. Make sure that the controller isn't on during this process - and wait 30 mins until a solid green light on the drone.

2 is done by updating the app from Google Play or iTunes.

3 is done after the app is updated on the tablet/phone - connect the phone/tablet to the remote control and fire up the app - it should then download the update to the remote controller.

Thats what I did and my P3A works fine.
I think that the latest update didn't keep some of my settings - panning was jerky but the instructions in the video that I posted above fixed that.
 
TwoHooter said:
Edit: If the Lily ever becomes available it will be illegal in the UK because it is advertised as being autonomous and therefore it doesn't comply with the current overriding requirement that drones must always be under the control of the pilot.
Click to expand...

Interesting point re the Lily.

I suppose the question is whether the regulators will interpret having the wrist device to command land / follow / circle etc is deemed as being "under control" or not.

Irrespective of the answer to above questions, it looks like the Lily is a long way off and the world has moved on, so perhaps not the drone solution I was looking for.
 
Last edited:
I've been out playing with the drone the last couple of days.

I wanted to try Litchi - some "third party" software that allows the Phantom to do pre-planned missions.
Setting the mission is really quite good - I've been doing it in their on line web based "mission hub".

But when it comes to actually flying the mission, most of the time it does nothing and then shows/speaks an error message saying the the mission couldn't upload.
But sometimes it does upload and work.
I've almost given up on Litchi now.
I had hoped that it would be the answer to smooth footage.
I'm still a bit jittery when I fly manually (well when I say manually, I mean in P Mode - I've never used A Mode).
Circleing round a POI manually for example requited co-ordination between both joysticks.
I can do it but I need more practice.
Maybe that are other ways of achieving this - more practice needed methinks.
 
Hurricane said:
I'm still a bit jittery when I fly manually (well when I say manually, I mean in P Mode - I've never used A Mode).
Circleing round a POI manually for example requited co-ordination between both joysticks.
I can do it but I need more practice.
Maybe that are other ways of achieving this - more practice needed methinks.
Click to expand...

That is the difficult part. The sensitivity of the controls can be adjusted. Basically it would be fine to considerably 'slow down' the initial response to the left/right -rotation control. That should help in panning a POI shot. Haven't tested this myself yet, though.
 
Phantom 4 Pro has turned up :)

Camera footage without playing around with settings.

Sadly no 70 footer in glorious background, I'll have to make do with my back garden.

First drone flight so not great on the controls.

Tony

 
Hurricane said:
That doesn't make sense. I did a full update a couple of days ago. Are you sure you are upgrading everywhere......
Click to expand...
Sorry for delayed reply. Yes, I do know about updating. I did the first update when the thing was new with no trouble, and a second about a month later, but around May I hit two problems which have ended up putting me in my present position. First, because I don't use the drone often I found that every time I switched it on it insisted that I update. I missed some good filming because of that because it was asking me to update at inconvenient moments. Then after updating the Remote Controller to v. 1.6.0 I got locked into a syndrome whereby every time I tried to fly it told me to update to 1.6.0 again. I did 3 updates in succession trying to solve this until my wife told me that if she had to listen to that **** thing beeping on the boat one more time she would throw it (and me? I did wonder) overboard. I know the upgrades completed correctly because all the indications the book tells you about were there including the different beep at the end of the update. I went on the DJI forum with my problem (and found others there with the same issue) and had extensive "chats" with the DJI support team but never got anywhere. In the end I managed to tell it to ignore its demand for updates (can't remember how I did that) and made sure I never turned the DJI Go app on while connected to the internet which prevents it for checking whether it has the current update. But I have to select either video or stills before I fly. I can select either but if I try to change from still to video or vice versa in flight the screen goes absolutely haywire and I can't see a thing. I find stills are marginally more important to me than video so I now just select stills. I wish I could film video with it but I can't. This has made me check the purchase date - it's still under warranty so as soon as I get home I think I'll send it back.
BTW, for what it's worth, I don't think I would buy direct from DJI again. I think I would prefer to pay a bit more and buy from a retailer who offers some sort of after-sales support package. If you go on the DJI forums you find they are full of people complaining about DJI service.
 
TwoHooter said:
Sorry for delayed reply. Yes, I do know about updating. I did the first update when the thing was new with no trouble, and a second about a month later, but around May I hit two problems which have ended up putting me in my present position. First, because I don't use the drone often I found that every time I switched it on it insisted that I update. I missed some good filming because of that because it was asking me to update at inconvenient moments. Then after updating the Remote Controller to v. 1.6.0 I got locked into a syndrome whereby every time I tried to fly it told me to update to 1.6.0 again. I did 3 updates in succession trying to solve this until my wife told me that if she had to listen to that **** thing beeping on the boat one more time she would throw it (and me? I did wonder) overboard. I know the upgrades completed correctly because all the indications the book tells you about were there including the different beep at the end of the update. I went on the DJI forum with my problem (and found others there with the same issue) and had extensive "chats" with the DJI support team but never got anywhere. In the end I managed to tell it to ignore its demand for updates (can't remember how I did that) and made sure I never turned the DJI Go app on while connected to the internet which prevents it for checking whether it has the current update. But I have to select either video or stills before I fly. I can select either but if I try to change from still to video or vice versa in flight the screen goes absolutely haywire and I can't see a thing. I find stills are marginally more important to me than video so I now just select stills. I wish I could film video with it but I can't. This has made me check the purchase date - it's still under warranty so as soon as I get home I think I'll send it back.
BTW, for what it's worth, I don't think I would buy direct from DJI again. I think I would prefer to pay a bit more and buy from a retailer who offers some sort of after-sales support package. If you go on the DJI forums you find they are full of people complaining about DJI service.
Click to expand...

I had some very strange problems during the summer.
I tracked them down to a couple of bad microSD cards.
Funny, the bad cards affected the way the drone was responding whilst flying.
Have you tried a different (new) microSD card?
A bad microSD card would explain the firmware upgrade problems.
 
Another good review here comparing P4/P4 pro and Mavic. The Pro has the same 1" sensor as Sony RX100 Mark V, which is a high-end compact camera, so the quality of video and photos will be a step up in quality and you can expect better low light performance.

 
I've had some issues with SD cards. Whilst waiting for the Mavic to be delivered, I purchased a Phantom 3 pro to practise with. I bought a new 64gb microSD card which worked but would occasionally give an error message which when googled, suggested there was a fault with the gimbal control board. Having bought it used on eBay, I thought that was a distinct possibility but since swapping for a lower spec 64mb microSD card I had lying around, I've had no further problems. My Mavic arrived a couple of weeks ago and I'm really pleased with it. I expected it to be less stable than the phantom but haven't noticed any real difference, it's also easy to catch as it's very stable in the hover. I think I will keep the Mavic and sell the Phantom, the portability just makes it much more likely to be taken out.

Mike - I use Litchi with the Phantom and find it great. I know you shouldn't, but I sent it off on 3 mile mission, waited on tenter hooks for it return after seeing the message 'signal lost' on the iPad. But sure enough, 15 minutes later it was back hovering overheard. Panning around a POI is better as the software controls the speed so everything is much smoother and you can adjust the curves between waypoints to make a perfect circle if required. I plot the mission on the portal, then bring the phantom into a hover, upload the mission, wait for the 'upload success' message, then take it up to 30m or so and tell it to fly the mission and not had any problems - clever stuff! I'm far from an expert with this but have a look at the expo settings for the controller which aids smooth panning. Google 'phantom expo settings' and you'll find numerous youtube vids where experienced users explain their settings.
 
MikeA said:
I've had some issues with SD cards. Whilst waiting for the Mavic to be delivered, I purchased a Phantom 3 pro to practise with. I bought a new 64gb microSD card which worked but would occasionally give an error message which when googled, suggested there was a fault with the gimbal control board. Having bought it used on eBay, I thought that was a distinct possibility but since swapping for a lower spec 64mb microSD card I had lying around, I've had no further problems. My Mavic arrived a couple of weeks ago and I'm really pleased with it. I expected it to be less stable than the phantom but haven't noticed any real difference, it's also easy to catch as it's very stable in the hover. I think I will keep the Mavic and sell the Phantom, the portability just makes it much more likely to be taken out.

Mike - I use Litchi with the Phantom and find it great. I know you shouldn't, but I sent it off on 3 mile mission, waited on tenter hooks for it return after seeing the message 'signal lost' on the iPad. But sure enough, 15 minutes later it was back hovering overheard. Panning around a POI is better as the software controls the speed so everything is much smoother and you can adjust the curves between waypoints to make a perfect circle if required. I plot the mission on the portal, then bring the phantom into a hover, upload the mission, wait for the 'upload success' message, then take it up to 30m or so and tell it to fly the mission and not had any problems - clever stuff! I'm far from an expert with this but have a look at the expo settings for the controller which aids smooth panning. Google 'phantom expo settings' and you'll find numerous youtube vids where experienced users explain their settings.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that.
It seems to me that I should have another go with Litchi.
I might have still had the DJI Go app still running so next time, I will reboot the tablet before I fly.
If that still doesn't work, I will probably give up on Litchi.
There isn't much documentation on Litchi - I'm not sure of the exact sequence to go through to upload a mission and when to switch to F mode etc.
 
Anders_P42 said:
Another good review here comparing P4/P4 pro and Mavic. The Pro has the same 1" sensor as Sony RX100 Mark V, which is a high-end compact camera, so the quality of video and photos will be a step up in quality and you can expect better low light performance.

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that link - the P4 Pro comes out well - that might have changed my mind about going for the Mavic.
 
Hurricane said:
Thanks for posting that.
It seems to me that I should have another go with Litchi.
I might have still had the DJI Go app still running so next time, I will reboot the tablet before I fly.
If that still doesn't work, I will probably give up on Litchi.
There isn't much documentation on Litchi - I'm not sure of the exact sequence to go through to upload a mission and when to switch to F mode etc.
Click to expand...

Worth looking at the free Litchi lesson on Phantom Filmschool if you haven't already.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top