Just finished this assignment for the City of Allen and am beginning work on another one which will use this footage and combine it with clips of numerous additional developments and points of interest. This work is going to keep me very busy in the air.
MBrewington wrote:
Jim, you are wise to keep the P4P in the hangar with a breeze like that in the forecast. I have 4 batteries for mine and try not to do marathons like yours. Mine has been neglected since the Inspire 1 & 2 followed me home. If you want to make an impression, they are the way to go. Better resolution, choice of lenses, greater stability in wind etc. I flew down to Orange County for a job and the customer’s face showed what was on his mind. I gave him what he asked for with the P4P but let him know later that it has been replaced with the Inspire 1 & 2. (They both take the Olympus mft lenses.). Being primarily a still photographer they meet my needs. The X7 and it’s proprietary set of lenses is a spendy package. The Super 35 Sensor shines in the video department with Pro-Res and Cinema Raw licenses (add $1500) And don’t forget the Cinestation and a handful of DJI SSD’s to get the most out of it. All in all the X7 is an expensive proposition. The Inspire 2 with the X5S and 12, 17, 25, & 45mm Olympus lenses makes a stable and reasonably affordable package. Sadly, even the Inspire 2 with dual batteries can’t match the battery life on the P4P but it is close. You can move up to the Inspire 2 with the X5S camera and upgrade to the X7 later if the market demands it. ...Show more →
Hi Mike,
I regularly get a rolling image on my iPad Mini, the image rolls and flickers from a clear image to black and back. I'm sure it's some type of reception thing, but I was out in the open with no re-bar, electrical, etc. to interfere, any ideas?
I regularly get a rolling image on my iPad Mini, the image rolls and flickers from a clear image to black and back. I'm sure it's some type of reception thing, but I was out in the open with no re-bar, electrical, etc. to interfere, any ideas?
Thanks!
JWs
One of two things come to mind:
1. Lots of airwave interference; Set "Image Transmission Quality" to lowest setting under Custom in HD settings
2. Ipad Mini 4 processor not up to the task due to too much going in in the background. (I had some issues with my mini 4 along these lines. Now I use the Ipad Pro 9.7 no issues.
Some thoughts from others with this issue: In dji GO app:
- Ensure "Enable Hardware Decoding" in General Settings is set to On
- Disable Video Cache in General Settings
- Lower "Image Transmission Quality" to lowest setting under Custom in HD settings
Before you fly, in iOS:
- Shut down all background apps that are running
- Turn on Airplane Mode (be sure you've cached the map in the dji App for wherever you're flying before you do this)
- In iOS Settings, General, turn off Background App refresh
"A memorial service in rememberence of Cole is set for Thursday at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, said his daughter Cindy Chal told the Associated Press. The day will also mark the 77th anniversery of the Doolittle Tokyo Raid which Cole was part of.
When a Raider dies, a survivor turns a goblet upside-down with the name of the fellow airman engraved on it. A ceremony to turn over Cole’s goblet will also take place at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force though no date has been set yet.
Cole will later be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, said Tom Casey, president of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders Association. No funeral details were available as of Friday, said a spokesman for the cemetery.""
Life has an automatic governor that kicks in to keep a person from getting cocky. I flew drone footage for four hours this morning, above, below, threading through the trees, winding through a couple dozen concrete finishers then rising a hundred feet to shoot down on a huge concrete pumping truck with all the laborers working below. Great light, great technique, great footage, all in winds 15-20, feeling pretty good about the first half of the day.
Headed out for a nice lunch and to charge batteries/controller/iPad. Fast forward to great afternoon light and a return to where I left off. I light up the Phantom and was greeted by bells, whistles, announcements on the DJI GO4 App that I had never seen before. Seems that somehow, much like British automobiles of old, the Phantom broke while sitting in it's case during lunch. A little study led me to the fact that all of the sensors on the P4P decided to go toes up, not a good thing at all. Amongst the plethora of warnings was one that said, Phantom may not hover, track or obey commands, a fly away is likely" Well ok, we'll see abut that, and yes the light was perfect and high clouds were streaming in rapidly, so I decided to see if I could fly a streetscape before the light went to heck. I held my breath, launched it to what was supposed to be a 4' hover, but it just kept going straight up................dumb, dumb, dumb. Panic is the enemy of a pilot, even a drone pilot so I didn't. I hand flew it back to the landing pad and shut it down. Two hours later after a ridiculous, computer based, pat your stomach and rub your head software and sensor recalibration, all was right with the world. The light brightened through the high Cirrus and allowed me to get two more hours of flying in.
Great job keeping your cool. Did you get banding and green screen today? I’ve received the recalibrate message a few times. More than once I’ve moved it to a new location a few feet away and rebooted controller, drone, and software and avoided the dance. They are very cantankerous beasts. More than one has flown off to the big hangar in the sky much to the chagrin of the poor schmuck holding the controller. Sadly, nothing electronic is immune to occasional glitches. Back in my previous life ,I had a fleet of 657E Cat scrapers to maintain. Being 100 miles from the dealer meant I was on my own 90% of the time. These cantankerous beasts had 4 computers that were required to communicate with each other flawlessly. Not! And then there is my Iphone 6+ that will get lonesome and randomly call people on my call list.
True enough! Man, I sold a bunch of those "Double Barreled" Cat scrapers in the 11 years I spent with them. Sold the first Caterpillar excavator in the world, a 225. I loved selling big yellow machinery "Size and price of the toys............."
I tried a half dozen reboots, it said there was interference so I moved and rebooted, nuthin' . I'm not anxious to do it again, but now that I know the drill it wouldn't be as big a deal. Amazes me how it just decides to go toes up in a blink, but it's a squirrelly son of a gun with those sensors inop. I just glanced at a couple of clips and they look beautiful, so no banding or green screen it seems.
True enough! Man, I sold a bunch of those "Double Barreled" Cat scrapers in the 11 years I spent with them. Sold the first Caterpillar excavator in the world, a 225. I loved selling big yellow machinery "Size and price of the toys............."
I tried a half dozen reboots, it said there was interference so I moved and rebooted, nuthin' . I'm not anxious to do it again, but now that I know the drill it wouldn't be as big a deal. Amazes me how it just decides to go toes up in a blink, but it's a squirrelly son of a gun with those sensors inop. I just glanced at a couple of clips and they look beautiful, so no banding or green screen it seems....Show more →
I spent 39 years with Kiewit. We bled Cat Yellow and drove yellow Fords with black hoods. When the 225 came out it was a game changer for construction. I spent this afternoon giving my Cat rental guy an introduction to DJI drones. He retired last Friday and is ready to start a new adventure.
I’m glad your footage looks good and as you now know, the calibration process is only challenging the first time. They have lousy instructionals.
Peter Kiewit! Wow! There's a Cat salesman's dream account!! I pulled the plug in a wonderful 11.5 year winning streak with Caterpillar in March of 1982. Unfortunately (well really fortunately) I was offered a job by the Dallas dealer and shortly after my arrival realized that everyone was caught squarely in the middle of the principal's family squabble. The whole scenario made the Hatfields and McCoy's relationship look like a minor dust up. The whole thing was terrible when I was going through it, but in retrospect it was the best thing that possibly could have happened. I sold and leased hundreds of millions of dollars worth of big yellow machines and loved every minute of it, and that's back when D9's were less than a half a mil. Wish we had known each other way back when, but grateful that we do now!
Oh, and thanks a bunch for the rolling screen insights, flew all day yesterday without so much as a blink on the Mini. I'd get a small iPad Pro to dedicate to the Phantom, but the smallest is 11" now, not likely to fit on the controller. Yesterday was 10-15 largely hanging at the higher end. The P4P handled it very well, bit it sure sounds angry occasionally when it's fighting that wind. I'll post some footage when I get it edited.
Thunderstorms, 25G35 in DFW today, good day to edit video. Interesting thing about video, unlike still work, capturing the footage is just one component of the whole process and it's challenging enough. Color grading, the whole process of choosing clips and creatively integrating them into the final edit, choosing transitions and timing all of that to tell the story, create interest and hold the viewers attention, whew, so much to learn. Someone may have a talent in the area of capture, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you have any talent at all in post processing techniques. Like still photography, a mechanical knowledge of the process and the tools, while essential, has very little to do with an innate talent to put it all together. I know a lot more than I did four years ago, but there are still lots of areas where I don't have a clue, don't even know what I don't know.
Looking through the footage from the last few days on the one hand is exciting because it's very high quality stuff, on the other it makes you realize that there are only so many rises, falls, sweep in/sweep out perspectives one can do, the trick (talent) from there is putting it all together in a creative, not monotonous, fashion. so much drone footage makes you want to take Dramamine, smooth flowing clips and creative transitions are the key. Once you look at the footage you have captured you realize what control inputs and amounts work well and which destroy an otherwise great sequence, what frame rates work for particular effects and which ones don't work at all. Kind of makes our still work seem like paint by numbers.
I guess it's what you don't know and striving to learn it in order to create something we have in our heads is what keeps the moth coming back to the flame as it were, and isn't it all wonderful!
Peter Kiewit! Wow! There's a Cat salesman's dream account!! I pulled the plug in a wonderful 11.5 year winning streak with Caterpillar in March of 1982. Unfortunately (well really fortunately) I was offered a job by the Dallas dealer and shortly after my arrival realized that everyone was caught squarely in the middle of the principal's family squabble. The whole scenario made the Hatfields and McCoy's relationship look like a minor dust up. The whole thing was terrible when I was going through it, but in retrospect it was the best thing that possibly could have happened. I sold and leased hundreds of millions of dollars worth of big yellow machines and loved every minute of it, and that's back when D9's were less than a half a mil. Wish we had known each other way back when, but grateful that we do now!
Oh, and thanks a bunch for the rolling screen insights, flew all day yesterday without so much as a blink on the Mini. I'd get a small iPad Pro to dedicate to the Phantom, but the smallest is 11" now, not likely to fit on the controller. Yesterday was 10-15 largely hanging at the higher end. The P4P handled it very well, bit it sure sounds angry occasionally when it's fighting that wind. I'll post some footage when I get it edited. ...Show more →
Marshal Pearson was our memorable Cat Rep for many years. Interesting that you ended up in a hornets nest with the Dallas Cat dealer. We know all things work together for good for those that love God... Your life is proof.
Glad your reception issues are diminished.
Today was a busy day for an old retired guy. Up at 4:30AM, drove to Seattle (3 hours north) helped put on a drone use in construction demonstration/discussion for the NAWIC (National Association of Women In Construction) Western Convention and drove home. My trophy shot for the day was the group shot indoors. 16’ ceiling with lots of low hanging objects. Fear.
You're a man after my own heart Mike! That sounds like a fun and productive event for all involved. I can hardly wait for my next assignment in the Great Northwest, I owe you a dinner + and would love every minute of it. Did you use your Phantom or an Inspire?
Several years ago (Phantom II era) a very good client of mine was hyped on having drone footage inside their manufacturing facility. They had two machines in particular that they wanted to highlight. The machines are installed almost end to end, they rotate and create stranded aluminum electrical wire. These very unique machines produce millions of dollars of wire every day and as much as I would have loved to have gotten them some cool footage, two things prevented it. The first was my inability to do a commercial drone assignment because it was illegal at that time, the second was my complete lack of faith in my PII to do anything that I asked it to do. Uncharacteristically, I explained and turned the work down flat. Even if it had been legal at the time, I had no interest in being the photographer/videographer who shut their wire plant down for however long it took to pick drone parts out of their precious machinery and get it back up and running
JWilsonphoto wrote:
You're a man after my own heart Mike! That sounds like a fun and productive event for all involved. I can hardly wait for my next assignment in the Great Northwest, I owe you a dinner + and would love every minute of it. Did you use your Phantom or an Inspire?
Several years ago (Phantom II era) a very good client of mine was hyped on having drone footage inside their manufacturing facility. They had two machines in particular that they wanted to highlight. The machines are installed almost end to end, they rotate and create stranded aluminum electrical wire. These very unique machines produce millions of dollars of wire every day and as much as I would have loved to have gotten them some cool footage, two things prevented it. The first was my inability to do a commercial drone assignment because it was illegal at that time, the second was my complete lack of faith in my PII to do anything that I asked it to do. Uncharacteristically, I explained and turned the work down flat. Even if it had been legal at the time, I had no interest in being the photographer/videographer who shut their wire plant down for however long it took to pick drone parts out of their precious machinery and get it back up and running...Show more →
Let me know when you are in Portland. I’m right across the Columbia in Vancouver. I’d love to get acquainted. Today I flew the Inspire 2 (very gently). We had a P4P on display but did not lift off with it. My speaking counterpart covered drone use in survey/stockpile and the P4P is one of his main tools. The Wow factor was in full swing when the Inspire 2 ascended and the landing gear came up.
I’m with you on declining flight around such expensive equipment. Things can go wrong in a hurry. I dropped my P2Vision Plus after filming a waterfall successfully in the Gorge. I went to land it and it lost GPS signal and landed unceremoniously in the stream. I had been flying for less than a week and was sure I knew it all. Pride goeth before a fall.
MBrewington wrote:
Let me know when you are in Portland. I’m right across the Columbia in Vancouver. I’d love to get acquainted. Today I flew the Inspire 2 (very gently). We had a P4P on display but did not lift off with it. My speaking counterpart covered drone use in survey/stockpile and the P4P is one of his main tools. The Wow factor was in full swing when the Inspire 2 ascended and the landing gear came up.
I’m with you on declining flight around such expensive equipment. Things can go wrong in a hurry. I dropped my P2Vision Plus after filming a waterfall successfully in the Gorge. I went to land it and it lost GPS signal and landed unceremoniously in the stream. I had been flying for less than a week and was sure I knew it all. Pride goeth before a fall. ...Show more →
That's just a horrible feeling. Although when I had the choice of the P4P doing an autonomous landing in three feet of water or me trying to catch it, the shredded dress shirt and blood running down my arm wasn't all that great an alternative.
Take a look at this clip. Ive processed it several different ways on the MBPro and one of my iMac, but the choppiness doesn't go away, what is your diagnosis?
Yesterday was a gorgeous day so I decided to venture out to DFW for a relaxing afternoon. The departures were north bound and the moon was rising.
That is such a nice place to visit, here is to hoping one of these days that they (DFW Airport officials) will add some restrooms and possibly a coke/vending machine to the area.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
That's just a horrible feeling. Although when I had the choice of the P4P doing an autonomous landing in three feet of water or me trying to catch it, the shredded dress shirt and blood running down my arm wasn't all that great an alternative.
Take a look at this clip. Ive processed it several different ways on the MBPro and one of my iMac, but the choppiness doesn't go away, what is your diagnosis?
I see the chop and wondered if it was my device not up to the task. Video is really not my forte having had it forced upon me by the drones and client requests. I assume it was shot 4K so have you tried downrez to 1080P to see if the stutter disappears? Most of my shooting is H.264 29.97 with framerate set at 60 or 80 fps as I’ve found H.265 is kind of flakey. The other thought that came to mind would be to try a different set of props as you may have one out of balance enough to kill your gimbal’s ability to control the shake. I’ll be curious to see what you find.
Thanks for the analysis Mike! The winds were kicking up a bit, probably 15 + at that point, but your thought on the props peaks my interest. Although, I captured a series of clips that afternoon with the exact same configuration and I see no evidence of the effect at all. I'll fiddle with it and get back to you. Does anyone make more precision balanced props for the Phantom?
JWilsonphoto wrote:
Thanks for the analysis Mike! The winds were kicking up a bit, probably 15 + at that point, but your thought on the props peaks my interest. Although, I captured a series of clips that afternoon with the exact same configuration and I see no evidence of the effect at all. I'll fiddle with it and get back to you. Does anyone make more precision balanced props for the Phantom?
I use a Du-Bro prop balancer to fine tune them. You also need the stainless shaft to spin them. Money and time well spent. I also picked up a set of DJI quiet props that seem to work after balancing.
"Size and price of the toys............."
