Topic
Aerial video
Topic articles
DJI QuickShots and MasterShots: what each automated shot does, how much space it needs and when it stops
QuickShots and MasterShots are the two buttons in DJI Fly that fly a camera move for you. You pick a subject, press start, and the drone climbs, circles or backs away on its own, then flies back to where it began. The results look good with almost no skill, which is exactly why it is worth knowing what the drone is about to do before you press the button. An automated shot follows a path you can't see in advance, and a few of the moves need far more room than people expect.
Read articleMapping with a drone: GSD, overlap, flight height and ground control points
A drone map is not one photo from high up. It is a few dozen to a few hundred overlapping photos that software such as Pix4D, DroneDeploy or the free OpenDroneMap matches point by point and turns into an orthophoto, a surface model or a 3D mesh. If the photos are wrong, no processing setting will rescue the job, and Pix4D says it plainly: a bad acquisition plan leads to inaccurate results or a failed project, and you fly it again.
Read articleDJI Hyperlapse: Free, Circle, Course Lock or Waypoint, and how to set interval and shutter speed
A hyperlapse is a timelapse shot from a moving drone. The aircraft takes a photo at a fixed interval while it flies, and DJI Fly stitches the photos into a short video when the shot ends. On the DJI Mini 4 Pro, the drone this article uses as its reference, there are four modes: Free, Circle, Course Lock and Waypoint. The Mini 3 Pro has the same four. On other drones, check the manual for which modes and limits apply.
Read articleDJI drone panoramas: Sphere, 180°, Wide Angle, Vertical and Free, and how to get a clean stitch
A drone is a good panorama tool for a simple reason: from a few dozen metres up, nothing stands between the camera and the horizon. DJI Fly turns it into one button. You pick a panorama type, press the shutter, and the drone turns, tilts the gimbal, takes a series of photos and stitches them into one JPEG. What comes out depends mostly on three decisions: which type you pick, how you set the exposure and white balance, and whether you keep the original frames for stitching on a computer.
Read articleDJI Fly Waypoint Flight: how to plan a route you can fly again
Waypoint Flight in DJI Fly flies a route you saved: the same path, the same heading, the same gimbal angle, as many times as you want. That makes it the tool for a building site shot once a month, a before-and-after of a garden, or a reveal you need to retake because a car drove into frame. It also hands part of the flying to the drone, so a few settings decide what happens when something goes wrong.
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