Equipment & Techniques > Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear

Drone panorama

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Alan Smallbone:
Hi all,

I know there has been some discussion about drones. I have had them for a number of years, and recently I decided on getting a new one. My other one was using a gopro, while they are fine I have just never been happy with the video/still qualities and the performance of my first drone. It was not all that easy to fly and the battery length was always problematic. So I decided to get a new Phantom 3 after reading a lot about it. What a difference. Ready to fly out of the box, camera is decent, no fisheye, flight times are around a little less than 20 minutes, super stable and easy to fly. Video looks great and it can be taking stills and switch between the two. Here is a quick pano from last night. ISO 100, 3 panels, 3 exposures bracketed per panel. Stitched in Ptgui. I exported the raw DNGs from lightroom with only WB and lens corrections set, then stitched and fusion blended in ptgui, and touched up in Photoshop. Exposures were around 1/10 of second but considering it was hovering in the air and rotating I am pretty pleased with it. A nice fun addition.

Laguna Niguel sunset pano by Alan Smallbone, on Flickr

Alan

Colorado David:
Nice image.  Tell me more about the drone operation.  I may need one soon.

Alan Smallbone:
Well this one was not my first, but this one is far easier to fly than any other model aircraft I have flown. It almost flies itself. There are limitations, like anything. Flight times are around 18-23 minutes, you really need to break in the batteries when you get them, recommended is 5-10 flights on each battery down to 50% capacity and then start doing full runs. You need to give it time to settle in, it uses GPS to get a lock, when panning or moving there will be some settle time, you can see it pretty easily depending on your device that you attach. In a really strong wind it might be a problem. The other limitation is the bracketing, it will only step at 0.7EV but you can do 3 or 5 shots, and it takes them as fast as it can after pressing the shutter button. There is a button on the controller for the shutter and also one for the video. There is wheel for adjusting the exposure, it will cycle between iso and shutter speed by pressing the wheel, so that is nice you do not have to take a hand off the controller.

To frame the shots and watch what is going on you need to attach a smartphone or tablet. That being said, it needs to be a pretty high end device to handle the feed and control. It can work with Android or Apple. I ended up buying an iPad Air2 to use with it, I am an Android fan and not a big Apple user but the ipad for this application is the best. There are some features with the app on the ipad that you cannot get on the Android. Like exposure zebras. Both will show a live histogram. The screen will show a live hd feed from the quadcopter, it is 720p and has telemetry information displayed as well as aircraft status and some controls, like camera and video settings, configurations etc. You have to have a smart device to fly it. With the ipad I have found that a PadHat is indispensable to cut glare on the screen.

Batteries are LiPo and you need to be careful with them and they are also smart batteries, there are no aftermarket batteries and they run about $150 each. each will give you 18-23 minutes of flight, charging takes about 45 minutes or so. The Phantom 3 is sold in two versions, one will do 4K video and the other will only do 1080p. I did not need the 4K video so I bought the Advanced which is 1080p max. Both are 12mp stills, they are the same camera virtually, slight hardware and firmware difference. The 4K video has a slightly higher bit rate but the 1080p is the same with both versions. They come ready to fly, just connect the smart phone or tablet (after charging batteries) and put the props on and you are ready to fly, it comes with a 16gb micro SD card, you can use up to 64gb. The smart device will also show the position on a map, either Apple or google maps, position comes from the gps on the aircraft. You can pre-cache the map on the device so you do not need an internet connection. There are also fail safes, like if it loses signal, you hit the button it will return home and land, home being where it took off from. The GPS uses both Soviet and US satellites so chances are you will get a good lock. I usually get a lock with around 14-17 satellites.

I bought a combination package through DJI, came with an extra battery and a hard shell backpack which is very nice for carrying it. There is a Think Tank backpack that you can pack a camera and the drone together in the pack.

The best thing is to spend some time and learn how it works and how to control it when it is not in gps mode, then if there is a problem you have a greater chance of getting it back in one piece. The gimbal sits pretty close to ground and a hard landing can damage it, practice, practice. there are also some aftermarket gimbal guards. Once you get it up say around 250-300 and it gets about 2000 feet away it is almost impossible to see which direction it is pointed in without the video feed, so if you lose that you need to learn how to control it but you do have a failsafe. As with anything, common sense will help. Also there is built in no fly zones, like close to airports etc. if too close it will not even powerup.  I have seen some people flyiing them as far a couple of miles out and back, not sure I have the balls for something like that but some people do. It is also fairly noisey, a good buzzing sound.

Be happy to answer any more questions or more details if you want them.
Alan

Colorado David:
Thank you Alan.

tongelsing:
Here is another one. Stitched in LR.
Wetlands in the east of the Netherlands.

Also a DJI P3P.
Although the camera makes decent pictures don't expect to much from it. I has a Sony EXMOR 1/2.3 sensor. The same size as a lot of cellphones and tablets have with more or less the same limitations.

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