DJI Mavic Discussion

Wifi is very short range compared to using the controller.

Don't understand your meaning, ..... do you say in smartphone flight-mode it uses Wifi and has less range?

That's not what he meant. He was referring to WiFi control mode .. which of course has less range. (there's the little switch by the SD card, use before tuning on Mavic, so you can control with phone, no controller) .

Really not sure why you would want to do this ... kind of like deciding to get a blood transfusion from a syphilitic zombie, in my opinion ... here's a lovely video showing what it does (and doesn't) do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZfNXtaQ7eY

But ... in smartphone flight mode (airplane mode) there is no WiFi unless you turn that on specifically. In true airplane mode, the phone is dedicated only to the external data stream over USB, therefore is less susceptible to potential conflicts from other data streams which could deflect its little brain from the true purpose, which is to help you get great shots and stay in control.

Don't confuse the robot!

Pretty cool video worth watching, and practicing. Nothing short of epic potential.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPAgzONL3Eo

Never would get the idea to use this WiFi. Would rather like to have a bigger controller and no need off using an additional smartphone for the Mavic ;)
So today i've done my sports before work, means after work i can enjoy the nice weather and go flying. Will test "flight-mode" at the same location where i got first problems.

Aarrrgh, it's tricky, wasted a half hour and wondered why the controller can't find the bird. Changed the location, ... still the same. Then i remembered what we wrote here today:
By putting in the micro SD i must have touched this WiFi button a little bit, so it was in the middle instead of left or right. Flight mode seems to be well, auto exposure again not working after switching between video and photo.

Your Auto Exposure not working sounds like likely OS and App incompatibility. Reason I say that is because when I had expensive setup on flights (A3+LB2 flight controller rig set up on small plane strut) the Go App was not yet updated to support that system .. it "kinda" worked, but frequently not ... very frustrating. It would connect, then disconnect, on/off/on/off ... I got some shots but never had total control. Then after sometimes 20 minutes of flight time, fighting with it constantly, I got control, and it would work until I turned it off .. then same fight again .. sometimes never got control. Was an expensive set of lessons. Update of App from DJI fixed it. I was a very angry person. They put stuff out that works "mostly" but not for people doing unusual things with it even though it was designed to work together.

Soon they put out new App update. ALL your problems will be fixed! (but then what new surprises?)

I think the same, waiting for an app update will be better for me than factory reset. So long the bird gets connection in flight-mode and sharpening works in video i will have to learn and use manual exposure mode. Don't like it to switch always the settings when i change from sky view to ground view or from south to north. Yesterday still after sunset i got some well results by iso100 in video. Only photos are all noisy.
Btw. i don't understand how people loose their bird. By low battery or controller disconnection it always RTH. Gives me a very save feeling till now.

First of all, go find some wood (oak is best, but anything that is not plywood will do) and knock on it. We don't want to anger the gods of the sky. Best to show abject humility when speaking of other people's losses "It can't happen to me" is a good way to make sure it does. MANY things go wrong ... first of course is pilot error, in lots of cases people freak out when GPS glitches or goes away, controller error, etc, not setting home point, not calibrating compass or IMU, properly, failure to set RTH altitude for conditions, failing to retain 70% of battery for trip home, especially when flying high, total machine failure, etc .. and then there is the Great God Murphy, to whom you should show true respect.

And then of course space aliens ... they always crash their spaceships, and are trying to steal the amazing technology we now have to figure out how to not crash theirs. Not sure about that one ... ; )

We don't fly these like they are forever. You know and accept the possibility, even likelihood that once you launch, you might never see your bird (or the footage on the SD card!) again. Every time. If you prepare, then the loss is not so great.

One way to prepare is to use different SD card for EVERY flight. That way when your bird falls into the lake, you don't lose the whole day's footage. 16GB is fine per flight. Never send your footage out into danger. Flight is danger.

Understood Auto good when doing tilt up motions especially. Need that smooth ramp exposure. Very hard to do manually. Impossible, actually.

Are you using ND filter? Shooting photos in Auto? Surely you have photos set to RAW ... right? Problem with ND filter use is low light for photos make longer shutter speed or higher ISO ... both bad in flight/motion.

Not sure why else your AE not working. I'll play with mine soon, (tomorrow maybe) and will compare. Was blurry camera, should be all good ... we'll see.

You're right, shit can happen, .... and better to loose the bird 3km away in a forest or in a lake than about a road or anyones home ;) Maybe this is an unconscious reason that i go in risks sometimes which makes no other sense than to try out the limits.
I read in a german fb group that the distance record is anyhow around 7km. Puuuuh, call the bird back from 3km distance with only 20% controller left power is a thrill ;) Last not least the directives are not to risk anybodys health or any damage of others goods! To be true, wishing to have a drone was in the first my intention to be possible to look around the corner, behind a row of trees in the woodlands, to see if it's worth to explore spots in the areas where i'm ususally hiking with my camera. I didn't expect before that it's so fascinating to see and explore the world from above. So in the moment when i go outside only with Mavic and smartphone, my other cameras stay at home. Of course in the moment i understand this as intensive training, to become absolute familiar with what i'm doing. In any way it's a toy, but shouldn't be handled as a toy ;)

Some footage more or less, not really important. I have so much footage from the last 2 years, ...... never enough time to prepare it.
I won't say that Auto is good when doing tilt up motions. It's working, but very slow, .... too slow. ND filters are ordered, i'm waiting. I think these are well for holidays, for hard sun, or maybe also when having a stupid cloud cover with no contrasts. Will see.
AE problem is only since Nougat update, but it's not steady as it seems. Photos (DNG) before were perfect, but now noisy although only 100iso. I didn't change anything when switching from video (which is perfect) to photo. Surely it's a Nougat bug in the app because it's various in any way.