DJI Mavic Discussion

Just 4 demonstration: The long way home ;)
Flying backwards (timelapse x10), route direction and lowering altitude to save time.
Reminds me it's not enough to know the height of the trees, must also know the height of buildings in surrounded area when flying backwards ;)

You know, I sense you are really having fun with this, and I enjoy that, as I do too. All my life I wanted to fly, to be (real) pilot, to have RC this or that, and only with the excuse of "getting footage" do I find some of that is come true. I really do enjoy it, even though it makes me mad a lot. So I am enjoying this discussion ...

"Thrill" is something I know ... my first real flight with the big quad (Matrix-E) was terrifying, but awesome. Heart pounding. First time I lost video feed and had to fly back by memory and was so happy to hear it coming ... that was thrill! That fake acting of calm when my wife comes and I'm standing there with controller and she asks "Where is it? Did you lose it?" and I calmly say "I don't know" but trembling inside ... but then I find it, control restored, video feed back, and resolve not to do THAT again. Ah yes ... nothing like it. I know better now.

I love watching the ravens come and dance int he air around my bird, asking it to come play. That is fun (of course I am trying to get the shot of them doing this, but they are too fast)

It is really like an addiction. But after some time, it becomes just another tool (but by far the most fun!) in the arsenal of tricks to shoot. Just don't fly into your own timelapse shot .. that's bad form. Sometimes shots sell that I almost deleted. I like that. Sometimes I see patterns I never expected, or see interesting scenes that I could not see when flying, and have to go back a year later to try to get the shot I ruined because I was not able to see due to sun. I LOVE the feeling of extensible eyestalks ... projecting your sensory apparatus out beyond where you could ever go before, and see things in a way you simply cannot when stuck on land.

I used INspire 1 once when hiking in dense forest with friends ... kind of lost ... aerial bird helped us find our way!

The thing about Mavic is that it is smaller than all but my smallest camera, so I can ALWAYS have drone to fly wherever no matter what else I am carrying. Yes, the Phantom 4 Pro is much better quality, but sometimes you cannot carry it all ... but always can carry Mavic.

I hope your problems are solved soon. Sounds like you have a good handle on it, and yes, not all flights make good footage, but each one is a learning experience and will help the next footage flight. It does take practice.

That's pretty cool. Interesting that your craft seems a little to the right? Are you moving gimbal tilt? Love the antenna shot.

You are a LONG ways out beyond LOS. Very brave. I cannot do that so much. I would like to try flight from neighbor's house overlooking inlet, across to glacier, but it is so far ... but I think you have shown it can be done!

When i started the flight straight forward for 3km i absolute didn't think about the antenna which was around 300m at my left side behind trees. It was my intention to fly straight forward for being possible to get the bird back by flying straight backwards. But by flying backwards i believe i didn't pull the little stick perfect backwards and so the bird drifted slowly to the left. This was the first time i noted the little map screen concret because it shows the route lines. So i corrected the course and believe me, .... i absolutely didn't expect that the bird comes from my left side home ;)
Now this map screen with route is very cool (Y). Offers great flights without being in worry where the bird may be. Only the app shouldn't crash and freeze the phone.
Yesterday and today i trained crusing like a bird of prey.

Seems as if this auto-exposure was my failure except app problems before reinstalling it. The right front wheel at the controller which controls EV was rolled down. Seems as if it can be regulated separat for video and photo and stores the setting. By setting it to 0 i could switch today between video and photo in auto-mode without problems. Will see the next 2 flight days if it's steady now. Unluckily the photos (DNG) are still unsharpen like cheap old handy shots, although video quality is perfect as Mavic can offer. Hmm, maybe instead of shooting only raw i should try to reset for shooting raw+jpg. Maybe that helps? But always difficult to find where to make these settings. I'm searching again.

The Harz mountain range isn't far from my home town. I'm very lucky about this, there are so much interesting spots to explore. 1/2 hour by car and i enter the mountain range. The video location is nearly 1 hour by car from my home.
Hey, but your country is better for footage which sells ;)

Glad you found a possible reason for seeming malfunction. One thing I hear a lot when people have problems is to reset the camera and controller to default .. and now I see this would be a reason why. And yes, it's a pain learning where all these settings are. Gets easier with time .. usually.

Again, check your logs if you see that deviation from intended course. Look carefully at your stick input ... if you see a deviation and no input one way or the other, then you should definitely do a stick calibration (in one of those menus!). If you have other calibration errors the App will tell you (compass/gimbal/IMU). There's definitely a trick to doing calibrations ... it is said, I think (you'd better check!) to do IMU calibration cold, and gimbal calibration warmed up. Something like that. Funny, huh?

I dunno .. I'd say most of my scenic shots never sell ... really trying hard to figure out how to make them .. usually need a solid theme. This is true for aerials as well as land-based. Look for misty forest too ... and slow low close shots ... for some reason mostly close shots seem to be better sellers than far/high.

My Mavic is home today. Took me almost two hours to get it to connect/updated, activated. I think they sent me a new one (all the stickers were still on it! - but the invoice warranty specified "replace gimbal".)

Testing tomorrow maybe if not rain.

Now reseted camera settings and set to photo raw+jpg.
Hmmm, at the first view jpgs look better and dng is still unsharpen and noisy. But i can correct dng in Lightroom so that it looks well again. Don't understand this and checked again my first dngs before Nougat update and i'm not sure if these were really better. I think Nougat update can't be the source for curious dng quality because these were taken from Mavic cam, but last not least the app controls the sharpness.
Maybe it's only that after first enthusiasm i become more and more critical ?

Tried to make a sunset timelapse yesterday by fixing the Mavic at 120m altitude for 20min in the sky. It holds the position very well although there's more wind, but have to correct it with PP warp stabilizer not only a little bit.

I did find the DNG's fairly "chunky" from Mavic too .. the P4P is much much better ... but I usually do not take many stills. When I do I give them to Wifey to process. She likes the P4P stills too .. not so much anything else.

Yes, we get used to the excitement and start to see flaws. It is good for what it is, but still not great or pro. Useable though .. if in right light and composition, subject is awesome ... ! Just don't look too close.

I'd like to see that timelapse!

Here it is, but believe me, a sunset seen from 120m above your head runs so slowly ............ absolute not the same like from your horizon.
I didn't expect that the warp-stabilisation will work so well because the original time-lapse was .....ähem....... like fluid dancing.

I'm looking at getting a Mavic but i'm curious to know if the footage is up to scratch? Most of the footage on YouTube seems rather compressed.