How wide can we capture top shot with 500m limit?

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Hi, I will have to photograph an island from a perfect top view perspective. With the 500m hight limit of the p4pro does anyone know what the field of view of the camera covers? The island is 2.7km wide and probably 1.8km the other way.
Anyway to go pass the 500m limit?
 
I'm new to the drone world, but a seasoned photographer. With photoshop and a series of overlapping images one can automate the "stitching" of images. I have taken a few panorama shots with my p4p with surprisingly good success. Go out and give it a try...
 
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I thought I read somewhere that there is a plug-in you can use with Google Earth that will display a camera view based on the coordinates.
 
Hi, I will have to photograph an island from a perfect top view perspective. With the 500m hight limit of the p4pro does anyone know what the field of view of the camera covers? The island is 2.7km wide and probably 1.8km the other way.
Anyway to go pass the 500m limit?
The field of view of the lens of the P4 pro (measured diagonally is 84°.
If you fly to 500 metres, that would cover an area of 750m x 500 m (in 3:2 aspect ratio)
To capture an island measuring 2.7 km x 1.8 km you would have to fly at 1800 metres but the Phantom isn't going to do that and would probably be blown away by high level winds if it could.

You could use a mapping app to fly a grid and capture lots of overlapping images to stitch into an orthophoto like this example I did for a site measuring 1.3 x 0.9 km.
8623_Sancus%20ortho_sm-X3.jpg

A

That required two flights and about 400 images
To use a mapping app and stay within the Canadian altitude rules (90 metres), to cover a 2.7 x 1.8km area, you would have to make 14 flights to capture 4700 images with a basic overlap of 65/75%.
The computer horsepower to stitch this would be huge and take a very long time.
If you could fly at 500 metres that would still require 3 flights and about 200 images.
There could be additional complications if the texture of the area is difficult for stitching software (forests or grassland).

Simple answer: you can't easily get a top-down view of 486 hectares (2.7 x 1.8 km).
 
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There are 2 kinds of software you can use. The first, as mentioned above is to find some mapping software that will stitch high resolution images together to make an attractive, detailed view of the island. A second software tool used often by photographers is "PhotoPills". It has a tool that computes field of view of a drone at a given altitude. Try it!
 
The field of view of the lens of the P4 pro (measured diagonally is 84°.
If you fly to 500 metres, that would cover an area of 750m x 500 m (in 3:2 aspect ratio)
To capture an island measuring 2.7 km x 1.8 km you would have to fly at 1800 metres but the Phantom isn't going to do that and would probably be blown away by high level winds if it could.

You could use a mapping app to fly a grid and capture lots of overlapping images to stitch into an orthophoto like this example I did for a site measuring 1.3 x 0.9 km.
8623_Sancus%20ortho_sm-X3.jpg

A

That required two flights and about 400 images
To use a mapping app and stay within the Canadian altitude rules (90 metres), to cover a 2.7 x 1.8km area, you would have to make 14 flights to capture 4700 images with a basic overlap of 65/75%.
The computer horsepower to stitch this would be huge and take a very long time.
If you could fly at 500 metres that would still require 3 flights and about 200 images.
There could be additional complications if the texture of the area is difficult for stitching software (forests or grassland).

Simple answer: you can't easily get a top-down view of 486 hectares (2.7 x 1.8 km).
Meta4- what mapping app do you use?
 
Thanks. I’ve read that it’s kind of expensive to use.
How do you figure a quote for a job using DD?

Also, does it automatically return to home point for battery changes and return to where it left off?
 
Thanks. I’ve read that it’s kind of expensive to use.
How do you figure a quote for a job using DD?

Also, does it automatically return to home point for battery changes and return to where it left off?
DroneDeploy is free to use for flying but you pay if you use them for processing the images.
DD handles large projects easily. You can resume a flight or split it into multiple missions.
 
DroneDeploy is free to use for flying but you pay if you use them for processing the images.
DD handles large projects easily. You can resume a flight or split it into multiple missions.

Why would you use it just for flying? Processing the images into a map is what it’s for right?
So, again, how do you figure out how to charge for a given job?
Or rather, how do you estimate what it will cost YOU, so you can give a quote and make profit?
 
Why would you use it just for flying? Processing the images into a map is what it’s for right?
So, again, how do you figure out how to charge for a given job?
Or rather, how do you estimate what it will cost YOU, so you can give a quote and make profit?
You can create the maps yourself if you have appropriate software or use other services like DD.
I charge based on my time and costs, same as any other project.
 

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