Is drone base a scam?!
- Thread starter guyinthesky
- Start date
They actually did get back to me quite quickly and attempted to fix it, but as I noted already, a couple pictures are missing vertical overlap. I'll have to go back and shoot an intermediate camera angle.
How are you shooting them, manually or autonomous? I have shot 31 panos (commericial and residential) and 8 client missions. I haven't had any stich bad at all (other than the normal minor shifts on some horizon lines. I use a P4P and fly Litchi. I set the pano to shoot 2 rows of 8 and 1 Nadir (straight down) image. They all usually stich within about 1 hour (about how long it take me to get the email.
I shot it manually. The issue was I used the Mavic because I didn't want to bring P4P out and blow out the eardrums of everyone within a square mile. Because of the Mavic's smaller FOV, shooting the pano at 45 degrees and 90 degrees does not give sufficient vertical overlap. There is a few degree gap between the shots. I'll stop back by there today and shoot a circle at like 60 degrees and should be good to go. In the future, if I'm using the Mavic, I'll shoot three rows at 90, 60, 30.
Lucky, I have done 9 panos and only paid for 3, each pano takes about 24+ hours to stitch. I have had at least 4 panos with stitching errors even when I am extra careful on alignment. I plan on doing more tomorrow so wish me luck!
Use Litchi. No need to shoot these manually. I get in position and hit a button, that's it.
Kind of goes along with my other post, if your using Litchi, 99% chance the stiching issue is on them. They did have a stiching issue, but that was months ago. I did have one not go through about a month or so ago. I just re submitted the same pics and it stichted.
Are you shooting commercial or residential? Do you pay attention to the probability of payout rating?
I've been debating trying Litchi, but I seem to have a very bug-free setup with GO4 so haven't felt the need to switch or spend $20. It literally took less than a minute to spin and click off the shots. The error was mine for being so concerned with horizontal overlap that I forgot about vertical overlap.
Check this link, in case you hadn't already.
360 Pano Instructions
Sounds like you already solved the problem. The above is a set of instructions for the pano and the bottom of the third page talks about exactly what you said on FOV difference and shooting an additional row for the mavic.
As for Litchi, I have to say that it is sooo worth it. I shoot panos both ways, but with litchi it is so much more sure and easy. I can launch my quad, fly the 4-5 front pics, rise up and hit pano, then watch and wait, come in and land all in about 8 minutes.
On windy days, litchi rules for panos. Also, for example, today I was flying a pano and a hawk started checking my quad out. Had I been flying manually I would have probably brought it down until the hawk left. With the litchi, I could keep my peripheral vision on the quad, listen for changes in motor sounds as well, and keep a good eye on the hawk with fingers on the stick to drop it down quick should I need to. Hard to do that in manual.
Mostly residential, and most the times I do. Sometimes if if there's a group all close to each other I'll just knock them all out.
Still with the stitch issues. Stopped over there on my way out yesterday and reshot the entire thing. Now the building top is randomly pasted out on the horizon.
I believe you have had to have done panos with them before, be over 18, have a license to fly (107 for example) and have the required equipment.
If you want to increase your chances of getting some make sure to respond asap and increase the miles you are willing to travel. I have mine set at 100.
I've considered sniping jobs right off their site, especially this one that the pano refused to the work on because it has the commercial real estate company's sign with contact info right out front. There's a couple issues though...
1. The panos actually look pretty cool and are very useful for visualizing a property - therefore will probably sell better than flat shots. There's no free 360 pano maker that I know of that allows free export for commercial use.
2. Contacting people and making a sale takes far more time than actually taking the pictures. Most real estate signs only have a number. I'd need to call, give a speech, get email address(es), send watermarked shots for example, follow up, remove watermark and send for sale, etc. for EVERY property. That's way too much time investment for $49 (which is what Dronebase is selling panos for). It took me less than 2 minutes to take a 40 shot pano last night that was on the way to where I was already going. I'll gladly take $20 for that and let Dronebase endure the rest of the hassle for $29. I already have an actual business and would rather spend my free time pursuing more lucrative jobs.
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I want to know what drone you re using that takes a 40 picture pano in 2 minutes lol
And your not certain if the pano would even sell. It's a crap shoot...
I want to know what drone you re using that takes a 40 picture pano in 2 minutes lol
And your not certain if the pano would even sell. It's a crap shoot...
Shooting on a bright day with very fast shutter speed? I can literally yaw at almost full speed while I click, click, click, change camera angle, click, click, click, etc. It's taking longer to type this than it does to actually shoot it.
Pano was just fixed and sold immediately. So, can confirm not a scam. Was it worth only $19? If I had taken the shots correctly the first time it would have been 10 total minutes of my time including drive time out of the way of the trip I was already making. That averages out to about my normally hourly rate anyway, so, yes, in this case it was worth it.
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