Is there any way to coordinate the gimbal with altitude?

[Jim Roof]

I would love to be able to have the gimbal movement coordinate with a change in altitude. In other words, say I am shooting a building that is framed nicely from 100 yards out from near ground level and then start to gain some altitude... after a while the building is too low in the frame, so I change the angle of the gimbal a bit to reframe it. Problem is, the video ends up looking like I just made a series of corrections as opposed to a usable take.

Is there any way to get the gimbal to lock on to a POI similar to the POI mode (but POI does not change the gimbal from what I can tell)? Is there something hidden in settings that I am missing?

Or, if DJI reads this... could it be implemented.

I have managed to get a smooth shot on a few occasions. It is very difficult since the gimbal wheel can get a bit touchy. If you 'pad' it out and change the expression it can get better, but then it tends to overshoot before it settles down.

Ideas?

 

[alokbhargava]

A simple way is to use Litchi missions with POI and set the height of the POI to be focussed. Run the mission and you will see that POI always remain as a center point for the mission.

 

[BigAl07]

WE just dialed the sensitivity down on the Gimbal Roll (wheel) and do it manually when flying.

 

[FunN4lo]

I do one of the 2 above depending on the situation. Active Track should do it too. I see lots of folks post YT vids doing it. But mine will not. It would not do it on my P3P and will not do it on my P4P.

 

[inkytog]

This is a good idea. I don't see why it can't be activated. It's basically s similar mode to circling a poi. Just without the circling.
I wonder if you foil set the 'fly around POI' and make it really slow to do a revolution so you set the poi and the speed of rotation really slowly and then you have the control over height and distance from poi whilst keeping the camera pointed in the right direction. Although come to think of it I don't think the camera moves on the tilt axis during this setting.

 

[Jim Roof]

This is a good idea. I don't see why it can't be activated. It's basically s similar mode to circling a poi. Just without the circling.
I wonder if you foil set the 'fly around POI' and make it really slow to do a revolution so you set the poi and the speed of rotation really slowly and then you have the control over height and distance from poi whilst keeping the camera pointed in the right direction. Although come to think of it I don't think the camera moves on the tilt axis during this setting.

The gimbal does not budge when in POI mode. All that moves is the camera heading, not the pitch. I will look into Active Track as per the above post. It seems that this should be something that could be easily implemented. If POI can be done then adjusting the gimbal should be a piece of cake. Until then a little practice is not going to hurt. I think it is doable 'by hand' but an automated solution would certainly save some flight time.

 

[Jim Roof]

AHHAA!!!

Active track PROFILE mode. Not sure how much detail is required in the selected frame for it to properly lock, but it just worked beautifully on the front of my house. It will be more interesting to see how well this might work in an industrial building park. Those buildings tend to be pretty non-descript and might not contain enough detail to lock onto IF that is the tech that is being used for this mode.

 

[Jim Roof]

OK. Active Track Profile did work, but Active Track Spotlight is the one that is specifically designed to do what I want it to do. It is a little counter-intuitive to make it happen (at least to me) but it does work and here is proof...

It was a little breezy, but this video used the second story bay window as the center of the 'spotlight' area. All I did was set the distance, choose Active Track. select the area THEN over to the right select 'spotlight;. Then just raise or lower the Phantom to taste.

 

[inkytog]

OK. Active Track Profile did work, but Active Track Spotlight is the one that is specifically designed to do what I want it to do. It is a little counter-intuitive to make it happen (at least to me) but it does work and here is proof...

It was a little breezy, but this video used the second story bay window as the center of the 'spotlight' area. All I did was set the distance, choose Active Track. select the area THEN over to the right select 'spotlight;. Then just raise or lower the Phantom to taste.

Isn't that what I was trying to say? I can't visualise the menus though.

 

[Jim Roof]

Isn't that what I was trying to say? I can't visualise the menus though.

I think we were both thinking about the POI, but POI does not do it. POI basically sets a vertical line that extends from the ground to the nearest galaxy and keeps the heading trained on that line, at any distance and with the gimbal free to move wherever. I was looking for a POINT instead of a line, with that point affecting the gimbal pitch.

This definitely does it. The question now becomes... how well does this work when there is nothing terribly 'visual' about the area that defines the point? I believe the POI acts upon GPS data and has no regard for the visual content, whereas the Active Track is LOOKING for something that the pilot instruct it to.

DJI could very easily allow the user to set a POI that has a discrete GPS coordinate as its aim. I am certain that can be done. That way it would not require a strong visual element to define the tracking point.

 

[inkytog]

I think we were both thinking about the POI, but POI does not do it. POI basically sets a vertical line that extends from the ground to the nearest galaxy and keeps the heading trained on that line, at any distance and with the gimbal free to move wherever. I was looking for a POINT instead of a line, with that point affecting the gimbal pitch.

This definitely does it. The question now becomes... how well does this work when there is nothing terribly 'visual' about the area that defines the point? I believe the POI acts upon GPS data and has no regard for the visual content, whereas the Active Track is LOOKING for something that the pilot instruct it to.

DJI could very easily allow the user to set a POI that has a discrete GPS coordinate as its aim. I am certain that can be done. That way it would not require a strong visual element to define the tracking point.

Ah ok. So the active track is obviously app dependent. Assume also it won't be too good in low light. It must use something as a locator though.

 

[Jim Roof]

Ah ok. So the active track is obviously app dependent. Assume also it won't be too good in low light. It must use something as a locator though.

Pretty sure it just uses visual to track. When I tried the same thing from a different angle and passed through some tree cover it lost track.

 

[RyanK]

Pretty sure it just uses visual to track. When I tried the same thing from a different angle and passed through some tree cover it lost track.

Yes, that's what is happening.
It's pretty cool because you can use it for very complex shots like flying laterally and increasing or decreasing altitude at the same time (all while keeping the object in focus). Looks great when done correctly.