Zoom!

JohnBcheetah · Jul 26, 2016

Hi! There are lots of discussions about digital/optical zooms, but I'd like to put forward one question, and pray that someone may have the prefect answer:
Let's say I'm at an athletic games meeting (true story). I'm on the far side of the start of the men's 400 metres. My P4 is in the air stationary a dozen metres away from the starters and I want to stick to a particular runner featuring in the program we were recording. How can I zoom in to find this runner and be sure it's him? I actually got warned off over the speakers because the noise of the drone risked disturbing the start, another reason for needing a zoom function. There are many occasions where the drone is better at distance and the zoom is used either to identify an object/animal, or for recording at the expense of quality and stability, but zoom IS needed before post production. Any iPad software available? Thanks for any help!

jwt873 · Jul 26, 2016

One option, if you're not aware.... You can do the 'expanding finger pinch' to digitally zoom in 2X on the iPad's DJI-Go screen.

JohnBcheetah · Jul 26, 2016

Thanks jwt873. I had heard that that was possible, though when I tried, it didn't seem to work. Will try again, and if it works it will be a step in the right direction, maybe enough. Do you know if Litchi works that way too?

jwt873 · Jul 26, 2016

JohnBcheetah said:
. Do you know if Litchi works that way too?

Yes.. Just tried it. You can select 1X 1.5X and 2X magnification on both Lichi and DJI-Go using the two finger expand/pinch method.

jwt873 · Jul 26, 2016

I found a video I took a few days ago where I played with the digital zoom. I snipped out a 40 second clip. Here's how it looks. Because there are only 3 levels of zoom, you can see that the transition is not smooth). The image quality takes a bit of a hit too..

RémyHeli · Jul 26, 2016

Note DJI is working on cameras with both physical (moving lenses) and numeric zoom to get up to 7x ratio or more. Certainly not applicable for current Phantom series but rather Inspire or newer prosumer models.

Just so you know they consider this need.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Dragonfly2016 · Aug 10, 2016

A zoom on my Phantom would be an awesome upgrade. I hope they consider this for the P5

Sent from my XT1585 using PhantomPilots mobile app

Pogopilot · Aug 10, 2016

JohnBcheetah said:
Hi! There are lots of discussions about digital/optical zooms, but I'd like to put forward one question, and pray that someone may have the prefect answer:
Let's say I'm at an athletic games meeting (true story). I'm on the far side of the start of the men's 400 metres. My P4 is in the air stationary a dozen metres away from the starters and I want to stick to a particular runner featuring in the program we were recording. How can I zoom in to find this runner and be sure it's him? I actually got warned off over the speakers because the noise of the drone risked disturbing the start, another reason for needing a zoom function. There are many occasions where the drone is better at distance and the zoom is used either to identify an object/animal, or for recording at the expense of quality and stability, but zoom IS needed before post production. Any iPad software available? Thanks for any help!

IMHO, it is going to be difficult to get the results you want. First off you will need to make sure that you have the camera aimed at the runner. It may be tricky to do this at the distance you are suggesting given all the runners. You will not be able to use active track (too far away) or "follow mode" as your does not want your friend to carry the RC as he is running. You may try the Litchi ""Magic Leash" as that means the runner need carry only a cell phone.

As far as the zoom is concerned, you only have the option of digital zoom not optical. That been being the case why not do the "zoom" in post? That is, I believe you will have better control of the zoom during the editing process and not waste your time trying to get a perfect zoom during the filming. I do not see why the digital zoom in the app would be any better in terms of quality than zooming in on the subject during editing.

RémyHeli · Aug 10, 2016

Zooming is per example of interest for inspecting objects real-time while flying.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

ftttu · Aug 10, 2016

Walkera Voyager 4 with its 16x zoom will do the trick.

Phantoms and similar offerings from other makers are known for wide angle video/photo so I'd look elsewhere or up.