It depends where is the subject relative to the drone. If you fly sideways the drone's attitude can cause the landing gear to get in the camera view. Depending on the speed of flying and the angle of the drone, turning the entire drone might be a safer option to avoid the legs getting potentially into the field of view. Spotlight Pro in follow or free mode gives you both options in very fluid automated fashion. Perfect when shooting video as single operator and you want the camera to follow a subject.
Since you have posted in the General section we have no way of knowing:
My first inclination to execute the shot you describe would be to use waypoints to define the flight path, then fly the mission in Free Orientation mode so I can rotate the drone's orientation independent of its flight path. I'd keep the subject in the desired point of the frame by rotating the drone manually using yaw control. (And contrary to what @Krakozawr says above, this will not give an orbiting curve shot when the waypoints describe a straight line path). I usually use Litchi instead of Go4 for waypoint missions because I like their implementation of curved flight paths and that you can set the mission speed to 0 and then run the mission forward/backward as if the drone is a cable cam using the right stick. You can do something similar in Go4, but last time I checked it seemed more awkward.
I stopped using course lock and switched to waypoints (and of course manual piloting) several years ago. Seems the Course Lock implementation is (or at least was) purely based on maintaining the selected compass heading, with no compensation for drift perpendicular to that heading that might be caused by wind ,turbulence, or minor unintended sideways stick input on the L/R stick as you fly along. At least that was my experience. Has that changed, or have I misunderstood something?
I truly enjoyed reading all the contributions taking on the subject from various angles (pun intended?) but if you fly sideway and you want to maintain straight trajectory it is very difficult to do when you start rotating the craft. The best solution and the one which renders the smoothest subject following footage when flying sideway is Spotlight Pro in Free mode. It is not perfect but it is very good as long as the subject does not get obscured by trees etc or is hard to distinguish against background or too small in the frame. But for most "normal" situation I find it to be the best solution
If I may add one more angle to the discussion I have an unusual process I use for this that I think solves all the various issues mentioned.
You know you can tap and hold the screen then move your finger around to control the camera? You don't need a 2nd controller.
I do know that but sometimes I forget. I haven’t been able to use that function to successfully get usable footage so far because it is so difficult to get slow dynamic movement with it but maybe it’s worth some practice . Thanks for the idea.
