Object tracking

PhantomKid · Jan 22, 2015

Has anyone tried following an object, like a car, with the camera using your finger on the screen ?

I thought it might be easy and a really useful tool but it doesn't really react like I expected it too.

I was hoping to just keep my finger over the subject, even though "it" was moving in relation to the Inspire and that the camera would then keep that in frame but it seems (to me) that it takes this as an input to just move the camera and soon you've lost the subject - unless it's just me not having the practice yet ?

rilot · Jan 23, 2015

The finger on screen method just works like a virtual joystick. There is no object tracking.

PhantomKid · Jan 24, 2015

Sure - what I meant was I thought it might be easy to just drag your finger over the subject (like a moving car) and be able to keep the camera pointing at it - but it's not as easy as that.

Maybe that's why there is the two control option

GenesisKnight · Jan 24, 2015

There will be a POI (Point of Interest) function through the IOC...though that is yet to be released...they make mention of it in the manual. I'd be very interested to see how it works. I'll not always have a second person with me for gimbal control...so that would be a big help instead of trying to control the camera on the screen and the aircraft with the controller...lol

thumpinhard · Jan 25, 2015

Joola said:
Pretty certain POI will only work on a fixed target, not a moving one like the car in OP's example. I imagine the processing power necessary to o track the pixels of a moving object frame by frame would be pretty substantial.

i am sure that is correct.

PeterofAVL · Jan 28, 2015

Isn't there a way to make it track the location of the controller though?

Seems like there is. Mentioned somewhere around page 40 of the manual no?

PhantomKid · Jan 30, 2015

Joola said:
Pretty certain POI will only work on a fixed target, not a moving one like the car in OP's example. I imagine the processing power necessary to o track the pixels of a moving object frame by frame would be pretty substantial.

Sure, i understand that too but . . . you can control the camera with your finger and the software is rather clever - I was hoping that this wasn't too much of an impossible task ?

PeterofAVL · Jan 30, 2015

PeterofAVL said:
Isn't there a way to make it track the location of the controller though?

Seems like there is. Mentioned somewhere around page 40 of the manual no?

So if you had dual controllers, couldn't you put one in the moving object you want to track, and tell IOC to track the second controller?

kilowonghk · Feb 1, 2015

what is the yellow box (close 'x' in the corner) for when u touch any part of the screen?

Scot Davis · Feb 2, 2015

kilowonghk said:
what is the yellow box (close 'x' in the corner) for when u touch any part of the screen?

I would like to know this also??

InterMurph · Feb 3, 2015

I believe this is a fix-focus lens and camera, so I don't think that's it.

RolandRSA · Feb 4, 2015

Joola said:
I believe it is a spot focus. When you tap the screen, the camera focuses on that spot until you x out of it. Once you x out, you should see a yellow square flash in the center of your screen, resetting the autofocus.

edit: i'm not a photographer so my terminology may be incorrect.

That is to set your exposure at that point you tap on.

The Editor · Feb 4, 2015

RolandRSA said:
That is to set your exposure at that point you tap on.

Yes - spot metering. As opposed to the default which is evaluative.

thumpinhard · Feb 11, 2015

yes,it is spot metering and is a great feature. i tend to use the exposure wheel but sometimes go the wrong direction which looks crappy on video. i am thinking i may use spot metering next time as i have played with it enough to know where to select on the screen to get good exposure. i am still not clear on how to get the best exposure for video with changing conditions. a friend uses manual and i tried that last time and it seemed to work better. heck my old sony video camera and my go pro seem to have better auto exp…what the heck am i missing here?

PetePerrim · Feb 15, 2015

thumpinhard said:
yes,it is spot metering and is a great feature. i tend to use the exposure wheel but sometimes go the wrong direction which looks crappy on video. i am thinking i may use spot metering next time as i have played with it enough to know where to select on the screen to get good exposure. i am still not clear on how to get the best exposure for video with changing conditions. a friend uses manual and i tried that last time and it seemed to work better. heck my old sony video camera and my go pro seem to have better auto exp…what the heck am i missing here?

Me too, I'm really struggling to get video that's not either too dark or washed out. Why the **** isn't there a fully automatic function so you can just hit record and itll do the very best with the light available? My Gopro does a far better job than this camera.

Paul K · Feb 15, 2015

Auto exposure you wish to have doesn't exist in any camera ,as far as I know. Autoexposure is mesured based on 18% grey card .
You can't compare GoPro and inspire camera,because of lens difference.GP lens is wide angle/fisheye, compare to standard lens on inspire1. Narrower lens is working similarly as spot meter compare to wide one, that's why you have feeling the exposure on GP is better,but that is just a illusion.
My recommendation would be to do a flight test and determine how much sky you would like to have in the shot ,point the lens on the area of interest ,and prepare the exposure accordingly, than during the actual shoot , make only small adjustments or I would use compensation (if you have big portion of the sky in the shoot, underexpose 1or1,5. If the ground is bit darker,you will correct it with editing software.
Second option is to use manual exposure ,again do a test flight/shoot determine the best exposure setting ,and again during the flight make just slight corrections.I don't have Inspire yet ,but as it was mentioned above ,you can spot meter right by taping a screen, if you don't go to extreme ,like taping on sky and next to tap darkest spot of the scene (tap from lightest to darkest gradually)than it would be very easy after some practice.

lrwskyfilms · Feb 16, 2015

Paul K said:
you can spot meter right by taping a screen, if you don't go to extreme ,like taping on sky and next to tap darkest spot of the scene (tap from lightest to darkest gradually)than it would be very easy after some practice.

Thx excellent advice, cheers Mark

SkySight · Mar 9, 2015

Trying to shoot something that isn't moving and flying around it with the drone is not as easy as I thought it would be. I can't always have a second person with me and our other controller. Any idea when POI or waypoints are going to be added? If I have way points I can fly the same route by just controlling the camera and not worrying about the Inspire. Or if we had a POI then I could do the opposite. I'd really like both for flexibility. They advertised all of this when I purchased it.

GenesisKnight · Mar 9, 2015

SkySight said:
Trying to shoot something that isn't moving and flying around it with the drone is not as easy as I thought it would be. .

No doubt SkySight.
Even something as big as this huge rock took some practice...

PeterofAVL · Jun 15, 2015

You're so right skysight.

When exactly is DJI going to bring the UAV up to advertised specs. Is it going to take a class action suite to get them to do the right thing? Instead of working on the features they promised, they're adding a dorky video editor to the app?

Come on DJI.