Trying a new video style for roof inspections....

[Donnie Frank]

I used to love Autopilot. Just one correction, the guy who created it started Dronelink after leaving Hanger. (Why should I trust Dronelink to fly my drone?). I'd recommend checking it out. It's approach is a little different, but it ultimately has more options.

Touché. Thanx for the correction.

You sound like you speak from experience. Have you used both? If so, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

D

 

[Nebelung]

Touché. Thanx for the correction.

You sound like you speak from experience. Have you used both? If so, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

D

I have used both on occasion, so far from an expert. But to no great surprise, Dronelink feels like the next version of Autopilot. It's been a loooong time since I used Autopilot, but the last project I used Dronelink for was a plant survey mission on a vertical cliff face. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good. Keep in mind that cliff faces are usually not perfectly vertical and have all sort of things sticking out from them that can get in the way. Because we needed to be pretty close, the plants were often not bigger than a quarter, I ended up programming the mission "on-the-fly", ie. by flying it (you need to set only a couple of points in the field...base, top, left, right, etc. and it'll figure out the rest and fly it autonomously) . But at least we have the path and can re-fly it again in the future. GPS accuracy was obviously an issue flying so relatively close an irregular object.

All I can say is that it's worth investing a little bit of time to see if Dronelink is a good option for you. I just saw that they now have a number of paid plans...it was still free when I was using it...so, yeah, check it out before you spend money. If I have another project that will require it, I'll probably spring for it.

 

[fgphoto]

I love the map with the location alongside the flyover. If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you to do the map?

 

[Donnie Frank]

I love the map with the location alongside the flyover. If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you to do the map?

However long the mission is, is how long it takes to record the map. The map is simply an iPad recording of the mission. I then import the iPad video file into Premier Pro. I can't remember if I had to transcode it or if it imported directly. Once in Premier Pro I discovered that the small, orange arrow icon was hard to see, so I added the large red arrow. If I speed up a section of video, I apply exactly the same speed mapping to the map section.

It's a little more complicated than my brief explanation, but that's the gist of it. So to answer your question "How long?" A couple hours to make the video.

D

 

[McBuster]

Correct. Normally, I would never shoot in auto mode or in this case "Shutter Priority." But the Exposure Value between the white roof and black roof was so profound that I decided to just let the camera handle exposure. This allowed me to concentrate on composition and other facets of this kind of job. And honestly, I'm not sure it would be any less "annoying" if I manually changed the aperture. The difference between a white roof and black roof is like 4 stops. Since the X3 doesn't allow you to "rack" the exposure, but instead adjusts in steps, avoiding the "annoyance" is nearly impossible. Plus, as you pointed out, these videos are for forensics purposes. So normal cinema conventions don't apply here. It's more important that the roof is exposed in a way that it's neither too bright or dark so that the client can clearly see cracks and holes and other roof anomalies.

D

If, the daylight is consistent, you might want to try Manual Mode for F Stop and Shutter speed.

 

[Donnie Frank]

If, the daylight is consistent, you might want to try Manual Mode for F Stop and Shutter speed.

I already explained why I don't use manual mode.

D