One of the best things about the DJI Phantom 4 for me is the ability to do some really cool Aerial Panos. I have always been fascinated with aerial photography and Panoramic photos.
This is one of my most recent Panos we did at Inanda Dam earlier this year
[pano file=”panoramas/inanda/export.htm”]
So I decided to put together a few resources on how to get the best Pano
Great news!!! The guys at iStore have started stocking the DJI Phantom range of drones in a couple of their South African stores.
Having recently got a DJI Phantom 4, I know this will definitely change the market of consumer drones in South Africa. The prices may seem quite high, but you have to remember you are buying a hi-resolution 4K camera, which you would probably pay the same price for in a DSLR (if not more) And, this one flies!
The iStore is stocking the following DJI Products at the moment. I believe the range may grow as demand increases
If you looking for a drone to get into the awesome world of aerial photography, I would highly recommend the DJI Phantom range. They are seriously world class!!
I recently came across a really awesome app for my new favorite tech, the DJI Phantom 4. The app/service is called DroneDeploy and offers pre-planned autonomous flights over a specified area.
Firstly you install the DroneDeploy app (iOS & Android) on your phone, which allows you to plan your flight. Once you have done your planning, which can take a little while to get 100%, you then upload the images that have been taken to the DroneDeploy website.
The results of the flight are then published in a number of formats including 2D Mapping, 3D mapping & modelling, Agricultural Mapping & Terrain & Elevation Mapping. I recently did a flight over an area, called Sugar Rush Park, in Ballito, and here are some of the results.
You will see in the below embed you can zoom in quite a bit and get high a very high resolution image for the 2D Mapping
But what really blew me away was the amazing 3D rendering of the images that are uploaded to the DroneDeploy Site.
You can zoom in on the above image and pan around with your mouse. Although some of the textures seem to look a bit funny, you can fix this by uploading more images of the flight. All of this done with a drone!! Amazing.
The other great feature of Drone Deploy is very useful for the Agricultural sector. The software allows you to analyze crops using some serious technology. I don’t understand all the ins & outs, but the software offers a number of farming Algorithms such as NDVI and VARI to analyze crops. This is what the image looks like once it has been processed.
Obviously there is a cost for this software, which comes in at $99 per month for the Pro Package. They do offer a 30 Day Trial which is handy to get your head around the software, as well as a Free Package which allows you to do 5 flights a month but no exporting. Check out some of the FAQ’s
All in all, this is an amazing piece of software, unfortunately can’t afford it at the moment, but hopefully I will get to play around with it a bit more in the future.
Disclaimer: I was not asked to review DroneDeploy, and this is my personal opinion of the software
A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to pick up a new DJI Phantom 4 Drone. The reason behind getting is 2-fold, which I will cover in a later blog, but for now, it’s been a fun learning curve getting to know the Drone and it’s capabilities.
Let me start off first by saying, the DJI Phantom 4 is a phenomenal piece of technology. We are moving into a new era where Drones are going to become more accessible to the consumer market, and I reckon loads of people will soon start purchasing them for personal use.
I bought mine from the guys at CopterShop.co.za, who were incredibly knowledgeable and helpful throughout the purchasing process. I bought the extra 2 batteries package, as you definitely need extra batteries when flying.
I’ll be the first to admit that flying Drones is NOT as simple as picking up a remote control and flying it off into the sunset(or sunrise) These things are technically advanced so much so that one slip of the finger and you will be in tears. They take a number of hours of practice, but more importantly keeping a level head and not fooling around is far more important.
The most unique feature of the Phantom 4 has to be it’s obstacle avoidance sensors. This means, then when flying forwards (not backwards) the Phantom has sensors built in that will automatically stop the drone from flying into any obstacles. This is really handy when flying close to trees & buildings etc, as it almost makes it impossible to crash. Almost.
The standard flying time on the battery is around 20-25 mins, but the software is designed to bring back the Drone once it sees you running out of power. The range on the Drone is around 5km, yes FIVE Kilometers!!, although I haven’t tested that (and probably won’t) and you can go up to a maximum altitude of 500m. Again, that is incredibly high, so the max I have been is 150m and I started getting a bit nervous.
Attempt at editing one of my flights
The camera on the DJI Phantom 4 offers full 4K video recording with 12MP stills. Live images are transmitted back to your Smartphone at all times, and you can download the images & video from the SD card which is on the drone. The camera is mounted on a very, very stable Gimble, and once that Drone is in the air, you will see almost zero shaking on your pictures.
All in all this is a fantastic device, and I am going to be focusing a bit more of my content on some Drone tips & tricks as well as apps etc. I am really excited about how this is going to work out ;)
The iStore is stocking the following DJI Products at the moment. I believe the range may grow as demand increases
