Drone speed for optimal capture?

Is there an optimal drone speed setting for capture? Or is faster or slower better?

When the IOS app was working I used to fly at 4m/s. I found it to be a good value, fast enough so that you don’t have to wait too long to wait for the mission to finish.
With 5m/s I had some images missing in the mission. I don’t if it was related to the connection with the drone or if it was because of an old version but since I fly at 4m/s everthing is fine. At least when the app was working…

Hi, The slowest you fly the less blurry the images will be and better images, but then you will be able to cover less area since it will fly less time, if you have enough battery to complete the mission and cover the area needed (fly a little bit larger area than the area to map) then, I suggest to fly slow, personally, I prefer take a few minutes more flying but ensure a better dataset.

I noticed on the new version of the Android app that speed is no longer a user controlled variable. The few flights that I’ve done with it, I’ve seen speeds between 8-9 m/s. Flights have still processed fine and the photos don’t appear blurry. It also really helps get the flight done fast.

Hi,

Indeed since the version 1.0 of our app on Android it is no longer possible to change the speed of the drone. The speed is automatically adapted depending on the height of the mission. The higher the mission, the higher the speed of the drone.

This is to ensure that the drone will be able to take enough images which is limited by the number of images that the drone can take per second and also for connectivity reasons between the drone and the app.

The speed is also adapted to minimize the potential blurry effect of images. If you fly at very low altitude and with a very high speed you might obtain more blurry images.

Regards,

Thank You all for your answers.

the new version of android is not possible fly the vision + is very fast the results is very very low

Can anyone advise me on the settings to fly a Phantom 4 Pro using a polygon mission. I am flying at 55m with a 75% overlap. Does the app automatically control the speed or do i need to adjust the speed on the app manually? The terrain is flat and open. If i need to adjust the speed manually what would be the recommended speed?

Regards

Colin

Hello,

The app computes the maximum speed the drone can have for a given overlap and flight altitude. The Fast speed corresponds to 100% of the maximum speed, meaning that the speed ranges between the minimum and maximum. At the moment, the minimum speed is 0.1m/s. However, according to your desire, you could change your drone speed in five types(Slow, Slow+, Normal, Normal+, Fast). Any of this selection should work for your flight.

Regards,

I fly P4Adv from DJI. I note whilst mapping USING P4D-CAPTURE, you state the aircraft slows down at each photo point, to capture imagery. Based on FAST speed (above 100mts AGL), and especially on low light days, what does the P4DCapture app slow my aircraft down to (from what speed, to what speed)…and then speed up again to what speed, to fly to the next capture point, to capture the clearest imagery possible, short of adopting “Safe Mode”??
Can i simply set it to fly at Fastest speed and based on lighting conditions, the software is clever enough to slow the Drone automatically to a suitable “blur free” speed? Will ISO be bumped up automatically too?
For 150+ Hectare properties, i am trying to understand if slowing the flight speed down MANUALLY is really necessary or if the software does this to the most efficient levels already.
Thanks in advance.

Hello @hginternationalgraph,

The app computes the maximum speed the drone can have for a given overlap and flight altitude to obtain good images(e.g no blur). You should be able to get good image even if you fly at the maximum speed. However, the software is not smart enough to slow down during the flight to suitable blur free speed. The Fast speed corresponds to 100% of the maximum speed, meaning that the speed ranges between the minimum and maximum. At the moment, the minimum speed is 0.1m/s. However, according to your desire, you could change your drone speed in five types(Slow, Slow+, Normal, Normal+, Fast).
The only difference between the safe and fast mode is that during safe mode the drone will stop while capturing the images. Then, the drone speed between the points would be the one that you set. In your case, you can select the drone speed to Fast and picture trigger mode to Safe.

Regards,