After some success using Pix4D Capture Pro on my DJI Mini 3 Pro, I bought a used DJI Mavic 2 Pro so I could try out mapping with it’s 20MP 1" sensor camera.
I wasn’t too surprised that Pix4D Capture Pro restricted mission groundspeed for higher forward overlaps - as I presumed that it planned missions to ensure there was time for the image to be stored on the SD card.
But I was surprised to find that Pix4D Capture Pro had similar groundspeed restrictions on the Mavic 2 Pro.
My experience with mapping missions using ArduPilot and Mission Planner show that missions flown at about 60 meters and 6 or 7 meters per second require a photo ever 0.8 seconds. Typical Sony mirrorless cameras (RX0, RX100, A5100, A6100) can all reliably record images at that interval.
Of course it took some testing to determine that image frequency of 0.8 seconds was a speed that the camera could successfully record images.
Pix4D Capture Pro doesn’t appear to allow such trials - and perhaps arbitrarily restricts ground speed to ensure image recording on the drone’s SD card. But the slow ground speeds suggest allowing 1.5 to 2.0 seconds per image.
I doubt the more advanced cameras on the Mini 3 Pro or the Mavic 2 Pro have such limitations.
If there is a way to override the groundspeed limitations, I’d appreciate information on how to do so.
If not - I highly recommend Pix4D Capture Pro be improved to show the calculated image interval speed - and allow the operator to conduct their own testing to find the highest reliable ground speed.
Your reply doesn’t mention the Mavic 2 Pro. He’s saying he would’ve thought it would be faster thatn the Mini but you only discuss the Mini in your reply.
We are looking at getting a Mavic 3E. Messing around in Mission Planner, flight times for the M3E aren’t that much faster than the Mini 3, so I wonder if the same restriction applies there. In DroneDeploy flight planner, a M3E is WAY faster than a Mini. The M3E has a mechanical shutter so it should be able to fly much faster.
Thank you, @scavendish; I modified my previous message to include the correct values.
If I understand correctly, you would like to know if the DJI Mavic 3E can shoot in 0.7s intervals while flying a mission at a higher speed. Can you confirm this request?
In fact, DJI Advertises the Mavic 3E drone as supporting 0.7s interval. However, in our tests, this worked only for the first 20 seconds. Afterwards, a lot of images are skipped, and the sensor overheats, so we limited it to 1 second.
Interesting about the overheating, but good to see that you’ve tested. I’m not sure how one would select a 1s interval though.
For this particular plan, the Mini 3 Pro shows 25:54 and the Mavic 3E shows 25:53, a savings of 1 second. Same mission, same settings, 100% camera speed, unless the calculated time is just incorrect for the 3E? Also separate question, but does using the RTK module on the M3E affect speed? It isn’t an option in the drones list, but perhaps it comes up once the drone is connected?
Thank you for the report.
We tried to replicate this using PIX4Dcloud’s Mission Planner, but it seems that the slider is not having any impact on the time.
Please verify the estimated times once you import the mission to PIX4Dcapture Pro. Are these different?
The Mission Planner team has been informed and will work on a solution.
I won’t be able to test that for you. We are still in the evaluation phase between Pix4D and DroneDeploy, so my interest in this thread is working through those details to make an informed decision. Perhaps another can test and report back. But it sounds as though it’s just a software bug on Cloud. This does clarify things for me.
I just got this confirmation from the devs. The bug is on PIX4Dcloud’s Mission Planner. The time is calculated independently on Mission Planner and PIX4Dcapture Pro. This means that when the mission is downloaded on PIX4Dcapture Pro, the calculation for the summary is triggered again and will show the correct estimated time.
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