Mavic 2 Pro - camera settings controlled by Pix4D Capture

PIX4Dcapture PIX4Dcapture Questions/Troubleshooting
1

Hello -

I’m evaluating Pix4D Capture Pro with a DJI Mavic 2 Pro. I’m using the DJI RC1B controller with an Android tablet. (Samsung Galaxy Tab A7)

I’ve flow a couple of test missions - of over 600 photos. The photos were taken without missing or skipping any and were processed well with Pix4D Mapper.

My test missions required a battery swap. That process worked fine.

But with 300-400 photos per battery swap, I’m wondering how all the waypoints are managed. (Because the Mavic 2 Pro can only hold 99 waypoints at a time.)

I’d like to map much larger areas - and may exceed 2000 photos per mission. Can you confirm that Pix4D Capture Pro will handle that many waypoints and not exceed the waypoint capacity capability of the Mavic 2 Pro?

The Pix4D Capture Pro app provides access to two camera settings - white balance and EV. It seems to default to a white balance of “auto” and an EV of “+0.3”. I can change these in the app as necessary.

Reading the documentation and release notes, I understand that Pix4D Capture Pro will force the drone’s camera to “auto” exposure. Can you please confirm that?

With other equipment I normally use “shutter priority” mode so I can ensure that the shutter speed is fast enough to avoid blurring. In “auto” exposure, the shutter speed is quite low - and is right on the edge of motion blur.

Can you please confirm that there is no way to set the camera’s shutter speed and set “shutter priority” exposure?

Also - when looking at the camera settings with the DJI Go 4 app, it appears that Pix4D Capture Pro sets the focus mode to “MF” for manual focus. My photos appear to be in focus - so if Pix4D Capture Pro sets the camera to manual focus, it appears to also set the distance to “infinity.”

Can you please confirm this behavior of the focus setting?

Thanks very much!

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Hi @joe.stroup,

Thank you for your message.

Regarding the waypoints, PIX4Dcapture Pro automatically manages them to avoid reaching the limit.

For what it concerns the camera settings, what PIX4Dcapture Pro allows to do is limited in order to avoid having any noise in the images that could impact the quality of the images (and thus the reconstruction).

In case the zone is too dark, we allow setting the auto exposure to ensure there is enough light but, in order to obtain a better quality and receive more light, it’s advisable to make the shutter slower. This shutter will be automatically managed by the drone, but it’s needed to manually reduce the speed of the drone during mission planning if there not enough light. I’d suggest taking a couple of images with different speeds until the speed is correct if the situation requires flying with low light.

For the focus, it is set to infinity in order to ensure that all objects are correctly focused.

Daniele

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Thank you Daniele - that’s really helpful information. I appreciate it!

Joe

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Daniele -

One more thing - I understand keeping noise to a minimum for good image quality for photogrammetry projects.

But there is a tradeoff if the shutter speed is too low - motion blur. The shutter speeds set by the camera in most cases meet the minimum requirement for motion blue - but just barely. And there are cases where it is indeed too slow, and given the speed of the drone, there will be blur.

This is why on my AuduPilot quad-copters I set Shutter-Priority - so I can ensure no motion blur. Some times the ISO selected by the camera is above 100. But not by much.

In my opinion, Pix4D Capture would be more useful if we could use Shutter Priority, with perhaps a small penalty of noise for less risk of motion blur.

Thank you - Joe

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Hi Joe,

Thank you for your valuable feedback. I have shared it with the product team.

Even though I cannot guarantee that a change in PIX4Dcapture Pro will be implemented, I can assure you that every piece of feedback is internally evaluated at Pix4D.

Daniele

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Daniele,

You may want to take a look at this reference.

https://www.hammermissions.com/post/preventing-motion-blur-in-drone-photogrammetry-flights#:~:text=Motion%20Blur%20%3D%20Camera%20Shutter%20Interval,Speed(m%2Fs).&text=As%20a%20general%20rule%2C%20your,adjacent%20pixels%20in%20the%20image.

Using the formula in this article, I found that the shutter speed of images taken with Pix4D capture to be right at the limit - but some images did have shutter speeds that were too slow.

Thank you - Joe

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Thank you for the interesting article. I will share it together with the feedback you shared previously.

Daniele

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