Hello all

Today I thought about taking a photo each week of a particular view and then showing them one after the other in order to have a nice timelapse. So what would be really nice, is to have a new smart functionality that is able to save exact GPS coordinates, maybe assisted by visual orientation. This way, one should be able to save the exact position of the drone and therefore would be able to return to the same position day after day. This could be achieved by flying near the spot of interest and then initiating "return to savepoint1" as long as this point is near enough (to prevent unintended flyaways to points too far away). Compass and gimbal angle parameters should be even easier to save as well. Would there be other people interested in such a function as well? DJI employees, what do you think? Is this feasible at all?

Best regards

i like that idea

Good thinking

And as long it is not offered:
Do a 46 picture Pano
Choose the position UNDER your Spark with easy to recognise pattern.
So you can find that excact spot back. And you know the height.
If you are 50+ meters up, some meter difference will not really change much

Glad you also like it

S-e-ven:
how exactly does the pano work? Problem is, that I dont have access to the ground over which I want to take the pic from bc. it's full of vegetation. so I cant start from the same point on the ground each time. or did I misunderstand?

You could save a waypoint mision and re-run it. I've not messed with waypoints with the DJI Go 4 app so I don't know how or even if that would work. If you had Litchi, you select a location(s) on the map and save it. I've done something similar using Litchi so I know that it works.

FatherXmas Posted at 2018-1-28 16:44
You could save a waypoint mision and re-run it. I've not messed with waypoints with the DJI Go 4 app so I don't know how or even if that would work. If you had Litchi, you select a location(s) on the map and save it. I've done something similar using Litchi so I know that it works.

tap to fly doesnt really fly to the exact point that you press unfortunately. it depends a lot on the direction that you come from. but thanks for the idea. I hope it will be implemented then, if it's possible like in litchi.

Sparkinator Posted at 2018-1-28 14:10
Glad you also like it

S-e-ven:

Isn't there any landmark to spot?
A taller tree under the spark or somewhere in a 360 circle around, a hill, a cellphone tower?
You may not even need 46 Panos, to get the bottom under your Spark, 3x3 or even single shots could do.
But the 46 pic Pano is capturing the area 360° around plus under the AC.
And a little bit (40°/50°?)  up into the sky.
So get visual reference points.
Number one is the subject/area you want to capture
Number 2 would be more or less direct unter your Spark, ideally
If No.2 is not really possible, you need to look for a landmark somewhere nearby.

I think you should try a 46 picture Pano and watch the result after stitched to a flat
Probably also a -85° 3x3 Pano.
After you can get an idea, what they can do for you and your time lapse plan!

S-e-ven Posted at 2018-1-28 08:46
And as long it is not offered:
Do a 46 picture Pano
Choose the position UNDER your Spark with easy to recognise pattern.

Shooting a picture downwards should do this too.

But a dedicated feature within the App would be great.
Something like gopro´s highlight feature where you can mark the current recording position as favourite.

This is an interesting idea, would really like to see something like this in the near future!

S-e-ven Posted at 2018-1-28 22:03
Isn't there any landmark to spot?
A taller tree under the spark or somewhere in a 360 circle around, a hill, a cellphone tower?
You may not even need 46 Panos, to get the bottom under your Spark, 3x3 or even single shots could do.

this is a nice workaround and I guess it might bring satisfactory results, but I expect more wobbling when showing the pics in the end. Thanks a lot for the elaborate answer!
I fear that such a feature might bring the possibility of user-caused "flyaways" and therefor not so desireable für dji. but with some efforts this could be prevented by some software precautions (like maximum travel distance toward point of interest)

Not sure if this is available for Spark, but my son fly's a Mavic and uses Dji Ground Station Pro. He has programmed set co ords, route, height etc. and uses this once a week to film a house I am building creating an amazing time lapse of the construction progress. Another program that could work is "DroneDeploy"..

Every single picture you take by DJI drone has it's own GPS coordinates within data information stored. You can return back to the same GPS coordinates if you wish by using Google map or waypoints mode.

Ahmed Hussain Posted at 2018-1-29 10:35
Every single picture you take by DJI drone has it's own GPS coordinates within data information stored. You can return back to the same GPS coordinates if you wish by using Google map or waypoints mode.

Does Spark have waypoints mode? Where do I see the current coordinates? Do you currently do it like that and you're happy with it? or would you rather have an automated fly-to function?

Sparkinator Posted at 2018-1-30 02:14
Does Spark have waypoints mode? Where do I see the current coordinates? Do you currently do it like that and you're happy with it? or would you rather have an automated fly-to function?

I use the Mavic for waypoints with Litchi and I think Litchi still doesn't support waypoints for the Spark.

In fact I didn't need to go back to a selected coordinates so never did, but as each picture shows it's coordinates this can help to go back and make some change with the camera settings, the angle, height etc.

Some Photographic softwares shows the coordinates with the picture's data that are usually hidden within  a file attached to the picture.

Ahmed Hussain Posted at 2018-1-30 10:41
I use the Mavic for waypoints with Litchi and I think Litchi still doesn't support waypoints for the Spark.

In fact I didn't need to go back to a selected coordinates so never did, but as each picture shows it's coordinates this can help to go back and make some change with the camera settings, the angle, height etc.

I guess this approach is currently not feasible. I'd rather look for landmarks and such

Sparkinator Posted at 2018-1-30 11:52
I guess this approach is currently not feasible. I'd rather look for landmarks and such

Why not feasible?

If you can get the coordinates of any picture then select it exactly on the google map, go there and just take off high above you to get the same picture with the new settings or filter or any.

Ahmed Hussain Posted at 2018-1-30 12:34
Why not feasible?

If you can get the coordinates of any picture then select it exactly on the google map, go there and just take off high above you to get the same picture with the new settings or filter or any.

If the spot was accessible, it would be easier to just leave a mark (large stone, branch) or choose a special spot in the first place. I don't need the coordinates for that. But if I understand correctly there is currently no access to the current GPS coordinates of the drone during live transmission? because this is what I would need to hover over the exact same spot of vegetation (unreachable) each time.

I will however try to take pictures each time from the same point of something else where there is easy access to the groundpoint of the point of interest. Just to try out how easy it is to make a timelapse afterwards.

Still, I would highly appreciate DJI looking into an easy-to-use software feature to accomplish this task via their app

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. I think our engineers will take the ideas into consideration.

DJI Elektra Posted at 2018-2-2 02:05
Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. I think our engineers will take the ideas into consideration.

Hi Elektra
Thanks for the answer! This would be really awesome

Sure why not mate

I just figured out another way the "save point of interest" feature would serve us greatly: imagine taking a 360 pano in all 4 seasons on the exact same spot, processing the sphere the same way each time and then construct a planet with 4 parts, for each season one. That would be so darn awesome! I'll try it by launching from the exact same spot if possible, maybe this already works. but for some interesting places (directly over a lake) this might still be a bit of a hassle.

Great idea

Another nice feature that would be fantastic to have is to have the drone fly in a circle around the point of interest. So you can cut together different scenes from the same shot at different times of day, seasons or after changing who is in the shot.

The dronerepeat app (free for IOS)  is made for this purpose.
"will save the location, altitude, heading and gimbal pitch so the shot can be repeated later. "
I have it, but have not tried it yet.

heliman Posted at 2018-2-13 10:04
The dronerepeat app (free for IOS)  is made for this purpose.
"will save the location, altitude, heading and gimbal pitch so the shot can be repeated later. "
I have it, but have not tried it yet.

Unfortunately, this app is not available for android, it seems. I hope DJI will "steal" this feature and implement it