After about 50 testing missions to shoot 360x180 high resolution spherical panorama with my venerable Inspire 1 Pro and various apps I've concluded the following:

1. As for today (May 2018) no app is able to take the advantage of rotating Zenmuse gimbals. Instead the apps are yawing the drone the way any other DJI drone is doing during panorama shooting, which is plain senseless and messy.
2. Only one app (Autopilot) is holding the position of Inspire during shooting relatively well, wind or not. Any other app I've tested (Litchi, Pan Amigo) is causing Inspire to drift, rendering impossile to stitch sequence of images.
3. High resolution spherical panorama employs longer lens, which results in significantly more images to be taken. 25mm lens require approx. 60 images, starting from about 10 deg above horizon and ending with a single nadir shot at -90 deg. Anything above horizon - assuming capturing worthy sky features - must be shot with any camera on tripod off the ground and added later to a sequence. 60 images shot with Autopilot takes about 10 minutes, challenging new TB48 battery capacity for a single mission of this kind.

That said, I was able to shoot really well stitching high resolution panoramas with nice detail to be seen when zoomed in, thanks to 25mm lens narrow field of view. Another consideration worthy 45mm lens is providing even more incredible level of details, but requires two separate shooting sessions for over 200 images total. Execution of such is awkward and difficult wit Autopilot.

Killian Eisenegger is recently trying to come up with re-designed and improved version of DronePan app, tailored for rotating gimbals in particular. Waiting eagerly to put this app to work ...

Any progress on this, Matthew?  I've just purchased a used Inspire 1 Pro with X5 camera and look forward to taking panoramas with my 25mm and/or 45mm.  I've enjoyed looking at your work on Round.me

FG_Rick Posted at 1-17 14:02
Any progress on this, Matthew?  I've just purchased a used Inspire 1 Pro with X5 camera and look forward to taking panoramas with my 25mm and/or 45mm.  I've enjoyed looking at your work on Round.me

I don't think so. After several unsuccessful attempts to shot spherical panos with Inspire 1 I gave up. My bird couldn't perform reliably. None of applications I've tested was able to take advantage of rotating gimbal. Which doesn't mean your's will behave equally bad. You must try with either Litchi or Autopilot app. First releases of Drone Pan app didn't deliver reliable results either, but perhaps it's improved by now. Keep in mind that 25 mm lens will require approx. 60 images to be taken, which will challenge TB48 battery capacity. To shot hi-res panos with 25 mm lens I'm using Inspire 2 with rotating gimbal, controlled by Litchi app. Works flawlessly.

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 1-17 15:40
I don't think so. After several unsuccessful attempts to shot spherical panos with Inspire 1 I gave up. My bird couldn't perform reliably. None of applications I've tested was able to take advantage of rotating gimbal. Which doesn't mean your's will behave equally bad. You must try with either Litchi or Autopilot app. First releases of Drone Pan app didn't deliver reliable results either, but perhaps it's improved by now. Keep in mind that 25 mm lens will require approx. 60 images to be taken, which will challenge TB48 battery capacity. To shot hi-res panos with 25 mm lens I'm using Inspire 2 with rotating gimbal, controlled by Litchi app. Works flawlessly.

so Litchi supports the rotating gimbal on the I2 but not the I1?

mixchief Posted at 1-18 10:10
so Litchi supports the rotating gimbal on the I2 but not the I1?

It's rather a FW limitation/bug of Inspire 1 than app limitation, I've been told by Litchi tech sup. For some reason Inspire 1 can't rotate the gimbal nor hold the position steady while executing pano sequence. I had more luck using Autopilot app, but still with rotating airframe, which is plain stupid. However, I was experimenting with spherical panos and Inspire 1 in early 2018. Meanwhile Phantom 4 Pro delivered nicely executed pano shooting in Go4 app, finally Inspire 2 happen to politely do the same with Litchi and efficiently rotating gimbal. Things may be different now as apps getting better, but I had no chance to confirm that with Inspire 1.

Matthew
Very interesting information. You would think that using the gimbal for these operations should be logical. It must be easier to program the drone movements vs gimbal movements?

Rich

RichJ53 Posted at 1-19 08:49
Matthew
Very interesting information. You would think that using the gimbal for these operations should be logical. It must be easier to program the drone movements vs gimbal movements?

Indeed, Rich. I've spent a great deal of time researching this issue. I must say that the concept of panoramic imagery have been greatly trivialized with simplified stitching algorithms supplied by DJI from within Go4 app. Luckily source images are saved on SD card, and these - when processed in dedicated software - will always deliver way better results.

That said, true advantage of panoramic image lies in potentially enormous resolution. It's like having a military grade spying camera with 1GP sensor. However, shooting a sequence of 60 or more images perfectly spaced is a task difficult to perform with rotating Inspire airframe due to it's mass and momentum. For some reason I couldn't persuade X5 gimbal to rotate instead and single TB48 battery couldn't deliver to finish shooting sequence. To be honest I purchased Inspire 2 (frame only) to take the advantage of rotating X5S camera, borrowed from my M200 setup. Why I2 can and I1 can not remains a mystery.

Cheers,
Matthew.

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 1-18 12:49
It's rather a FW limitation/bug of Inspire 1 than app limitation, I've been told by Litchi tech sup. For some reason Inspire 1 can't rotate the gimbal nor hold the position steady while executing pano sequence. I had more luck using Autopilot app, but still with rotating airframe, which is plain stupid. However, I was experimenting with spherical panos and Inspire 1 in early 2018. Meanwhile Phantom 4 Pro delivered nicely executed pano shooting in Go4 app, finally Inspire 2 happen to politely do the same with Litchi and efficiently rotating gimbal. Things may be different now as apps getting better, but I had no chance to confirm that with Inspire 1.

Funny that the X5 with the Osmo performs a great spherical pano, of course rotating the gimbal, but DJI didn't think of giving the same capability to the I1, I wonder if any of the firmware gurus out there (non DJI) can figure it out.

mixchief Posted at 1-20 20:22
Funny that the X5 with the Osmo performs a great spherical pano, of course rotating the gimbal, but DJI didn't think of giving the same capability to the I1, I wonder if any of the firmware gurus out there (non DJI) can figure it out.

Huh, really X5 does it with Osmo grip and Go app? What do I know ...

mixchief Posted at 1-20 20:22
Funny that the X5 with the Osmo performs a great spherical pano, of course rotating the gimbal, but DJI didn't think of giving the same capability to the I1, I wonder if any of the firmware gurus out there (non DJI) can figure it out.

Last time I was talking with Litchi team they blamed some Inspire 1 firmware bug. Since the bird is neglected I wouldn't count on any change here.

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 1-20 21:19
Huh, really X5 does it with Osmo grip and Go app? What do I know ...

Not with Go4, Litchi.

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 1-20 21:24
Last time I was talking with Litchi team they blamed some Inspire 1 firmware bug. Since the bird is neglected I wouldn't count on any change here.

I'm sure any firmware development has been halted on the I1. It's a shame to have such a potentially great bird get lost. DJI should support 3rd party development of firmware on older products once they have given up on them.

mixchief Posted at 1-21 05:40
Not with Go4, Litchi.

Mix, you're talking about Litchi for Osmo version, right?

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 1-21 12:34
Mix, you're talking about Litchi for Osmo version, right?

yes exactly