I was hoping to use the pocket 2 to capture some scenery/footage while driving. What recommendations would people have in terms of mode/settings for this use?

Thank

I have only done a couple of tests of this myself. Haven't got a proper dashcam/windshield mount yet. But depending on the length of your drive, you may want to consider about the battery life and the possible temperature inside the car, so it won't overheat or run out of battery too soon.

Still attempting to find the best settings and modes for that myself, too. If anybody has done any further testing, I would also be interested in hearing about it.

I believe correct gimbal mode is "FPV" - if the camera is too steady the car can be seen to move around beneath it which can look odd.  Also, when going round corners, the g force can confuse the horizon levelling of the camera, and for that matters, braking forces can too.  I believe FPV avoids these issues.

fansfe82067d Posted at 5-3 07:52
I believe correct gimbal mode is "FPV" - if the camera is too steady the car can be seen to move around beneath it which can look odd.  Also, when going round corners, the g force can confuse the horizon levelling of the camera, and for that matters, braking forces can too.  I believe FPV avoids these issues.

Thanks for your input, I can personally confirm the "car moving around" phenomena. It indeed looked pretty... interesting

I might go and buy a proper car mount in the future to see if I can get some more information myself and compare the footage when recording with various modes and settings.

Hello there. Good day and thank you for reaching out. I hope that our DJI members who owns the DJI Pocket 2 and tried this method can give out the best recommendation and information with regard to this matter. In addition looping function is not  supported by the DJI Pocket 2 and of the DJI Mimo application. Thank you.

Bought a car mount adapter today. If my Pocket 2 is functioning normally in the near future (it has acted somewhat weird lately), I will do some footage tests when I have the time for it and later report them here.

HGDC84 Posted at 5-4 11:39
Bought a car mount adapter today. If my Pocket 2 is functioning normally in the near future (it has acted somewhat weird lately), I will do some footage tests when I have the time for it and later report them here.

Great, thanks. As a matter if interest which car mount did you go for?

djiuser_UtDWuJI1vUI1 Posted at 5-4 11:41
Great, thanks. As a matter if interest which car mount did you go for?

It's one of those pretty generic (this one's branded CamLink) GoPro designs with a suction cup attaching for windshields. I also have the official DJI Osmo Pocket action camera mount, which I will probably use for attaching the Pocket 2 to the mount. It also came with an adapter that enables using it with cameras that have a mounting thread. If needed, I will test it, but I suspect I cannot attach the Pocket 2 properly with it. I'll have to test and see about it...

HGDC84 Posted at 5-4 11:47
It's one of those pretty generic (this one's branded CamLink) GoPro designs with a suction cup attaching for windshields. I also have the official DJI Osmo Pocket action camera mount, which I will probably use for attaching the Pocket 2 to the mount. It also came with an adapter that enables using it with cameras that have a mounting thread. If needed, I will test it, but I suspect I cannot attach the Pocket 2 properly with it. I'll have to test and see about it...

How does the pocket 2 handle the car vibrations from the windshield? I hope it’s not too noticeable. Would be curious to see some test footage.

Japan Potato Posted at 5-4 16:14
How does the pocket 2 handle the car vibrations from the windshield? I hope it’s not too noticeable. Would be curious to see some test footage.

I'll have to see about that, there are both flat tarmac roads and bumpy dirt roads in my town, so I can get some test on both kinds of surfaces. Somebody here did ask about the possible micro-vibrations when filming on a motorcycle, and somebody else said to them that the Pocket 2 might not possibly be able to compensate for all of that. But there's only one way to find out...

There are some other preparations I need to carry on with first though, for instance cleaning up my windshield as it is pretty dirty

But when I get around to testing the different modes, I probably will put some comparison footage to see here, too.

During my vacation on Fuerteventura last month, I've recorded some drivelapse sequences. The Pocket 2 was mounted with a GoPro suction cup mount and an adapter on the windshield. I recorded with Hyperlapse Mode at 10x speed and follow mode.

Here is an example of our day trip on Lanzarote:


I have some clips from this vacation, which accidentally where recorded in normal mode. I will edit a few scene together and load them up to YouTube next week, to show you an example.

chilibean215 Posted at 5-5 06:07
During my vacation on Fuerteventura last month, I've recorded some drivelapse sequences. The Pocket 2 was mounted with a GoPro suction cup mount and an adapter on the windshield. I recorded with Hyperlapse Mode at 10x speed and follow mode.

Here is an example of our day trip on Lanzarote:

Thanks, that sounds awesome! If you happen to remember or otherwise find out the gimbal mode and other settings, we would be very interested in hearing about those too. :-)

As promised last week, here is a  clip with normal recording speed. It was recorded with PRO Settings: Auto Exposure, Auto White Balance, D-CLike and (not absolutely sure about that) Follow Mode. The pocket was mounted direct to the windshield with a GoPro Suction Cup and an adapter to fit the Pocket 2 into any GoPro Mount.

I drove on a very bumpy road with many stones and holes in the north of fuerteventura between Corralejo and El Cotillo.


Hope this will help you a bit :-)

chilibean215 Posted at 5-9 05:48
As promised last week, here is a  clip with normal recording speed. It was recorded with PRO Settings: Auto Exposure, Auto White Balance, D-CLike and (not absolutely sure about that) Follow Mode. The pocket was mounted direct to the windshield with a GoPro Suction Cup and an adapter to fit the Pocket 2 into any GoPro Mount.

I drove on a very bumpy road with many stones and holes in the north of fuerteventura between Corralejo and El Cotillo.

Thanks for the sample videos, they certainly are demonstrative. :-)

The drivelapse looks great, for most of the time feels very smooth and usable. The only thing I find somewhat distracting is the delay of the camera movement in some turns, but that's probably due to the camera's stabilization technology and not your fault.

The dirt road clip was also informative, there was some micro-jitter in it but it looked less distracting than I thought.

I will in the nearby future put some of my own test footage to be seen here too, I made three different clips on the same road section changing between the stabilization modes (FPV, Follow, Tilt Lock) and keeping almost everything else the same (only had to change the ND filters used, as there were differences in light conditions between the clips). These clips will feature both driving on bumpy dirt roads and somewhat smoother tarmac. Hope these can further help in seeing how the Pocket 2 acts when used as a dahboard cam.

Japan Potato Posted at 5-4 16:14
How does the pocket 2 handle the car vibrations from the windshield? I hope it’s not too noticeable. Would be curious to see some test footage.

As I promised earlier on, captured some test footage and uploaded it to YouTube. The video is below.



Any thoughts on the footage and the conclusions based on it are welcome.

HGDC84 Posted at 5-24 09:08
As I promised earlier on, captured some test footage and uploaded it to YouTube. The video is below.

https://youtu.be/WFjMlRPOZl4

That's better than any dashcam I've seen    Have you done, or are you considering, a night test?
FPV seemed to be the best setting, I felt.

Blériot53 Posted at 5-24 11:20
That's better than any dashcam I've seen    Have you done, or are you considering, a night test?
FPV seemed to be the best setting, I felt.

Haven't done or considered that yet, but that could be one possible option in the future.

My friend liked the Tilt Locked footage the best, but it could be partially a question of opinion.

And yeah, the Pocket 2 certainly looked much better than the dashcam I had earlier on. That cam claimed to be HD but I think that that VHS would have been a better acronym for describing the "quality" of it's video

HGDC84 Posted at 5-24 12:17
Haven't done or considered that yet, but that could be one possible option in the future.

My friend liked the Tilt Locked footage the best, but it could be partially a question of opinion.

I don't have a dashcam in my car, but I did trya bit of hand'held footage with the Pocket2 when I first got it. (My wife was driving, by the way, not me )

HGDC84 Posted at 5-24 09:08
As I promised earlier on, captured some test footage and uploaded it to YouTube. The video is below.

https://youtu.be/WFjMlRPOZl4

Thank you for sharing this comparision. I also like the FPV setting the most. I plan to do some more test on using the Pocket 2 as dashcam in the future, but unfortunately I haven't found the time yet.

Blériot53 Posted at 5-24 13:12
I don't have a dashcam in my car, but I did trya bit of hand'held footage with the Pocket2 when I first got it. (My wife was driving, by the way, not me )

How did it turn out? I'd imagine that you could get something out of it like that, but it might not be optimal stabilization-wise.

chilibean215 Posted at 5-25 01:23
Thank you for sharing this comparision. I also like the FPV setting the most. I plan to do some more test on using the Pocket 2 as dashcam in the future, but unfortunately I haven't found the time yet.

Thanks for your opinion. If you find the time and place to do some of your own test footage, I would be very interested in seeing it. :-)

HGDC84 Posted at 5-26 13:03
How did it turn out? I'd imagine that you could get something out of it like that, but it might not be optimal stabilization-wise.

It wasn't too bad, I was able to rest my hand holding the P2 on the dashboard. But it's not something that you could sustain for long.

Blériot53 Posted at 5-26 13:35
It wasn't too bad, I was able to rest my hand holding the P2 on the dashboard. But it's not something that you could sustain for long.

Well that helps for the stabilization, at least for a while. But maybe a separate mount is a better option in long-term use.

HGDC84 Posted at 5-26 13:37
Well that helps for the stabilization, at least for a while. But maybe a separate mount is a better option in long-term use.

The DJI Action might lend itself better to that function?

Blériot53 Posted at 5-26 13:40
The DJI Action might lend itself better to that function?

Could be true. I have no personal experiences on that one (the Pocket 2 is my first DJI cam), but I've heard many say it has a great stabilization, and the compact size certainly would help.

HGDC84 Posted at 5-26 13:44
Could be true. I have no personal experiences on that one (the Pocket 2 is my first DJI cam), but I've heard many say it has a great stabilization, and the compact size certainly would help.

I don't have one either - and no immediate plans to get one.  Focussing on the Mini3 just now. Once DJI have sorted out the supply chain to the UK I'll place an order.

Blériot53 Posted at 5-26 13:47
I don't have one either - and no immediate plans to get one.  Focussing on the Mini3 just now. Once DJI have sorted out the supply chain to the UK I'll place an order.

Not currently in my plans either, because of budgetary constraints and because my use scenarios aren't really that much action-oriented. But who knows, things might change eventually.

HGDC84 Posted at 5-26 13:51
Not currently in my plans either, because of budgetary constraints and because my use scenarios aren't really that much action-oriented. But who knows, things might change eventually.