Am I The Only One Who Knows This???

   

I have to ask; really, am I the only one who knows this???   My Mini 2 (as well as other DJI Drones) can shoot "Photospheres" just like the ones you see in Google Street View.  I searched all over looking for information about this.  It's not documented in the user manual, it's not on YouTube, and it's not mentioned on any web site, and it's not on the DJI Forum Web Site or in any DJI Tutorial…

   

A Photosphere is a Google Street View, but it's from a stationary position.  You can scroll all around, Left, Right, Up, and Down, and you can even Zoom into an area of particular interest.

   

But the Big Difference with my Mini 2's Photospheres is that they are not at ground level, but from whatever altitude my Drone was flying at…  And when you look down, you are not just looking down at the ground, at your feet, but from the sky, at altitude.

   

If you are not familiar with Google Street View, you need to bring up Google Maps or Google Earth on your computer or Tablet (a Phone's screen is really too small…).  On the lower right of the screen, you see various controls, a "bulls eye" to show your location, Plus and Minus Signs to enlarge or shrink the map, several small "squares" to choose the imagery (various photos from the area of the map, and a "Little Man" figure (Officially called the PegMan).

   

You Grab the PegMan and drag him over the map and your map will light up with blue lines indicating where the Google Car has driven and taken a moving street view.  But, depending on your location, you may see Little Blue Circles.  These indicate a Photosphere and if you drop your Pegman onto a Blue Circle, your computer screen with light up with a view of the location and you can scroll around as if you are there and turning in a circle, you can look up and see the tops of building, birds, planes, and clouds.  You can look down and see the pavement, the grass, ground, and sidewalk, whatever the photographer was standing upon.

   

Below is a Screen Grab of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, USA. I grabbed the PegMan and Dragged him over to one of the Little Blue Circles and a Thumbnail photo will pop up and if you want to see that view, drop the Pegman…

  

Ok, now here are two Photospheres that I have published onto Google Maps, they are visible to anyone, anywhere in the world as a Little Blue Circle.  BTW, the total time to create one is calculated in minutes…

This Photosphere is shot near my Home…

This Photosphere is taken over a Park where I frequently fly my Mini 2…

Have I wetted your appetite; if so, do you want to learn more about this feature, I need to hear from you so I know it is worth the time it takes to type it all up and test the instructions so I'm not wasting your time with erroneous instructions.

Also, if you already know about this, please chime in and let me know if it's one of those secrets that everyone knows and few care about…

As I probably write too often, Inquiring Minds Want to Know…

Hello there LoudThunder. Good day and thank you for sharing these interesting information with us. Again, thank you for your support and keep flying.

Thanks for sharing.   

Thanks for sharing.  

I use this a lot!

Umm no your not the only one who knows about this as tons of people do it just it’s kinda hard to post it without it looking like one picture all together but once you do it’s really easy I do it with my Mavic 3.

you'll have to forgive me - I'm new to the Drone world having only purchased my Mini 2 a week or so ago! You mean we can actually create these 'Photosphere's' which we can then embed into websites ect....This Drone world just keeps getting more exciting ! Thank you for posting (I Didn't know)  

genie134 Posted at 6-29 18:33
you'll have to forgive me - I'm new to the Drone world having only purchased my Mini 2 a week or so ago! You mean we can actually create these 'Photosphere's' which we can then embed into websites ect....This Drone world just keeps getting more exciting ! Thank you for posting (I Didn't know)

Hey Genie134, Yes you can create photospheres just like the ones you see on Google Earth and Google Maps (well, almost, the Mini 2 cannot shoot straight up so it kinds cheats with what's overhead).  If you flew you mini in the middle of your living room and there is a chandelier directly overhead, it would not appear in the photosphere.  The DJI Fly App would stitch all the 25 photos together but for directly overhead, it would guess what was up overhead was the same as what was up high…

The link below is from another web site I frequent and it addresses a lot of what you might want to ask…   But really, you need to read and practice all that I written in Parts I thru III.  And Congrats on getting that wonderful little Mini 2, have you named it yet?

https://mavicpilots.com/threads/ ... page-2#post-1445243

Hi LoudThunder,

Thank you for your reply, I have read your articles Parts 1-3 with great interest and will be practicing very soon. Thank you so much for bringing this to my (& Others) attention.