Is anyone else finding that the inbuilt pano stitching is terrible?

I took a few 180 and 360 panos yesterday in relatively calm conditions and around 100ft altitude,  the drone was stable, but I am getting really bad stitching errors.

Dedicated stitching software will usually give better results than the built-in stitching.
But you make it difficult for stitching when the lower half of the image has no distinct points that the software can identify and match.

DJI are not known for their great Pano software I would try stitching externally using PTGUI or Panorama Studio 3, both have free trials. I have stitched Mini 3 Pro 360 x 180 panos perfectly from images supplied by a forum member using both those softwares. You could even try the free Microsoft ICE. Good luck

Hello there Rogerq. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. I hope that our fellow DJI co pilots can share what editing software they are using to stitch and created there panos. Thank you.

To be fair, i have not noticed any issues with the Mini 2 and stitching panos, I know my mate would have mentioned this as he does a more than I do and he's a bit of a pixel peeper

I have also noticed a few panos from the Mini 3 Pro with stitching issues but this is the worst I've seen from this drone, I've noticed its matched up the top of the image quite well, 1st few percent that is and the bottom few percent, it also looks like the image is on the plss (that ocean would drain to the left ;) ) and for each section so that wasn't caused by stitching (made worse, yes), that wouldn't have helped that's for sure, was it a windy day with fairly quick moving clouds? Looking at the ripples on the nearest water shows that there was some wind, certainly not a calm day. but i think the main issue here may have been the unlevel horizon.

Yes, thanks all. I am fully aware of the external stitching software and I use PTGui extensively. I was just commenting on the inbuilt stitcher in the drone as every pano I have produced from it has major stitching problems, and is effectively unusable. Not something I have seen with the Mavic 2 which generally only has some minor issues.   I also appreciate the Mavic 2 is a more stable platform.

I won't be able to recover any of these with external software, as I was just playing around learning to use the drone with the default settings so only the stitched jpg has been saved and not the individual images folder.

Yes @bashy there was some wind, but as I said, relatively calm, the drone was in stable air and well clear of any ground turbulence.   Panos I took on the  previous day which was calm inland showed the same problem, I just posted the seascape one as the horizon line shows very clearly how bad they are.

Rogerq Posted at 5-30 02:06
Yes, thanks all. I am fully aware of the external stitching software and I use PTGui extensively. I was just commenting on the inbuilt stitcher in the drone as every pano I have produced from it has major stitching problems, and is effectively unusable. Not something I have seen with the Mavic 2 which generally only has some minor issues.   I also appreciate the Mavic 2 is a more stable platform.

I won't be able to recover any of these with external software, as I was just playing around learning to use the drone with the default settings so only the stitched jpg has been saved and not the individual images folder.

Thanks for the heads up on needing to set Panos to save external files.

Hello, there. Sorry for your inconvenience. Could you please give the original files for us to double-check? You could upload them to Google Drive/ Dropbox and send the link to us.

Rogerq Posted at 5-30 02:06
Yes, thanks all. I am fully aware of the external stitching software and I use PTGui extensively. I was just commenting on the inbuilt stitcher in the drone as every pano I have produced from it has major stitching problems, and is effectively unusable. Not something I have seen with the Mavic 2 which generally only has some minor issues.   I also appreciate the Mavic 2 is a more stable platform.

I won't be able to recover any of these with external software, as I was just playing around learning to use the drone with the default settings so only the stitched jpg has been saved and not the individual images folder.

Did you not notice that your gimbal needs calibrating, it's leaning to the left a tad...

Did you know that there are 3 overlays you can choose from?
...I like the one with the center point, but they all give you a straight line so that you can make sure it's spot on horizontally.

Bashy Posted at 5-30 03:38
Did you not notice that your gimbal needs calibrating, it's leaning to the left a tad...

Did you know that there are 3 overlays you can choose from?

The horizon is definitely sloping in that pano, but looking at the stills I took at that time they vary between level, leaning in that direction and leaning in the opposite direction. No real consistency.

All relatively minor so can be sorted out in post.

I will go out and do another session when the weather improves and make sure I save the individual images to get a better idea exactly what is going on.

Rogerq Posted at 5-30 04:03
The horizon is definitely sloping in that pano, but looking at the stills I took at that time they vary between level, leaning in that direction and leaning in the opposite direction. No real consistency.

All relatively minor so can be sorted out in post.

If you want to be able to stitch ... try to have something in the bottom half of the pic.
Something with more detail than featureless sand and water to give the software a chance.

Same here was about to say that my experience with Pano 360 when I view them on Dji RC remote or download to the phone stitching is not perfect and could be improved.
BTW some Pano 360 was done on the day with good weather and minimum wind speed and still stitching wasn't perfect.

I never used the app stitching on any of my drones so far.

The dji stitching is a joke. And also, still the zenith of the pano is blurred - given the fact that the mini 3 camera ist the first that could easily make also the upper row pictures for a real 360 pano. i am totally disappointed.

Nexus Redux Posted at 6-1 03:16
The dji stitching is a joke. And also, still the zenith of the pano is blurred - given the fact that the mini 3 camera ist the first that could easily make also the upper row pictures for a real 360 pano. i am totally disappointed.

It isn't what I have found with the Mavic 2 Pro where the dji stitching whilst not perfect has certainly been very decent for me which is why I was surprised how bad it was with the Mini 3.

Anyway, an update - I went out and took 3 more today, a couple of 180s and a 360, but this time I made sure I captured the individual image files!

The dji stitching was a complete mess again, but PTGui totally nailed all 3 without any manual help, and just needed correction for the vignetting as expected.

DJI really need to update the firmware though to use the unique feature of this drone, ie. the upward tilting gimbal to fill in most (if not all) of the zenith.   Even if they don't want to stitch those and leave that to us, the automatic capture of an upper row of images would be tremendous for 360x180 panos.

I was actually surprised with my 360 PANO taken with several high wind warnings lol
I would post it but Skypixel keeps saying "Sorry, the server is updating. The UPLOAD feature is currently unavailable. We'll fix it soon."

Sorry can a Mod delete this post please, my test to get a 360 Pano to display didn't work and I can't see how to delete meself lol.

Prototype_uk Posted at 6-4 09:46
I was actually surprised with my 360 PANO taken with several high wind warnings lol
I would post it but Skypixel keeps saying "Sorry, the server is updating. The UPLOAD feature is currently unavailable. We'll fix it soon."

Here we go I have been able to upload it now




EDIT - I tried attaching the URL to the post to embed like others have said but it still doesn't show

DJI Stephen Posted at 5-29 19:20
Hello there Rogerq. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out. I hope that our fellow DJI co pilots can share what editing software they are using to stitch and created there panos. Thank you.

If I use a 3rd party program to stitch the DNG files, can I upload the final image to the DJI Album to use the built in 360 effects, such as Motion View? (on Android) So far, my tests haven't worked.  

Dedicated stitching software will usually give better results than the built-in stitching.
But you make it difficult for stitching when the lower half of the image has no distinct points that the software can identify and match.

The stitch is really bad. Need a new update.

its sad DJI still didnt do anything about the stitching and the zenith problem. the 360 pano - done with proper software fixes - could have been a game changer for this drone, especially for real estate virtual tours in urban areas, wehere the 250g issue is vital. just disappointing.

As compared to Mavic 2 pro newer drones have stitching issues in panorama, I tried Air 2, Air2s, Mini 3 & mini 3 pro they all fail to stitch the panorama whereas Mavic 2 pro does make the stitch correctly in similar wind conditions.

After all, it has already been suggested several times. There is a lot of suitable software available. Photoshop and Lightroom also have corresponding functions (Photo Merge). But I must now also speak up for DJI! The panoramas from my drones usually look pretty good. I rarely have stitching errors.

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... 639&pid=3025321