Understanding the Field of Vision on Your Drone's Camera…

I recently posted several Threads on Photospheres and in these postings I may have given the wrong impression when I said that DJI Drones probably cannot publish a True 360-Degree Photosphere.  I used a graphic that implied that the drone cannot "see" above it's Gimbal Elevation Level; on the mini 2, it's 20-degrees above the horizon and at that time, I did not know the specs for the Mini 3.

What I did not take into consideration was the Field of View (FOV) and on both the Mini 2 and Mini 3 the camera uses a 24 mm lens which has an 82-degree FOV.  Think about it this way.  The human eye has a FOV of 120 degrees and with both eyes open, you have an average FOV of 210 degrees.  So, if you are standing 20-feet away from me and you are staring right into my eyes, you have your peripheral vision that sees a lot more than just my eyes.  The same for the DJI camera.  Your Drone is hovering in front of you 20-feet away and your set the camera with it directly on your eyes and you snap a photo, there is a lot more in that photo than just your eyes…

In the included graphic the Red Arc on both Drones indicates what would be photographed if you shot a photo with the gimbal at its maximum height and the Blue Arc indicates the area photographed if the gimbal is at its lowest position.

So, it can be concluded that the Mini 2 can shoot a photosphere that includes all but the most directly overhead area.

But, the Mini 3, with its extra Gimbal travel can most definitely photograph a true 360-degree Photosphere.  I do not know how clean it would turn out as the firmware would be stitching the multiple images together at the extreme limits of the image.

A true 360-dregree camera shoots directly vertical so there is no stitching required…

In the Top-Down graphic that shows the 8-Yaws that the Drone does to complete a Photosphere.  In each of the 8-Yaws, the Drone takes 3-photographs, High, Medium and Low, for a total of 24 photographs, then it takes a 25th photo, straight down…  This Graphic also shows how three of the Photos overlap and the areas indicated by Yellow are the areas that the Firmware stitches the images together and that is where you may get ghostly images, double images, etc…

Any Case, I hope this clears up any confusion I caused…

Fly Happy and Fly Safe.

I do wonder if the vertical camera makes this process easier.  

Good to know and nicely illustrated.  

Good info!