Hello, I just purchased the DJI Neo drone only. I wanted something simple to get some quik establshing shots and perhaps use the various tracking modes. I just ordred the remote because I quickly became a fan of this little drone. My questions is, is there any way to perfomr it's various quick shots (donie, rocket, circle...) without a person on screen? I would like for instance to set the camera down and have it perform these shots of a car, or a location, and not of people. Can this be done, or must I manually fly the drone in order to accomplish this? It feels like it would take a great deal of pracice to mimic those shots. Thank you.

Hello.

Let me give you a software developer answer. I am not a DJI employee, never was.
For the drone to follow something, it has to be trained for that. It can follow people, because that is easy, we have distinct features, we have similar shape etc. This needs a neural network that has to be small, so the computer in the Neo can calculate it real time.
I believe it can follow a car with direction track, but that is easy too from a developers perception, it stays on one side of the car, and that also has distinct features.
These are small, few kilobyte models, or they should be at least.
Making a general purpose recognition engine is hard (but they have it in the more expensive drones, so it is available for DJI), and running it is very resource hungry. A Neo can fly up to 10 minutes in real life, but in the last 2 minute it wants to return to home. There are simply not even power in the drone to do that, certainly not for this price.

And as a newbie drone pilot, it is fun to learn to control it. Sure it will take a few dozen times to practice a move, but once you get used to it, you will be happier that you did it, and not some computer program.
Use cine mode/phone control, and do it very slowly, you can always make it faster in post(even with your phone).

iasatan Posted at 1-9 11:59
Hello.

Let me give you a software developer answer. I am not a DJI employee, never was.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate your feedback.
Mostly I am just thinkming of those quick and easy shots like "dronie and circle" where it would be nice to quickly have the NEO perform those things in front of a building or car or other object. Just like it does for a person. Mostly just a quick establishing shot. That's kind of the main thing I'd like to do. But having to do that manually means needing to learn to copy those moves, and that seems like it might take some time to master.
Anyway I hope to have some fun. Maybe I'll learn some new tricks.

Thanks again.

The problem with doing this automatically is the fact that Neo doesnt have obstacle avoidance. For example if you set it to 2 meter around a car, it will hit the car. If you set it to 4 meter the proximity to the car will fluctuate, It would create a circle around next to the car going close to the rear and front, and far from the sides. Without sensors it cannot guess the distance from the car, it wouldnt look the best. You could get the same result with just stationary stick positions. for dronie back and up, and for circle move left and turn right.
I would never do an automatic circle with a building, not with the max 10m settings anyway

iasatan Posted at 1-10 00:30
The problem with doing this automatically is the fact that Neo doesnt have obstacle avoidance. For example if you set it to 2 meter around a car, it will hit the car. If you set it to 4 meter the proximity to the car will fluctuate, It would create a circle around next to the car going close to the rear and front, and far from the sides. Without sensors it cannot guess the distance from the car, it wouldnt look the best. You could get the same result with just stationary stick positions. for dronie back and up, and for circle move left and turn right.
I would never do an automatic circle with a building, not with the max 10m settings anyway

Thanks for your reply. I don't pretend to understand what goes into these auto settings. I just assmumed that it could in effect perform the same "quickie" operations it already does by simply selecting another stationary object to use as it's tracking object. I would think that if it can track a person, it could track a car, or a house or whatever is in that shot, and sumply follow the same path it uses for a person. But again I don't understand the science behind this.
My desire would be for instance to put it on the ground in front of a building or landmark, or a car, and have it perform that quick shot. As it is, you need to have a person on camera, so you can't simply get a quick shot of the surroundings. For that apparently you need to do this manually which is nice to be able to do, but requires the skill of a drone operator. Something most of us bought this device to avoid.

All in all, it's a great little product that I'm sure works for most of what people want ti use it for.

I found a workaround for you. Get a small picture, like the size of an id picture, and put it on the object you want it to circle.
It wont really show on the car etc, especially if you color it that way. I printed a 1cm*1cm black and white picture of me with my printer, and used that to dronie my car.
Worked perfectly.

I got the idea when I tried to circle my chandelier and send you the footage with the stick usage (dji saves that too), and it said that a picture on the wall was a person

iasatan Posted at 1-10 11:28
I found a workaround for you. Get a small picture, like the size of an id picture, and put it on the object you want it to circle.
It wont really show on the car etc, especially if you color it that way. I printed a 1cm*1cm black and white picture of me with my printer, and used that to dronie my car.
Worked perfectly.

Hey that sounds great! I just want establishing shots of places and things real quick. Dronie shots, circles, rocket...it would just be nice not to have someone always on screen. I'll try this idea out for sure. Maybe I can put a photo on the ground or something...

Thanks for the idea. Glad you had some success. Really appreciate your time!

Hello Pat Robertson. Congratulations on your recent purchase of the DJI Neo! We're thrilled that you've chosen this cutting-edge drone to elevate your aerial photography and videography experience. We're pleased to inform you that with the DJI Neo, you can indeed perform the Quickshots feature mode without a person on a screen. To get started, simply follow these steps:

1) Tap the shooting mode icon on the right side of the camera view.

2) Swipe down and select “QuickShots”. Then choose a “QuickShots” shooting mode.

3) Select your target subject in the camera view by tapping “+” or drag-select the target. Tap “Start” to begin recording.

For a more comprehensive understanding of using the Quickshots mode and exploring its full potential, we recommend referring to the Help Center link provided below:

https://repair.dji.com/help/cont ... ;paperDocType=paper

If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to contact us. We're here to ensure that you have a seamless and enjoyable experience with your new DJI Neo. Thank you for choosing DJI.