I want to get some low shots close to the water, I'm curious to know what the best practices are, like how low can you go and do you turn off VPS.  I imagine it depends on the wind speed and how strong the waves are in the water, ie. calm lake vs. ocean waves.  
Would like to hear about your experiences for both.  Thanks.

Definitely turn off VPS over water. Buddy of mine had his mavic nearly drift into a bridge over a river because it was following the current below. Beyond that, it won't actually help you in any way over water...you're asking for trouble if you leave it on.

What's vps?

fans4315cba9 Posted at 2016-11-18 18:07
What's vps?

Vision Position System i.e. front and bottom sensor.

My first test flight over water.  It was about 20 feet above the San Francisco Bay.  VPS turned off.

yoengel Posted at 2016-11-19 12:27
My first test flight over water.  It was about 20 feet above the San Francisco Bay.  VPS turned off. ...

where is the setting for turning VPS off?

devGOD Posted at 2016-11-20 08:34
where is the setting for turning VPS off?

reading the manual..

you can flight in

P mode: all sensor are on (vps): front and botton

S mode: all sensor are of (no vps) ..

so i think to use the mavic whitout VPS you need to flight in S mode..

so that is what i understand reading the manual

fansbb5b373a Posted at 2016-11-20 08:44
reading the manual..

you can flight in

You can turn VPS off in VPS menu.

yoengel Posted at 2016-11-19 17:27
My first test flight over water.  It was about 20 feet above the San Francisco Bay.  VPS turned off. ...

Have you try with VPS on? I really don't know why it should make any difference either way.

Less than 3ft from the water yesterday with VPS on no issues.

AusAir Posted at 2016-11-20 17:59
Less than 3ft from the water yesterday with VPS on no issues.

How many times have you done this and how fast was the water moving?

Wandering Cloud Posted at 2016-11-20 16:55
Have you try with VPS on? I really don't know why it should make any difference either way.

I haven't tried it with VPS on.  The manual says VPS may not work and have read and saw videos saying to turn it off when flying over water because the drone gets confused with trying to track moving water.

AusAir Posted at 2016-11-20 09:59
Less than 3ft from the water yesterday with VPS on no issues.

That's good to know!

Cheers!

yoengel Posted at 2016-11-20 18:28
I haven't tried it with VPS on.  The manual says VPS may not work and have read and saw videos say ...

That makes sense too. Although if you are not trying to land it shouldn't be a problem, should it? I think I will find out soon as I am off cursing for a  long time next week.

Wandering Cloud Posted at 2016-11-20 14:33
That makes sense too. Although if you are not trying to land it shouldn't be a problem, should it? ...

With moving water the vps might try to follow it so the drone won't stay in a stationary spot and could be pushed into something you don't want it to.

I tryed both. P-Mode with and S-Mode without VPS. Both worked very good. At some point i was less than one meter away from the water.

Here is my footage from yesterday. It was very windy, but the Mavic did a good job!

https://youtu.be/l4SVkugy4IQ

[Rockhound] Posted at 2016-11-20 21:36
I tryed both. P-Mode with and S-Mode without VPS. Both worked very good. At some point i was less th ...

Wandering Cloud Posted at 2016-11-21 03:33
That makes sense too. Although if you are not trying to land it shouldn't be a problem, should it? ...

Digital Rev flew it over the water and it did try to land over water.  I assume they had the default settings, which includes VPS on.

[Rockhound] Posted at 2016-11-21 04:36
I tryed both. P-Mode with and S-Mode without VPS. Both worked very good. At some point i was less th ...

Good to know, the water was relatively still it seems.

[Rockhound] Posted at 2016-11-20 15:37

Nice video... Less than 1 meter?! I'm sure its an optical illusion, but it looks like less than 6 inches around 2:41.  And, that must be sport mode with the props showing so much in the video, right?

yoengel Posted at 2016-11-21 02:27
How many times have you done this and how fast was the water moving?

I've done it more times than I can count over slow moving reasonably calm water.

If there are ripples on the water, you may experience some drift with VPS on during a hover or slow forward momentum although this doesn't always happen.

stealle Posted at 2016-11-21 01:58
Nice video... Less than 1 meter?! I'm sure its an optical illusion, but it looks like less than 6  ...

Yes, that was sportmode.