DJI Go 4 app and Mavic 2 Pro are capable to prepare surprisingly good quality high resolution panoramic images, which are automatically stitched right after taking a sequence of 9 separate JPEG stills. Although these are usually good enough for quick sharing or printing, much better results may be achieved when dealing with DNG images in dedicated software outside. Here is an example of automatic stitch, followed by a handmade version.

Yeah.
Manual is usually better!
I even add the AEB 5 option to get more dynamic range.

Very nice shot btw!

Nice shot,  Are you manually taking the photos too or just stitching them.  Also what software are you using?

Montfrooij Posted at 11-15 00:47
Yeah.
Manual is usually better!
I even add the AEB 5 option to get more dynamic range.

Can you use AEB and Pano at the same time or are you shooting the multiple images manually?

DAFlys Posted at 11-15 02:01
Can you use AEB and Pano at the same time or are you shooting the multiple images manually?

I only shoot manual pano's.
That would be a great new function though!

Montfrooij Posted at 11-15 02:42
I only shoot manual pano's.
That would be a great new function though!

Do you have a method to do it manually and get the right amount of overlap?  And what are you stitching with.

DAFlys Posted at 11-15 02:57
Do you have a method to do it manually and get the right amount of overlap?  And what are you stitching with.

Yeah.
Experience.
It is not that critical actually.
Especially not in portrait mode (too bad M2P does not have that)
But as long as you get about 1/4th overlap, it is ok.
You get used to it.

I use autopano giga. Best one so far. (that I have used).
It is not available anymore, but you can find 'trial' sources online.

Montfrooij Posted at 11-15 03:00
Yeah.
Experience.
It is not that critical actually.

I have autopano giga but found that it did a terrible job stiching from the mavic as each short had terrible dark patches around the images

DAFlys Posted at 11-15 03:01
I have autopano giga but found that it did a terrible job stiching from the mavic as each short had terrible dark patches around the images

You have to disable auto color for that.
At least, that did the trick with me.

Montfrooij Posted at 11-15 03:05
You have to disable auto color for that.
At least, that did the trick with me.

thanks I'll give that a try.

DAFlys Posted at 11-15 03:14
thanks I'll give that a try.

If it still fails, just send me the batch.
I'm curious if there is other settings in that case.

There very close, detail is pretty good in both and colour also very close, the stitched jpeg is slightly darker on the ground but I’m certain you could dodge and burn that, for me this would definitely be down to pixel peeping and very little else .

Great! Thanks for sharing

Montfrooij Posted at 11-15 03:46
If it still fails, just send me the batch.
I'm curious if there is other settings in that case.

I was using the DNGs directly would that have any effect?

very nice , thanks

DAFlys Posted at 11-15 05:06
I was using the DNGs directly would that have any effect?

100%.
That won't work in autopano.
DNG needs (a lot of) correction and autopano does not have that preset.

Great shots Matthew! Thanks for sharing.

Montfrooij Posted at 11-15 05:19
100%.
That won't work in autopano.
DNG needs (a lot of) correction and autopano does not have that preset.

Not true, Autopano Giga process and eventually colour correct DNG files as well, although it takes much longer to analyze and stitch raw images. There's not much sense to input raw images anyway, since these should be processed, colour graded to your taste and rendered into TIFF or JPEG format first, most likely with slightly different settings for every row.

DAFlys Posted at 11-15 01:59
Nice shot,  Are you manually taking the photos too or just stitching them.  Also what software are you using?

There's no sense or need for manual shooting a sequence of images for panorama. DJI Go4 app is offering efficiently executed pano mode in several incarnations for their drones with fixed lenses. Surprisingly my trusted Autopano Giga software was struggling to properly stitch these 3x3 panos. This one was stitched in Adobe Camera Raw software offering few projection options and warping corrector. However, each DNG image was slightly adjusted for exposure, shadows/highlights, clarity and sharpness/de-noise, leaving coloration mostly untouched thanks to excellent M2P camera. IMO there's no need to use AEB since DNG format is offering more than enough flexibility to adjust the exposure in post.

Montfrooij Posted at 11-15 02:42
I only shoot manual pano's.
That would be a great new function though!

IMO there's no need for AEB option when dealing with DNG images.

DAFlys Posted at 11-15 03:01
I have autopano giga but found that it did a terrible job stiching from the mavic as each short had terrible dark patches around the images

I've also found that Autopano Giga does not like M2P images, which may be related to incorrect lens distortion. I had no issue whatsoever stitching P4P or X5S images with AG. I still must try full sphere mode to confirm my suspicions and eventually experiment with proper correcture in Photoshop before stitching or different stitching parameters in AG ...

hallmark007 Posted at 11-15 04:01
There very close, detail is pretty good in both and colour also very close, the stitched jpeg is slightly darker on the ground but I’m certain you could dodge and burn that, for me this would definitely be down to pixel peeping and very little else .

Please be aware that what you see here is brutally downgraded in terms of resolution. Original handmade files are of average 200MB size.

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 11-15 11:44
Not true, Autopano Giga process and eventually colour correct DNG files as well, although it takes much longer to analyze and stitch raw images. There's not much sense to input raw images anyway, since these should be processed, colour graded to your taste and rendered into TIFF or JPEG format first, most likely with slightly different settings for every row.

My point is that autopano does not have a profile for the M2P (or MP).
So the auto correction is not available.

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 11-15 12:39
I've also found that Autopano Giga does not like M2P images, which may be related to incorrect lens distortion. I had no issue whatsoever stitching P4P or X5S images with AG. I still must try full sphere mode to confirm my suspicions and eventually experiment with proper correcture in Photoshop before stitching or different stitching parameters in AG ...

I have not tried M2P (since I don't have it), but that might be the case.
AG does not like strange distortion.

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 11-15 12:25
IMO there's no need for AEB option when dealing with DNG images.

I have not tried the M2P output, but even at DNG level the contrast is often too high to be able to recover much in the black and whites.
To be sure I have enough info, I use AEB5 to be able to get that.
Again, I'm not aware of how well the M2P output is, but for the MP just DNG is not enough (by far)

Montfrooij Posted at 11-16 10:55
I have not tried M2P (since I don't have it), but that might be the case.
AG does not like strange distortion.

ptGUI software - for change - properly recognizes Mavic 2 Pro lens and acts accordingly during pano stitching. Too bad Autopano Giga is not on the market anymore to keep us up to date ...

Very nice shots!
I've also experimented for years using differnet sofware and manual exposures. There are charts and websites indicating how much overlap or angle change betwen shots depending on the lense and focal distance you are using.

Some programs I have used in the past are:
-Hugin
-PTGui
-Autopano Giga (it changed to Kolor Autopano, GoPro seems like it bought the sofware and dropped support).
-Panorama Studio.
-Photoshop.

Stiching with third party sofware is much more time consuming but it gives you many more options to fine tune the results.
Happy flying!

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 11-16 13:31
ptGUI software - for change - properly recognizes Mavic 2 Pro lens and acts accordingly during pano stitching. Too bad Autopano Giga is not on the market anymore to keep us up to date ...

True.
I still have an old version, but I will investigate other options soon to find out if there are better options for my situation.

I wish Adobe would purchase the IP for Autopano Giga from GoPro and incorporate it into Photoshop and Lightroom.  Their pano module is lacking severally,

DemolitionMan14 Posted at 11-19 05:50
I wish Adobe would purchase the IP for Autopano Giga from GoPro and incorporate it into Photoshop and Lightroom.  Their pano module is lacking severally,

I haven't experimenting with full sphere pano stitch in Adobe software, but indeed I'll assume that their editing options are next to none. PTGui seems to lead the flock for now, although more intuitive interface of Autopano Giga is hard to dismiss. For truly high resolution panos this is still my preferred environment, where Mavic 2 Pro images seem to play insignificant role ...

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 11-15 12:25
IMO there's no need for AEB option when dealing with DNG images.

Depends on the dynamic range of the shot.
The M2 has fairly limited range so some scenes absolutely require AEB combined with it to not burn things out.  The M2P is signficantly better than M1 but still at the end of the day has a small,limited range sensor.
For me the biggest drawbacks of auto-pano mode are (i) it always shoots with horizon centred which is usually what you'd never want and (ii) you lack the ability to select the field of view required.

gnirtS Posted at 11-20 04:30
Depends on the dynamic range of the shot.
The M2 has fairly limited range so some scenes absolutely require AEB combined with it to not burn things out.  The M2P is signficantly better than M1 but still at the end of the day has a small,limited range sensor.
For me the biggest drawbacks of auto-pano mode are (i) it always shoots with horizon centred which is usually what you'd never want and (ii) you lack the ability to select the field of view required.

"Depends on the dynamic range of the shot."

Depends on a workflow you decided to employ when dealing with panoramic photography. Although AEB approach is a must for JPEG format of rough files, DNG is offering wildly wide range of adjustments during files preparation. It's definitely more tedious approach, but offering way more options to tweak files to your liking before importing them into stitching software.

"For me the biggest drawbacks of auto-pano mode are (i) it always shoots with horizon centred which is usually what you'd never want and (ii) you lack the ability to select the field of view required."

(i) - I'm not sure about other models of DJI pocket-size drones, but for Mavic 2 Pro the Go4 app is allowing to tilt the camera to center on target first and start shooting around for a total of 3x3 images.
(ii) - This statement is confusing. The best camera position for landscape photography is always a guess, but pano mode will guarantee proper spacing and overlapping. The efficiency of auto mode will allow for several alternative sequences shot at different positions and angles with single battery.

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 11-20 12:12
"Depends on the dynamic range of the shot."

Depends on a workflow you decided to employ when dealing with panoramic photography. Although AEB approach is a must for JPEG format of rough files, DNG is offering wildly wide range of adjustments in files preparation for stitching. It's definitely more tedious approach, but offering way more options to tweak files to your liking before importing them into stitching software.

It doesn't depend on the workflow at all.  Quite simply, if the scene has more dynamic range than the sensor can record you need to bracket.  You cant process what the sensor cannot record.
Lots of shots absolutely require bracketing to get a correctly exposed, balanced image.

And pano mode automatically centres the gimbal horizon before it starts on all the pano modes for me.

gnirtS Posted at 11-20 04:30
Depends on the dynamic range of the shot.
The M2 has fairly limited range so some scenes absolutely require AEB combined with it to not burn things out.  The M2P is signficantly better than M1 but still at the end of the day has a small,limited range sensor.
For me the biggest drawbacks of auto-pano mode are (i) it always shoots with horizon centred which is usually what you'd never want and (ii) you lack the ability to select the field of view required.

Maybe if you post something we can see , and we can compare with what is already here .

gnirtS Posted at 11-20 16:57
It doesn't depend on the workflow at all.  Quite simply, if the scene has more dynamic range than the sensor can record you need to bracket.  You cant process what the sensor cannot record.
Lots of shots absolutely require bracketing to get a correctly exposed, balanced image.

It's a beautiful day here ... Fresh snow, blue sky ... Just like on these terrible photos above. I'm going to enjoy crackling fire in my wood stove and a cup of coffee with good bourbon ...

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 11-20 18:12
It's a beautiful day here ... Fresh snow, blue sky ... Just like on these terrible photos above. I'm going to enjoy crackling fire in my wood stove and a cup of coffee with good bourbon  ...

Ahh so that’s how Canadians sneak their Whiskey, sounds like heaven enjoy .