I'm using eyeballed manual photo capture and Bimostitch on Android Pixel 7 Pro with good results. Wish this function was part of the quick shots for the Neo. I'm intending to use the Neo for indoor real estate panorama creation. Anyone have tips and tricks to make this a better process?
Creating Spherical Panoramas - Tips and tricks
- Thread starter dcoonich
- Start date
Chrislaf
Well-Known Member
Once the weather warms up a bit, I plan on trying to do a 360 spherical pano with my NEO but right now it is too cold to try it manually. I do a lot of panos with my other drones and use PanoVolo or PTGui Pro to stitch my pano images. PanoVolo is great software at a reasonable price and is specifically designed for drones. PTGui is high end pano stitching software and is overkill for NEO unless you already have it. Also, it costs more than the NEO does for the Pro version.
I wish there was a pano function in NEO too, but for now I just use the grid lines to line up my images.
Chris
I wish there was a pano function in NEO too, but for now I just use the grid lines to line up my images.
Chris
Most image hosting sites can display Panos in the right viewer. YT will do it right if you upload a 360 video.
Chrislaf
Well-Known Member
Today I shot a manual 360 pano with the NEO. I took 104 images and used a generous overlap so that there would not be any missing sections. The temperature was around -3ºC and it was cloudy out. I set the NEO to auto exposure.
On my first attempt I had the NEO at about 7.5m high over a frozen beaver pond, but there were strong gusts of wind (at least for the NEO) that kept moving it around a lot so I cancelled the attempt and did a second attempt with a fresh battery in a clearing nearby the pond. This time I had the NEO at 4.5m. It was more sheltered and the NEO didn't move around as much.
What I learned:
•it needs to be calm for the NEO to get good results. If it moves around too much there will be stitching errors.
•the NEO's wide angle lens (14mm equivalent) is good for low level panos in environments that are relatively close to the lens.
•make sure you start your pano with a fully charged battery.
I have posted the results in the Pics and Videos section.
Chris
On my first attempt I had the NEO at about 7.5m high over a frozen beaver pond, but there were strong gusts of wind (at least for the NEO) that kept moving it around a lot so I cancelled the attempt and did a second attempt with a fresh battery in a clearing nearby the pond. This time I had the NEO at 4.5m. It was more sheltered and the NEO didn't move around as much.
What I learned:
•it needs to be calm for the NEO to get good results. If it moves around too much there will be stitching errors.
•the NEO's wide angle lens (14mm equivalent) is good for low level panos in environments that are relatively close to the lens.
•make sure you start your pano with a fully charged battery.
I have posted the results in the Pics and Videos section.
Chris
I've done this before! I just took 25 pictures. one in each cardinal direction (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) in three rows, high low and middle, plus one nadir. That's what the pano function of DJI drones does in general, so I figured it was good enough. And it's easier to just look at the arrow and know what direction it's pointing than to eyeball the overlap.
I used Hugin, an open source app which uses some of the same technology under the hood as PTGui. It's a huge pain in the butt to learn how to use, but it's powerful and can be pretty easy.
Here's one I did back in October which came out really well:
I used Hugin, an open source app which uses some of the same technology under the hood as PTGui. It's a huge pain in the butt to learn how to use, but it's powerful and can be pretty easy.
Here's one I did back in October which came out really well:
So I decided to try and do this again today, and went to a park near my house.
I have a Flip now too, and I have mixed feelings about spending that much money, and also about straying from this cool little Neo.
So I sent up the Flip and did a pano, it came out great, all was well.
I sent up the Neo, and it was barely holding itself together in an amount of wind that had not really bothered the Flip much. I got ready to do the pano and it started drifting. Fast. Before I knew what was going on, it had dropped out of the sky. THANKFULLY it had not done so over water, but it did end up in a place that was rather difficult to retrieve from, I had to ring a doorbell and ask the person if I could go through his backyard to get to the crash site, and it took me a while to find it even then. If it had fallen a foot to the left, it would have been behind a fence I couldn't get past without, like, phoning the local parks and rec and asking them if I could get behind the fence to get the drone.
Really puts into sharp relief how flaky these little guys can be. Two drones, one has absolutely zero problems, the other one just goes a-wandering.
Yes, I was over water, but I was fairly high up (maybe 50 feet) and had what I *thought* was good satellite signal? Maybe not good enough satellite signal? Maybe I should have waited a longer time and made sure it had a super solid satellite lock before I sent it out?
Anyway it bummed me out because I have a lot of affection for my neo. But I think that I should probably sell it to get back some of the money I spent on the Flip. But it's just so damn easy to have it go wandering and crash.
(I posted here earlier about having it go wandering and crash badly in a somewhat poorly lit parking lot and having to use my DJI care and get a replacement.)
Ugh. Dammit.
I did just go out a little while ago and take another pano with the neo, near my house, in a place I wasn't likely to lose it. I'll try and put it together with Hugin a little later nad let you know how it turns out.
I have a Flip now too, and I have mixed feelings about spending that much money, and also about straying from this cool little Neo.
So I sent up the Flip and did a pano, it came out great, all was well.
I sent up the Neo, and it was barely holding itself together in an amount of wind that had not really bothered the Flip much. I got ready to do the pano and it started drifting. Fast. Before I knew what was going on, it had dropped out of the sky. THANKFULLY it had not done so over water, but it did end up in a place that was rather difficult to retrieve from, I had to ring a doorbell and ask the person if I could go through his backyard to get to the crash site, and it took me a while to find it even then. If it had fallen a foot to the left, it would have been behind a fence I couldn't get past without, like, phoning the local parks and rec and asking them if I could get behind the fence to get the drone.
Really puts into sharp relief how flaky these little guys can be. Two drones, one has absolutely zero problems, the other one just goes a-wandering.
Yes, I was over water, but I was fairly high up (maybe 50 feet) and had what I *thought* was good satellite signal? Maybe not good enough satellite signal? Maybe I should have waited a longer time and made sure it had a super solid satellite lock before I sent it out?
Anyway it bummed me out because I have a lot of affection for my neo. But I think that I should probably sell it to get back some of the money I spent on the Flip. But it's just so damn easy to have it go wandering and crash.
(I posted here earlier about having it go wandering and crash badly in a somewhat poorly lit parking lot and having to use my DJI care and get a replacement.)
Ugh. Dammit.
I did just go out a little while ago and take another pano with the neo, near my house, in a place I wasn't likely to lose it. I'll try and put it together with Hugin a little later nad let you know how it turns out.
Chrislaf
Well-Known Member
That's a great pano with the NEO.I've done this before! I just took 25 pictures. one in each cardinal direction (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) in three rows, high low and middle, plus one nadir. That's what the pano function of DJI drones does in general, so I figured it was good enough. And it's easier to just look at the arrow and know what direction it's pointing than to eyeball the overlap.
I used Hugin, an open source app which uses some of the same technology under the hood as PTGui. It's a huge pain in the butt to learn how to use, but it's powerful and can be pretty easy.
Here's one I did back in October which came out really well:
What I have found with the NEO is that if you do a 360º pano in a traditional sense at height similar to one that can be done with a regular camera drone then it is easier to plan out the shots using the grid on the display and a suitable overlap. However, I have found panos that are done in close proximity to the surroundings and not high above the ground are more difficult to line up and overlap especially when the gimbal is at its max upward tilt of +60º.
I used to use Hugin before I purchased PTGui. I have many panos I created years ago with that great app.
Chris
Chrislaf
Well-Known Member
Thanks for posting this comparison about the Flip and the NEO. I was going to post over at FlipPilots asking about how the Flip did with panos especially since it has some of the same problems the NEO does in wind gusts.
In my testing of the NEO, I have learned that for doing panos at any significant height that it is best done with a traditional camera drone as any bit of wind will significantly toss the NEO around and make it next to impossible to get a good pano stitch. Where the NEO shines is in environments where a traditional camera drone fails. The NEO's fully protected props and its ultra wide-angle lens make doing panos in difficult environments possible. I only wish that DJI would include an automated Pano function similar to what they have done with the Flip.
Chris
The gimbal tilt on the neo can get crazy high can't it! I was trying to do a (manual) neo pano yesterday near my house, and I noticed that if take pictures at maximum vertical angle, if I'm up in the air at all, all I can see is sky! I don't trust anything to stitch correctly when there's no ground. Clouds usually aren't good for stitching. But wow, that's a great angle, and I can see that it'd be really good for lower-to-the-ground panos where there's stuff angled up to see (like that great winter woods pano).
Chrislaf
Well-Known Member
Yeah, and the ultra wide angle lens makes a huge difference. The only problem is it is hard to follow the grid pattern to get proper overlap. Also any movement in the NEO will increase the likelihood of stitching errors.
I am going to try a few more if we get some days with calm wind.
Chris
I'm finding it fascinating (and surprising) the work you guys are doing with stills on a drone not well suited for it. 
Chrislaf
Well-Known Member
One of the reasons I bought the NEO in addition to its tracking ability was to use it to take photos in hard to get to places or in places where a regular camera drone is not practical.I'm finding it fascinating (and surprising) the work you guys are doing with stills on a drone not well suited for it.
Lots of people complain about the NEO’s camera but in good light it does pretty good.
Chris
