- Joined
- Jul 5, 2022
- Messages
- 86
- Reaction score
- 60
- Age
- 61
Autel have dropped a couple of balls with their SKY app camera interface in comparison to the DJI GO4 app I have become used to over the last four years. The first is the total lack of inbuilt HDR or LOG capability with still shooting. Another omission is the lack of screen-tap or half-click autofocus. PDAF autofocus in particular is a great tool to have in the photography box... not being able to show the camera WHERE you want the PDAF and CDAF autofocus to concentrate on is a real howler of a cock-up.
Because the Nano+ does not have the shutter button half-click autofocus on the controller, or the screen-tap autofocus as in the DJI GO4 app - I can't use it for techniques like focus bracketing. A crying shame considering the fact that I am certain that the Nano+ camera would return a truly stunning result.
The other observation concerning the Nano+ camera is that it still is, beyond a shadow of doubt, a work-in-progress. There are a number of pretty elementary bugs that still require some serious and speedy attention (heavy lateral vignetting and bizarre colour-casts in RAW) - and the camera features interface needs to be fleshed out with a more comprehensive range of pro-level options to match what is unarguably the bare bones of a pro-level camera. With the vignetting: I am starting to get the feeling that this is a problem that might be laid at the door of the inbuilt exposure metering. It looks for all the world as if it is set to a very tight spot at absolute frame centre. Having the ability to choose which style of exposure calculation to perform might alter the tendency for the centre of each shot to be over-exposed and the outer concentric ranges to be increasingly under-exposed in comparison: giving the illusion of vignetting and an off-colour cast towards the periphery of the frame. My DSLR expo metering menu offers me the option to engage spot metering: centre weighted metering, or AiAE, which evaluates the light intensity at multiple points in the frame - I find that this last option returns the best results for daylight landscapes.
I also get the feeling that there are only so many features that can be shoehorned into something so small carrying limited hardware resources, so if it came down to a choice between having active-track and the other autonomous "floating selfie-stick" features so beloved of the Instagrammers and TIK-TOKkers, or a far better designed camera interface that would do justice to the obvious potential of the camera: being a photographer - I would choose the latter in a New York second.
It might be nice if the Autel boffins and their hacker whizz-kids put in the effort and designed two different versions of the Nano+ firmware that the customer could choose to use. One for the floating selfie-stick brigade full of the quickshots and active-track subroutines, but carrying only the basic camera settings: and one specifically for pixel-peepers who are obsessed with capturing great photographs - removing all the autonomous functions and packing that version with settings and options usually found in the higher quality DSLR's. That way, with minimal effort and almost zero investment: Autel could produce a great sub-250 drone that worked well for both specific iterations - and at the same time: double their market penetration.
Because the Nano+ does not have the shutter button half-click autofocus on the controller, or the screen-tap autofocus as in the DJI GO4 app - I can't use it for techniques like focus bracketing. A crying shame considering the fact that I am certain that the Nano+ camera would return a truly stunning result.
The other observation concerning the Nano+ camera is that it still is, beyond a shadow of doubt, a work-in-progress. There are a number of pretty elementary bugs that still require some serious and speedy attention (heavy lateral vignetting and bizarre colour-casts in RAW) - and the camera features interface needs to be fleshed out with a more comprehensive range of pro-level options to match what is unarguably the bare bones of a pro-level camera. With the vignetting: I am starting to get the feeling that this is a problem that might be laid at the door of the inbuilt exposure metering. It looks for all the world as if it is set to a very tight spot at absolute frame centre. Having the ability to choose which style of exposure calculation to perform might alter the tendency for the centre of each shot to be over-exposed and the outer concentric ranges to be increasingly under-exposed in comparison: giving the illusion of vignetting and an off-colour cast towards the periphery of the frame. My DSLR expo metering menu offers me the option to engage spot metering: centre weighted metering, or AiAE, which evaluates the light intensity at multiple points in the frame - I find that this last option returns the best results for daylight landscapes.
I also get the feeling that there are only so many features that can be shoehorned into something so small carrying limited hardware resources, so if it came down to a choice between having active-track and the other autonomous "floating selfie-stick" features so beloved of the Instagrammers and TIK-TOKkers, or a far better designed camera interface that would do justice to the obvious potential of the camera: being a photographer - I would choose the latter in a New York second.
It might be nice if the Autel boffins and their hacker whizz-kids put in the effort and designed two different versions of the Nano+ firmware that the customer could choose to use. One for the floating selfie-stick brigade full of the quickshots and active-track subroutines, but carrying only the basic camera settings: and one specifically for pixel-peepers who are obsessed with capturing great photographs - removing all the autonomous functions and packing that version with settings and options usually found in the higher quality DSLR's. That way, with minimal effort and almost zero investment: Autel could produce a great sub-250 drone that worked well for both specific iterations - and at the same time: double their market penetration.
