I miss my Phantom 4

[MikkelBarker]

Hi, I am new to Autel.
I recently traded my Phantom 4 pro with the Autel EVO II RTK. I was missing the RTK precision, but now I am realizing, that the Autel is developed by great technical people who haven't consulted with visual people.
Maybe I will learn to tell stories in a different way, but right now I really miss (top pick) the flexibility and the ability to set a POI on the map and then fly freely with the POI in focus.

Regarding a frustrated former DJI pilot - maybe I should just buy a DJI again for my creative work!

 

[surenmunoo]

Hi, I am new to Autel.
I recently traded my Phantom 4 pro with the Autel EVO II RTK. I was missing the RTK precision, but now I am realizing, that the Autel is developed by great technical people who haven't consulted with visual people.
Maybe I will learn to tell stories in a different way, but right now I really miss (top pick) the flexibility and the ability to set a POI on the map and then fly freely with the POI in focus.

Regarding a frustrated former DJI pilot - maybe I should just buy a DJI again for my creative work!

Don't feel bad bro. I am also a Dji pilot and very new to Autel, like only today when I bought the Evo Lite+. I also have the Mavic 3 and thought the Evo Lite will do better from the reviews I watched about it but I literally kept it for 3 hours and took it back for a refund. Autel drones are build nice and solid but when compared to a Dji it still has a long way to go. The only benefit I saw from having an Autel is that there is no geo fencing but nothing else.

 

[MikkelBarker]

Don't feel bad bro. I am also a Dji pilot and very new to Autel, like only today when I bought the Evo Lite+. I also have the Mavic 3 and thought the Evo Lite will do better from the reviews I watched about it but I literally kept it for 3 hours and took it back for a refund. Autel drones are build nice and solid but when compared to a Dji it still has a long way to go. The only benefit I saw from having an Autel is that there is no geo fencing but nothing else.

I guess going from the top drone to any other will be a disappointment, but I had dreamt of more.

The feeling of "works out of the box" and "your extended camera arm in the sky" just went down the drain.
Now it's more "your kid of 5 flying your missions and you trying to get your kid to follow instructions with a very limited focus span"

The feel and build of the drone are great though, I will definitely give them that.

I miss my DJI

 

[surenmunoo]

I guess going from the top drone to any other will be a disappointment, but I had dreamt of more.

The feeling of "works out of the box" and "your extended camera arm in the sky" just went down the drain.
Now it's more "your kid of 5 flying your missions and you trying to get your kid to follow instructions with a very limited focus span"

The feel and build of the drone are great though, I will definitely give them that.

I miss my DJI

True, I honestly expected much more from Auto given that they know what issues Dji drones sometimes gives they should have made their drones better.

 

[gschulzuio]

My P4P has been a workhorse however its ready for replacement, little over a year ago got an E2P to offload the P4P as well as my regular Mavic which it did. Added a regular E2 (8K) and between the EVO IIs, they have picked up most of the workload including indoors where would have used my DJI Mini. However what continue to miss with the Autel is lack of Litchi and Dronedeploy support for recurring missions. Autel missions have improved and most of the issues can still be worked around granted a PITA (e.g. waypoint action items). However biggest issue with missions is the lack of ability to create, then save and export a mission with waypoint actions/settings so that the mission can be imported into a different phone/tablet. I can setup waypoint missions with some caveats to mimic what I do with litchi, or find work arounds. Likewise, I can setup mapping missions and then upload them to DD or where ever, however I cant save and export the mission and import into a different phone/tablet. Sure you can import waypoint coordinates, however you can not import the waypoints with waypoint action settings. Hopefull Autel can figure out how to do something simple like save and export a mission, then import it into another phone/tablet device without losing settings. After all, Autel has figured out how to save, export flight logs and then sync and import the logs into other devices/apps.

 

[MikkelBarker]

My P4P has been a workhorse however its ready for replacement, little over a year ago got an E2P to offload the P4P as well as my regular Mavic which it did. Added a regular E2 (8K) and between the EVO IIs, they have picked up most of the workload including indoors where would have used my DJI Mini. However what continue to miss with the Autel is lack of Litchi and Dronedeploy support for recurring missions. Autel missions have improved and most of the issues can still be worked around granted a PITA (e.g. waypoint action items). However biggest issue with missions is the lack of ability to create, then save and export a mission with waypoint actions/settings so that the mission can be imported into a different phone/tablet. I can setup waypoint missions with some caveats to mimic what I do with litchi, or find work arounds. Likewise, I can setup mapping missions and then upload them to DD or where ever, however I cant save and export the mission and import into a different phone/tablet. Sure you can import waypoint coordinates, however you can not import the waypoints with waypoint action settings. Hopefull Autel can figure out how to do something simple like save and export a mission, then import it into another phone/tablet device without losing settings. After all, Autel has figured out how to save, export flight logs and then sync and import the logs into other devices/apps.

Thanks for feedback and maybe you can help with a question.

Is there a way to control camera parameters during missions?
I found that the app locks the apperture at 2.8 and shutterspeed depending on ISO which i can control - but it overexposed the whites!

Also, do you have a walk-around the POI.
I would really like to set a POI om the map and be able to fly freely having the drone always keeping the POI in center!?

Yes, I used Litchi all - it is great!

 

[MikkelBarker]

My P4P has been a workhorse however its ready for replacement, little over a year ago got an E2P to offload the P4P as well as my regular Mavic which it did. Added a regular E2 (8K) and between the EVO IIs, they have picked up most of the workload including indoors where would have used my DJI Mini. However what continue to miss with the Autel is lack of Litchi and Dronedeploy support for recurring missions. Autel missions have improved and most of the issues can still be worked around granted a PITA (e.g. waypoint action items). However biggest issue with missions is the lack of ability to create, then save and export a mission with waypoint actions/settings so that the mission can be imported into a different phone/tablet. I can setup waypoint missions with some caveats to mimic what I do with litchi, or find work arounds. Likewise, I can setup mapping missions and then upload them to DD or where ever, however I cant save and export the mission and import into a different phone/tablet. Sure you can import waypoint coordinates, however you can not import the waypoints with waypoint action settings. Hopefull Autel can figure out how to do something simple like save and export a mission, then import it into another phone/tablet device without losing settings. After all, Autel has figured out how to save, export flight logs and then sync and import the logs into other devices/apps.

Thanks for your reply

Maybe you can help with a couple of questions.

During the missions I found that the app freezes the camera settings. I can only control the ISO.
The apperture is locked at 2.8 and the shutter speed changes depending on ISO setting.
During the mission the auto setting overexposed the images.

I have used the Litchi app and it would really benefit my overall impression of the drone.

Is there a work around the POI.
I miss the option of setting a POI on the map and then being able to fly freely with the POI in focus!?

Thanks,
Mikkel

 

[gschulzuio]

Thanks for feedback and maybe you can help with a question.

No worries, sure

Is there a way to control camera parameters during missions?

Yes, when in mission mode, up in top left corner you should see a small white arrow from the left, click on that (its small and a pita), and it should pop out to the right and become slightly larger. Click on that and you will now see camera view vs. mission view. Now go down to lower right to access your camera settings as you would in regular camera mode. When you want to go back to mission view vs. camera view while in mission, just repeat the above process.

I found that the app locks the apperture at 2.8 and shutterspeed depending on ISO which i can control - but it overexposed the whites!

Depending on what fw/sw, there are/were limitations on mission camera settings. Are you setting iso auto or manual for missions? Have seen more limitations like what you mention on the 8K camera vs. 6K.

Also, do you have a walk-around the POI.

Not sure what you mean, however do I do missions with poi and have the waypoint actions stay pointed towards poi, yes. I also have missions where there are multiple POIs for during the course of the mission. Something different with autel missions vs. say litchi or others is when the waypoint action does something. For example when it changes from one poi to another, changes altitude while between waypoints vs. when getting to a waypoint etc.

I would really like to set a POI om the map and be able to fly freely having the drone always keeping the POI in center!?

Yup, you can do that with missions so that it is repeatable, or, you can also do some fun things with smart orbit. With smart orbit (regular camera mode), mark your poi, then select orbit speed, direction, start the orbit, start your video, then you can control alt up/down, as well as push in, pull back and do eliptical among other things. You could also try some of the livetrack modes, however for all of the above, I would do out in an open field area and not around trees or obsticles the first time.

Yes, I used Litchi all - it is great!

Yup, litchi is great, can do lots with it, it even works on my mavic mini.

 

[MikkelBarker]

Thanks for your feed back. That helps.

With the POI from Litchi, it is possible to select a POI on the map and with the POI in center you can fly up/down, forwards/backwards and left/right always keeping the POI in center. It is useless when approaching a point you can't see in the distance as well as getting a smooth cameramovement.
But I will try the orbit mode and see how it works

 

[claudius62]

You are not making circles but ovals!
In addition, the focus is is not always centered.
Not like Litchi's eye sockets which are impeccable ....

 

[MikkelBarker]

You are not making circles but ovals!
In addition, the focus is more often than not centered.
Not like Litchi's eye sockets which are impeccable ....

I will experiment and hopefully find a good solution, thanks!

 

[gschulzuio]

Thanks for your feed back. That helps.

With the POI from Litchi, it is possible to select a POI on the map and with the POI in center you can fly up/down, forwards/backwards and left/right always keeping the POI in center. It is useless when approaching a point you can't see in the distance as well as getting a smooth cameramovement.
But I will try the orbit mode and see how it works

Correct Litchi can do a smooth flight around a POI (depends on curves settings) and depending on your waypoint actions, can also do a smooth video keeping POI in center if you like.

Autel mission can also fly around a POI, even one that is far away like Litchi, however big difference is what happens at the waypoints. Autel pauses at waypoints (similar to litchi if you have a stop/pause/wait enabled), likewise when the POV changes from one POI to another is different. With Litchi POV can change between waypoints, with Autel, plan on having your POV enabled before you expect it to be. For example, wp1 looking at POI1 (elsewhere), wp2 looking at POI2 (center), wp3 looking at POI2, wp4 looking at POI2, wp5 looking at POI3 (elsewhere), wp6 looking at POI2, wp7 looking at POI2 and wp8 looking at POI1. Assume wp's are in a circle or oval or loop. With Litchi the POV would change as you move between wp, with autel, the pov changes at the wp (this also impacts location, alt, etc). Have worked around this by adding extra wp to point at next POI so pov is doing what expected. Note have also done this with litchi when I dont want the pov transition to appear (e.g. during recording) when switching between different POIs. As to autel not seeing a poi in the distance, have not run into that problem yet, as long as you have your POI altitude set correct (e.g. similar to litchi).
However for what you describe, orbit around a POI, push in, pull back, up, down doing more of an eliptical orbit, try the smart orbit mode.

 

[gschulzuio]

You are not making circles but ovals!
In addition, the focus is is not always centered.
Not like Litchi's eye sockets which are impeccable ....

Autel also does not have the smooth curve like litchi, not to mention ability to save, export a mission (with waypoint settings and actions), then import into a different AE/dev w/o losing waypoint actions. Then there are the waypoint actions that are missing with autel, for example pause/stay/wait for x sec (granted autel stops at waypoints anyway ), take a pano (360 sphere), etc. Autel does not have to copy litchi or others, just get on par, get to basic functionality commonality, especially ability to save, export, import a mission.