Tankman

Yup, now that I watched it a couple of times, it is a bit repetitive, different but the same, should have made it shorter. But quite challenging when there is no real story or subject, it is just me messing around with the drone! Regarding the pixelation, I dont think the frame rate will make much of a difference whether you export in 30fps or 120fps. What will make a difference is the bitrate in which you export. 1080p is around 20Mbps, 2k around 40Mpbs and 4k around 80Mbps. (It varies between cameras quite a bit but the more bits you give youtube the more there will be left over after it had done its compression) I always try and choose the Max bitrate when exporting but it seems that shooting, exporting and uploading 2.7k footage instead of 1080p does have its benefits, it just doubles the exporting and uploading time! The fps will smooth out your footage depending on what fps you choose to work on. I shoot 99% in 24fps. 30fps I try and avoid at all cost because pulling a 30fps into a 24fps timeline just does not work, it is always jittery. 60 or 120fps I will use if I shoot with slo-mo specifically in mind and pulling 60 or 120 into a 24fps timeline does still work. But if your timeline is in 30fps then 60 and 120 works great but you loose the motion blur of 24fps. Took some time to wrap my head around all the fps!

Let me know what you think of this one please! I set myself a challenge. 1. Compile a video, showcasing one specific location. 2. Use only footage that I have already shot. 3. Must be between 3 to 5 minutes long. Notes: 1. Showcasing a location is not that easy, since there is no subject but it is the subject. (I think the bridge kinda became my subject. 2. I been to this spot twice since we were allowed to exercise so it seemed like a good spot. 3. Much harder than I thought filling 3 to 5 minutes without very long stretched out scenes. 4. I almost shat meself here a couple of times, water, brigde, tight spaces and wind pushing me all over the place but we came out in one piece! 5. Wanted to see if I can improve the pixelation issue we talked about, exported it as it was shot. In 2.7K and it seems the quality it automatically loads when you start play in youtube, is better, yaaah!! 6. Everything was shot on the Mavic Mini Oh ja you probably want to see the video...

Yup, I noticed it too, not sure what is causing that. One particular bit where I was flying into the sun, low over the water. The original footage is not great to be honest, the shutterspeed was waaaay to high to compensate for the bright sunlight... that would be my guess. But yea, I save to my local drive too and then upload to youtube from there, not through Premiere. I have seen that some of the guys that upload 4k videos, when you start watching it would start at 1080p automatically and you can go to a higher res from there. My 1080p videos sometimes start at something freekin low like 240p and you have to up the res to get a better view. Kinda annoying.

I use Adobe Premiere Pro, download everything to pc, edit, colourgrade, add music etc, export and then upload to Yourtube. I export in HD 1080p but it seems the higher you export the higher quality your video will automatically playback on Youtube. 4k seems to have the best results. If you want to you could download directly to your phone from the drone, DJI has a very nice editing app for quick edits and uploads! Especially if you are out in the middle of nowhere or not close to your pc and want to upload a quick vid or photo to your social channels. But I am spoiled with all the functions of Premiere so I prefer using it.

Yesterday it felt like Mother Nature was giving us a welcome back party of note. Had to whip the drone out, this was shot on the Mavic Mini. (Except for the timelapse in the beginning, that was GoPro) What do you guys recon? With the newly added Manual video settings, the Mini has just stepped up a notch in my opinion. (Shot for that DJI!)

Aldryn does pretty good reviews.

Yup, no luck there bud. I could not even get the engines started whilst indoors in my own home in Centurion for a test flight. So I just moved! The DJI link I sent, seems to be an overview. Once the app is open on your device it is fine tuned a bit further. Here is a screenshot, not the best example to explain because of this crappy airport but lemme try. I can takeoff from where I am at right now and fly into first yellow zone, I will get a warning notification on the app that I am entering airspace with a tick box that you are aware and accept responsibility and that you wont fly higher than 120m (or whatever it is). Same thing when entering the second yellow/orange zone, notification on the app, further limitations 100m (or whatever) Once you get to the blue or red zones, that is a no go, the drone wont even enter that zone. It is like there is an invisible fence in the sky, it just hangs there. I have not tried that myself and I try and avoid these zone from the start but there is a guy on youtube Drone Xfactor that made a video about this. He flew his drone straight at the blue zone and it just stopped mid air, would not go in. (Pretty good actually, I think) So around Cape Town Airport for example, there will be two more zones around the Blue zone, a dark and a light orange/yellow zone.

You can get authorization to fly in the blue zone in Cape Town, it will be with limitations. The Red zone is a no go, restricted airspace, unless you are the Gupta's or someone.

Here is the DJI link as promised, it has the restricted zones per country. https://www.dji.com/flysafe/geo-map Just pick your country and drone from the list. But remember these zones are in line with FAA regulations and local laws might differ. I am in Mosselbay, according to the Western Cape No-Fly zone, I cant fly here because of the tiny little airport just about 10km outside of town and I mean tiny. There might be one or two Cessnas landing here in a month and the rest use George Airport. According to the FAA, which the DJI app is regulated by, this little airport means jack. Stay out of the landing and take off flight path and you are good to go, also stay below 120m. With a huge airport like CapeTown, things are different again. You can fly in the approaching and landing flight path, outside of the 10km, but you are restricted to 80m I think.

Flymore Combo for the Mini is R9k I will forward you a link when back on the pc or Google DJI no fly zones for a map of where the DJI zones are. Keep in mind that local laws might differ. In Centurion with Zwartkops and Waterkloof close by, I could not even get the Mini to take off indoors, only way to fly was to move out of the zone. Then in another spot out in the sticks, not naming it, I can fly pretty close to a small airstrip as long as you stay out of the approaching flight path, the app actually blocks you and limits your height, which is a good thing. By close I mean within 5km from the strip, unstead of the usual 10km, didnt do anything crazy. Also the FAA regulations are slightly different than the Civilian Aviation law here, the FAA have fine tuned the regulations around airport much better than we have here. Depending on the size and traffic of the airport, you can now actually fly a lot closer to some airports than that was previously allowed, with limitations of course. Check on the DJI map and also check the local aviation map, should give you a good idea beforehand where you can and cannot fly.

Those license are dammed expensive. For what I have in mind, I can do some work in the new area with my current equipment and hopefully make enough cash quickly to get the drone license in place. I dont need drone footage to get started and can add that to my offering larer on and it is just too big of an outlay to buy a new drone and license right now... but with everything that is going on, it sounds much quicker on paper that it will probably be!

Good tip, will do. I plan on expanding into other areas of video & photography and would need a commercial license for that anyway. Does not look like I will be earning an income with sport events any time soon! I am also thinking about keeping the Mavic Mini and using that as a travel drone to get a couple of touristy snap shots, it is so small, quiet and easy to get shots without making a big noticeable fuss. Obviously, when I travel for work, then the big guns with all the paperwork would be in order. It seems that the guys with the Mini's seems to fly under the radar with much less issues in some parts of the world than with the bigger drones. Generalizing a bit but I will check out aviation laws of the country in mind beforehand for sure.

No, the new one... it only had a slight "encounter" with a tree once! The rest of the time I only flew to church and back on Sundays! If you havent crashed your drone yet, it is only because you haven't flown it yet! :lol:

With the Mavic Air 2 you could probably get footage a little closer to the adds than you can ever get with the GoPro adds! :lol: (Oh and spot the kitesurfer in Blouberg!)

Not that I have any money, my work and income came to a complete halt the day before the Epic was supposed to start. With events being my main source of income, I dont think events will be back on the card until Aug or September. But this will be a business tool for me, make money with some of my other tools and make sure it becomes a tool that can pay itself off.

That is bold but I saw rumors of this quite some time before lockdown started and it might have pushed back their original launch date. At least some folk will know what to spend their money on when they get out.

I know someone selling a Mini at a good price!

ND filters included with the Flymore Combo, that is a bonus! Never needed them on the Mini, that was until yesterday. With the new firmware update on the Mini, we finally have Manual control in Video mode!! :D

Yup R19k is for the Drone and Remote only. Just get the Flymore Combo, one battery is never enough!

And the upgrades from the Air to the Air 2 is not minor by a long shot! Quick Summary: Larger Sensor - 48MP 4K at 60fps 1080p at 240fps 34 minute flight time! 10km range! (We will be restricted to 6km in SA) OcuSyn 2 - 2.4Ghz and 5.8Ghz New and improved tracking modes - Active Track 8K Hyperlapse HDR - Video, photo and Panoramics Estimated Prices: R24 000 - Flymore Combo R19 000 - Drone & Remote I loved the Mavic Mini as a first drone to begin with... but I just found my next upgrade!!

Shot, thanks Bud!

That is Nadine Rieder from Germany, sponsored by Rotwild bikes. We got news that the Epic was being cannened on the Friday night, so Nadine and myself thought to rather keep ourselves busy than to sit and sulk too much. Got her into one of the local XC races at Rheebokskloof last minute on Saturday! She kicked ass, took the lead from the gun and had about a 5min gap at in the end. Fun day... not knowing at the time that was my last shoot... for a while to come it seems, especially with sport events.

Last photoshoot, over a month ago...