Howdy –Bryan here from Austin, TX

Version3 · Jul 1, 2016

So yeah... I'm Bryan. I'm [currently] from Austin, TX. I've been in TX for most of my life, just got back to my home state after a few years in the Seattle area. Unfortunately, I wasn't a 3DR pilot there.

I've had my Solo for about a week and I've been having more problems with my footage than I have the Solo. It's been pretty easy for me, bit it's not without it's hiccups (I'm sure I'll post questions and do some searches outside of an intro thread). It's been good enough that I tear through my 2 batteries faster than I can figure out where the last half hour went, and then I tell my wife I need half a dozen more batteries.

I haven't tried flying without GPS lock (I know, shame on me) yet, but I have been doing a lot of just flying around for two batteries to get the feel of the controls and manual controls with GPS lock definitely has it's surprise moments (where LOS flying results in your brain not quite registering where the nose is pointed, or what will happen when you push each stick where you think you need it), but I think I've been doing pretty well for having zero successful flight experience prior to Solo ownership (those little toys can be really hard to fly in your living room).

Mostly, I've been trying to figure out how to use Smart Shots in terms I will actually use them in, and using my under construction house as the subject matter. I can't figure out how to put together cable cam and orbit or anything like that, and I can't figure out how to pull up past Smart Shots, but I'm pretty happy with the Solo.

I'm currently having the annoying problem where YouTube does the magenta-shift to my footage... but here's just a short (very) clip I grabbed just to see what I was getting from my playing around. Unfortunately, it was shot at 1080p30 because I didn't realize I had my Hero 4 Black in Video+Photo mode, and it's limited to that res/framerate when set that way. Shooting 2.7k/60 now, but haven't had time to go through it and see what i really have.

That was a long intro!

Maddog · Jul 1, 2016

Bryan- welcome to the forum! Excellent video, well done!
Don't know what the "magenta shift" is tho.
You should always get GPS lock prior to take off. Then you can shift into another flight mode to practice without GPS assistance. If you get into trouble having GPS lock can save your a**. Features like "pause" and "return to launch" wont work without it.

There are some short tutorials on the 3DR website about using smart shots- have you seen them yet?

YouTube is also a great source for help. Just search for "3dr solo", "smart shots", etc.

I shoot a lot at 1080-30 & 60 FPS because it works for me.

Before I got Solo, I got a $50 Syma X5C to practice with. Crashed a lot but only needed to replace props at about $1 each.

Version3 · Jul 1, 2016

The color-shift thing is something that many attribute to the color-space Apple uses on Mac. I have like 87 tabs open in another window to work through forcing color-space encoding to be more friendly when being encoded on my Mac, but I haven't done the work yet. Basically, that video as output on my computer looks as it should. Upload it to YouTube of Vimeo, and it gets that color-cast applied when it's re-encoded. I just have to get my Mac/Premiere to be more standards-compliant when exporting. At least that's what I gather. I haven't actually had this problem in the past from the same computer, same software, same GroPro.

For flying, I just haven't had the courage to switch flight modes. I've just been using the GPS-assited take-off, then moving the sticks around to go wherever I want. I'm probably the to the point that I should explore the other flight modes, and practice with a little less GPS help.

I haven't seen the tutorials on the 3DR site and some on YouTube as well, but I haven't found any that talk about using them chained together, or recalling past shots. Those are the two things I'm trying to get worked out currently.

Maddog · Jul 1, 2016

Hmm- I have no issues uploading from my PC.
I do a lot of my flying in "fly" (full GPS) like you're doing.

I don't know if you can "chain" smart shots together. You need to exit one before setting up the other.

You might want to look into the "Tower" ground control app. You need an Android device to use it but it allows you to program and fly autonomous flights with multiple waypoints, varying speeds and altitudes, etc. Lots of threads here and videos on YouTube.

Maddog · Jul 1, 2016

This is a little old but should help:

Chuck · Jul 1, 2016

Welcome, Bryan. A trick I used to see which way I was facing when at the limit of LOS, was to just watch the screen for how far away Solo is from you and slowly go forward or back and see what the distance does. If it goes higher you are still flying away from home, and on the flip side if the distance gets closer, you are headed back to home. It worked well for me when I was doing antenna tests for distance. Again, welcome to the forum, and safe flying.

Jbmanning5 · Jul 1, 2016

Version3 said:
I haven't tried flying without GPS lock (I know, shame on me) yet, but I have been doing a lot of just flying around for two batteries to get the feel of the controls and manual controls with GPS lock

If you haven't yet, configure your A or B button to be the switch for Fly:Manual. That combined with a nice open area makes it really convenient to practice in manual mode. I'm new like you and getting the feeling of how it drifts etc is making me feel more comfortable when something happens, plus it just makes you a better pilot.

As for chaining shots, don't believe it's possible, at least in the standard app. I don't feel like it's a real big deal though. The average shot length of video has declined considerably over the years. Average shot length in many movies is even as low as 2.5 seconds! Proper post will have you cutting and mixing rather than just one long 30-60 sec sequence of smart shots. Not sure what type of video you want to do, but watch something related to what you intend to do and notice how frequently any given shot lasts. That will make you think about your shooting and editing differently!

Btw, great shooting in your video.

very smooth transition from the descent spiral in to the panning back up!

Version3 · Jul 1, 2016

Well, for what I'm trying to accomplish currently, I wanted to combine the multi-point cable cam with the orbit, so that I could reproduce the same shot over and over through the build of my house. At the end, I wanted to be able to cut a more complex time-lapse, that looked like a single shot. I can probably accomplish this by kicking one off after another finishes, but for the purposes of getting the shot done on less battery and leaving more play time afterward, I'd like to automate it as much as I can.

But then I still have not figured out how to pull up past shots in the app.

Version3 · Jul 1, 2016

Jbmanning5 said:
Btw, great shooting in your video. very smooth transition from the descent spiral in to the panning back up!

Thanks very much for the compliment on this. It was nice to have accomplished the camera move and all of the controls for the shot. There is a bit more before and after it, but not much more. I've managed to complete a few things like this just messing around, but I'm more or less hitting record, flying around just doing everything I can think of and just picking out short clips from the results. This is easier for me to get something fun while focusing on learning the machine.

Planning shots is a given, but I'm worried less about it for the house build. Your advice about what to look for in other pieces is right on for sure.

Jbmanning5 · Jul 2, 2016

Here are a couple of screen shots. I didn't know you could do this but here is what I found. I'm using iOS Solo app. Open the Solo app, go to Fly and then smart shots, which opens the screen below. At the bottom of that screen is a Saved Shots button.

When you enter that screen, you actually have a few options : Recent, Near Me, Favorites and All.

First time I've known of this. Super cool!!

Maddog · Jul 2, 2016

Check out this thread for more info:
Smart Shot Chaining and Smart Shot Recall

PdxSteve · Jul 2, 2016

Jbmanning5 said:
Here are a couple of screen shots. I didn't know you could do this but here is what I found. I'm using iOS Solo app. Open the Solo app, go to Fly and then smart shots, which opens the screen below. At the bottom of that screen is a Saved Shots button.

View attachment 3693

When you enter that screen, you actually have a few options : Recent, Near Me, Favorites and All.

View attachment 3694

First time I've known of this. Super cool!!

When you load a saved shot, you will just need to fly into the start circle it shows in 3d space before you can start replaying it. It won't automatically fly to the start point in case you didn't take off from the same place each time.