Some good news coming from the 3DR office.

[DroneyMcDroneface]

When I heard the Texas office was shutting it's doors and they were sending all the drones and left over batteries back to TJ, I was immediately concerned about the longevity of support from 3DR. Especially in the software development realm because let's face it. The Software and Technology is one of the main reasons we all have this drone, right?

Specifically, I was concerned about further GoPro updates. I'm a photographer before anything else, and will be flying the new Peau Production 8.25 on my solo almost exclusively. Stay tuned for some awesome photos to come. (Pre order is available)

Peau is sending me out a Hero 4 with the the 8.25 but warned me that new update doesn't allow camera control from the solo app if you do the firmware update. The firmware is very important to me because I was to shoot in RAW. That's a given. Losing trigger control for snapping photos would be a HUGE inconvenience to me.

I reached out to 3DR and got this response when asked about future compatibility concerns and software development.

"This is the official announcement from our Superior
Hi all,
Last week was a pretty busy week to say the least. I just wanted to say that while we are making changes within 3DR, one thing that does not change is Support. My team and I have no plans on going anywhere. We are still hard at work keeping everyone in the air. So please fly with peace of mind, keep an eye on your battery levels, get the shot, and happy flying"

Now, this could just be a little generic message to keep the fire of Colin leaving contained, but it certinaly keeps me hopeful for at least the foreseeable future.

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

That is what Vu said a week ago. Old news actually. But what does that have to do with your camera and ability to control it? It also doesn't mean you should be expecting new features or major changes. Quite the opposite.

FYI, you were misinformed or misunderstood about the GoPro update. The GoPro firmware v4 doesn't block camera control from the app. The only thing you lose is the solo automatically turning the GoPro on when turn the solo on. The added new settings for the GoPro are not accessible in the Solo app. You need to do it through the GoPro front panel or app. But that's nothing new and not a loss. The existing white balance and ISO settings were never available in the app either. There are several other settings that are not and never will be available in the app.

 

[User Name]

Are you sure the new update allows RAW stills? When I read the notes on the latest firmware, I'm not seeing that.

And I thought you considered GoPros to be garbage?

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Oh ya, that too. No raw anything in a GoPro. I find it really hard to believe Peau actually told you these things. The closest you can get is native white balance (new in v4) and flat color.

 

[pyrate]

not on the 4 anyway maybe the 5

I sort of get tickled by the RAW purists
No shooting flat profile is not the same as RAW but the color grading on the back side is the same work flow and produces dang good results if you know how

 

[PdxSteve]

Yes, protune is basically gopros version of RAW. That "superior" that was mentioned was Vu Tran and he posted that last week on FB.
As mentioned, the only thing you lose from the current capability with the GoPro 4 firmware, is having gopro turn on when you turn solo on. So you have to manually turn it on. Everything else is the same as v3. Same camera options, same buttons to start/stop recording/taking pics.

If you upgrade to v4, it introduces new camera control options - but they are only changeable via the gopro interface. Those new options are NOT available via the 3dr app, but all of the original options that were available before v4 are still there. So some options you can control via the app, but not the new additions. Gopro has not made them available via their SDK yet, so no 3rd party can implement them including 3dr even if they wanted to.

 

[DroneyMcDroneface]

not on the 4 anyway maybe the 5

I sort of get tickled by the RAW purists
No shooting flat profile is not the same as RAW but the color grading on the back side is the same work flow and produces dang good results if you know how

Getting good dynamic range out of a Jpeg is nearly impossible. It's more about recovering highlights and shadows in bad lighting conditions and not being able to balance a JPEG is horrible and results in terrible noise. This is the advantage to shooting in RAW, for me at least. Here is an example of a photo that could have been saved if shot in a RAW but in JPEG there just isn't enough information.

View media item 410

 

[DroneyMcDroneface]

Are you sure the new update allows RAW stills? When I read the notes on the latest firmware, I'm not seeing that.

And I thought you considered GoPros to be garbage?

Maybe there was a misunderstanding on my end. I will double check this.
And yes, I still think the GoPro is garbage =)
As soon as my Solo hits the crapper I'm moving to a Yuneec Typhoon with a Peau 8.25mm for photos and hope to never see another GoPro again.

 

[DroneyMcDroneface]

FYI, you were misinformed or misunderstood about the GoPro update.

Just repeating what I was told verbatim. Sorry if I was mistaken

 

[PdxSteve]

Its too bad gopro locked the firmware up on the H4. On the H3 you could easily do a hack by writing a text file to the sd card that would give full camera RAW format. GoPro is basically a point and shoot lol. Not nearly close to a pro camera - and that's not it's goal. If you're after pro photos, using a throw away camera isn't the best option period. Its really a toy.

 

[Brendon Baddiley]

Yes, protune is basically gopros version of RAW. That "superior" that was mentioned was Vu Tran and he posted that last week on FB.
As mentioned, the only thing you lose from the current capability with the GoPro 4 firmware, is having gopro turn on when you turn solo on. So you have to manually turn it on. Everything else is the same as v3. Same camera options, same buttons to start/stop recording/taking pics.

If you upgrade to v4, it introduces new camera control options - but they are only changeable via the gopro interface. Those new options are NOT available via the 3dr app, but all of the original options that were available before v4 are still there. So some options you can control via the app, but not the new additions. Gopro has not made them available via their SDK yet, so no 3rd party can implement them including 3dr even if they wanted to.

If you access the new options via the GoPro app wouldn't you have to do this on he ground rather than in flight as the GoPro wifi could interfere with solo? Am I correct with his or have I misunderstood?


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[SARDG]

If you access the new options via the GoPro app wouldn't you have to do this on he ground rather than in flight as the GoPro wifi could interfere with solo? Am I correct with his or have I misunderstood?

Those are mutually exclusive operations. Set GP functions through the camera menu OR through the GP App with Wi-Fi on the ground, then disconnect from GP App and turn off GP's Wi-Fi for your flights.

 

[DroneyMcDroneface]

Those are mutually exclusive operations. Set GP functions through the camera menu OR through the GP App with Wi-Fi on the ground, then disconnect from GP App and turn off GP's Wi-Fi for your flights.

But the WiFi signal from the GoPro, although not connected to the device can infact interfere in more ways than one. Likeliness of it happening is like 1% but it can happen.

 

[Brendon Baddiley]

Those are mutually exclusive operations. Set GP functions through the camera menu OR through the GP App with Wi-Fi on the ground, then disconnect from GP App and turn off GP's Wi-Fi for your flights.

So the downside is you still can't change it in flight


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[SARDG]

But the WiFi signal from the GoPro, although not connected to the device can infact interfere in more ways than one. Likeliness of it happening is like 1% but it can happen.

There is no wi-fi signal from GP when you turn wi-fi off.

 

[SARDG]

So the downside is you still can't change it in flight

Change 'what'? You may change some parameters in flight, apparently NOT the newly available parameters in v4. This is a GP limitation. For instance, you cannot change EV while GP is in record.

I never updated to v4, but v3 also has similar in-flight change restrictions of some parameters.

 

[Brendon Baddiley]

Change 'what'? You may change some parameters in flight, apparently NOT the newly available parameters in v4. This is a GP limitation. For instance, you cannot change EV while GP is in record.

I never updated to v4, but v3 also has similar in-flight change restrictions of some parameters.

Mainly changing exposure settings in photos or shutter speeds


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[SteveReno]

All that didn't bother me, Why i reverted back V.3 was the video feed looked messed up, I need a CLEAR sharp feed.

 

[SARDG]

Mainly changing exposure settings in photos or shutter speeds

I am not a resource of specific parameters that work in-flight, on all FW versions, but expect limitations and you won't be disappointed.

Kelly Shrock (not 3dr) is the developer who said that EV cannot be changed during record. It'seems likely that other exposure controls cannot either - though I don'the know that with certainty. Sometimes ya' just have to try things yourself to find out. That's mostly how I blunder through...

 

[Brendon Baddiley]

I am not a resource of specific parameters that work in-flight, on all FW versions, but expect limitations and you won't be disappointed.

Kelly Shrock (not 3dr) is the developer who said that EV cannot be changed during record. It'seems likely that other exposure controls cannot either - though I don'the know that with certainty. Sometimes ya' just have to try things yourself to find out. That's mostly how I blunder through...

I was looking at changing an EV between photos to create an HDR image post production


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