Heading out to sea

[Simon Danial Junghans]

Hi guys I have a shoot soon for a customer. He will be on his yacht and wants me to record the his party.
I am using a phantom 3 pro.

- Sunset photo / video ( What would be the best setting to use for this scene )

- Best way to take from from a moving boat?

- Also I am really worried about the HOME POINT since I will be moving on the water. Unlike the inspire 1 that can track your controller. ( this is a big problem for me so some advise would be highly appreciated )

 

[Volkhard]

Your Phantom should not be too far away in this scenario, therefore disconnect is unlikely if you have a stable system. You might use follow me for some shots while the boat is moving. If this is bigger boat /yacht they might run Radar and other systems. Your would be adwised to check whether these system could interfere with your connections!!!!

I assume most of the takes will be more or less close ups as it is a party and usually people want to recognize themselves on these videos. But there will be some wide shots as well. Just remember, the Sun sets fast and you should have a storyboard where you plan your takes , especially at sun set time.

You should enable dynamic homepoint. The Inspire has the tracking dynamic homepoint, P3 does not but you can still declare homepoint at your controller location as long as your tablet/phone has a GPS and the GPS is enabled. I am not sure whether you could set one of the customizable buttons on the back of the controller to set the homepoint, perhaps someone with more experience might help with that.

Don't forget to show your video here after it's done! Good luck and lot's of fun.

 

[Volkhard]

I forgot to mention: If you use Litchi you could easily edit the homepoint by pushing on the map (long push) to establish the homepoint!

 

[Meta4]

Hi Simon ... it's hard to advise on settings without knowing what the conditions will be.
If you are shooting photos, I'd be inclined to use auto and AEB bracketing to give you multiple exposure choices to make sure you get some good ones.

Shooting from a boat makes you nervous the first time but it's not too difficult.
For takeoff. unless you have a good clear flat area and the boat stopped, you probably want to hand launch.
For that you need an assistant and you have to brief them properly and practise because it can be a surprise for them the first time and you don't want them panicking with spinning rotors.

In flight you won't be getting too far from the boat and should be able to see the P3 all the time.
If the boat is moving quite some distance while you shoot, you can reset the home point a few times to keep home close rather than leaving it behind in the distance.

You can reset home to wherever the P3 is at any time or, if you have gps in your tablet, you can reset home to be where you are at the time you reset.

Bring the Phantom in well before the battery runs down. At sea is not a place to have your Phantom attempt to RTH.
(You do know you can overide RTH and resume control?)

For landing, you definitely want to be hand catching rather than landing on a moving boat with people around. It will be a lot easier if you can get the captain to stop the boat for launching and landing.

If you don't usually hand catch, better practise on land before you go out. Also have a lanyard on the Tx so you don't have to worry about dropping it.

 

[Simon Danial Junghans]

Thank you guys for your reply! I will definitely upload the video here once it's done.

Meta4 how do I reset the home point to where my p3 is?

 

[Simon Danial Junghans]

I also hope I will get GPS signal / be able to calibrate my compass. There should be a lot of metal objects surrounding me I am guessing.
Any tips you can share with me ?

Cheers Guys,

 

[Meta4]

Meta4 how do I reset the home point to where my p3 is?

OK ... Make sure you have up to date firmware and the Go App.
If you have the old original versions, they did not allow you to reset home point.
On the left side of the screen, you see three icons.
The centre one is to bring your Phantom home.
The bottom one is to reset home point.

To reset home, you have two choices.
1. sets home to the current location of the P3

2. sets home to the location you are at (if you have a GPS enabled tablet)

If you are out on the water and the GPS of your tablet is on, you won't get this weak GPS message.

I would suggest some practice on dry land so you know how these work.

 

[Meta4]

I also hope I will get GPS signal / be able to calibrate my compass. There should be a lot of metal objects surrounding me I am guessing.
Any tips you can share with me ?

You will have perfect GPS out on the water.
You do not want to calibrate your compass on the boat.
Just go with the compass calibration you have. Calibrating on the boat won't help and could cause problems if you do it wrong.

 

[Simon Danial Junghans]

Meta4 your a champ! Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. I will do a compass calibration right before I board the yacht by the jetty. I should be safe for the whole trip I hope.