Watchlords

I very recently bought a DJI Mini 3 Pro.

I went out with it for the first time, today, and these are the first two shots of town I took with it. The first photo has an arrow to where I'm sitting. Taken at 1:18PM. It'll be light today until about 11:30PM, so I'll go out again, I think.

We're still getting smoke haze but today it's only in the "Unhealthy for sensitive groups" level (like me with asthma and COPD), around 112ADI, which explains the visible haze in the distance, but there's only been maybe three or four days better than this since I posted the original horror fire and smoke story.

Still, where I live is wonderful for lots of reasons!

(open the photo in a new frame for larger/details. 12mp at auto settings--I coulda gone 48mp, but I'm new to using the drone...) Red arrow points to the bear-proof garbage can next to is where I'm sitting.

Very cool. Glad to see it's cleared up for the most part. The drone footage you see on Youtube videos and what not makes me think that current models are much easier to control than the early ones. I tried one years ago and found it harder to fly than an actual airplane. The hardest part back then was orienting yourself to the drones direction. Like coming toward you the controls are opposite versus moving away. Oh well, I had fun flying today and it looks you did too.

Nice pics -

I had a drone once — I downed it and drowned it in the neighboring building's pool.

Cool pictures. Glad the air is improving. Hope it continues to get better.

smellody wrote: ↑

June 23rd 2023, 6:36pm

Cool pictures. Glad the air is improving. Hope it continues to get better.

Thank you. The air is getting better, and no more lightning storms so far--but it's 30C/86F hot and it's dry.

3Flushes wrote: ↑

June 23rd 2023, 6:35pm

Nice pics -

I had a drone once — I downed it and drowned it in the neighboring building's pool.

Thank you, and it sucks to hear that. These are fun. Do you miss it?

Mark1 wrote: ↑

June 23rd 2023, 2:54pm

Very cool. Glad to see it's cleared up for the most part. The drone footage you see on Youtube videos and what not makes me think that current models are much easier to control than the early ones...Oh well, I had fun flying today and it looks you did too.

I did have fun and this unit is brain dead easy to fly, at least for basic getting around. Its stable up in up to 24mph winds, and has 3 speeds to 35mph, including a slow motion speed. take off is wonderful. The things starts, raises to about 1.5M in the air, and stays there till you tell it what to do.

The camera is surprising me. Like before, these are large files and the detail is terrific. The sky isn't blown out, there's lots of dynamic range, you can see details in the shadows, and it was a bright day, and hot...and nothing's over exposed.

The red arrow points to where I live.



Lay of the land looking mildly southeast...



Looks OK now, but you should see these streets at rush minute.



I was behind a car at an intersection, and missed the entire light. Once.

Nice and sleepy! Photos are fantastic.

I have a drone in my office. I'll have to charge it up.

What a cool looking town !

Love the pics as well

AlbertaTime wrote: ↑

June 24th 2023, 12:45am

3Flushes wrote: ↑

June 23rd 2023, 6:35pm

Nice pics -

I had a drone once — I downed it and drowned it in the neighboring building's pool.

Thank you, and it sucks to hear that. These are fun. Do you miss it?

Great pics, man. Reminds me of some of the long gone sleepy towns here when I was a kid.

I haven't missed droning until recently as they now appear easier to fly and the cameras are much improved. Perhaps I will try my hand at it again.

Damn it, those are the kind of photos that will drive a man to purchase a drone he knows nothing about and - in trying to recreate such imagery - he will proceed to crash it into an errant palm tree.

Still. Now I want one.

Great photos!! Beautiful town!

Nuvolari wrote: ↑

June 26th 2023, 8:39am

Damn it, those are the kind of photos that will drive a man to purchase a drone he knows nothing about and - in trying to recreate such imagery - he will proceed to crash it into an errant palm tree.

Still. Now I want one.

Great photos!! Beautiful town!

Thank you, and I am happy to live here. Except at -45C in December. Then, I'm only happy enough.

I think you wouldn't have any trouble flying the Mini 3 pro, nor getting similarly good photos. This was done with the camera on auto, and I was flying the drone over the river after a sum total of *maybe* two hours total practice flying time--all of which was easy. I should mention the drone has really good internal object avoidance sensors. Hitting something isn't impossible, but it takes either work or substantial carelessness. Also, DJI offers fairly cheap repair and replacement insurance for newbies like me. I took the two year plan.

https://store.dji.com/ca/product/dji-ca ... vid=113841

AlbertaTime wrote: ↑

June 26th 2023, 7:55pm

Nuvolari wrote: ↑

June 26th 2023, 8:39am

Damn it, those are the kind of photos that will drive a man to purchase a drone he knows nothing about and - in trying to recreate such imagery - he will proceed to crash it into an errant palm tree.

Still. Now I want one.

Great photos!! Beautiful town!

Thank you, and I am happy to live here. Except at -45C in December. Then, I'm only happy enough.

I think you wouldn't have any trouble flying the Mini 3 pro, nor getting similarly good photos. This was done with the camera on auto, and I was flying the drone over the river after a sum total of *maybe* two hours total practice flying time--all of which was easy. I should mention the drone has really good internal object avoidance sensors. Hitting something isn't impossible, but it takes either work or substantial carelessness. Also, DJI offers fairly cheap repair and replacement insurance for newbies like me. I took the two year plan.

https://store.dji.com/ca/product/dji-ca ... vid=113841

That sounds fool proof, by golly. Why, I outt'a take another shot indeed.

Great pix! Thanks for sharing.

Nice looking town. Love the drone shots. Makes me want to ditch work and fire up my drone!

Great pics! It's like a far-north Mayberry!!

conjurer wrote: ↑

June 28th 2023, 7:02pm

Great pics! It's like a far-north Mayberry!!

That's a kind thing to say, John. I hope :-)

It's not quite like that but it's generally pretty calm, and almost everybody is really nice. I just checked and there's about 7,000 people live in town.

And yup, the drone is fun and the camera is good.

Keeping on topic--my daily for the past while...and after all it *is* the AMCH in Peace River


A quartz 63 that has the casual visual balance of a classic style mid-60's chrono, and stands up to daily work abuse for under $100. And sapphire.

3Flushes wrote: ↑

June 24th 2023, 4:50pm

Great pics, man. Reminds me of some of the long gone sleepy towns here when I was a kid.

Me too The very cool thing is we don't do without much, up here. Online and local stores means we have what others have, just less of it. Like 10 movie theaters to one, and 100 drug stores to...maybe 2, and another couple about 14 miles away. Bright lights, big city.

If I can, over the next couple of days, I'll try to get some video to show how it flies.

Been working pretty steady so I haven't had a chance to shoot any video of my own, but this file is as stored by the drone, that my brother and I took while playing with his.

I'm in the dark cap. It was the first time I'd ever touched the controls of a drone, so that should give an idea of how easy it handles.



I'm hoping to shoot some of my own video in the nect couple of days.

Too cool. I see you Ron!

Okay, finally,,,some footage I shot yesterday--and you can still see smoke haze (worse today, again with the number at about 170) . Anyways...this footage is available up to Youtube's 4K. so it'll show the video picture quality available with the Mini3 pro.

The first clip starts with the 2x zoom, then goes to 1x. There's a couple of flyovers and also a couple of shots where i walk around being tracked by the drone automatically. It can track people or objects in your shot, keeping the drone focused on them.

No sound, and probably a bit boring, and not the best shooting at all because I'm still learning.

That is super cool Ron. I love how much you are enjoying this hobby. Your town is so peaceful.

Cool. The tech really has come a long way — I think even I could keep from killing one of these.

Incredibly stable image and yeah, you live in a beautiful spot.

Hi all :-)

I am enjoying this new hobby, mostly because it gives me a reason to get outside and be doing something. And it is pretty peaceful here, that's true.

And, yep, the images are incredibly stable, and even in heavier wind than anything shown here. It's weird, because even on the close ups, I could see the drone bobbing around some in front of me while shooting--but not much of that shows on the video. The result is pretty steady--and on wider shots I can't see anything of the bumping around.

Fun stuff.

This is achieved by electronic image stabilization. Digital cameras in conjunction with fast computing combined in a device the size of a dime, plus battery, the evolution of this is mindless. Of course, just a few years from now we will have gotten used to AI producing pictures that we can not distinguish from reality. Then we will enter the Matrix.