Due to problems with the Go4 app compass freezing up and with the constant warnings when it’s a little windy about the angle of the sensors fighting the wind when it’s not really that windy I’ve moved over to using Litchi as my daily app as everything works flawlessly with it. I have checked to see if all obstacle avoidance sensors are still working with Litchi and all’s good. I also like the automatic recording feature on Litchi because of the times I’ve thought I just got some good footage only to realise I wasn’t even recording 
What are your opinions of Litchi good or bad? Thanks.
Mostly agreed - though I haven’t gone so far as checking if the sensors on my Mavic Air still work - I sort of presumed they are but ought to double check.
Unlike you, I turned off the (as I see it) annoying record everything but I can see why it makes sense for others. Myself I’m very much using the drone for still images but hoping to get more into videos as well.
My only frustrations with Litchi are:
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It doesn’t appear to always keep my settings between sessions. Elsewhere I’ve discussed the multiple files it creates (due to FAT file size limitations) and OzoneVibe suggested using 25fps - so next time I was out I did that yet the time after it had reverted to 29fps and also my imagery had gone back to just JPG.
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The interface can be fiddly specifically with the Mavic Air at least in trying to change manual settings for photographs.
All this said - since I got it I haven’t gone back into Go4 though I guess I need to for firmware updates from time to time.
Thanks for your reply mate, I will look out for my settings changing back especially from raw to jpegs as I always shoot in raw. I will let you know how I get on with it over time, it just seems more stable than the Go4.
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My main bugbear with it is not being able to view media that you have taken whilst still in the air.
The workaround is to cache video (in litchi settings) as you shoot it to the phone/tablet, or you can always close Litchi mid air and open GO4 and see them in there ;o)
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Nope! I never use 25! Too twitchy on a good screen.
I suggested not using 4k, and I use 2.7k @ 30fps.
With settings?
And have you used Go4 between sessions?
In 18 months I’ve never noticed any settings change … unless I used Go4 and changed something.
Most settings are saved to the drone … so if you change them on one they will have changed on the other.
Yes that’s true the settings are on drone and if something is changed in go4 it will be changed in Litchi that is why you can’t enter camera settings without turning the drone on. That includes things like RTH altitude etc.
Apologies, it was facherty that suggested the 25fps.
Not used Go4 since I first installed Litchi. Two settings “changed back to (presumably) defaults”. My image format - been using RAW + JPG but tend to delete the JPGs pretty much straightaway and the other setting was the 25fps went back to 29fps one. It’s no biggie, I just need to remember to check them.
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Hangar has a habit of doing this, but I’ve never noticed a settings change between GO and Litchi unless I have made that change myself (and as mentioned above I flick between GO and Litchi a lot mid flight to view photos taken).
Deffo the best (all round) setting on a Mavic Pro
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That most definitely has never changed on me. I’d be fuming!
Something to do with the Air? Dunno … and can’t see why.
Next time out I’ll fire up Go4 and recheck settings and then exit and fire up Litchi to see what’s what and then play a wait and see game.
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Theoretically, nothing should change that since it’s held on the drone and the app only reads the current settings when it connects to know what to show you they are.
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I am not sure I “suggested” 25fps to anyone, but merely recorded (in another thread) that I had used 25fps when filming at 4K. I do not have the technical knowledge to make a recommendation, only a little practical experience.
The reason I use 25fps is that my other cameras (a Panasonic HD camcorder and Filmic Pro 4K on the iPhone) can record at 25fps, and every time I try 24fps or 30fps that results are jerky within iMovie editing and when presented on the TV screen. 25fps just seems to suit the UK environment?
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I like it as I can use a single app for both the Inspire and the Mavic.
I was always having to switch between GO3 (Inspire) and GO4 (Mavic) and while they look roughly the same, stuff is always in a different bloody place!
So yes, Litchi solves all that!
Plus with Litchi you get the added bonus of being able to take a 360 pano on the Inspire with just the gimbal spinning around and the aircraft sitting dead still in the air 
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Good point mate. Another thing I like is you can set missions up in way points without having to switch the drone on first, you can even do it on the pc while logged in to your Litchi account and it sends it directly to your Litchi app in the saved missions folders. Makes it a piece of cake 
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I said suggested when perhaps I should have said mentioned.
It’s ok folks, I’m not blaming anyone or accusing anyone except maybe Litchi changing what I set 
25fps is the standard UK rate, so that’s good for me.
25fps has two main problems …
- it’s slow enough that the human eye can detect the flicker in things that are moving
- editing it with 30fps video forces frame drops/duplicates (depending on which you render it to) that are very visible …. and a lot of devices record in 30/60 only - most phones, for instance.
Basically - everything is heading in the 30/60fps direction, and 25fps only has a relevance if you live in a country that still has PAL analogue TVs that you want to play your video on.
An additional complication comes with the screen you’re watching on.
Laptops/computers are pretty much all (30/)60Hz refresh rates (I’ve not seen a 30Hz in ages!), and few can be switched to 25/50Hz.
Mine is a couple of years old - and there is only 60Hz.
Flat screen TVs mostly default to (30Hz/)60Hz (again - 60Hz is by far the most common - 120Hz on high end TVs), some will offer auto-switching to a 50Hz input (my 10 year old TV does), and I can’t recall the last time I saw one offering 25Hz!
Going back to frame drops/duplicates when editing 25fps and 30fps video.
If you convert 25fps to a 30fps timeline, it has to duplicate every 5th frame to spread the 25 over a second.
If you convert 30fps to a 25fps timeline, it has to drop every 6th frame.
Both are usually very obvious when there is any movement.
(Yes - if you have very expensive software/hardware used in the TV industry, some of this is corrected by tracking movement and creating corrected frames, which in isolation look crap, but pass without you noticing as much as you would with the kind of software we’ll probably be using.)
Storage is cheap, these days, and should never be the reason to compromise video quality at the recording stage … because you can never recover what you never had in the first place. Always record in a manner that’s better than what you’ll be really wanting.
How much better - well, fundamentally the best you can - but as most people discover, that comes with editing hardware demands that they’re not wanting to spend money on right now.
I use 2.7k since I very rarely render to more than 1080, and it allows for adequate cropping, and my laptop doesn’t bat an eye at processing it. (Something I did for a friend the other day I shot in 4k, because I knew I was going to have to crop a LOT, because I couldn’t get close enough. But that’s rare.)
I don’t bother recording/rendering in 4k for two reasons - rendering takes far too long and I don’t have a 4k screen to watch it on anyway. (And even if I had both of those sorted - this is a fun hobby, I’m not trying to impress anyone or make a movie for global release.)
Someone recently suggested one reason for rendering at 4k (irrespective of what it was recorded /rendered at for local viewing) was for uploading to YT.
This at first seems a little pointless, since
- additional rendering time
- additional upload time
- YT play with what you upload anyway, and
- the vast majority of people will watch YT 1080.
But … the idea is that if they play with the 4k - perhaps their version of 1080 is better than your 1080 once they’ve played with it.
There is definitely some sound logic in that. But I’ve yet to test the practice. It’s on a long list.
But it is still the industry standard in cinema.
Well - celluloid was 24fps … 
Modern digital cinema is also moving to 48fps and higher.
The main issue with that (IMHO) is that it all seems so unreal, almost video game like, some good cinema films have been ruined by looking not real ;o(
Interesting read