This is an addition to a blog post written last year about the updated DJI Phantom 4 Pro software that now allows the recording of drone video sound via the inbuilt microphone on the phone or tablet being used as a screen. These drone video sound recordings are filed with the cached videos on the phone or tablet; which many people wouldn’t even know are there. DJI’s filing system is very messy – there’s a multitude of folders with obscure names, some empty and others filled with documents identified only by number. Unless you dedicate a slab of time to having a good poke around you would have no idea what’s being stored in there. Some of it is flight records and other docs are demos and examples. Some of it should be backed up onto your computer, some of it is ignorable.
Don’t forget to double check all your drone settings after software updates, because settings may return to defaults.
EG your drone may just record JPEG images instead of JPEG & RAW files – and you’ll only realise when you’re downloading the images onto a computer, afterwards.
I got caught out recently when the ‘record audio with video cache’ option returned to the default setting of ‘off’. Because I only found out that the drone video audio recordings were missing when downloading the cached video files from my tablet (drone screen) onto computer, after I got home. I download this cache less often than the main video & still image recordings, which are filed on the memory cards and downloaded after every flight. Curiously, when this software was first updated last year, making sound recording possible, the default must have been ‘on’ because it’s how I accidentally found out that sound was being recorded with the videos. Now the default must have been changed to ‘off’. Perhaps due to security/privacy concerns?
Truly dedicated videographers will of course record sound with another device, however I suspect that marrying the sound up with the video could be challenging for anyone who isn’t especially dedicated to technology and time consuming problem solving.
Due to the lack of conversation online it appears that a lot of people still don’t realise that the DJI Phantom 4 Pro can record audio when you create drone videos.
The earlier blog post I wrote on sound recording is called Drone Technology – Rapidly Evolving.
Another thing that should be done regularly? Sync drone flight records.
These are the sorts of things I explain in detailed drone workshops. If you are interested in attending a drone workshop, let me know.
Tags: Photography - Drones