Next up in our “Ask Drone Girl” series is about how to increase FPV resolution. If you have a question for Drone Girl, contact her here.
I’m trying to find a drone/camera combination that will allow me to image animal footprints on the ground from 20m altitude. To do this, I first need to be able to see the footprint trails from the air. I’ve tested some 12Mpix cameras on a DJI Phantom 3 Advanced and a Mavic and they just about pick out a trail on the FPV via my iPad. I know that increasing to a model with a 20Mpix camera will improve the resolution of still images, but will it improve my ability to see the trails on the FPV?
-Zoe
Hey Zoe,
I reached out to my buddy and drone mapping professional Jon Ellinger, the creator of TLT Photography, to help me answer this one.
He says your best bet for bang for the buck would be the Phantom 4 Pro with it’s 1″ 20mp sensor, which you noted. The bad news is, there is no reliable way to increase the resolution of the FPV beyond a few settings which you can try in the DJI Go App.
The app will enable you to increase the transmission quality; bump it up to 5.8ghz frequency which will help stream more data smoothly. However, you won’t be able to fly long distances at that frequency.
This video offers a deeper dive into those settings:
For more bad news: beyond these suggestions you are kind of out of luck as the technology just isn’t there to stream 4K resolution yet over these frequencies. But Ellinger has some good news too.
“5G is coming,” he said. “That will change everything. For now tell her to adjust these settings, turn on obstacle avoidance and fly closer to the ground.”
First of all, thank you for sharing the useful tips with the great instructions through the video. That really helps. We will see how 5G will help in these matters. Technology is getting advanced day in day out. Let’s hope great solutions.
First of all, thank you for sharing the useful tips with the great instructions through the video. That really helps. We will see how 5G will help in these matters. Technology is getting advanced day in day out. Let’s hope great solutions.