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05/18/16 Upgrade to Phantom 4 Vr 2.0–Not everything went smoothly

After this purchase on 05/09/18 of a new Phantom 4 Pro Vr 2.0 I will never again use the DJI Store.  What a joke when it comes to customer satisfaction.  It’s clear to me that DJI is the 800lb gorrilla and they a lot to learn about customer care and or satisfaction. 

 

Phantom 4 Pro Vr 2.0

My brand new defective Phantom 4 Pro Vr 2.0 Still waiting on authorization to return to DJI

 

I have been working with DJI products now for close to 1 year, starting with the Spark and quickly moving up to the Phantom Series.  My main focus is stills, not video and the Phantom with 20MP is by far the best solution on the market.  Up till now, most of my purchases have been from the DJI store.  NET, the process is quick, fast, and no local sales tax.  I most often always purchase the DJI Refresh also as it seems like a good idea after a possible crash.  Realize there is no way to really talk to DJI, folks they are in China.  They have a phone contact number for the US, but what a joke.  These folks are right off bus, and anyone who has taken the time to read a DJI manual would have more knowledge than any of them.  Getting hold of an engineer or real tech give up, you ain’t gonna get there.

This particular Phantom 4 Vr 2.0 acted up right from the start since I was never able to get the newer version of DJI Assistant to work with it.  YES, there is a new version of DJI Assistant, Vr 2.0.0 and when you load it on your computer, it will be called Assistant 2 for Phantom.  (now that is also misleading, since the previous version of Assistant 2 vr 1.2.3 is what you use to support the P4 Pro and back down to P2.  Only the new P4 Vr 2.0 works with this version.  I was able to connect, get the corresponding box to click on, but when you try to see firmware, you get the error “Unable to load firmware please retry”.  You can try as many times as you want, it’s not going to load.  Guess what, you also thus can’t get to the flight data on the P4 i.ie. the .DAT files.

I still was able to get the firmware updated via Djigo4, and I guess the batteries updated, but I have no way to knowing this as Djigo4 app doesn’t break it down, like the Assistant software does.

First flight:  within 5 minutes I received a compass error, one I have never seen before telling me that the compass was no longer working.  I had previously calibrated the compass.  But since this flight was local and only a test, I was able to return.  Re calibration of the compass was successful and I flew it again. This time after about 5 minutes I received a error on the 5.8 frequency stating that I had too much interference.  (I thought the Vr 2 P4 was autoswitching?).  Again I landed, and switched to 2.4.  Now I had 2 more flights without errors.  I noticed the controller was down to 2 lights, so I powered everything off and set it on the charger.

After both battery and charger were charger, I attempted another flight.  This time on turning on the charger, all I got was the “controller error” status.  (flashing red and constant beeping).  Dead, done.

Sure, you may get this with the sticks not centered, (mine were).  So I tried to reset it with the 3 button reset, no good.  Calling DJI was a waste of time, net they did not know anything.  So a google search came back with “attempt to refresh firmware of controller”.  PER THE MANUAL of the P4 Vr 2.0, you are supposed to be able to do this by attaching the micro USB cable to controller, and then using Assistant 2 for Phantom to refresh.  Well mine never would connect, i.e. the USB indicator never moved into the PC on the screen.  I also tried to re-calibrate the controller via djigo4, but again it never would connect or make any head way.

This is all within the first 12 hours of turning it on.  What would you do? My take was return it for a new unit as at $1,500.00 I don’t want to wait a month for parts or get a refurb controller.

I called DJI again, spent a good 30 minutes trying to get a real person, finally did.  They told me “yes you need to return it and go to the www.support.us@dji.com website and request a return.

I did that, both with a very detailed description of the problems and what I tried to do to fix it.  Within 2 hours I received a automated response giving me a case number.

This morning I received a email from China asking me in essence to retry everything I had already done, (center the sticks, re-calibrate or refresh firmware on controller). So out goes my response telling them that “I have done all of that”.  As of five hours later, I am still waiting for a response.  Very discouraging.

Moral of this story.

DJI makes great stuff, however their current customer support process is broken plain and simple.  The Store model is great unless you get a bad product, then I guess it’s safe to assume it’s time to call your credit card company and open an issue, which I will do next week if don’t hear anything back.  It’s much better to stay with Adorama or B&H Photo in the U.S or Best Buy as all 3 of them have a rock solid return process and I can assure you if the same issue had occurred with a P4 Vr 2.0 purchased from one of these vendors, I would already have a RMA and the drone would be headed back to them for a replacement.  Of course on this transaction, I was forced to purchase from the DJI Store since DJI allowed the store to have stock first over other loyal vendors.   So if you purchase from the store, beware, and hope your product works as trying to return it even after it’s totally clear the unit is defective is not an easy thing to do.

 

Notes, as all the rush is now to post a video on Youtube and develop a channel to get paid by advertisers, my approach will stay with written text and no video unless attached to a post.  Too old fashion for you sorry, but I would rather read then watch. You will get the same info, and you can even print it or keep a record of it and not watch have to watch a video again.

 

Written for paulcaldwellphotography.com on 05/18/18.

08/03/17 Goodbye to the Fuji-GFX Facebook group–after amazing responses to copyright issues

I joined the Fuji GFX facebook group before I even had a Fuji GFX to work with. Initially I found it to be very good group as for once there was world wide membership.  It was refreshing to hear from other photographers outside of the U.S.  I did find that it seemed that the mix was a good one, between professional and amateur photographers.  I have never had any problems with a non-professional’s opinion and in fact I have learned a lot from these type of forums over the years.  However I am a professional photograph, net I earn 100% of my living from attempting to sell my work.  As I am landscape photographer and printer not a studio shooter the jobs I get can be few and far between.  However the time and work I spend finding, capturing and then developing a shot is considerable.  So when I find that my work has been taken without my permission, I do get a bit upset.

My website, www.photosofarknasas.com has always had a listed copyright.  However it was still possible to print screen images from the site as I did not use a visual copyright on my galleries.  For years I have been able to market my work to large corporations looking at needs for new offices or hospitals in my state of Arkansas.  The listed copyright seemed to take care of any issues and thus the need for a visual copyright on each image was not necessary.  This was until late May of 2017, when I found that a Candlewood Suites chain hotel was using my work, and a lot of it without my permission.  The total number of printed images is between 100 and 260, and I am betting on the later as I know for sure that 2 rooms each have 2 of my images, the hotel has 130 rooms, simple math folks, 260.

That issue both stunned me and disappointed me as I quickly found out that as a single owner of a small business, there is really no recourse, i.e. I can’t sue the company as even if I win the cost of the law suit will far out weigh any gains I get.  So I went back to my site and went ahead with the visual watermarking that I have so long attempted to avoid.

Sunset and moonrise in the Alabama Hills.

Sunset and moonrise in the Alabama Hills.

This image is an example of what I had to do.  I fully agree the use of such watermarking is distracting, however when you consider the fact that someone could easily take the shot and then use it for their own means without paying for it, I choose the visual method.

What was interesting was I submitted this image to the FujiGFX Facebook group and was immediately slammed by critics.

Comments like:

1.  It’s raining watermarks

2.  I would be complimented if I found out that someone used my work for free, (REALLY)

3.  I can’t see the image due to the watermarks.  (Total Bull IMO)

Well it was an interesting lesson.  I decided to drop out of the Fuji GFX Facebook group.  I have no time for those type of comments.  Comments made by people who really must not care about attempting to make a living with photography, and just throw their work out to the web.  I guess they are the ones that prefer jpgs and the Fuji Film simulations since they “save so much time”.  For me, not the case.  Lets consider the image in question.

This shot was taken hand held with a Fuji GFX and 32-64 lens.  I was working against a quickly fading evening sky, and my tripod was still in the car, over 5 minutes both ways.  I knew that the moon would soon be blocked by the clouds, but more importantly I had get the light right then.  The scene was one that really required a bracketing series, but I still don’t like using the GFX this way unless on tripod.  So I pushed up the ISO to around 800 and then shot 3 vertical shots several times.  The images were converted to dngs and then worked up in Capture One, then moved to Lightroom to create the pano.  I then used some Topaz Clarity on the clouds.  At least a half day of work was one on this shot so I did feel that I was not going to just give it away to some opportunist.

The FujiGFX Facebook group could have handled the issue differently, at least in my eyes.  I have stopped using the full visual water marking on Flickr and 500px, just putting my single line copyright.  On my website, however I still use the full visual style.  To see how one group of seemingly professional folks handled this subject was to say the least eye opening for me.  I don’t have time to waste on such worthless and wasted opinions.  The fact that people consider such internet theft OK, still amazes me and shows me that they are not working as professional photographers.  That an amateur  photographer would feel this is OK, is not good either.  It shows that many or most people feel that this type of theft is OK.  Back to my loss that I started with, I figure to me the total loss was between 6K and 10K.  If you feel it’s OK to have such a loss, then I guess we can just agree to disagree.  It’s hard enough now with iPhone and other simple devices totally changing the way photography is viewed to make a living without having your work stolen and not even getting credit for it.

I should also note that at the same time I submitted this image to the FujiGFX facebook group, I also placed it on several professional imaging forums that I been a member of for years. I also placed the image on my flickr and 500px accounts and it was interesting to see that all of the feedback I receieve albeit not all positive, all of those “photographers” were able to see around the visual watermarks and view the image.  Interesting fact and enlightening fact.

 

 

Written by Paul Caldwell for www.paulcaldwellphotography.com

 

08/02/17 Learning how to make a 5 part stitch panorama from a Fuji X-T2

cw Close up no2 of Mt Whitney X-T2 4 part pano

I have written a new Article on how to create a hand held panorama using a Fuji X-T2 and 100-400mm lens, hand held.  This article will show you what raw converter (Capture One) and why I choose it over other raw converters on the market.  You can quickly see how to take 5 vertical images, work them up in Capture One, export them to Lightroom, create a panorama with a much large overall megapixel count and then do the final color work.

The Fuji X-T2 with 24 megapixels is an excellent platform to work with for panorama stitching.

You can find the full article here:  Creating a 5 part panorama with a Fuji X-T2 Camera.

As always, thanks for reading.

Paul Caldwell