Introduction
These instructions are tailored to a Mini 4K using the RC-N1 controller with an Android phone as the screen. For more information on basic DJI file handling, please read this page. These instructions are for sending 360 “Sphere” pano shots to Facebook using an Android phone or a PC. The process is complicated because it appears that while one can share a pano easily directly to a FB group, one cannot post a pano directly onto your personal timeline/feed from the DJI app; it must be done externally. Furthermore, it appears that FB will only accept a 360 pano image as a true pano if it is posted into the first post of a topic/thread; panos that are posted in replies will go up only as distorted, wide still-images. While the Mini 4K has two the “pano” modes, “180” and “Wide-angle”, these are not interactive; you cannot use the mouse to move around the image as you can with a “Sphere”. Therefore, I treat them simply as a normal JPEG image.Create the Panorama
The drone has to be airborne to go into Pano mode. In the Photo mode, tap the Photo menu button, then tap Pano, then tap “Sphere”. Position the drone, then tap the green Start button or pull the trigger. The drone will rotate around, in stages, and take approximately 27 images for the panorama.View Your Panorama
After taking a “Sphere” pano shot… Tap Home Tap Album You’ll be presented with some security stuff re accessing your phone. Tap “Go to settings”, ensure “Photos” is selected, then tap Done. The DJI album screen will be shown: “DJI Mini 4K” (ie images on the drone) tab displayed: As soon as you go to the album, the system will process the pano by combining the 27-odd JPEGs it took. When finished, there will a brief message saying “exported to mobile device” ie your phone. The pano file (also a JPEG) will be stored in your phone’s main storage in the “DCIM/DJI Album” folder (this is the album shown via the Saved tab). The processed panos are identified by the sphere icon in the bottom left corner of the thumbnails. See the image above. Tap on the thumbnail; the whole pano will be displayed: Tap on “360 photo viewer” button: this will display the pano in 360 mode. Tap the options icons but “scroll” is the best one. If the white 360 button isn’t visible, tap the screen and it will re-appear. You can take screenshots of any angle you like when you’re dragging the pano around. Simply tap the white “Screenshot” button top right. To close the Pano viewer, tap the Close cross top left and then the < icon (top left) to return to the Album screen. You can see the files on your drone under the “DJI Mini 4K” tab, or on your phone under the “Saved” tab.To share to a Facebook group
To share to a Facebook group: • Tap on the pano you want to share • Tap Export icon, top right • Tap the F icon on the left end of the list • Tap the Share icon at top right • Select the groups you want to share it with • Continue on with the FB posting process.To share to your own page/feed
To share the pano to your own FB page, AFAICS you have to use the combined pano file that DJI has saved earlier on your phone. You can’t do it directly from the DJI app, because the “F” icon in the app takes you straight to the Facebook Groups share option.Option 1-From the phone gallery
• Using your gallery app, locate and open the DJI Album, which will contain your pano: • Tap the pano, then tap the Share icon and share to Facebook in the normal way.Option 2-In a new post
• Start a new post • Tap the FB photo icon to display your FB gallery • Find and tap on the “DJI Album” album. If you’ve just taken the pano, it will be at or near the top of your “gallery” (top of the list). You can spot the pano files by the 360 sphere icon on the thumbnail. Tap the pano file icon, then tap Next; your pano will be displayed and you can scroll it around. Note the 360 icon. Maddeningly, FB does not allow you to sort the albums in alphabetical order, so if you can’t find your pano, as I describe just above, use your camera gallery app, other third-party gallery or a file manager (such as Samsung’s “My Files” or CX File Explorer) to find, select the pano and then “share” it to FB. • Back in FB, tap next, set your audience and the other options and tap Post.View Your Pano on a Windows PC
To view your 360 panos on your PC, transfer the pano JPG then open it with a panorama-viewing app. The Microsoft Store has a good one: “Simple Panorama Viewer”. The other panos, the “180°” and “wide” panos, are best viewed in a standard image viewer.Create a Pano on your PC from your Drone images
There are various Windows programs that create panos from your DJI pano images found in the DCIM\Panorama folder. DJI Panos are relatively low quality (~2MB from the Mini 4K for a 4096x2048 image)) and sometimes have gross stitching errors. Programs I’ve used: • Hugin: seems very capable but complicated, never got a result, but it’s free. • PTGui: too expensive for me • Panovolo: Very easy/simple to use, very accurate with stitching and has good manual correction functions for any minor misalignments. Produces a more “normal”- looking “Wide-angle” pano than the DJI Fy app, Good size Panos, around 15MB (9064x4532), Facebook-ready, reasonable price. Recommended.
Introduction
These instructions are tailored to a Mini 4K using the RC-N1 controller with an Android phone as the screen. For more information on basic DJI file handling, please read this page. These instructions are for sending 360 “Sphere” pano shots to Facebook using an Android phone or a PC. The process is complicated because it appears that while one can share a pano easily directly to a FB group, one cannot post a pano directly onto your personal timeline/feed from the DJI app; it must be done externally. Furthermore, it appears that FB will only accept a 360 pano image as a true pano if it is posted into the first post of a topic/thread; panos that are posted in replies will go up only as distorted, wide still-images. While the Mini 4K has two the “pano” modes, “180” and “Wide-angle”, these are not interactive; you cannot use the mouse to move around the image as you can with a “Sphere”. Therefore, I treat them simply as a normal JPEG image.Create the Panorama
The drone has to be airborne to go into Pano mode. In the Photo mode, tap the Photo menu button, then tap Pano, then tap “Sphere”. Position the drone, then tap the green Start button or pull the trigger. The drone will rotate around, in stages, and take approximately 27 images for the panorama.View Your Panorama
After taking a “Sphere” pano shot… Tap Home Tap Album You’ll be presented with some security stuff re accessing your phone. Tap “Go to settings”, ensure “Photos” is selected, then tap Done. The DJI album screen will be shown: “DJI Mini 4K” (ie images on the drone) tab displayed: As soon as you go to the album, the system will process the pano by combining the 27-odd JPEGs it took. When finished, there will a brief message saying “exported to mobile device” ie your phone. The pano file (also a JPEG) will be stored in your phone’s main storage in the “DCIM/DJI Album” folder (this is the album shown via the Saved tab). The processed panos are identified by the sphere icon in the bottom left corner of the thumbnails. See the image above. Tap on the thumbnail; the whole pano will be displayed: Tap on “360 photo viewer” button: this will display the pano in 360 mode. Tap the options icons but “scroll” is the best one. If the white 360 button isn’t visible, tap the screen and it will re-appear. You can take screenshots of any angle you like when you’re dragging the pano around. Simply tap the white “Screenshot” button top right. To close the Pano viewer, tap the Close cross top left and then the < icon (top left) to return to the Album screen. You can see the files on your drone under the “DJI Mini 4K” tab, or on your phone under the “Saved” tab.To share to a Facebook group
To share to a Facebook group: • Tap on the pano you want to share • Tap Export icon, top right • Tap the F icon on the left end of the list • Tap the Share icon at top right • Select the groups you want to share it with • Continue on with the FB posting process.To share to your own page/feed
To share the pano to your own FB page, AFAICS you have to use the combined pano file that DJI has saved earlier on your phone. You can’t do it directly from the DJI app, because the “F” icon in the app takes you straight to the Facebook Groups share option.Option 1-From the phone gallery
• Using your gallery app, locate and open the DJI Album, which will contain your pano: • Tap the pano, then tap the Share icon and share to Facebook in the normal way.Option 2-In a new post
• Start a new post • Tap the FB photo icon to display your FB gallery • Find and tap on the “DJI Album” album. If you’ve just taken the pano, it will be at or near the top of your “gallery” (top of the list). You can spot the pano files by the 360 sphere icon on the thumbnail. Tap the pano file icon, then tap Next; your pano will be displayed and you can scroll it around. Note the 360 icon. Maddeningly, FB does not allow you to sort the albums in alphabetical order, so if you can’t find your pano, as I describe just above, use your camera gallery app, other third-party gallery or a file manager (such as Samsung’s “My Files” or CX File Explorer) to find, select the pano and then “share” it to FB. • Back in FB, tap next, set your audience and the other options and tap Post.View Your Pano on a Windows PC
To view your 360 panos on your PC, transfer the pano JPG then open it with a panorama-viewing app. The Microsoft Store has a good one: “Simple Panorama Viewer”. The other panos, the “180°” and “wide” panos, are best viewed in a standard image viewer.Create a Pano on your PC from your
Drone images
There are various Windows programs that create panos from your DJI pano images found in the DCIM\Panorama folder. DJI Panos are relatively low quality (~2MB from the Mini 4K for a 4096x2048 image)) and sometimes have gross stitching errors. Programs I’ve used: • Hugin: seems very capable but complicated, never got a result, but it’s free. • PTGui: too expensive for me • Panovolo: Very easy/simple to use, very accurate with stitching and has good manual correction functions for any minor misalignments. Produces a more “normal”- looking “Wide-angle” pano than the DJI Fy app, Good size Panos, around 15MB (9064x4532), Facebook-ready, reasonable price. Recommended.
