DJI Mini 3 PRO: compass direction not available?

[CW E]

Hi all!

I could not find sufficient answers in this forum for my questions - so my questions here: 

• Does the newest PTGui 12.24 have support for compass-direction of the EXIF-data?
• Will PTGui read the compass-orientation from am MINI 3 Pro?

I do 360/180° pano-images this way: 

• RAW-files from drone (Mini 3 Pro)
• Correction in DxO PureRaw --> output as RAW-files
• Import in PTGui Pro 12.24

Images do not have any direction-data in PTGui, and so does not the final spherical image in JPG. 

Have I overlooked something here? Or is this a common problem?

Thanks for suggestions!

[Christian Rath]

As far as I know, these values aren't stored (from the mini2 as well as mini3) within the exif-data. So, it's not a "problem" from ptgui.

[Bill Gassman]

Great question and one I've also been wondering.  The EXIF data in the raw photos have GPS based coordinates, along with YAW and PITCH  and ROLL numbers.  (found with https://jimpl.com/)  The YAW numbers appear to represent degrees off GPS north (mag or true isn't noted).  Even the camera stitched (DJI Mini 4 Pro) panoramas have the YAW data in the EXIF, so direction could be derived.  While theoretically possible, I have not seen any application that (today) converts YAW numbers to direction, surely not PTGUI or LightRoom.  There are EXIF attributions for direction, which is the right way to get the data, but DJI doesn't appear to support them.  

[CW E]

Bill - with your hints I was able to discover a simple method to extract ALL metadata from RAW-files on my Mini 3 Pro.

The simplest one is to open the file in an texteditor. In the uppermost section you are able to see all directional datas from DJI.

With a better solution I got for example this:

GimbalYawDegree should be the one you need. And yes, direction ranges from 0 (north) to +90 (east) to +180 (south). And counterclockwise -90 (west) to -179 (nearly south again).

So directions are stored, but in a proprietary way. If now I would know some details how PTGui handles directional informations, man could find a quick solution I presume.

• Does PTGui need directional datas from ALL pictures or just from one. If one, which one? (then you have just manipulate one picture)
• Which (regular) EXIF-field is the right one for filling in corrected data?

[CW E]

Correction:

I am very convinced, that ist IS indeed a problem with PTGui. Why?

I looked into the EXIF-Data now for many picture of my Mini 3 Pro. GimBalYaw ist the very correct value for direction. And PTGui is reading out exactly this value! And places pictures with that value into the correct position. And further more, PTGui positions a picture with a GimbalYaw-value of 0.0 exactly in the middle of the panorama. Which is simply north.

Have a look at a sample picture:

+63,80 --> somewhere east-north-east

Let's put it into PTGui --> voila - correctly placed:

Let's have a look into parameters --> exact same GimbalYaw-Value there:

The only thing PTGui does NOT do, is writing back some directionally value into the panorama-image.

Which should be a relatively easy task (an of course will do some calculations when shifting the centerpoint of the panorama to correct this shift).

[CW E]

A, one thing I forgot to mention:
The sample picture of course points to east-north-east in reality. I tested it with a couple of sample pictures. Everything is ok. Pictures pointing to the north do have a value around 0.0.

[Bill Landenberger]

I don't think PTGui is at fault here.  The standard format for compass bearings is a positive number between 0° and 360° (numbers increasing clockwise from north) and need to be tagged properly in EXIF data.  The data from my DSLR images contain a section (under 'GPS') with the following format (example):
Track Ref True North
Track 179.06
Img Direction Ref T
Img Direction 38.71
These 'Img Direction' is the key number here that is read by PTGui and applied correctly.  However, nothing like this appears in the EXIF data from DJI files - the GPS section only contains lats, longs and elevation.  So it is DJI that is at fault IMO.  As you have figured out, the 'yaw degree' values are potentially useful, but they are in an incorrect format (numbers between -180° and +180°) and there is no indication what the reference is - so PTGui cannot interpret it.

Anyway, that's my take on this.
cheers,

Bill

[CW E]

I do not understand what you want do say.

PTGUI uses this very data from DJI correctly. As you can see and read in my post above.

Just do not produce an output for compass data when finishing. Yes, maybe this does have something to do with DJI's kind of writing it. But What should that be?

[PTGui Support]

Yes, PTGui reads the gimbal data from DJI files. Upon loading PTGui
positions the images based on this data.

If GPS compass data is available in the source images, PTGui will embed
the compass data in the generated panorama, corrected for the yaw offset
of the source images, and averaged. So the compass angle corresponds to
the center of the panorama.

If the DJI images don't contain GPS data, you can still manually set the
compass angle in the metadata tab. If the GimbalYawDegree of 0 indeed
corresponds to north (I'm not sure about this), then the panorama would
automatically be centered north in PTGui.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 30-12-2023 09:52, CW E wrote:
> I do not understand what you want do say.
>

> *PTGUI uses this very data from DJI correctly. *As you can see and read

> *Correction: *

>
> I am very convinced, that ist IS indeed a problem with
> PTGui. Why?
>
> I looked into the EXIF-Data now for many picture of my Mini
> 3 Pro. GimBalYaw ist the very correct value for direction.
> And PTGui is reading out exactly this value! And places
> pictures with that value into the correct position. And
> further more, PTGui positions a picture with a
> GimbalYaw-value of 0.0 exactly in the middle of the
> panorama. Which is simply north.

> 2023-12-29_23-30-40.png
>
> Have a look at a sample picture:
>

> 2023-12-29_23-43-53.png
> +63,80 --> somewhere east-north-east
>
> Let's put it into PTGui --> voila - correctly placed:

> 2023-12-29_23-46-14.png
>
> Let's have a look into parameters --> exact same
> GimbalYaw-Value there:

> 2023-12-29_23-49-00.png
>
>
>
> *The only thing PTGui does NOT do, is writing back some
> directionally value into the panorama-image. *

> Which should be a relatively easy task (an of course will do
> some calculations when shifting the centerpoint of the
> panorama to correct this shift).
>
>
>
>
> CW E schrieb am Freitag, 29. Dezember 2023 um 22:53:08 UTC+1:
>
> Bill - with your hints I was able to discover a simple
> method to extract ALL metadata from RAW-files on my Mini
> 3 Pro.
> The simplest one is to open the file in an texteditor.
> In the uppermost section you are able to see all
> directional datas from DJI.
>
> With a better solution I got for example this:
>

> 2023-12-29_22-39-52.png
>
> GimbalYawDegree should be the one you need. And yes,
> direction ranges from 0 (north) to +90 (east) to +180
> (south). And counterclockwise -90 (west) to -179 (nearly
> south again).
>
> So directions are stored, but in a proprietary way. If
> now I would know some details how PTGui handles
> directional informations, man could find a quick
> solution I presume.
>

> * Does PTGui need directional datas from ALL pictures

> or just from one. If one, which one? (then you have
> just manipulate one picture)

> * Which (regular) EXIF-field is the right one for

> filling in corrected data?
>
>
>
>
> Bill Gassman schrieb am Freitag, 29. Dezember 2023 um
> 13:27:18 UTC+1:
>
> Great question and one I've also been wondering.
> The EXIF data in the raw photos have GPS based
> coordinates, along with YAW and PITCH  and ROLL
> numbers.  (found with https://jimpl.com/

> <https://jimpl.com/>)  The YAW numbers appear to

> represent degrees off GPS north (mag or true isn't
> noted).  Even the camera stitched (DJI Mini 4 Pro)
> panoramas have the YAW data in the EXIF, so
> direction could be derived.  While theoretically
> possible, I have not seen any application that
> (today) converts YAW numbers to direction, surely
> not PTGUI or LightRoom.  There are EXIF attributions
> for direction, which is the right way to get the
> data, but DJI doesn't appear to support them.
>
> On Friday, December 29, 2023 at 6:32:22 AM UTC-5
> Christian Rath wrote:
>
> As far as I know, these values aren't stored
> (from the mini2 as well as mini3) within the
> exif-data. So, it's not a "problem" from ptgui.
>
>
> CW E schrieb am Donnerstag, 28. Dezember 2023 um
> 17:22:04 UTC+1:
>
> Hi all!
>
> I could not find sufficient answers in this
> forum for my questions - so my questions here:
>

> * Does the newest PTGui 12.24 have support

> for compass-direction of the EXIF-data?

> * Will PTGui read the compass-orientation

> from am MINI 3 Pro?
>
> I do 360/180° pano-images this way:
>

> * RAW-files from drone (Mini 3 Pro)
> * Correction in DxO PureRaw --> output as
> RAW-files
> * Import in PTGui Pro 12.24

>
> Images do not have any direction-data in
> PTGui, and so does not the final spherical
> image in JPG.
>
> Have I overlooked something here? Or is this
> a common problem?
>
>
> Thanks for suggestions!
>

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "PTGui Support" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/f8013cef-408f-457d-9128-6cf7209a24d7n%40googlegroups.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/f8013cef-408f-457d-9128-6cf7209a24d7n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[CW E]

Hi!

Thank you for the answer. It is what I presumed. So there would be one simple question (I will test it of course by myself):

• Do ALL of the images have to have compass data or is it enough for PTGui to have it in just ONE? And if one, in one specific or just a random one?

If just one image needs compass data, then it would be comparable easy to force PTGui to write compass data in the output panorama. Positiv values are correct, negativ values simply needs to be converted with '+360'. That's it. Man would have (if there is no possibility in an option in PTGui in future updates; say 'use gimbal data as compass data') to just write one value in one picture. That's easy.

Concerning gimbal-data and compass-data on at least the Mini 3 Pro:

Yes, gimbal-data = compass-data

But I am not shure, if magnetical or geographical. But what I observed so far, they look corrected = geographic data. Which is not a big deal, due to all the information availaable in such a dron and online updates you have to make.

[PTGui Support]

A GPS heading in just one source image should be sufficient.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 30-12-2023 15:23, CW E wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Thank you for the answer. It is what I presumed. So there would be one
> simple question (I will test it of course by myself):
>

> * *Do ALL of the images have to have compass data or is it enough for

> PTGui to have it in just ONE? And if one, in one specific or just a

> random one?*

> www.ptgui.com <http://www.ptgui.com>

> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/f8013cef-408f-457d-9128-6cf7209a24d7n%40googlegroups.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/f8013cef-408f-457d-9128-6cf7209a24d7n%40googlegroups.com> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/f8013cef-408f-457d-9128-6cf7209a24d7n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/f8013cef-408f-457d-9128-6cf7209a24d7n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.

>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "PTGui Support" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:ptgui+un...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion on the web visit

> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/091a6ba1-d02c-4abb-86e7-b88a61a3f245n%40googlegroups.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/091a6ba1-d02c-4abb-86e7-b88a61a3f245n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[CW E]

Perfect. Thank you - will test it :-)

[CW E]

Solution as it looks:

Things are a bit complicated and simple the same time.

1) the very simple solution

If you ignore the magenetic declination, and do NOT correct the viewpoint (no shifting left or right) in PTGui:

Just do this in PTGui:

Yes, that's it. Every time. With that, PTGui is forced to write compass data.

2) Simple solution with magnetic declination

Nor correction of the viewpoint laft and right allowed! Otherwise PTGui goes completely bogus with the values...

Let's say: magnetic declination is at your geographical point +3°.

That's ist. Every time.

2) The not so simple solution, when you want do shift the viewpoint left or right in PTGui

Change the EXIF-Data for only one image. I used the first one.

You have to take the value from the gimbal-yaw and write it into GPSImgDirection.

Let's say, gimbal-jaw is +12.6° (I would do it with positiv values, otherwise you have to convert the value).

GPSImgDirection is a rational data-type, so you are only allowed fraction numbers! (3/2, 100/5, ...). So you have to think a bit:

12.6 is not allowed (neither would be 12). Convert it in a fraction number without comma. It's very simple. Every time do this:

12.6 * 10 = 126

Write this number (126) and then '/10' --> 126/10. That's your number.

Example with 112°:

1120/10

Then put an 'M' into GPSImgDirectionRef for magentic values. Obv. DJI uses a magentic compass without correction. But I am not sure about this 100%. If this would be not the case, write 'T'.

That's it. One image. But it takes more time.

Now, in PTGui a new panorama without shifting the viewpoint, you will see this:

Make sure, option 'use orientation of source data' is activated. Now changing viewpoint left or right is allowed. In this cae PTGui will change the 360° to another value to correct this shift.

Maybe someone can make use of this findings. I in my case will most of the time change EXIF-data for one image to remail flexible.