DJI Neo 2: Six Quick Tips To Get Better Video Out Of This Little Drone

In this one I’m going to cover six things to get the most out of this amazing little drone, the DJI Neo 2. We’re going to talk about obstacle avoidance settings, a quick way to fix your video footage right out of the drone, the best expo and gimbal settings, and we’re going to dive in deep on that one. How to choose the best frame rate for video, how to get the best range when you’re flying with your phone, and finally, I’m going to show you something that nobody else has yet. It has to do with recording audio as you fly.

For those of you that have been around the channel for a while, do you remember when this used to be about tutorials and deep dives into drone settings and related tips? I figured it was about time we started doing that again. Enough of this sky is falling mentality, because there are enough creators out there doing that. Let’s get back to just enjoying this hobby, because I really don’t think it’s going anywhere. It’s definitely changing, for sure, but it’s not going to disappear forever. So we’re going to focus on the positive from now on.

Now, why the Neo 2? I think this is the drone to get right now, hands down. It is widely available everywhere. It’s very affordable for what it can do. It’s one of the most fun drones to fly, and the footage and the photos are surprisingly good.

Obstacle avoidance settings start with Bypass

The Neo 2 is incredibly resilient and it can take a beating, so crashing it is not really that big of a deal. I am not overstating it when I say this is the most durable drone DJI has ever made. There’s still a risk of damaging it if you crash into something, but the chances of complete destruction are relatively low.

When you’re in the obstacle avoidance settings, you have some options. You can choose Brake, Off, or Bypass. Always choose Bypass. That’s where the drone will always attempt to go around obstacles or over obstacles that it comes near, rather than just brake and stop in its tracks. Then you have the option to choose Normal or Nifty. Choose Nifty, because that’s going to allow your drone to try much harder to get around obstacles, and it’s going to give you more opportunities to get dynamic shots. Flying a drone really close to something makes your video exciting and engaging, and by choosing Nifty you’re going to be able to capture those situations more easily. The Neo 2 also has the omnidirectional obstacle sensing the original Neo never had, which is a big part of why you can fly it this aggressively.

Turn your sharpness down to minus two

For some reason, DJI thinks we all love to have super sharp video. We don’t. So go into the settings and adjust your sharpness down to minus two. You have to either use the controller or the goggles to do this. You can’t just use your phone, but once you set it, that’s where it will stay no matter how you are controlling the drone.

I just don’t understand why DJI has always done this, but at least they give us the option to adjust it.

Adjust all of your input settings from the default

Thirdly, and I think this is the most important tip I’m going to give you today, adjust all of your input settings from the default. This is one of the most difficult things to get right, and you’re going to drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what the best numbers are. So I’m going to share my settings for the Neo 2 that I’ve dialed in after flying this drone for a few months now, and explain why I think these are the ideal numbers.

To bring up the settings, click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner, navigate over to Control, scroll down to where it says Gain and Expo Tuning, and choose that. You can choose Cine mode, Normal mode, or Sport mode. We’re going to concentrate on Normal mode today, because that’s the speed setting you’re going to be flying in the majority of the time. Once you learn these numbers for Normal mode, you should be able to figure out how to adjust the Cine and Sport settings on your own. Here’s where I have everything:

The first thing is you need to adjust all of your max speed settings to the far right. I think it’s important to always have the max speed available to you, because you can easily adjust all of those with variable stick input. Next is max angular velocity, which is how fast the drone rotates or yaws when you push the left stick left or right. The higher the number, the faster it’s going to spin. So for the most appealing video footage, I recommend keeping this at about 51 degrees per second. It’s a good balance of allowing cinematic rotations as you’re flying backwards or forwards, but it’s not so fast that it makes your footage look jerky as you’re yawing the drone.

For brake sensitivity, the higher the number, the faster the drone is going to stop when you let go of the stick. Shorter braking distances mean jerky stops, so you want to keep this number relatively smooth and let the drone stop more gradually. I keep mine set to 40 on the Neo 2. It’s a lot different on different drones, so just keep that in mind.

Now, what are the expo or exponential settings? These are how fast the sticks engage movement when you first move the stick, the front end speed you could say. The higher the number, the faster the drone is going to react when you push on the stick. For ascent and descent, I have this set a little higher than most people. I like it at 0.40. I think anything lower than that just takes too long to initiate the ascent. For yaw, I have that set to 0.33. Don’t set this number too high or you contribute to quick jerky rotations, and your footage will look like a six-year-old was flying the drone. For pitch and roll, I have it set to 0.38. If this number’s too low, you have to push the stick almost all the way forward before the drone starts moving. If it’s too high, it takes off like a drag racing car.

On the gimbal settings just below that, you have max control speed, which is how fast the gimbal moves when you spin the dial. 30 degrees per second is just right for smooth cinematic movement. And finally, for tilt smoothness, I have it set to 14, which is about halfway. You don’t want the gimbal to stop suddenly, you want it to have sort of a rolling stop so it eases in to the end of the movement. Sudden stops look terrible, so always err on the side of the higher end of this setting. Of course, you can tweak these settings to fit your style, but I think these are good numbers to start with, especially if you’re just learning how to fly this drone for the first time. And again, every drone is different, so these settings won’t necessarily work on a different model of DJI drone.

Record in 60 frames per second

The fourth tip is in regards to frame rate. You have a few options when you’re choosing a frame rate and recording video, and the most widely accepted frame rate for cinematic footage has been 24 frames per second. However, with the Neo 2, I think it’s important that you should usually record in 60 frames per second. The reason for that is so you can slow the footage down when you’re editing. This adds a little bit of a slow motion effect, and it’s a lot more forgiving if you’re flying in windy conditions.

The Neo 2 is pretty good at handling the wind, especially for its size, but it’s not as good as a heavier drone. So if you’re recording in 24 frames per second, or even 30, and it’s been windy out, you don’t have that opportunity to slow down your footage and get rid of all those little jerky movements. You’re going to notice that in your footage when the drone is getting pushed around. Being able to have a little more frame rate to cut your video speed in half when you’re editing can really help hide all of those little movements. Plus, it just makes the footage look more cinematic.

Take the transceiver off for more range on your phone

The fifth tip is something that was based on a video I watched a couple of weeks ago from another YouTuber. He has the Neo 2, he does some tests with it and some tutorials on it, and what he did was a test for the Wi-Fi signal. When you’re flying the Neo 2 with your phone, does the digital transceiver affect the Wi-Fi signal? So what he did is he flew the drone with the antenna attached and got out a certain number of meters, then brought it back. He took the digital transceiver off, flew out, and got further. About 60 meters (200 feet) further, for those of us in the US. That’s pretty significant when you’re talking about a drone that only gets about 180 to 240 meters (600 to 800 feet) of Wi-Fi signal in a good situation.

So I’ve actually been testing this all day. I started this morning when I first started making this video, and I did it throughout the day in different spots, different conditions, and in different areas. What I found, at least with my testing, is I was able to get about 30 meters (100 feet) further without the digital transceiver, and that’s on average. What I did is I flew the drone out until it gave me the warning that the signal was weak, then I brought it back. Then I took the transceiver off, flew it out again, and brought it back as soon as it gave me that same warning. So on average, about 30 meters (100 feet). I did get further with the digital transceiver on one time, so I don’t know what the situation is there. There’s so much interference when you’re flying a drone with Wi-Fi. Someone could have been running their microwave at the neighbor’s house or something like that.

The bottom line is, flying with your phone is not the best way to fly this drone. It’ll do in a pinch if you’re just going to put it up and do a follow me or a dronie or something like that. But if you want to get out any sort of distance beyond about 120 meters (400 feet), don’t use your phone. The Wi-Fi signal is just not very good with this drone. So use the DJI RC-N3 controller as much as you can if you’re going to be flying any kind of distances. But about 30 meters (100 feet) is better than nothing, right?

One more thing I want to mention. When you buy the Neo 2, or any of the smaller sub-250 gram drones, you get the little gray screwdriver. It’s very tiny, and it’s useful for removing your props, because the screws are just microscopic on this drone. I bought a 26-in-1 from Klein Tools about four years ago. It’s got all the little tiny tips stored in the barrel, and I use it so much. It’s been a lifesaver for my drones and also for my 3D printing. If you lose your little screwdriver, which I do all the time, I’ve lost every single one of them I’ve received, get yourself a bigger one you won’t lose. Not sponsored, I just really like it.

Fix your audio with Adobe Podcast

The last tip is something I guarantee nobody else has demonstrated for you when it comes to recording audio with your Neo 2. The problem when you do this, whether it be with your phone or your AirPods or whatever, is that it sounds pretty bad. It’s very tinny, it has an echo to it, it’s just a very abrasive sound. But did you know there’s a program called Adobe Podcast? It can take the most awful sounding audio and make it tolerable, and sometimes it can even make it sound borderline professional.

The best part is, it’s free for basic users. All you have to do is upload the audio clip you want fixed, and it takes a minute or two to process. Then you can adjust the strength of the effect, you can dial in how much background noise you want, and you can even adjust the music levels if there was music playing when you recorded your original video. That’s really useful for people who create monetized content, because you can remove copyrighted music if it happened to be playing in the background when you were recording. And if you’re a complete beginner and have no idea how to separate your audio from your video, no worries, you can actually just upload your entire video to Adobe Podcast and it will fix it.

There are a number of ways to capture audio when you’re flying the Neo 2. You can use an external microphone and record with that, then sync it when you’re editing. That’s probably the best way to do it, because that microphone is going to capture the best audio. But if you don’t have that or don’t know how to do that, you can also record your audio through AirPods, or you can simply use your phone, and it will be embedded right into the video. As you can hear in the video, the audio quality coming straight off the drone is quite poor. It’s very sharp, very echoey and tinny. So what we do is take that audio, put it into Adobe Podcast, click a couple of buttons, move some sliders, and it sounds so much better. It’s not professional sounding footage, I understand that, but it is so much better than what comes directly off the recording.

One thing to note: on the Neo 2, when you’re recording audio, whether it be with your phone or your headphones or whatever, you have the option to choose Pure or Natural. Pure removes all of the background noise, and Natural leaves it in. If you plan to use Adobe Podcast to enhance your audio, I recommend setting it to Natural. If you use Pure, it sounds really overly processed, and Adobe Podcast is going to have a more difficult time making that audio sound better. So use Natural. The program is at podcast.adobe.com. It is such a good program, and I use it for every single YouTube video.

This channel is going to get back to its roots with tutorials as well as reviews, just like the good old days. We’re going to get back to the basics, and I would love to have you join in on the fun. If you want my full rundown on why I bought two of these in the first place, that’s in my earlier piece on the Neo 2.

Source: 51 Drones (YouTube).

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.