DJI Flip Hyperlapse Tutorial

Most reviews of the DJI Flip focus on autonomous flight and close-range vlogging, however, the new DJI model is also an interesting, affordable option for photography and videography

The Flip is the cheapest DJI line model offering the spectacular hyperlapse functionality. In this article, I will show you how to make the most of it

The quality of Hyperlapse mode in the Flip is excellent, very similar to the one obtained with the Mini 4 Pro. The resulting short movie is very stable in low wind

The only weak point is that the automatically generated movie is at a resolution of 1080p, however, still suitable for social media. More advanced users can post-process the individual RAW files and create a 4k sequence

Other related articles you may find interesting:

Flip photography

Hyperlapses vs Timelapses

Time lapses and hyperlapses are somewhere between photography and videography. They consist of a series of photos taken at a constant interval and then assembled as a video sequence

There is a difference between the two terms:

In a timelapse the point of view is static, in other words, the drone hovers during the shooting. It is used when the scene already contains several elements in motion

In a hyperlapse the aircraft moves, thus adding extra movement to the scene

Settings

The most importable important variables to set are:

the interval between each photo

the length in seconds of the short film
the shutter speed value

In the four hyper-lapse modes I will analyze later in this video, we can select the Interval and Length by opening the small window in the lower part of the screen and the Shutter Speed value in the exposure windows

It is crucial to use manual exposure to control the shutter speed value and manual White Balance to avoid shifts of colors

The app automatically generates a short movie at the end of the shooting process. This movie can be used to share clips right out of the camera. For more advanced users, it is possible to save each photo as RAW or JPEG to edit the images with a photo editor and assemble them in a video editor

The SD card will contain two folders: the first includes the auto-generated short movies and the other the RAW or JPEG files for each photo if this option was selected

For color grading, I use Luminar Neo, my favorite editing program. This is an affiliate link, so I get a small commission in case of purchase. Here you can read my article about Luminar Neo

Number of Photos

In most cases, I like to take 300 photos, as it makes it easy to compute the time needed for shooting, according to the interval between photos

Interval	Photos per minute	Time needed
2″	30 (60/2)	10 minutes (300 photos/30 photos per minute)
3″	20 (60/3)	15 minutes (300 photos/20 photos per minute)
4″	15 (60/4)	20 minutes (300 photos/15photos per minute)

At an interval of one photo every 2 seconds, the camera will take 30 shots per minute (60 seconds divided by two), so the shooting time will be 10 minutes (300 photos divided by 30). At an interval of 3 seconds, it will take 15 minutes, at 4 seconds 20 minutes, and so on

With 300 photos, the length of the resulting hyperlapse will be about 12.5 seconds with a frame rate of 24fps. This is a suitable length for most occasions

When shooting hyperlapses, keep an eye on the remaining battery life, so that you have enough time for a safe return to home

Interval Between Photos

As you can see from these examples, the interval between shots affects the speed of the movement. Intervals of 2 or 3 seconds are good choices when the moving elements of the scene are people walking or vehicles

The Flip has an announced battery life of 31 minutes, slightly shorter than the 34 of the Mini 4 Pro

At an interval of 2 seconds, we can produce longer clips with about 350 photos, but there is a caveat: at this interval, the slowest shutter speed available is 1/3“, so we cannot set the ideal 1” speed. It is a small compromise, but the result is still more than acceptable

With a 3 seconds interval, we can take about 270 photos for a resulting short movie of just above 11 seconds

An interval of 4 seconds is more suitable when the movement is mostly in clouds. In this case, we have to reduce the number of images and the movie will be shorter

Shutter Speed and Motion Blur

The Shutter Speed value is crucial for hyperlapses, as it controls the motion blur in the moving elements within the scene

The correct amount of motion blur generate a smooth rendition of the elements in motion, similar to what we would see in real life

For drone time lapses and hyperlapses, the ideal shutter speed value is between ⅕” and 1”, . At higher shutter speeds the car movement gets jumpy, different from what we would see in real life

For such a long shutter speed value a set of ND filters is needed to reduce the amount of light entering the sensor

Hyperlapse modes

We access the Hyperlapse functionality through the icon above the shutter. A vertical menu appears to the left with the four modes:

Free
Circle
Course Lock

Waypoint

A small window appears in the lower part of the screen, we can open it by tapping on the arrow to the right. Here we can enter the interval between each shot, the length of the movie in seconds, and the maximum speed

Just above we can check the resulting shooting time and number of photos. This window applies to the first three modes, while Waypoint hyperlapse has a different interface

Before hitting the red shutter to start the shooting process, we set the crucial shutter speed value in the exposure window at the bottom right of the screen

Free

In Free mode, it is possible to move the drone in any direction while shooting using the two wheels of the remote controller

I do not find this technique useful, as in most cases produces very jumpy footage. I prefer using Waypoint mode for more flexibility and smoother results

I only use Free mode for timelapses with the drone in a static position

Circle

In Circle mode, the drone orbits around a target. After selecting this mode, we choose a target that will be the center of the rotation by drawing a box around it with a finger

We can then open the window to enter the usual values for Interval, Length, and Speed. In this mode, we must also specify the direction of the rotation: Clockwise or Counterclockwise

After hitting the red shutter button the aircraft will move for a few seconds in the chosen direction computing its position before starting the photo shooting

Course Lock

In Course Lock mode, the camera orientation is disconnected from the flight direction

The settings are similar to the ones we saw for Circle mode, but this time there is a lock icon above the small window

We orient the drone toward the desired flight direction and tap on the lock icon, then we choose a target by drawing a box around it for the camera direction. The camera will remain pointed at the target while flying diagonally

We can then set the Interval, Length, Speed and exposure like in Circle mode

If we do not lock the flight direction and simply choose a target, the aircraft will advance toward it in a straight line

Waypoint

Waypoint is the king of hyperlapse modes and the one I use most of the time

We can set up precise paths by creating several points. For each point, the position of the drone, its elevation, and the camera orientation are stored in memory. The software will handle the smooth transition between points

At each point, it is possible to modify the speed of the flight

Each mission can be stored in memory and performed at different times of the day, in various light conditions, or other seasons

In most cases, we only need a few points, here I will show a simple example made with only two points

After choosing Waypoint in the Hyperlapse menu, the small window on the screen prompts “Set Waypoint”. I want to start from a top-down view of the square of the little village. So I position the drone and the camera, open the small window, and tap the empty icon on the left to set the first point

I then move backward, lowering the altitude and tilting the gimbal slightly upward to maintain the view of the center of the village. I tap on the next icon to set the second and last point

I can now set the interval to three seconds and the movie length to 12 seconds. In waypoint mode the speed of the move is determined by the distance traveled and the number of photos, the longer the distance, the faster the move

This is the result, a sort of reversed crane move, a classic shot in cinematography