DJI Go 4 App featured image

The Ultimate DJI Go 4 Tutorial

DJI Go 4 is an essential yet complex app for drone pilots flying DJI’s prosumer drones. It’s packed with so many features and settings, it can be challenging to understand what they all mean!

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To provide clarity on the essential DJI Go 4 application, we created this guide, complete with everything you need to know.  This guide includes a comprehensive and exhaustive overview and explanation of all drone settings, controller sensitivity settings, intelligent flight modes, and everything else you need to know about DJI Go 4.  This tutorial aims to be an asset not only to beginners, but also to experienced drone pilots who have been flying for years and who may have overlooked some of the powerful and performance-improving features built into the DJI Go application.

display screen settings highlightedThese settings and options may vary slightly depending on which DJI drone model you have. We chose to make this guide using a DJI Mavic 2, because it is one of the most popular DJI drones and encompasses many of the settings you would find across the different drone models.

Strap in, because this is going to be a detailed post loaded with information.

Table of Contents

Getting Started with DJI Go 4

DJI Go 4 Screen Overview & Gestures

Main Controller Settings

Visual Navigation Settings

Remote Controller Settings

Image Transmission Settings

Aircraft Battery Settings

Gimbal Settings

General Settings

Camera Photo Settings

Camera Video Settings

Intelligent Flight Modes

 

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Getting Started with DJI Go 4

What is DJI Go 4, and why do I even need it?

DJI Go 4 is an application available on iOS and Android used to provide a live video transmission feed from your drone to your smartphone. The following drones are compatible with DJI Go 4:

  • Spark
  • Mavic Air
  • Mavic Pro
  • Mavic 2 Pro / Zoom
  • Phantom 4
  • Phantom 4 Advanced
  • Phantom 4 Pro
  • Phantom 4 Pro v2.0
  • Inspire 2
  • Matrice 200
  • Matrice 210
  • Matrice 210 RTK

You configure many important settings within the application, including altering the flight characteristics of your drone, changing camera settings for capturing the best imagery possible, obstacle avoidance settings, and return to home settings for safe flying and safe landing.

Also included in the DJI Go 4 application are what DJI calls “Intelligent Flight Modes” and “Quick Shots.” These special flying modes allow you track moving objects, orbit around subjects, and capture other amazing shots.

DJI Go 4 is not required for flying all of these drones, as some can be flown using just the controller, but often flight altitude and maximum distance are limited without using the application. We recommend using DJI Go 4 for the best flying experience and for configuring important settings properly.

Where can I download DJI Go 4?

Here are download links for DJI Go 4:

dji go 4 app on Apple app store

Download DJI Go 4 on the Apple App Store (for iPhones)

 

dji go 4 app on Google Play Store

Download DJI Go 4 on the Google Play Store (for Android phones)

Launching DJI Go 4 for the first time

When you first launch DJI Go 4, you will be prompted to give the app certain permissions. DJI Go 4 needs permission to use Bluetooth to communicate with your drone, and requests permission to access your photos for saving images to your camera roll, and location for location-based services and features.

Once you agree to the Terms of Use and choose whether or not to opt into DJI’s product improvement program, you’ll be asked to sign in to your DJI account or create one if you don’t have one already. Then you can select your drone and either enter the camera view, or connect to your drone using the DJI controller.

If you’re wondering what all the buttons, connectors, dials, and control sticks do on your controller, be sure to check out our detailed overview on the Mavic Pro controller and Mavic 2 Pro controller.

DJI Go 4 App Overview

The DJI Go 4 application has four tabs across the bottom: Equipment, Editor, Skypixel, and Me. Here is more information about each of these pages within the app.

Equipment – This is where you will spend most of your time. You use the Equipment page to connect to and control your drone. You also have options to enter a flight simulator (requires your drone to be connected), view your flight records of the drone you have connected, view GEO Zones and airspace restrictions, and even find your drone and have it play a sound.

dji go 4 app equipment page

 

Editor – You use this tab to import photo and video files from your drone to your phone, auto-edit your recent drone videos to music, or edit your own video using the built-in editor. Typically we recommend doing most of your photo and video editing on your computer.

dji go 4 app editor page

 

Skypixel – Skypixel is a social platform owned and operated by DJI that allows users to share their aerial imagery.

dji go 4 app skypixel page

 

Me – This page provides helpful information about your DJI account, your Skypixel social profile if you choose to use it, access to DJI support, and the ability to view your applications for unlocking No Fly Zones (NFZ).

dji go 4 app me page

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DJI Go 4 Camera View Overview & Features

Connecting your drone to DJI Go 4 is as simple as inserting your phone into the mobile device clamp on your controller, plugging the connector, and powering everything on and then launching DJI Go.

Or… so it should be. Sometimes there are issues that occur, particularly with Android devices while you are flying. If you experience any connectivity issues, check out our post on the best ways to resolve DJI Go 4 crashes on Android devices.

When your device successfully connects, you’ll be brought to the Camera View of the DJI Go 4 application.

dji go 4 camera view example

Here is where you can change all of your drone settings, controller settings, camera settings, battery settings, and more. If you’re launching the Camera View for the first time, a tutorial will pop up and give you a brief overview of what many of the important symbols and status indicators mean. You can view this tutorial again by going to the Me page, tapping Settings, and selecting Reset Beginner Guide.

Or, you can check out our helpful guide below!

Camera View Icons & Status Indicators

display screen settings highlighteddji go 4 camera view

1. System Status – This indicates the status of the aircraft. Possible statuses include:

  • Ready to Go (GPS)
  • Ready to Go (Vision)
  • Cannot Take Off

Other important status updates will be displayed in the system status area as well, such as high wind warnings, no fly zones, and if the aircraft is returning to home or landing.

2. Obstacle Detection Status – Green, red, and orange lines will appear toward the top bottom of your screen. These indicate how far away your aircraft detects it is from a potential obstacle.

3. Battery Level Indicator Bar – Shows the remaining battery in the aircraft, when the low battery warning will go off, when the aircraft will return to home, and when critically low battery is remaining. It’s a good idea to keep your eye on this while flying.

4. Flight Mode – Indicates the current flight mode of the aircraft. Flight modes vary between aircraft models. Possible flight modes include:

  • Positioning Mode (P)
  • Sport Mode (S)
  • Tripod Mode (T)
  • Attitude Mode (A)

5. Camera Settings – Displays information about current camera settings and available storage space.

6. GPS Signal Strength – Shows signal strength between the drone and the global positioning system. The number indicates how many satellites the drone is connected to.

7. Vision System Status – Indicates the status of the vision positioning sensors for the FlightAutonomy system and active obstacle avoidance. Obstacle sensing capabilities vary between drone modules.

8. Remote Controller Signal – Signal strength between the drone and the remote controller.

9. HD Video Signal Strength – The signal strength of the HD video transmission from the drone camera to your mobile device.

10. Battery Settings – Displays remaining battery percentage and is a shortcut to the battery settings of the aircraft.

12. General Settings – Tap to bring up the general settings menu.

20. Map – Map of flight area with points for the drone and controller location.

21. Advanced Pilot Assistance System (APAS) – Turn on/off APAS, which uses obstacle avoidance sensors to maneuver the drone around certain obstacles.

22. Intelligent Flight Modes – Tap to bring up the intelligent flight mode options.

23. Smart RTH – Tap to initiate Return to Home.

24. Automatic Takeoff / Landing – Tap to initiate automatic takeoff and landing.

25. Back Button – Tapping the DJI logo brings you back to the Equipment page.

DJI Go 4 Gestures

You can use one- or two-finger swipe gestures on the main screen to perform different actions within the DJI Go 4 application.

Swipe Up or Down – Enter or exit full-screen view

dji go 4 app full screen view

Swipe Left – Open Quick Settings. Adjust gimbal, set home point, and change the brightness of the app.

dji go 4 app brightness controls

 

Swipe Right – No action

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Main Controller Settings

The main controller settings contain important options for changing the flight characteristics and behavior of your drone, including controller sensitivity, return to home (RTH) settings, and enabling or disabling multiple flight modes.

You can access the main controller settings by tapping on the Flight Mode icon on the camera view screen.

dji go 4 app main controller settings

 

Within the main controller settings, you will find the following options:

Remote Identification – A unique identification for your drone to allow others nearby to know what you are flying. It’s not necessary to enter anything for the remote identification.

Home Point Settings – Home point settings are important! They determine where the aircraft will attempt land in the event RTH is triggered or manually engaged. The two home point settings are:

  1. Aircraft icon – set current aircraft position as home point. The aircraft will attempt land as close to where it took off as possible if RTH is engaged.
  2. Person icon – set your current position as the home point. The aircraft will attempt to land exactly where you are standing. This is helpful if you prefer to catch-land your drones, or if you are taking off from a different position than you’d like to land.

RTH at Current Altitude – The aircraft will maintain its current altitude when RTH is engaged. This is potentially dangerous if there are obstacles in the way of the drone when RTH is engaged.

Multiple Flight Modes – Enable or disable the multiple flight modes available on your drone. It’s typically better to leave this off for beginner pilots.

dji go 4 app 061

 

Return-to-Home Altitude – This might be the single most-important setting to change before you fly! The return to home altitude is how high your drone will ascend before flying horizontally to be over its home point and coming down for a landing. Set this altitude so the drone will fly higher than any obstacle in the vicinity to prevent it from crashing.

However, having a higher RTH altitude will mean your drone will a) take longer to return to home and b) consume more battery. If your drone has low battery, it may be advised to land manually.

If you are flying your drone indoors, then you actually want to disable RTH altogether.

dji go 4 app 063

Beginner Mode – Limits aircraft maximum speed and restricts flight radius to 30 meters around the home point.

Set Max Flight Altitude – The maximum altitude AGL (above ground level) your drone will ascend to. This setting creates an artificial ceiling your drone cannot fly above. In the United States, the legal altitude for a sUAS (small unmanned aircraft system) is 400 feet AGL. We recommend setting your max flight altitude to 120 meters (393 feet) to stay within the legal limit.

Enable Max Distance – Restrict the flight of your drone to be within a certain radius of the controller.

dji go 4 app enable max distance

Advanced Settings

The Advanced settings menu contains options to change expo settings, sensitivity settings, and gain. These settings can impact the flight characteristics and behavior of your DJI drone. You can also adjust the brain gain and yaw sensitivity of Cinematic Mode, again for fine-tuning your flight characteristics to more easily achieve cinematic shots.

dji go 4 app expo, sensitivity, and gain setttings

Also within the advanced settings menu is the option to change what happens when the remote controller loses signal from the drone, whether or not the Head LED’s are turned on, and the stop motor method.

dji go 4 app emergency motor stop settings

 

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Visual Navigation Settings

The Visual Navigation Settings within the DJI Go 4 application are some of the most important for beginner pilots. Here you can find settings for enabling obstacle avoidance, a key feature for keeping your drone safe and avoiding potential collisions. Your aircraft will come to a stop and safely hover in place if an obstacle is detected. Below are the available obstacle avoidance settings, and a guide to which ones you should turn on:

dji go 4 app obstacle avoidance settings

 

Enable Visual Obstacle Avoidance  – This is essentially the master control toggle for the obstacle avoidance sensors and features, and we recommend you leave it turned on! Enabling visual obstacle avoidance allows your drone to use sensors on the front, rear, and sides of the aircraft to detect obstacles and either navigate around them or safely come to a stop before crashing. With visual obstacle avoidance turned on:

  • Your drone will automatically stop and hover in place if it detects an obstacle
  • Obstacle avoidance will be enabled when your aircraft is Returning to Home, and it will ascend over obstacles it detects
  • Obstacle avoidance may not work at night or in low light conditions

The only time you typically want to disable obstacle avoidance is if you are going to be flying indoors. We have a complete guide to 7 essential settings you need to change if you plan on flying your drone indoors, which you can learn about at our article below:

7 Essential Settings for Safe Indoor Flying

 

dji go 4 app display radar chart

Display Radar Chart – Displays a visual chart on the DJI Go 4 camera view to indicate how close your drone detects it is from nearby obstacles. Even if you disable visual obstacle avoidance, you can still leave this setting turned on.

Bottom Auxiliary Lighting – The Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom drones include new lights on the bottom for illuminating the ground when they are coming down for a landing. This is helpful, and we recommend leaving this setting on Auto. Alternatively, you can also set one of the custom buttons on the back of the controller to turn the bottom landing lights on or off.

Advanced Vision Navigation Settings

dji go 4 app advanced vision navigation settings

The advanced section under the vision navigation settings menu contains additional options to configure.

Enable Vision Positioning – Use downward facing sensors on the drone to allow it to maintain its position even if GPS signal is lost. Downward vision positioning will work best at lower altitudes. We recommend you leave this setting turned on.

Landing Protection – Use downward facing sensors to detect obstacles on the ground before the aircraft comes down for a landing.

RTH Obstacle Check – Aircraft will check for obstacles if RTH (return to home) is enabled. Typically, the aircraft will ascend to avoid obstacles it detects. We recommend leaving this setting turned on.

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Remote Controller Settings

The remote controller settings primarily allow you to configure the stick mode for the controller, as well as customize the actions of the 5-D pad, the custom buttons on the back of the controller, and go through the process of linking a the controller to the drone.

dji go 4 app remote controller settings

Remote Controller Calibration – Use this to calibrate the control sticks and dials on your remote controller if you find it is having problems.

Stick Mode – Here is where you can change the layout and configuration of the control sticks on the controller. By default, the controller is set to Mode 2, which is a common mode for flying RC drones and aircraft. You also have the option to configure your own, custom mode and map different controls to each direction on the control sticks.

dji go 4 app controller mode

 

Button Customization – Customize the actions and shortcuts of the C1 and C2 buttons located on the back of the controller. Each button can be programmed to toggle one of the following actions:

  • Turn on/off head LEDs
  • Camera forward/down
  • Gimbal follow/FPV mode
  • Toggle map/live view
  • Battery Info
  • Navigation
  • Playback
  • Center auto focus
  • Close tips
  • Bottom auxiliary lighting
  • Enable visual obstacle avoidance
  • Not defined

dji go 4 app 5d button customization settings

5D Button Customization – Customize the actions of the 5D button on the front of the controller. You can customize the action of each direction, but you cannot customize the press-down of the button. Pressing down on the 5D button will always bring up the intelligent flight modes menu. Here are the available options:

  • Camera forward/downward
  • Metering/auto focus
  • AE lock/unlock
  • Increase EV
  • Decrease EV

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Image Transmission Settings

Along with managing the settings on your drone and controller, one of the primary functions of connecting your smartphone to your DJI controller and using the DJI Go 4 application is for the live image transmission from the camera to your smartphone. In the image transmission settings menu, you can configure different aspects of how the live video feed is transmitted between the drone and the controller.

By default, the drone will automatically switch the the frequency with the least amount of interference for the lowest latency and best image quality possible. We recommend leaving the image transmission settings on auto for most flights. However, if you are experiencing problems getting a clear image reception, you can try manually switching the transmission frequency to different channels.

dji go 4 app auto image transmission settingsdji go 4 app custom image transmission settings

 

Also within the image transmission settings, you can find the option to switch between Normal Mode and HD Mode for video streaming quality. We recommend using HD Mode for getting the clearest image possible on your phone.

dji go 4 app normal video transmission quality and hd video transmission quality

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Aircraft Battery Settings

The aircraft battery settings allow you to view the health and status of your drone’s battery, as well as configure low battery warnings.

dji go 4 app aircraft battery settings

 

We typically recommend a low battery warning of about 30%, and a critically low battery warning at around 20%. These low battery warnings are designed to give you enough time to return home safely.

You can also configure how long it takes your batteries to discharge. DJI’s intelligent flight batteries are able to automatically discharge themselves to around 50%-65% after a certain period of time if they are not being used. By default, they will begin discharging after 10 days of not being in use. Keeping the batteries slightly discharged allows them to be stored safer for longer periods of time and prevents swelling in the battery cells. Because it is better for battery health to store the batteries slightly discharged, we recommend a 2 Day discharge setting, unless you fly more frequently.

Finally, tapping on “Details” will show you your battery’s current status, the number times it has been discharged, its serial number, and its production date.

dji go 4 app battery time to discharge setting

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Gimbal Settings

Gimbal settings allow you modify to behavior and characteristics of your gimbal, including the pitch speed and smoothness. Adjusting these settings can help you achieve smoother and more cinematic shots.

Gimbal Mode – Change between Follow and FPV mode. Follow mode is the default mode, keeping the gimbal and camera horizontal even as the drone pitches forward or rolls sideways. Follow mode is ideal for recording cinematic video footage and aerial photography. FPV mode locks the camera to the movements of the aircraft, giving you a first-person perspective. This can be a fun mode to fly in, although it creates jerky and unpleasant camera movements not suitable for most filming situations.

Camera Forward / Downward – Tapping this button will toggle the camera between being level with the horizon and looking straight down.

Adjust Gimbal – If your gimbal is not level, you can use this setting to adjust the roll and yaw of your gimbal.

Gimbal Auto Calibration – Use this to automatically calibrate your gimbal.

Advanced Gimbal Settings

The advanced settings are where you can find options for adjusting your pitch speed and pitch smoothness.

dji go 4 app advanced gimbal settings

Max Gimbal Pitch Speed – This is how fast your gimbal will tilt up or down using the gimbal tilt wheel on the front left bumper of the controller. We recommend adjusting this to a lower setting, such as around 10 or 15, for slow, smooth, and controlled gimbal movements. Having a slower gimbal pitch speed can help you more easily achieve slower, more cinematic shots, and is an essential setting for our 5 simple and easy cinematic drone shots.

Gimbal Pitch Smoothness – This is how abruptly the gimbal comes to a stop after it tilts up or down. A lower value will cause a harsh abrupt stop, while a higher value will cause a gradual, smooth stop. We recommend a value of around 17-20 for smooth results ideal for cinematic camera moves.

Enable Upwards Title Limit of 30 Degrees – Allow your drone to tilt its camera upwards by 30 degrees. This can be a great setting to enable when flying lower to the ground and tilting upwards, however be aware having this setting enabled may cause your propellers to enter the shot.

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General Settings

The general settings within the DJI Go 4 application allow you do things such as change measurement units, setup live streaming to Facebook or YouTube, change your drone’s name, and alter the maximum video cache capacity.

dji go 4 app general settings

 

Measurement Unit – Change your drone between the metric units of km/h and m/s, or change it to the imperial unit mph.

Live Streaming – Your drone is capable of using your phone’s cellular data connectivity to live stream your video footage to the following platforms:

  • Facebook Live
  • YouTube
  • Weibo
  • QQZone
  • Custom

Video Cache – Video cache allows DJI Go 4 to store the video transmission it receives from the drone locally on your smartphone. This can take up a lot of space, but can also serve as some sort of emergency backup of your video footage. You can adjust the following settings relating to video cache:

  • Cache Video During Shooting: turn video cache on or off
  • Record Audio with Video Cache: uses audio from your smartphone and ads it to the video cache files
  • Maximum Video Cache Capacity: adjust the maximum amount of space the video cache can take up on your phone (it’s helpful to reduce this if your device is low on storage)
  • Clear Cache Automatically: automatically delete old video cache when the cache capacity reaches your set limit

Other Settings – Change your device name, change the full-screen gestures to be one-finger or two-finger, and get information about the hardware of your aircraft.

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Camera Settings

The cameras on the new DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom drones are nothing short of incredible. They offer some of the best image and video quality of any drone on the market to date, especially at their price points. You can further improve your image quality by adjusting some of the camera settings for taking even better photos and videos.

You can locate the camera settings by first switching into the camera mode (using the toggle above the record / shutter button), and then tapping the lines with dots underneath the shutter button.

dji go 4 app 130 v2

 

The camera settings menu will pop open. In the camera settings the menu you’ll find three sub-menus: one for exposure settings (aperture icon), one for photo settings (camera icon), and one for general viewfinder settings (gear icon).

dji go 4 app camera exposure settings

Camera Exposure Settings

Within the camera exposure settings, you can toggle between automatic exposure and manual exposure. On the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom drone, you can adjust your ISO and shutter speed to change the exposure of your image. On other drones, such as the Mavic 2 Pro, you can adjust the aperture as well.

Photo Settings

The photo settings section contains options for changing what type of image you’re capturing and the style of the image.

dji go 4 app photo settings

Photo – Toggle between the different photo modes available on your drone. Available options may include, but are not limited to:

  • Single Shot: take a single photo
  • HDR Shot: have the drone take multiple photos and merge them together to create a single high dynamic range photo
  • HyperLight: a new photography mode for capturing low-light photos, reduces noise and produces higher quality low-light images
  • Multiple: take multiple photos in quick succession
  • AEB: auto exposure bracketing, take 3 or 5 photos in quick succession at different exposure levels to merge them in post production for an HDR photo
  • Timed Shot: capture a photo automatically at set intervals
  • Pano: capture images to create a panoramic photo

Image Size – Choose the aspect ratio of your images. We recommend 4:3 or 2:3, and advise against choosing 16:9. The 16:9 aspect ratio simply crops in on your image, and you lose data in your photo. We recommend choosing one of the other aspect ratios and cropping in on your image in post production to preserve as much detail and information as possible.

Image Format – Choose between RAW, JPEG, and RAW + JPEG file formats. If you’ve never heard of RAW photos before, check out our guide on what a RAW photo is and why you should be shooting in RAW.

White Balance – Adjust the white balance of your photos. The available options are auto, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent, and custom. For aerial photos, you are often fine leaving the white balance set to auto, but for video setting a manual white balance can make a big difference.

Style – Adjust the picture style to be optimized for various shooting environments, including standard, landscape, and soft. You can also set your own picture style and customize the sharpness, contrast, and saturation of your images. We recommend the standard style.

Color – Adjust the color profile for your images. We typically recommend the Normal color profile.

General Viewfinder Settings

The viewfinder settings contain helpful options for adding grid lines, center points, and over exposure warnings to your live camera view to help you compose and shoot your images.

dji go 4 app viewfinder settings

Overexposed – Display zebra stripes over parts of the image that are too bright and overexposed.

Auto Sync HD Photo – Automatically sync an HD version of your photos to your smartphone. The original files will still be stored on the SD card within the drone, or the drone’s onboard memory.

Video Caption – creates a separate .SRT file containing camera data and information. .SRT files are a standard file type for video subtitles. When played back with a compatible video player, such as the VLC video player, a subtitle will appear on the video and display the camera settings used when recording the shot.

Hyperlapse Video Frame – Allows you to check the video cropping size for the final output of your hyperlapse video when you are creating hyperlapses.

Grid – Overlays a grid on screen to assist with composition. You can choose to just have grid lines, or have grid lines with diagonals going in to the center of the image.

Center Points – Places a marker in the center of the screen. Helpful for composing images. You can customize the shape from a circle, cross, narrow cross, square without center point, square with center point, bracket without center point, or a bracket with center point. You can also choose the color from white, yellow, red, blue, and green.

Anti-Flicker – The anti-flicker setting is if you are filming indoors under fluorescent lighting. Fluorescent lights actually flicker on and off at 50 Hz or 60 Hz (depending on the region), and this setting allow the camera to adjust for this flicker and capture better quality footage.

File Index Mode – Choose how your file names are created. You can either select continuous, where the names of the files will continue increasing in number, or reset, where the file index will be reset to 001 each time the drone is restarted.

Peaking Threshold – Adjust the threshold for focus peaking. Focus peaking displays a red outline on items that are in focus on screen.

Storage Location – Choose if your captured imagery is stored on internal storage or on the external micro SD card.

Format & Reset – Within the general settings you can also find options to format your internal storage, format your micro SD card, or reset all camera settings.

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Video Settings

The video settings are accesses in the same way as the photo settings, you just need to make sure you are in video mode prior to entering the settings. Many of the camera settings remain the same between the photo and video modes, so we will focus on the settings that are different and specialized for video.

If you are interested, you can also check out our guide for the best cinematic video settings for casual flyers and professional filmmakers.

dji go 4 app video settings

Video Size – Adjust the frame rate and resolution of your video. We typically recommend shooting in 4K (3840 x 2160) at 30fps for the best video quality.

Video Format – Choose to have your video files saved in either the .MOV or .MP4 video file format. The .MOV file format typically works better for Mac computers, and the .MP4 video file format works great for all computers.

White Balance – Adjust your white balance. We always recommend using a manual white balance for video footage. This helps your video footage look consistent, and using a manual white balance makes your footage easier to edit too. You can apply the same color corrections to all your clips and know they will match perfectly.

Style – Adjust your image style depending on the scene. If you’re a Mavic Pro flyer, we recommend setting a manual Style with +1 sharpness. We explain why in our cinematic settings article.

Color – Choose the color profile for shooting. Typically the Normal color profile is fine, however you may consider a flatter profile such as DCinelike or DLog for more professional work.

Camera Video Coding – Choose the video codec for recording your video files. The .H265 video codec is newer and produces higher-quality video files while still having relatively small file sizes. The .H264 video codec is more popular and will work on all devices.

Image Format – The video settings menu still gives you the option to change your image format, if you happen to take a photo while you’re in video mode. (You would do this using the shutter button on the front right bumper of the controller.)

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DJI Go 4 Intelligent Flight Modes

One of the standout features that makes DJI drones so incredible is the intelligent flight modes. Intelligent flight modes are special flying modes that allow you to easily achieve amazing shots by track subjects and sending your drone on automated flight paths.

dji go 4 app intelligent flight modes

The available intelligent flight modes vary from drone to drone. Available intelligent flight modes include:

Normal – Fly your drone normally. Controls and drone behavior are based on the settings you configured within DJI Go 4.

Hyperlapse – Send your drone on a flight path and automatically take photos at set intervals to create an amazing hyperlapse video. The available hyperlapse modes are:

  • Free: Control your drone manually.
  • Circle: Tap to select a subject in the middle of the frame, and then your drone will automatically orbit around it.
  • CourseLock: Tap to select a subject in the middle of the frame, and then your drone will fly parallel to the subject while rotating the camera to keep the subject centered.
  • Waypoint: Manually set up to 5 waypoints to save your drone’s position and camera tilt. Then your drone will automatically fly between your created waypoints and create a hyperlapse.

QuickShot – Perform one of DJI’s fun QuickShot video effects. The available effects include:

  • Dronie: Fly back up and away from your subject.
  • Circle: Orbit your subject.
  • Helix: Orbit your subject while flying back and up.
  • Rocket: Fly up while tilting the camera down on your subject until the drone is directly overhead.
  • Boomerang: Orbit your subject while starting close, flying back and away, and then coming close again.
  • Asteroid: Start level with your subject, then fly back and up until a certain altitude is reached, then take a panorama to create a tiny planet effect before flying back down to your subject.

ActiveTrack – Automatically track and following moving subjects. The following ActiveTrack modes are available:

  • Trace: Track a subject while flying directly behind or orbiting the moving subject.
  • Profile: Fly parallel to a moving subject and track sideways movement to capture the subject’s profile.
  • Spotlight: Track a subject while keeping your drone stationary. You can move the drone manually with the sticks in this mode if you wish.

Point of Interest – Orbit around a defined center point at various speeds, altitudes, and directions for smooth and cinematic footage.

Watch our video tutorial on how to set up and use Point of Interest.

Waypoints – Plot points in 3D space that save your drone’s position and camera angle, and then have your drone automatically fly between the points.

TapFly – Tap a point on your screen and your drone will automatically fly toward that point. Helpful for having your drone automatically go in a straight direction without you having to touch the control sticks.

Cinematic Mode – A special mode designed for capturing cinematic footage. Cinematic mode increases the braking distance, allowing your drone to come to smoother, more natural stops, and decreases the yaw speed (yaw is the rotation of your drone clockwise or counterclockwise). Both of these settings help the drone achieve smooth shots even if input from the control sticks is choppy.

Tripod Mode – Tripod mode is available as an intelligent flight mode on the Mavic Pro and as a dedicated flight mode (similar to Sport mode) on the Mavic 2 Pro. Tripod mode enables smooth and controlled motion by reducing the drone’s maximum flight speed to between 2.2mph and 5.6mph depending on your model of drone.

Watch our Tripod Mode Tutorial video here.

 

Become Certified to Fly Commercially

The Dronegenuity Part 107 Test Prep Course does a deep dive into all of the topics that are covered on the FAA’s Part 107 Exam. This exam is required for drone users who intend on using their drone commercially. In other words, if you intend on making money with your drone, this course sets you up to take the FAA’s exam and get your certification. We’ll cover topics such as FAA regulations, weather, radio communications, sectional charts (of course), the national airspace system, and more. Enroll now to take your first step towards FAA certification.

 

About the Author

Stetson Doggett

Stetson is an Ithaca College alum and a certified drone pilot. He has been flying the DJI Mavic Pro since it first came out and loves finding new ways to improve his aerial photo and video quality. Stetson is from Acton, Massachusetts, and when not in the air he enjoys playing board games, producing YouTube videos, and watching Stranger Things.

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