CES2013: Parrot Introduces Director Mode for AR Drone 2.0

Parrot announced the availability of Director Mode in the main piloting app for the AR Drone 2.0, bringing the ability to automatically execute panoramas, crane movements, travelling mode and others, as well as adjust camera features such as white balance and saturation.  Read on for details.

Parrot announced the availability of Director Mode in the main piloting app for the AR Drone 2.0, bringing the ability to automatically execute panoramas, crane movements, travelling mode and others, as well as adjust camera features such as white balance and saturation.  This greatly improves the professionalism of the videos that you can shoot with the AR Drone 2.0, and with the extra post-production features also added, such as image stabilization, the quality of the videos that you shoot can be taken to the next level.  Check out this video introduction to Director Mode:

Here is some more information from Parrot’s Director Mode website.

DIRECTOR MODE

The Director mode lets you program automatic movements for your AR.Drone 2.0 so that you can shoot great 720p HD videos just like a movie director.
As a new feature within the main piloting application (AR.FreeFlight) the Director Mode grants pilots with both an easier and more thorough new way to create amazing videos.

Make your choice among a variety of pre-programmed moves, set the movement speed, adjust optical settings and you are all set. Your AR.Drone 2.0 will move by itself just as you commanded in the cleanest and smoothest fashion.
Finish with the new post-processing options to correct and stabilize even further video shots that will make your movies unforgettable!

Tune camera settings such as white balance, exposure and saturation.

Depending on your environment, on the weather conditions or on the time of the day photographers and video makers often fel the need to adjust their camera optical settings.

This is now possible on the AR.Drone 2.0 thanks to the Director Mode. The flying camera settings menu lets you fine tune exposure, color saturation and white balance or choose from an array of preset to quickly find the setting that will fit your needs.

Choose your move.

As sure as all movie directors need skilled camera operators it is often easier to imagine the shots you’d like to record than actually making them happen.
With the Director Mode you will have the best AR.Drone 2.0 camera operator at your service.

The new AR.Drone 2.0 firmware will eliminate all the hick-ups due to wind conditions or sudden stop to deliver the smoothest video you’ll ever shot with an AR.Drone 2.0.

Compose video sequences in real time.

You can stop or take back the control at any time during the automatic moves.

You can also choose to compose a more complex sequence by switching from one move to another or adjusting the speed in real time.

Stabilization system and video post-processing.

Once you’ll have finished recording and can access the video shots through the post processing section to improve even further the final result.

This new section lets you access options to correct and stabilize your videos.
Reprojection will correct the round border effects created by wide angle lens. Your videos will then perfectly blend with videos from other camera using different lenses.

The stability chart lets you see how stable your original video is to suggest either a low, medium, high or very high stabilization correction.

By cropping into the original video and eliminating all the hiccups and glitches you’ll get a perfect smooth and stable shot.

This is welcome news to me; there are many videos that I have shot that could benefit from video stabilization, and automating the shooting of a panorama would be useful.  I intend to install this as soon as it is released, so watch this space for my assessment.