Hi all, through trial and error, I am answering my own question. It is possible to fly raw only area missions, just not with J+R. The secret is to slow the flight speed down enough that you have 2 seconds between photos, so the camera has enough time to write the raw data to the SD. Smart oblique missions may also be possible, but the speed would be even slower. It appears that flight path logic doesn't know how to do that math.
The math for flight speed is not complex if done quantitively, just figure out how much ground distance you need between photo centers to get your 80% forward overlap, divide it out from feet for 2 seconds to MPH. I seem to be having decent luck with 12 mph at 150 AGL.
It also seems that you can use a waypoint route with a timed shutter, and probably get J+R, but I haven't had enough low wind, sunny days when the dogs aren't home. It is tricky to get consistent distance between flight lines. Maybe I can import a KML with the flight path?
The orthos produced with raw photos are distinctly clearer, but I don't have any exact comparison examples to share. I supposed I can resave my raw images with regular JPG compression and then rerun the job, given another run of rainy weather when work is slower.
I am using WebODM currently because I don't have a GPU that meets DJI Terras specs. It would be nice if DJI could make an option for non GPU machines. Running a Rizen7 with 32MB ram and 1TB SSD, I can process 250 photos in less than 2 hours without a fancy GPU. WebODM doesn't recognize DNG images, but there are plenty of options how to convert them. Lossless JPG works well, and shrinks the images to about half size. If anything, WebODM processes the raw images faster, probably because of easier matching during reconstruction.
I still need to look at if raw images will allow higher flightlines while producing similar quality orthos. But I am now going to be focusing on getting my local RTK base running with the RC2 so that the ground control/check points can be done for accuracy. Getting good quality point clouds is also on the list, as I need to be able to measure the point under the eaves where the building corner hits the ground. I see recent threads on that which look promising. I am also fighting spring leaves in upstate NY, which may change thing dramatically. Why can't we just clear cut anything we need to map?
