Published , by Bill Lavoy
Published , by Bill Lavoy
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is objectively one of the best-looking video games to ever be released, so of course, players are scrambling to find a photo mode, which in Microsoft Flight Simulator is referred to as a Drone Camera. In this guide, we’ll explain how to enable the Drone Camera, as well as the laundry list of controls at your disposal to utilize it to capture the beauty of Earth.
Unless you've entered into the Active Pause state (Pause), make sure that your plane is in good shape, meaning flying at a good altitude and steady speed. Once everything is stable, press the Insert key on your keyboard, which is typically just to the right of the Backspace key. This is how you toggle the Drone Camera on and off. You can also activate the Drone Camera by moving your mouse to the top of your screen and activating the top menu, then choosing Camera.
Once the Drone Camera is activated, fiddle with the many options the Drone Camera provides, but consider using Active Pause until you have a good understanding of how things work. Below are the various controls and keybindings to operate the Drone Camera:
| Drone Camera (Press Insert to activate) | |
|---|---|
| Action Name | Keybinding |
| Depth of Field | F1 |
| Foreground Blur | F5 |
| Top Down View | Ctrl + Space |
| Attach Drone to Next Target | Ctrl + Page Up |
| Attach Drone to Previous Target | Ctrl + Page Down |
| Toggle Drone Auto Exposure | Ctrl + F4 |
| Toggle Drone Auto Focus | F4 |
| Decrease Drone Rotation Speed | F3 |
| Decrease Drone Translation Speed | F1 |
| Decrease Drone Depth of Field | F2 |
| Increase Drone Depth of Field | F3 |
| Decrease Drone Exposure | Ctrl + F2 |
| Increase Drone Exposure | Ctrl + F3 |
| Increase Drone Rotation Speed | F4 |
| Increase Drone Translation Speed | F2 |
| Lock Drone to Next Target | t |
| Lock Drone to Previous Target | Shift + t |
| Translate Drone Backward | s |
| Translate Drone Down | f |
| Translate Drone Forward | w |
| Translate Drone Left | a |
| Translate Drone Right | d |
| Translate Drone Up | r |
| Reset Drone Roll | Space |
| Reset Drone Target Offset | Num 5 |
| Pitch Drone Down | Num 2 |
| Roll Drone Right | Num 9 |
| Pitch Drone Up | Num 8 |
| Yaw Drone Left | Num 4 |
| Yaw Drone Right | Num 6 |
| Toggle Drone Follow Mode | Tab |
| Toggle Drone Lock Mode | Ctrl + Tab |
| Increase Drone Zoom | Num + |
| Decrease Drone Zoom | Num - |
| Toggle Plane Controls | c |
As you can see from the table above, things get a little wonky with a couple of examples of multiple actions being bound to the same key, even though they are contextual. Just remember that you can bind these actions to whatever keys you want, so feel free to make some adjustments that make sense for your brain when using the Drone Camera. When you're done using the Drone Camera, press the Insert key to return to the controls and get back to flying the plane with your full attention.
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