While using automatic stitching in-drone, there is an option to save Individual images as 12 MP raw files (DNG). Alternatively you can switch to portrait mode and shoot panoramas manually as 48 MP DNG files. I stitch in PTgui Pro that has many projection options and allows human operator identification of stitching points in low contrast areas that are too difficult for automatic stitching. Additionally I edit the 48 MP DNGs in Topaz Denoise as the high rez mode files have much more noise than the 12 MP files for perfectly natural reasons. The “effective” resolution is probably closer to 30 Mp than 48 Mp which is quite remarkable nevertheless for a less-than-thumb sized camera.

Your post is very complete. I would ask you why you save the photos in .jpg and not in .dng, which allow much more possibilities for post production. And especially, why tilt the camera vertically? Making the photos max 60º upwards, in normal mode (landscape) isn’t there enough overlap to stitch them together later?

Taking those 8 extra vertically rather than horizontally removes the small missing part. See here (french but google translation helps) for walkthrough.

I would also like to know, but I believe 8, plus the 25 that most DJI drones capture, in sphere mode. (on the Mavic 2 PRO there are 26). That is 8 per line, in 3 lines (24) and one more from the azimuth.