Does DJI shot down mavic pro since mavic 2 is out?

[jason38]

Hi guys,
Just a quick question about mavic pro video quality, since mavic 2 came out...

Since the mavic 2 is in the place, there was a firmware update for the mavic pro, a few weeks ago.
I did the upgrade, and since that day, I noticed that all my video footage are very noisy...for example, when I shoot over a forest , all darker areas between trees are A LOT noisy, I can see billions of little dots moving in these zones, like a very poor quality video...
I also noticed that the contrast is very high, I see some over exposed zones on leafs of some trees , and some completely dark firs, as the grass seem to have a good exposure...
Last point, when I look at these vids on my PC, they are all laggy, the image seems to freeze for a fraction of a second every seconds approx...

I didn't changed any parameter in my mavic settings, I shoot in 2.7k 30fps....
my computer runs videos I shot before upgrade very smoothly, and , when I watch them I can clearly see the quality difference between before/after...

I was also wondering if the weather would afect image quality, as here, in the alps, there is a very foggy weather, and when the sun comes out, the sky is white and if I want to make a balanced video, I need to make it darker (increase shutter speed or fit a ND filter) because if I do not, the sky will be over burned, as trees are looking great, or the sky will be nice and trees will looks all dark...
As it's autumn, the sun is lower and shadows even more marked!?

But when I look at vids I shot last year in the same period, they dont look as noisy as now, and I wonder if DJI just made the M1pro a little bit "******" to make people buying the last mavic 2....

I'm now waiting for some other weather conditions to see if the issue could come from that milky fog ...

 

[Robert Mitchell]

I seriously doubt they deliberately sabotaged their equipment. More likely something got reset, setting changed, combined with different shoot conditions.

Check to see if your sharpness level was reset from -1 to 0 or 0 to +1. Any increase in the sharpness level decreases noise reduction and increases noise when compared to previous footage.

Also make sure your shutter speed is staying down around 60/80.

 

[jason38]

I seriously doubt they deliberately sabotaged their equipment. More likely something got reset, setting changed, combined with different shoot conditions.

Check to see if your sharpness level was reset from -1 to 0 or 0 to +1. Any increase in the sharpness level decreases noise reduction and increases noise when compared to previous footage.

Also make sure your shutter speed is staying down around 60/80.

Yes, I am not convinced about DJI shot down their own products too, but you know, in the world we are leaving, everything is possible, mostly in electronics, where its proved that most brands just give to their products a limited lifespan...

Anyway, I need to trust that they didn't do anything like that, and that the issue is due to a bad operation from myself, or a reseted setting. I didn't checked every setting after the upgrade, only checked RTH,max distance, max alt., or some other main camera settings....

If nobody else met that issue, it could only a mistake I did...

I'll check camera settings after work...

But that issue my PC lagg when it reads a video shot with (and only with) my mavic worries me, and it's pretty sure that it's not due to cam Settings!? Am I right?

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Not sure about your computer lag issues. Again, check to see if your format was changed from MP4 to MOV etc.

My computer also lags somewhat occasionally but always has. There are so many factors involved with this it's really hard to nail down exact glitches and causes, when changes are introduced. And yes it's frustrating when everything worked fine before.

I feel your pain!

 

[AeroJ]

Very much doubt DJI would break anything on purpose; that would only result in thousands of angry customers - much more likely that something got reset in the update.

I was also wondering if the weather would afect image quality, as here, in the alps, there is a very foggy weather, and when the sun comes out, the sky is white and if I want to make a balanced video, I need to make it darker (increase shutter speed or fit a ND filter) because if I do not, the sky will be over burned, as trees are looking great, or the sky will be nice and trees will looks all dark...

Until we all get HDR cameras, this is the perennial problem that all UAV videographers face most of the time we fly - the sky is usually orders of magnitude brighter than the ground. In situations like this, the key is to expose for one or the other and then to adjust your shot so that your view is mostly full of what you exposed for. So if the things on the ground are most interesting, then set your exposure for that, drop the gimbal so there is very little sky in your shot, and get all your ground-based footage. Then set exposure for the sky, raise the gimbal and get the shots you need where that is the focus, accepting that in those shots the ground will be too dark sometimes.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Very much doubt DJI would break anything on purpose; that would only result in thousands of angry customers - much more likely that something got reset in the update.



Until we all get HDR cameras, this is the perennial problem that all UAV videographers face most of the time we fly - the sky is usually orders of magnitude brighter than the ground. In situations like this, the key is to expose for one or the other and then to adjust your shot so that your view is mostly full of what you exposed for. So if the things on the ground are most interesting, then set your exposure for that, drop the gimbal so there is very little sky in your shot, and get all your ground-based footage. Then set exposure for the sky, raise the gimbal and get the shots you need where that is the focus, accepting that in those shots the ground will be too dark sometimes.

Spot on.

Fortunately, the Mavic 2 pro has a much larger dynamic range and helps with the situation. Not perfect but better.

 

[jason38]

Thanks for your answers guys!

I was reading back my first post, and yes, its seems like a complotist post!! Ahah! But it appears weird to me since it has been updated... Because since more than a year, I fly my mavic with almost not an issue when updating it, and here it seems to make bug video quality, 2 weeks after the mavic2 is available.
Anyway, you're all right, if DJI would have did something like that, the UAV world's leader would sink after a such big mistake...

I know about sky/ground contrast in some weather conditions, having tried since a long time to take photos showing as close as possible what our eyes can see, and never managed to figure it out...
With more and more powerful lenses and HDR, it becomes easier for sure!

I watched again a clip I shot yesturday , where I did a POI around a tree, and I can easily see that brightness from the sun (and fog as well) was very shiny(more than expected): I started turning around the tree with the sun behind and the tree/grass/mountains are nice, with a good exposure, good balance, but when the sun begin hiting the lens, the tree just become black, like all around, even if I setted exposure and aperture manually and was locked.
Another mistake I did: the ND filter was not the good one, they were inverted in the box , so I fited a polarizing ND filter instead of a ND 16 or 32 filter... So the shutter speed was around 1/200... Maybe that's why it's full of noise!!
...and maybe thats also why it's jerky , viewing on my PC?
Not really sure about it, because some vids I shot a few weeks before are jerky too, while all settings and filters were right...

Video format is still MP4 , like before...

I'll make some more tests and let you know...

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Thanks for your answers guys!

I was reading back my first post, and yes, its seems like a complotist post!! Ahah! But it appears weird to me since it has been updated... Because since more than a year, I fly my mavic with almost not an issue when updating it, and here it seems to make bug video quality, 2 weeks after the mavic2 is available.
Anyway, you're all right, if DJI would have did something like that, the UAV world's leader would sink after a such big mistake...

I know about sky/ground contrast in some weather conditions, having tried since a long time to take photos showing as close as possible what our eyes can see, and never managed to figure it out...
With more and more powerful lenses and HDR, it becomes easier for sure!

I watched again a clip I shot yesturday , where I did a POI around a tree, and I can easily see that brightness from the sun (and fog as well) was very shiny(more than expected): I started turning around the tree with the sun behind and the tree/grass/mountains are nice, with a good exposure, good balance, but when the sun begin hiting the lens, the tree just become black, like all around, even if I setted exposure and aperture manually and was locked.
Another mistake I did: the ND filter was not the good one, they were inverted in the box , so I fited a polarizing ND filter instead of a ND 16 or 32 filter... So the shutter speed was around 1/200... Maybe that's why it's full of noise!!
...and maybe thats also why it's jerky , viewing on my PC?
Not really sure about it, because some vids I shot a few weeks before are jerky too, while all settings and filters were right...

Video format is still MP4 , like before...

I'll make some more tests and let you know...

Keep in mind, a few things which contribute to noise on th Mavic camera. ISO. Keep it low as possible. 200 or less. Sharpness setting at zero or less, although minus starts getting you “watercolor” effect. And last, when you’re shutter speed is over 1/80 or so, you loose the motion blur which tends to mask the noise somewhat.

This is where using ND filter with manual locked settings (ISO and SS) help tremendously. You then need to expose each scene as well as possible and blend in post.

Good luck.

 

[jason38]

Keep in mind, a few things which contribute to noise on th Mavic camera. ISO. Keep it low as possible. 200 or less. Sharpness setting at zero or less, although minus starts getting you “watercolor” effect. And last, when you’re shutter speed is over 1/80 or so, you loose the motion blur which tends to mask the noise somewhat.

This is where using ND filter with manual locked settings (ISO and SS) help tremendously. You then need to expose each scene as well as possible and blend in post.

Good luck.

Thank you for your advices, that 's all I try to do on each flight.
However, I didn't notice the sharpness settings, I'll need to look for it deeper and try ...
Tomorow I'll maybe go shooting in some better conditions, so tonight I'll check all these settings.
I hope it will be better and , most important, that I'll come back with some workable footage...

 

[Lon Denard]

It's an interesting idea and I know that Apple was just accused of something "similar". However, there are thousands of Mavic Pros out there. It was, by a huge margin, the most popular drone sold in the last couple years. The internet would explode just like it did over the Mavic 2 Pro's supposed "crippling" by DJI. Which turned out to be crap, btw.

 

[Machineshop]

Did you try asking DJI, they are usually more than happy to help you, the happy you are the more you will tell others.

 

[Kilrah]

Unlikely, but the 400 update did reset camera settings and since you don't seem to be so sure about how things work you might not have restored some.

Anyway you can downgrade the firmware back to the previous version you had and see for yourself, and stay there if you prefer...

 

[Lon Denard]

Unlikely, but the 400 update did reset camera settings and since you don't seem to be so sure about how things work you might not have restored some.

Anyway you can downgrade the firmware back to the previous version you had and see for yourself, and stay there if you prefer...

Yea I was thinking something similar. There are always guides that come with these updates warning of settings changes, etc. People seriously need to learn to read things before they download them. Quite frankly, that should go for ANYTHING you download onto ANY device.

 

[jason38]

Yea I was thinking something similar. There are always guides that come with these updates warning of settings changes, etc. People seriously need to learn to read things before they download them. Quite frankly, that should go for ANYTHING you download onto ANY device.

I read all the update description and modification it will/should make on my mavic...I always read these descriptions for any update I make ( drone/phone/PC.......)
Yes it was written that the update should modify some parameters like RTH, max alt, max distance or camera settings....but it was also written in the description of each update I did for my mavic, and I always checked all my settings were OK before each flight and all updates I did never modified cam settings , so this time, I just had a quick look at these, seeing that all major camera parameters were still good...so lets go fly! Didn't looked at all settings deeper...my bad....

 

[Lon Denard]

I read all the update description and modification it will/should make on my mavic...I always read these descriptions for any update I make ( drone/phone/PC.......)
Yes it was written that the update should modify some parameters like RTH, max alt, max distance or camera settings....but it was also written in the description of each update I did for my mavic, and I always checked all my settings were OK before each flight and all updates I did never modified cam settings , so this time, I just had a quick look at these, seeing that all major camera parameters were still good...so lets go fly! Didn't looked at all settings deeper...my bad....

It's all good! I understand.

 

[YaSureOK]

Yes, I am not convinced about DJI shot down their own products too, but you know, in the world we are leaving, everything is possible, mostly in electronics, where its proved that most brands just give to their products a limited lifespan...

Anyway, I need to trust that they didn't do anything like that, and that the issue is due to a bad operation from myself, or a reseted setting. I didn't checked every setting after the upgrade, only checked RTH,max distance, max alt., or some other main camera settings....

If nobody else met that issue, it could only a mistake I did...

I'll check camera settings after work...

But that issue my PC lagg when it reads a video shot with (and only with) my mavic worries me, and it's pretty sure that it's not due to cam Settings!? Am I right?

Interesting. I am having similar issues with video quality and the lagging with my Magic Pro which started recently. I thought I had some great fall colors video that looked faded when I looked at it on my computer.

 

[dewster]

I’m surprised that DJI’s latest Flight Simulator won’t work with Mavic 1.