Does Mavic Shoot Video or Watercolor Paintings? Don’t settle. Get Involved!

[frikovc]

Quick update to my post above. I upgraded the firmware one version at a time up to the current release. re calibrated everything and flew again. Image still perfect. (Art -1,-1,0). Reading the posts and others' experiences with resetting the camera to PAL then back to NTSC, which hasn't worked for me, I'm convinced it's an issue with a script that runs each time the software boots up that is compounding or overwriting some settings, leaving traces which are causing the issue instead of wiping & reloading. This is possibly made worse by new users like myself who experiment with all the different settings Etc. which is creating a lot of garbage in the cache which can only be purged by reinstalling the firmware. The success that some of you guys are having with PAL>NTSC resets is fixing the camera element by doing what the software should be doing automatically each time the things' powered up. If that's correct then presumably an easy fix to build into the next update?

Yes, I tried to explain that to DJI, that is most likely software issue, with instructions and images how to reproduce it... the problem is they are still convinced this is "lens misalignment" because they are jumping to conclusions and in a fact are not listening to the customers. Their customer support is just reading from script. I tried to convince them to send my report to some R&D folks but I think they ignored it.

 

[JPMavic]

That sounds spot on.


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Went out earlier. Didn't change any settings or filter on the Mavic. Identical lighting conditions and the muddy picture is back. No definition to grass or trees. Also noticed a purple cast around the areas that become mushy. See attached. I've adjusted the colour massively to bring the discolouration out purely to indicate where it occurs in the shot. Its these areas that the camera is struggling with when this fault occurs. Fix I'm going to try next is to recalibrate IMU & gimble then reset camera before every trip.

 

[Fonejacker]

Yes, I tried to explain that to DJI, that is most likely software issue, with instructions and images how to reproduce it... the problem is they are still convinced this is "lens misalignment" because they are jumping to conclusions and in a fact are not listening to the customers. Their customer support is just reading from script. I tried to convince them to send my report to some R&D folks but I think they ignored it.

Wonder what point in my life this is going to get solved! DJI Listen to your customers!


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[devinkumar]

Just got my Mavic a few days ago and I'm having the water color painting effect as well...disappointed. Super obvious in JPG, but in raw DNG it looks great. I shoot raw anyway, but 4K video also looks like I'm getting way too much noise reduction. I've tried shooting only at -1 and 0 sharpness, but that doesn't seem to fix the problem. The NTSC to PAL and back also does not appear to change the image for me; still watercolor.

However, for the first time yesterday I got non-watercolor looking video. Obviously I was wondering how on earth it changed all of a sudden. Most of the time I had been either using a custom button to center autofocus, or using the tap to focus as I flew. Well yesterday on my last flight of the day, I switched over to manual focus, turned peaking on so I could really dial in perfect focus using the on screen slider. Just so everyone knows, sliding it all the way to infinity does NOT mean everything will be in focus. I think infinity in DJI's camera is like if you want to shoot the moon. Even things a mile away were out of focus when set to infinity. Anyway, looking back at the footage I shot in manual focus when I was sure I had the focus nailed....resulted in sharp, detailed, and no water color looking video!
This confirms one thing; that if your focus is not perfect, then the watercolor effect is indeed much worse. I don't know if there's some other setting or if my Mavic just decided to turn off noise reduction on it's own...but I had been changing settings all day, NTSC to PAL, different profiles (ended up changing from d-cinelike to None), and nothing was fixing the problem.

I may try to see if DJI will check it out and replace it, seeing as user 2nd2non said getting an RMA and a new Mavic fixed the problem for him. I would love to not have to constantly be using the manual focus slider, as right now that was the only time that I got usable footage.
Anyone else had luck with returning their Mavic under warranty and receiving a new unit that didn't have the problem?

Attached are two photos, the first when I still had watercolor, and the 2nd which appears much better. These are screenshots from 4K video. The first was in D-cinelike, and the second is with color profile None.

Mavic 4k Screenshot Bad

• devinkumar
• Feb 28, 2017

Mavic 4k Screenshot Good

• devinkumar
• Feb 28, 2017

 

[Kestrel]

Got mine in yesterday, flew it today, no issues with watercolor or focusing issues.

 

[RitterRunkel]

Got mine in yesterday, flew it today, no issues with watercolor or focusing issues.

Just wait for it ... and tell us, what you did to get it.

 

[JPMavic]

Just wait for it ... and tell us, what you did to get it.

Precisely .. my first few flights the results were great. Then it started & now randomly appears. The only guaranteed fix I've found is rolling back firmware & reinstalling. Not really practical

 

[Kestrel]

We will see. If it happened after a few flights then why do people have it happen to them out of the box and repaired ones too.

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[JPMavic]

We will see. If it happened after a few flights then why do people have it happen to them out of the box and repaired ones too.

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My guess would be it depends on which firmware your Mavic ships with. My issues started when I installed the first firmware upgrade. I'm convinced the issues are caused by colour profiles etc getting corrupted during upgrades.

 

[2nd2non]

I'm beginning to think DJI designed the mavic with the water color effect. Look at the GO4 splash screen (right side) [emoji33][emoji33]

 

[2nd2non]

I get my 2nd replacement unit next week. Wonder what issue(s) I will have this time


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[JPMavic]

I just looked at 2 identical scenes i shot this morning. (Art -1,1,0). First was perfect. reset the camera with NTSC to PAL to NTSC. changed filters to darker to get the shutter down to 60 (but I don't think that's relevant). Second scene. Same subjects. definite water colour on the side of cars and smudgy trees etc. So how about this for a theory? On each reset of the camera, or boot up. The sharpness level that was set previously, instead of being retained (i.e at -1 as I use) is in error, compounded. So whatever figure is set on DJI Go, Whatever it shows, on the 2nd reboot the sharpness is increased. You set it, or retain it at -1, but on the reboot in increases to 0.

 

[Kestrel]

Are you guys using go 4 or the original go app.

 

[CyberNate]

Today I was testing the camera and noticed that the photo meta data is showing "Exposure Bias: +1 step" in my photos where I had set the EV gain to values between "-.7V" and "0", never above "0". Has anyone else noticed that the Exposure Bias in the photo metadata does not match the EV gain setting? My photos are terrible as other are experiencing here. I've been trying different settings trying to get usable photos. Yesterday DJI told me to reset the camera. That didn't do anything. Photos have that water color effect and are over exposed.

 

[JPMavic]

Are you guys using go 4 or the original go app.

I'm using Go 4

 

[devinkumar]

Precisely .. my first few flights the results were great. Then it started & now randomly appears. The only guaranteed fix I've found is rolling back firmware & reinstalling. Not really practical

JPMavic,
Have you found that on a specific previous firmware version you don't get the watercolor problem at all?

I've used Go 4 and Litchi, and both apps have given me watercolor effect.

 

[Kestrel]

Maybe try the old go app thats what im using at the moment.. also if it is a firmware problem can you roll back without getting the prompt to update? Roll back and use Litchi I don't think Litchi prompts for an update.

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[JPMavic]

JPMavic,
Have you found that on a specific previous firmware version you don't get the watercolor problem at all?

I've used Go 4 and Litchi, and both apps have given me watercolor effect.

Yes. The fix that worked for me was to roll back the firmware to the earliest availible on DJI assistant 2. I then reinstalled the firmware updates one at a time in sequence. Then re calibrated. That worked for a couple of flights then the issue came back. Which is why I believe it's related to firmware getting progressively corrupted as it goes through the cycle of booting up and, or changing settings. In the same way a PC with a virus behaves. Only way to fix them is to roll back to a point where they weren't infected, but if the bug is attached to the boot up procedure or inherent in the software, it'll just reappear.

 

[Kestrel]

Yes. The fix that worked for me was to roll back the firmware to the earliest availible on DJI assistant 2. I then reinstalled the firmware updates one at a time in sequence. Then re calibrated. That worked for a couple of flights then the issue came back. Which is why I believe it's related to firmware getting progressively corrupted as it goes through the cycle of booting up and, or changing settings. In the same way a PC with a virus behaves. Only way to fix them is to roll back to a point where they weren't infected, but if the bug is attached to the boot up procedure or inherent in the software, it'll just reappear.

How long have you had your mavic?

 

[JPMavic]

Maybe try the old go app thats what im using at the moment.. also if it is a firmware problem can you roll back without getting the prompt to update? Roll back and use Litchi I don't think Litchi prompts for an update.

Sent from my HTCD160LVWPP using MavicPilots mobile app

You'll get the prompt but you can ignore it. The dilemma is that the updates presumably address more than just cosmetic issues so for safety's sake I assume that DJI would recommend always using the
Latest release.