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

[2nd2non]

It's unpredictable so you can't reproduce issues so therefore as a user, you can't fix it. If there was a work around that worked for all, one of us would've nailed it by now but all our results are so random. Even when I think I've found a fix for my Mavic, next flight, apply the fix and it will not work. I'm beginning to think that this thing really is borderline not fit for purpose. You certainly can't trust that it will yield reliable results.

Hmm, i believe my first mavic had these variance issues, but my latest mavic is consistent at a given Shutter and Sharpness based on flights over the last 1.5weeks. Are you sure your shutter is similar day to day?

 

[MavicGurl]

Quite right. I find it hard to agree with comments referring to how this thing is so cheap & what D'you expect for the money Etc. It's not cheap. It's an expensive piece of kit but they've obviously skimped on the software development. Just hope that, as some posts suggest, DJI are working on a fix

I know right. If enough people complain obviously they would do a fix. Even if the drone was $400 loke a gopro 5. If the video quality is not as advertised it should be fixed.

 

[Robbyg]

I know right. If enough people complain obviously they would do a fix. Even if the drone was $400 loke a gopro 5. If the video quality is not as advertised it should be fixed.

Unfortunately your wasting your time. Most people bought the Mavic for the way it flies and the portability. The camera for them is "Good Enough" for what they want to do. For those of us who are into photography it's a really tough thing to live with the picture quality, it is most of the time unusable for professional work unless you stay well within the cameras limits.

The only good thing is that I think even DJI realizes that they are not going to fool anybody twice. I would bet $1000 that the first question on everyone's tongue about the Mavic 2 is going to be what does the video and pictures look like. It cannot be an incremental P4P transition, it has to be a innovative leap forward, it this has to be 3-4 fold improvement on image quality if they hope to sell Mavics on the same scale again.

Rob

 

[dangerm0us]

At the very least I would like it if the Mavic could detect this issue. You know, just a simple pop up on the screen that says 'Mush Warning' (lol). At least you could quickly dial in some new settings.

Nothing worse than spending the time filming and then realising after the fact that your video is crap and unusable.

 

[Jase]

This really is worrying for me, my last flight with the Mavic produced terrible footage ie the watercolor quality which was to say the least unusable.

I purchased the Mavic because of the portability for sure and I didn't expect it to be quite as good as the Phantom 4 Pro, however I did expect it to produce 4K and usable footage not a mushy mess.

I've not used a Phantom 4 Pro so I'm wondering just how much difference there is, does that have similar issues?

I'm hoping to get out with the Mavic tomorrow and if the results are bad I really will have to consider changing it.

I'm going to the Photography show in the UK in 10 days and DJI will be there, I'm going to be having words then as their telephone support is terrible. When I phoned them about the image quality i think it went through the philipines or somewhere as the line was terrile and the best/only advice they could give me was to recalibrate the IMU, I asked if that would really affect the picture quality anf of there was anything else they could recomend and they said watch their youtube chanel for tutorials...... if that doesn't work phone us back....

 

[joshnl]

Still all I can imagine is that DJI is applying a logic like "slow shutter speed means dark scene outside, so increase denoising", if slow shutter speeds turn out to be the reason for mush in trees.

This is a really great point, and is one of the only explanations that makes sense in my mind for why adding a filter would have an effect such as this.

 

[Jase]

This is a really great point, and is one of the only explanations that makes sense in my mind for why adding a filter would have an effect such as this.

Wouldn't they apply the same logic to their other drones also though and not just the mavic?

 

[dangerm0us]

Wouldn't they apply the same logic to their other drones tp though and not just the mavic?

You would think so yes, but since the Mavic has a different sensor they may have not tweaked said logic well enough.

 

[Breo]

Before my Mavic, I had a Phantom 4. I remember there was an option in the "old" dji go 3 app called "3d noise reduction". There is no such option in our apps now, and this makes me think as some of you say, noise reduction is automatically activated according to what Mavic decides.
Sometimes this NTSC / PAL switch works, but the more your shutter speed decreases the more probably this awful effect will appear.
I've contacted dji explaining all this stuff. After reading my complaints, I've been invited to send my Mavic to repair. I didn't accept, and asked the guy to tell the developers the following sentence... “please, let us turn the ******* noise reduction off ". He promised he would report them. We'll see...
Here you are a YouTube link which I shared with this man where I explain (in perfect Spanish, sorry) what's wrong with our cameras.
Acuarela means watercolor

 

[MavicGurl]

Unfortunately your wasting your time. Most people bought the Mavic for the way it flies and the portability. The camera for them is "Good Enough" for what they want to do. For those of us who are into photography it's a really tough thing to live with the picture quality, it is most of the time unusable for professional work unless you stay well within the cameras limits.

The only good thing is that I think even DJI realizes that they are not going to fool anybody twice. I would bet $1000 that the first question on everyone's tongue about the Mavic 2 is going to be what does the video and pictures look like. It cannot be an incremental P4P transition, it has to be a innovative leap forward, it this has to be 3-4 fold improvement on image quality if they hope to sell Mavics on the same scale again.

Rob

I agree. Hopefully the MP2 will have a better camera. But its probably gonna be $1400[emoji23]

 

[dangerm0us]

I simply won't buy a Mavic 2 if they don't fix Mavic 1.

 

[larkin]

I'm no professional photographer but at $1k drone + camera + RC, I'm not sure why people would expect to get the IQ of a $5k DSLR. This is not the price range for professional equipment.

Here is footage I took with all default settings and no color grading. I hardly feel shortchanged in the quality or value department.

 

[dangerm0us]

I'm no professional photographer but at $1k drone + camera + RC, I'm not sure why people would expect to get the IQ of a $5k DSLR. This is not the price range for professional equipment.

Here is footage I took with all default settings and no color grading. I hardly feel shortchanged in the quality or value department.

That's a nice video.

However to address your point, there are a couple of reasons why everyone expects quality and why those expectations are reasonable:

- It was marketed as a 4K camera with gimbal
- It's called 'Mavic Pro', not Mavic Semi-Pro or Mavic Amateur
- it's built by DJI who make great cameras and gimbals
- it was not marketed as a toy
- a $300 DSLR is all it takes for better vids, no need to spend $5K

P.s. I'm not bitching, I love my Mavic. I just currently have issues with its reliability to shoot video at times.

Based on everyone's findings that people have kindly shared in this thread, it's looking like a software tweak could make the camera behave, well, not more reliably, but more predictively. That and understanding how it behaves in certain situations is hopefully all it takes to get videos that aren't 'professional' (although some people have managed some excellent results) but simply not mushy. I just don't want to get caught off guard filming something awesome only to realise that my footage was crap later on, due to heavy handed/unneccesary compression or whatever. I don't think THAT is unreasonable.

 

[RitterRunkel]

Before my Mavic, I had a Phantom 4. I remember there was an option in the "old" dji go 3 app called "3d noise reduction". There is no such option in our apps now, and this makes me think as some of you say, noise reduction is automatically activated according to what Mavic decides
...
Here you are a YouTube link which I shared with this man where I explain (in perfect Spanish, sorry) what's wrong with our cameras.
Acuarela means watercolor

This is indeed what the footage often looks like and they probably apply a similar noise reduction now. Especially vegetation gets very mushy while houses and similar structures seem far less affected. As a result the image is very unleveled regarding noise and detail and sharpening is also applied unbalanced. I really hoped they'd just give us back a denoising control. Then I'd be happy with the Mavic.

- a $300 DSLR is all it takes for better vids, no need to spend $5K
...
That and understanding how it behaves in certain situations is hopefully all it takes to get videos that aren't 'professional' (although some people have managed some excellent results) but simply not mushy.

Exactly.

 

[Owen Manderfield]

. I just don't want to get caught off guard filming something awesome only to realise that my footage was crap later on...... I don't think THAT is unreasonable.

I agree - that's totally the point of this thread.

When the system is behaving itself (e.g. after a PAL/NTSC reset) we are all happy with quality. We all accept it's limitations and the majority of us have managed at some point to get good videos & stills.

*But* under identical conditions and settings the Mavic sometimes produces totally unacceptable results - at any price point.

I'm not looking for DSLR quality, I'm looking for Mavic Quality - but consistently!

 

[cardplayer71]

I agree that I am looking for consistency. I had no expectations of anything but mobile phone sensor quality, however. I invested in this platform for its portability.

My iPhone says it does 4K. That doesn't mean it's any good. I wanted a cell phone in the sky, and that is what I got. It fits into a backpack and nobody even notices it. That's what I paid for.

It is the wild variation that should be sorted, in my opinion.

 

[AyeYo]

My iPhone says it does 4K. That doesn't mean it's any good. I wanted a cell phone in the sky, and that is what I got.

But in many cases, that's not what people got. Many of the examples in this thread, the warm/bright spot issue, the green corners issues, etc make this camera far inferior to most high end cell phones.

 

[Seamus]

This is indeed what the footage often looks like and they probably apply a similar noise reduction now. Especially vegetation gets very mushy while houses and similar structures seem far less affected. As a result the image is very unleveled regarding noise and detail and sharpening is also applied unbalanced. I really hoped they'd just give us back a denoising control. Then I'd be happy with the Mavic.

Couldn't agree more. Took my Mavic out a few times recently and buildings, roads, people etc were almost crystal clear......whereas flying over trees results in a big mushy mess and unusable footage.

 

[JPMavic]

Hmm, i believe my first mavic had these variance issues, but my latest mavic is consistent at a given Shutter and Sharpness based on flights over the last 1.5weeks. Are you sure your shutter is similar day to day?

This is a really great point, and is one of the only explanations that makes sense in my mind for why adding a filter would have an effect such as th

This is a really great point, and is one of the only explanations that makes sense in my mind for why adding a filter would have an effect such as this.

This is a really great point, and is one of the only explanations that makes sense in my mind for why adding a filter would have an effect such as this.

This is a really great point, and is one of the only explanations that makes sense in my mind for why adding a filter would have an effect such as this.

I agree. That reasoning could apply to all the instances I've experienced watercolouring. So if we work on that as a very possible cause. What about mushy trees? Caused by the same miscalculation or a separate glitch?

 

[JPMavic]

This really is worrying for me, my last flight with the Mavic produced terrible footage ie the watercolor quality which was to say the least unusable.

I purchased the Mavic because of the portability for sure and I didn't expect it to be quite as good as the Phantom 4 Pro, however I did expect it to produce 4K and usable footage not a mushy mess.

I've not used a Phantom 4 Pro so I'm wondering just how much difference there is, does that have similar issues?

I'm hoping to get out with the Mavic tomorrow and if the results are bad I really will have to consider changing it.

I'm going to the Photography show in the UK in 10 days and DJI will be there, I'm going to be having words then as their telephone support is terrible. When I phoned them about the image quality i think it went through the philipines or somewhere as the line was terrile and the best/only advice they could give me was to recalibrate the IMU, I asked if that would really affect the picture quality anf of there was anything else they could recomend and they said watch their youtube chanel for tutorials...... if that doesn't work phone us back....

I read somewhere that the IMU reset routine resets the thing. The entire reset is ... Reset IMU. Recalibrate Gimbal. Reset Camera. I agree with what you expect from a camera that's advertised as 4k. If you do get to speak to DJI, I think I speak for everyone who's posted here in an attempt to find a workaround. If you can get an answer from them along the lines of "We're aware of the issue, accept that it's a genuine glitch and we're working on a fix" .. That would keep us all happy. Either changing the threshold level of when NR kicks in, or as others have suggested, giving the option to turn auto NR off completely, would be ideal. (presuming that's the issue) . There will be a lot of unhappy people around If the next Mavic gets released with this issue fixed, but we are stuck with Mavic#1 .... that can't be fixed.