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

[Andrew F]

I have been racking my brain over the poor video quality especially in LOW LIGHT. I have tried manual settings as well as auto and at this point am beginning to think that the camera is DEFECTIVE. There is way too much noise and artifact the likes I have never seen on a DJI camera before. I have the INSPIRE 1 and have had Phantom 3 and 4. Shooting at 4K 24P and its really unusable here's a small sample of the shiny, noisy footage. Any and all helpful suggestions are welcome. I have attached 3 4k-24p frame grabs , full daylight and low light. It's baffling how bad the quality looks. Stills look fine but the video really poor quality.

Dude. Just get a new one. My video and photos are perfect.

 

[HTRABIN]

Can't view it- video is set to private.

Its now set to Public. Try it again please.
Thank you.

 

[HTRABIN]

Dude. Just get a new one. My video and photos are perfect.

Glad to hear. I sent mine back a week ago and the preliminary assessment is a defective sensor. I'll let the forum know once I get the replacement unit.

 

[Motley]

I seem to be having the same issue, I sent mine back and got a replacement but the replacement doesn't seem to be any better

Has anyone determined a standard test we all can do to compare and see if we all have the same issue? I have several videos showing what I feel is an issue but I am not an expert and not sure if it is something I am doing wrong. It is the same issue as most of the videos I see here where some objects seem nice and sharp while others (same focal distance) are very blurry and "mush". I agree I am not impressed with the image quality so far, my other drone from a different company shoots much clearer video.

 

[Kawboy12R]

The video plays now htrabin. Crappy but that's the point of it. Hope my Mavic is one of the clear ones when it arrives.

 

[HTRABIN]

Set to public a few days ago. Thank you. DJI just reported the camera and gimbal are being replaced. Defective sensor issue. Hopefully this will fix the issues.

 

[Motley]

I just tested mine again today and it looks much better, I think the issue I was having was shooting with too low of light (just before sunset). The camera does not appear to do well in low-light situations.

 

[raybanner]

I want to contact DJI too for this issue and yes, I think that this is an issue. I have a thread with awful looking samples in it. Check here: Video quality issues (washed out/oil painting effects) :(

Whats the best way to contact DJI regarding this?

 

[RallySoob]

Just a side note. Dji is aware the 60-90 frame rate options look terrible and they say its because the dji goggles are made to run in those modes...
does that seem like bs to anyone else? I wasnt aware the quality of recorded video effected the real time fpv view

 

[RallySoob]

I want to contact DJI too for this issue and yes, I think that this is an issue. I have a thread with awful looking samples in it. Check here: Video quality issues (washed out/oil painting effects) :(

Whats the best way to contact DJI regarding this?

chat is the quikest... email seem to have 24-48hr gap between each communication. Could try both?

 

[Res89]

Ive been wondering since I got my mavic if I was having issues due to a problem with the drone or if this was common and just a limitation of all the drones. Interesting to see this thread with so many people experiencing similar issues. I posted a topic which contains a lot of footage I've taken and I'll link it here. I'd be grateful if anyone could take a look and let me know if they think I need to get a replacement as I'll need to do it soon before I leave the country. Thanks in advance and here's the link: Video Quality Issues


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[Mako79]

Just a side note. Dji is aware the 60-90 frame rate options look terrible and they say its because the dji goggles are made to run in those modes...
does that seem like bs to anyone else? I wasnt aware the quality of recorded video effected the real time fpv view

I'm not sure if BS either...

What we do know is:
The sensor is not the same as the P4's
Ocustink is slightly quicker than lightbridge (i was told - evidence TBA)..
48/60/90 fps suffer from pixel binning (bad aliasing and moire effect).
For effective FPV experience in goggles, refresh rates need to be 90fps minimal and around 1280x1440 per eye (possible QHD panel) with zero lag.
We know that you cannot stream 1080p when recording in 4K therefore the hardware is limited. This means mavic camera needs to send back 1080p@60fps and the only way to do this is to sacrifice camera quality by pixel dumping (less data to be sent).

What we don't know:
Data transmitted is at light speed, but what causes latency is processing speeds. The $999 question - Will the goggles use additional DJI tech to make it zero lag?

 

[AyeYo]

Same issue here. Shot at default settings on a bright day, no zoom. View it full size and it looks like a oil painting. In my case this issue only affects stills. Video seems fine.

 

[raybanner]

Check out this footage from 15 minutes ago. Settings: 4k Cinelike, 0 0 0
Do you call this bad light outside? Its full of artefacts and other non cool stuff.

Video: Dropbox - DJI_0050.MOV

 

[visualair]

Check out this footage from 15 minutes ago. Settings: 4k Cinelike, 0 0 0
Do you call this bad light outside? Its full of artefacts and other non cool stuff.

Video: Dropbox - DJI_0050.MOV

That looks like if sharpening is too high causing those artifacts, but wierdly when I did a 0 0 0 test recently it looks really over compressed like having a noise reduction and I had to use +1 to get any detail. I honestly cant believe how frustrating this is. I love the Mavic, I really dont want to get rid of it, but this video issue is a huge issue and could it really be an issue with the sensor? it seems to me like a software compression issue. RAW is perfect. Or is the processing a problem with early Mavics and they are using an excuse that the sensor is an issue when in fact it isnt. Really is very frustrating.

This is my first sign of trouble.. I was in ART, and I think I had -1 0 0

Dropbox - DJI_0027.MP4

The photos I took were superb so it wasnt a focusing issue which I first thought. It just seems the shaprness settings, even the one step change makes a massive difference.

 

[visualair]

Same issue here. Shot at default settings on a bright day, no zoom. View it full size and it looks like a oil painting. In my case this issue only affects stills. Video seems fine.

That is what i get with jpegs, really terrible processing. I want to use jpeg for some timelapse work as RAW is too slow with only having 10second intervals but jpeg has terrible compression.

 

[AyeYo]

I guess until they figure things out I just need to shoot in RAW and deal with the conversion in Adobe later.

 

[Res89]

Took a few more videos this morning, going to link some of them as I believe still playing around with settings and filming in different light I am still struggling with noise in my footage. In these clips my ISO was set at 100, WB Cloudy, -1, -1, -1, Cinelike. The first clip I had manual settings on for shutter speed which I set at 640, and the other 2 clips had auto as I wanted to see if going between the two yielded different results. If anyone is able, please download the videos as streaming them through dropbox seems to kill the resolution.

First Clip: Dropbox - DJI_0002.MP4

Second Clip: Dropbox - DJI_0003.MP4

Third: Dropbox - DJI_0004.MP4

 

[Motley]

There are plenty of YouTube videos with people showing best settings if you want to color correct or grade your video in post. I have heard that Art or D-Cinelike are the best profiles and that the other settings should be something like -1, 2, -2. The videos do seem a but dark, have you tried the full auto (none color profile and auto for other settings, other than WB) just to see if it still looks bad?

 

[BlakPhoenix]

It seems that the compression settings on JPEG's are terribly high. If you want pictures, shoot them in RAW, my RAW files are very crisp and have no watercolour effect, whereas the same in JPEG was disgusting.