Barrel distortion (Curved horizons)

[gnirtS]

Seem to be quite a few people on the DJI forum finding this issue now.

Mavic PRO 2 - Lens distortion

It looks like in "normal" profile its corrected but D-LOG and HLG theres very clear barrel distortion on the image, very obvious as the horizon moves away from centre.

Normally this should be corrected in-camera (and is for normal profile) but seems not to be in LOG.

Is everyone seeing this? (Its a fairly big issue as any gimbal up/down footage is going to show the horizon gradually curving).

 

[MGVision]

****, same as NASA images of earth taken from "space". Fish eye lens camera at its finest.

 

[sar104]

Seem to be quite a few people on the DJI forum finding this issue now.

Mavic PRO 2 - Lens distortion

It looks like in "normal" profile its corrected but D-LOG and HLG theres very clear barrel distortion on the image, very obvious as the horizon moves away from centre.

Normally this should be corrected in-camera (and is for normal profile) but seems not to be in LOG.

Is everyone seeing this? (Its a fairly big issue as any gimbal up/down footage is going to show the horizon gradually curving).

A quick check reveals that it is present in D-Log and HLG, but not in NORMAL. It doesn't show up in RAW photos. Looks like a firmware bug.

 

[gnirtS]

DNG will (should) contain a profile correction.
If its not in normal but in log i guess its a software issue. Theres nothing in a log format that should change anything optically vs normal - its purely a colour and gamma profile.
DJI have said engineers are "aware" so hopefully someone will go "Oh ****, forgot to add that line" and fix it.
Its probably the most serious "bug" currently but suspect an easy fix.

 

[sar104]

DNG will (should) contain a profile correction.
If its not in normal but in log i guess its a software issue. Theres nothing in a log format that should change anything optically vs normal - its purely a colour and gamma profile.
DJI have said engineers are "aware" so hopefully someone will go "Oh ****, forgot to add that line" and fix it.
Its probably the most serious "bug" currently but suspect an easy fix.

Agreed. The M2 is starting to look like fairly mature hardware but a bit of a rushed firmware job. Still very impressive though.

 

[gnirtS]

I guess the hype and entire marketing operation of the drone IS the camera so they can;t afford to let camera bugs persist. It'll get priority i suspect.

Then again, id like to try it for myself. Maybe mine will arrive one day.

 

[Inclusive Productions]

I received my Mavic Pro 2 the other day. After setting everything up and seeing an email that the Mavic Pro 2 needed a firmware update, I updated it with the latest 01.00.00.00 software.
I do cinematic reality shooting so color grading and dynamic range is my main focus. I shot with the camera in DJI's LOG profile to be able to throw it on the computer and do some quick grading test and the distortion from the horizon line is insane. From a scale of 1-10, for the amount of engineering and hype that went into this camera and drone, it's a 10. Take a look at the screenshot I took of the ungraded footage right out of the camera taken yesterday. I zoomed in because the whole file was too large to upload. I hope to see a firmware update here soon to solve this issue. This is just unacceptable for what I do. I can say I agree with "gnirtS" that when looking straight, it's bearable, but with cinematic camera tilt/reveal shots, it becomes worse and worse. I am new to Mavic Pilots and this forum, so I hope the photo is viewable to all and that I can stay up to date on if this will be resolved!

 

[gnirtS]

Looks like this issue may be deliberate and NOT be fixed.

From the DJI Forum (and from elsewhere):

( RTH Precision Landing )

Basically - do it in post.

Which would be OK if there were profiles to do it!

 

[Talley]

I received my Mavic Pro 2 the other day. After setting everything up and seeing an email that the Mavic Pro 2 needed a firmware update, I updated it with the latest 01.00.00.00 software.
I do cinematic reality shooting so color grading and dynamic range is my main focus. I shot with the camera in DJI's LOG profile to be able to throw it on the computer and do some quick grading test and the distortion from the horizon line is insane. From a scale of 1-10, for the amount of engineering and hype that went into this camera and drone, it's a 10. Take a look at the screenshot I took of the ungraded footage right out of the camera taken yesterday. I zoomed in because the whole file was too large to upload. I hope to see a firmware update here soon to solve this issue. This is just unacceptable for what I do. I can say I agree with "gnirtS" that when looking straight, it's bearable, but with cinematic camera tilt/reveal shots, it becomes worse and worse. I am new to Mavic Pilots and this forum, so I hope the photo is viewable to all and that I can stay up to date on if this will be resolved!

Sounds like your some sort of production company. Sorry a consumer drone is unacceptable. Have you tried their professional options?

 

[Talley]

I just went flying and switched to this dlog thing and overall the distortion was small that I found. Perhaps because I'm use to shooting photos/video with fisheye lenses but the distortion wasn't anything that post couldn't correct.

 

[gnirtS]

Photos it shouldn't show as theres a built in profile.

D-log it'll show more the further away from the centre the horizon (or object) is.

 

[Talley]

Photos it shouldn't show as theres a built in profile.

D-log it'll show more the further away from the centre the horizon (or object) is.

I shot video with the dlog and it wasn’t terrible

 

[gnirtS]

"not terrible" isn't exactly praising it. This is a professional (allegedly) drone. It shouldn't be present.

Without post processing it IS going to look horrible on vertical gimbal panning motions with a clear horizon in the scene.

If i'd wanted something that at best "wasn't terrible" i'd have saved money and bought the zoom.

 

[sar104]

"not terrible" isn't exactly praising it. This is a professional (allegedly) drone. It shouldn't be present.

Without post processing it IS going to look horrible on vertical gimbal panning motions with a clear horizon in the scene.

If i'd wanted something that at best "wasn't terrible" i'd have saved money and bought the zoom.

No one is likely to be using D-log without post processing, so I think the argument is that if you are using D-log then can correct the lens artifacts at that time.

 

[gnirtS]

I can understand the argument for that (be nice if there was a lens profile release...and a LUT).
From my experience on others though the post processing ones dont seem to work overly well if the horizon is moving throughout the shot (they've far better with a static gimbal horizon). That and it massively increased render time.

 

[Talley]

This is a professional (allegedly) drone.

When is the last time you went to the DJI website? Last I checked this is marketed as a consumer device. Go to their website and check it out... then click professional.

 

[mreloc]

Agree with Talley- everyone needs to calm down on the "pro" being part of the name of the Mavic 2. It's a cheap consumer drone with a better camera than the old version had. It is differentiated from their pro line for very good reasons to prevent cannibalizing it. If I were a pro- I'd expect to invest $5K+ for a rig that met my every need.

 

[gnirtS]

Agree with Talley- everyone needs to calm down on the "pro" being part of the name of the Mavic 2. It's a cheap consumer drone with a better camera than the old version had. It is differentiated from their pro line for very good reasons to prevent cannibalizing it. If I were a pro- I'd expect to invest $5K+ for a rig that met my every need.

Possibly. But read the official engineers response for not including things like precision landing, colour profiles and barrel distortion. Several times they refer to it as professional.

They need to decide what it is. Either fit features or dont rather than keep flopping with the designation to get around it.

 

[gnirtS]

OK heres a quick dirty barrel distortion example:

The first 13 seconds, "None" colour profile, zero editing. At 13 seconds it switches to DLOG-M. All i did was apply the Ground Control LUT to even up the colors.

The switch to distortion is obvious. The other thing is how much sharper the "None" image is. For both videos the settings were 0,0,0. But it looks like on "None" theres some sharpening applied and none on DLOG (which makes sense).

 

[Talley]

that helps.

But my question is at what the 28mm is based on for the lens? before distortion correction or after. There is a bunch of scene open up in after you switch to dlog.