Chromatic aberration on new Mavic 3

[Cosmo0g]

I just got the Mavic 3, so I decided to do some side by side comparisons with my Air 2S. To my eye the Air 2S has slightly better detail, and the Mavic 3 has slightly better color. But, I'm surprised by the amount of chromatic aberration I'm seeing on the M3. These examples are a bit extreme as I've zoomed in 400% on most of them, but I'm pixel peaking to see which one I want to keep. The Air 2S is on the left in each picture.

 

[Cosmo0g]

Air 2S (left), Canon EOS R with RF 24-70 lens (middle), and Mavic 3 (right). All have the same white balance.

 

[ianwood]

With a lens that small on a M43 sensor, some CA is to be expected.

Are these all RAW images being processed through something like Lightroom? Could very well be the camera profile is not being processed properly in Lightroom or ACR. I know that processing with the correct profile can help reduce how much CA is still visible in the processed image.

 

[Cosmo0g]

With a lens that small on a M43 sensor, some CA is to be expected.

Are these all RAW images being processed through something like Lightroom? Could very well be the camera profile is not being processed properly in Lightroom or ACR. I know that processing with the correct profile can help reduce how much CA is still visible in the processed image.

These are all raw files I'm processing with Adobe Camera Raw. I just make sure the white balance is the same before opening in Photoshop. There, I'm zooming in and taking screen shots. They are all using the Adobe 1998 color profile as well.

 

[ianwood]

So ACR should be applying CA correction based on the profile provided in the DNG by default. However, I wonder if it was a "work in progress" like so many of the other features that the Mavic didn't have quite right at launch. Maybe try the new firmware and see if you notice any improvements to the CA. They did apparently make some updates to color shifts so maybe there were other fixes as well.

 

[crlmjohnson]

All fairness....this a digital zoom and not optical

 

[Cosmo0g]

All fairness....this a digital zoom and not optical

I didn't zoom with the drones, but in Photoshop.

 

[adcimagery]

These are all raw files I'm processing with Adobe Camera Raw. I just make sure the white balance is the same before opening in Photoshop. There, I'm zooming in and taking screen shots. They are all using the Adobe 1998 color profile as well.

Unless I missed a recent update, ACR hasn't been "fully" updated for the M3, while it is for the A2S. This "full" update will definitely bring lens specific corrections like CA to ACR, and I'd expect it would eliminate this difference. The A2S files are probably going to show "Built in lens profile applied" when you look at lens corrections - this means ACR is already correcting for CA.

 

[ianwood]

Unless I missed a recent update, ACR hasn't been "fully" updated for the M3, while it is for the A2S. This "full" update will definitely bring lens specific corrections like CA to ACR, and I'd expect it would eliminate this difference. The A2S files are probably going to show "Built in lens profile applied" when you look at lens corrections - this means ACR is already correcting for CA.

It does for the M3 as well.

 

[adcimagery]

It does for the M3 as well.

Yeah, I misspoke. They'll both show that, but of the two, only the A2S is fully supported by ACR: https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/camera-raw-plug-supported-cameras.html#DJI

 

[ianwood]

Yeah, I misspoke. They'll both show that, but of the two, only the A2S is fully supported by ACR: https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/camera-raw-plug-supported-cameras.html#DJI

I've never quite understood that list with respect to DNG files. DNG is an Adobe format which has been fully supported by ACR for years. What does "fully supported" mean with respect to the specific camera? The DNG file contains the camera and lens specific corrections and other metadata specific to the image needed to process it. As long as those attributes are defined and parsed correctly, the DNG file should be fully supported by default.

Maybe it is a process of affirming the correct processing that is undertaken by Adobe and the camera manufacturer but it doesn't seem it was needed or done in certain cases. Conspicuously absent from the Adobe list are DJI X5R, X5S, X7, and others. But they all work fully with ACR, Lightroom, etc.

 

[Cosmo0g]

Happy to report the CA seems to have disappeared with the latest update. That's a 500% zoom.

 

[adcimagery]

I've never quite understood that list with respect to DNG files. DNG is an Adobe format which has been fully supported by ACR for years. What does "fully supported" mean with respect to the specific camera? The DNG file contains the camera and lens specific corrections and other metadata specific to the image needed to process it. As long as those attributes are defined and parsed correctly, the DNG file should be fully supported by default.

Maybe it is a process of affirming the correct processing that is undertaken by Adobe and the camera manufacturer but it doesn't seem it was needed or done in certain cases. Conspicuously absent from the Adobe list are DJI X5R, X5S, X7, and others. But they all work fully with ACR, Lightroom, etc.

The file can open, but might not contain all the optimizations for things like color science, demosaicing, or lens-specific corrections.

DNG is an interoperable raw file, but it is still a raw file. As cameras are increasingly designed around software optimizations for things like vignetting and CA, it's not enough that the file opens, but that it opens and is properly "corrected".

 

[ianwood]

DNG is an interoperable raw file, but it is still a raw file. As cameras are increasingly designed around software optimizations for things like vignetting and CA, it's not enough that the file opens, but that it opens and is properly "corrected".

It actually is enough because DNG formatted files from DJI commonly contain profile corrections a.k.a. opcodes for rectilinear correction, chromatic abberation, vignetting and tone. As such, the files work out of the box with no changes required by Adobe.

Here is an example of a Mavic 3 DNG processed through ACR with embedded opcodes and with the opcodes removed.

 

[Cosmo0g]

It actually is enough because DNG formatted files from DJI commonly contain profile corrections a.k.a. opcodes for rectilinear correction, chromatic abberation, vignetting and tone. As such, the files work out of the box with no changes required by Adobe.

Here is an example of a Mavic 3 DNG processed through ACR with embedded opcodes and with the opcodes removed.

View attachment 142830
View attachment 142831

Now, that makes sense and explains why the pictures look different (has vignetting) when I open them in Luminar AI. I'm assuming Luminar can't read the opcodes in the DNG file, but ACR can.

 

[adcimagery]

It actually is enough because DNG formatted files from DJI commonly contain profile corrections a.k.a. opcodes for rectilinear correction, chromatic abberation, vignetting and tone. As such, the files work out of the box with no changes required by Adobe.

Here is an example of a Mavic 3 DNG processed through ACR with embedded opcodes and with the opcodes removed.

View attachment 142830
View attachment 142831

Per Adobe's own words, Mavic 3 files aren't fully optimized in ACR. They might never be, as like you pointed out, there's a number of DJI cameras missing from the list, but my original point still stands: the A2S raws are supported by ACR to a greater extent than the M3 files currently are.

 

[ianwood]

Per Adobe's own words, Mavic 3 files aren't fully optimized in ACR. They might never be, as like you pointed out, there's a number of DJI cameras missing from the list, but my original point still stands: the A2S raws are supported by ACR to a greater extent than the M3 files currently are.

I am unclear as to what that greater extent would be. Maybe a certification as I suggest earlier? If it's actually lens/sensor profile data, that would seem odd to have two different sources of optimizations if the opcodes are already baked into the RAW. You only need one set.

FWIW, I once had a Creative Suite product manager tell me that a NAS pool had to formatted to APFS to fully support being used with Adobe CS products.