Crappy Mavic Pro footage

swervecity · Jul 11, 2017

I'm just having all kinds of problems getting passable (not even good) footage on the mavic. Lots on noise, terrible aliasing, and something on the left corner of the screen that is like a lens flare gone crazy.

First vid is without any lens filters, auto exposure, I think on 1920x1080

This vid is with the polarpro ND2 filter, plus I used manual exposure (maybe had the shutter a little high) and shot at 2.7k. Still all kinds of awful. Colors in the sky are going nuts, completely mechanized. I should note I don't have any sun shade lens hood in....Amazon.com: Mavic Lens Hood Sun Shade Lens Hood Gimbal Protective Cover For DJI Mavic pro: Camera & Photo. Does everyone else use this? All help appreciated!

4wd · Jul 11, 2017

The first one looks as I'd expect with sun in frame or almost in frame.
Mavic camera is poor for flare and nothing much helps apart from keeping sun more to the side or behind.
Second one is much more troubling - is it usually doing that now?
If this is new I'd be looking at sending it back though they will put you through the routine of refreshing firmware etc etc.
I'd try reset camera and possibly a different SD card if you have one.

Chunter · Jul 11, 2017

try 2.7 k @24fps with iso 100 and shutter at 1/50 th,make sure white balance is NOT on auto,either sunny or cloudy depending on day/time.
then use an nd filter,use an nd filter that will get your ev comp within the range of plus or minus 2, minus being slightly better as will be slightly underexposed and is better for post editing.
Although to be honest it looks like you're flying with the gimbal dome on,either that or something is way off.

geigy · Jul 11, 2017

Agree- try resetting the camera in settings. Then do some images on the ground and with the sun behind you to avoid flare issues. The flashing rainbow colors are very strange, and it's looking like you have a defective camera - but try the reset first.

Mr. Salty · Jul 12, 2017

Pointing the camera into the sun is a guarantee for poor image quality.

The colors in the second video are so bad I can't help but wonder whether you damaged the camera by pointing it at the sun.

geigy · Jul 12, 2017

Possibly, but sensor damage from sun exposure usually burns a permanent pattern into the sensor. This looks more like a fault in the auto white balance system. Definitely psychedelic! I always recommend a camera reset for unusual behavior like this. Also recommend testing on the ground to see if you can produce the problem without flying, since it is so much simpler to control things.

As a matter of fact, perhaps the OP could try turning off auto color and see if that stabilizes things.

swervecity · Jul 14, 2017

All,

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. Turns out taking the clear plastic gimbal cover off makes a world of difference

I am still dealing with some anti-aliasing issues, which you can see in the video below, but otherwise it's definitely getting better. All additional comments/suggestions welcome!

geigy · Jul 14, 2017

Ah the bubble! Glad you sorted it out. Some pretty interesting color effects there.

Regarding aliasing - not really seeing this on the youtube - it won't download even one frame at 4K. I noticed aliasing with style +1 0 0 at 2.7K, but this went away when I went back to 4K.