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DESATURATED FOOTAGE?

dooflexible

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Its probably been discussed before but i am new here, so please point me to a discussion if there is one.

Did anyone else notice that the images captured by the MA (both video and raw / jpeg stills) are partly desaturated in the green and blue channels? i've noticed that i get gradually desaturated skies, when the light is indirect, and when there are green trees in the shot, they are either partly or completely gray. i've attached an example, not the best one but just to get the idea. no post production was done except the black bars. i am using d-cinelike with 0 0 0 picture settings. the issue is there with the standard profile as well and with or without ND/PL filters.

here is one more random example i found on youtube starts at 0:21

is this a faulty sensor? software issue? could it be fixed?
 

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I've been flying and photographing for a while but only had my Air less than a week.
Pointing into the sun as your still image is will result in less overall saturation due to the extreme brightness/glare on the sensor,
try different angles from the sun.
Out of the box my Air was way oversaturated. Generally speaking you are better off reducing the camera settings for saturation, contast and sharpness -which means the footage directly from your drone will be a bit muddy and washed out looking, BUT .. despite it's initial appearance, this gives the image much more detail and range- particularly in the highlights and shadows, which can then be recovered and adjusted in post processing for far better end results.
I expect the d-cine setting would cause a similar effect for pre-post but I haven't really played with that yet.
Filters (NP/PL) will often help in this regard too.

If you don't want to mess about with post processing though, obviously set your camera settings so the direct footage is to your liking.

Also make sure your camera lens and filters clean!
A dirty lens can cause unexpected results.

Hope I've helped.
Cheers.
 
I've been flying and photographing for a while but only had my Air less than a week.
Pointing into the sun as your still image is will result in less overall saturation due to the extreme brightness/glare on the sensor,
try different angles from the sun.
Out of the box my Air was way oversaturated. Generally speaking you are better off reducing the camera settings for saturation, contast and sharpness -which means the footage directly from your drone will be a bit muddy and washed out looking, BUT .. despite it's initial appearance, this gives the image much more detail and range- particularly in the highlights and shadows, which can then be recovered and adjusted in post processing for far better end results.
I expect the d-cine setting would cause a similar effect for pre-post but I haven't really played with that yet.
Filters (NP/PL) will often help in this regard too.

If you don't want to mess about with post processing though, obviously set your camera settings so the direct footage is to your liking.

Also make sure your camera lens and filters clean!
A dirty lens can cause unexpected results.

Hope I've helped.
Cheers.

thanks for the effort. i am a professional DP and editor and i've been working with quite a lot of cameras over the years from consumer to pro cinema cameras. i test every camera before i go on a job. i know the weak points of most cameras that i use and in general.
i've never seen anything like this on any camera. please look at the sample from youtube, it is shot in flat light so you can get the sun out of the equation, the trees are completely gray. i know this isn't quite the pro forum but i am hoping to find a real answer here from people who might have had the issue and perhaps got their drone replaced by DJI.
 
Ah, no worries, I did watch some of the video but to me it looked like the trees around the 23sec mark were grey because they are dead, but i'm only on my phone atm :/
I hope someone who's had their Air a bit longer than me can help you.

cheers.
 
I've experienced it as well. There are several posts about it on this forum as well as on the DJI forum, with no word from DJI on a fix. There may be a combination of settings that helps, but I haven't found them yet.
 
BTW, compare the footage you pulled off the card with the version cached on your phone. In my case, the small version on my phone looked much better colorwise. This is why I'm hopeful that the right combination of settings will solve the issue.
 
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BTW, compare the footage you pulled off the card with the version cached on your phone. In my case, the small version on my phone looked much better colorwise. This is why I'm hopeful that the right combination of settings will solve the issue.

interesting,

i just quickly looked at some other footage on my phone and even though it is quite difficult to see on a small screen (using an iphone 6s), i can tell that there is even saturation across the sky, at least. so it is not a sensor issue (phew).
 
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I noticed the same and I believe that shooting in ultra flat with the most recommended settings from The film Poets (D-Cinelike, Sharpen 0, Contrast -3, Saturation -2) results in missing saturation information in low saturated areas like (trees, walls, earth, ...). I can believe that when you shoot trees from very far or high in grey sky conditions it is difficult to catch accurately saturation information with such small sensor and it is getting even more visible when you color grade your footage since you cannot control those areas. My question to experts : Don't you think that instead of (D-Cinelike, Sharpen 0, Contrast -3, Saturation -2) a saturation value like +1 would fix this (I don't care if other colors are over saturated, it's easier to fix it in post) ?
 
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