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Desaturation Issues??

edlosee

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Okay so I knew that I would be compromising a bit with getting the Air over the Mavic 2 series, but I didn't know that the image quality would suffer this much (and I'm hoping it's just dumb user error).
I needed the portability of the Mavic Air so that I can stick it right in my camera bag, but the image quality that I've been getting from a few flights is making me reconsider portability.

There is a strange issue with saturation (I've found a few threads online but haven't really found a solution or a reason/answer for these things).
I'm filming in D-Cinelike to try to flatten the image out for post, etc. etc.
Whenever I take the videos into post (I'm using PolarPro ND filters, keeping ISO at 100, 180 degree rule, etc. etc.), there are selective areas (shadows) that don't have any saturation data in them, so things like trees look gray, no matter how much I ramp the saturation (even unnaturally) to see if there is any color information in the shadows.
Is this a widely known issue (only looks like a select few online) that has a solution or one coming in something like a future update? I don't think a small sensor can be blamed for complete loss of saturation information or else things like our phones and such would have the same issue if it was just due to having small sensors.
Also get some frame skipping/jitters occasionally when panning/tilting the gimbal.

I am using the SanDisk Extreme 32GB microSDs if that might have to do anything with it, but this was a recommendation when I looked up memory for the Mavic Air: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XWMQ81P/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have noticed some people are saying just shoot in Normal mode because trying to color grade from a low quality codec with a flat profile in 8-bit completely destroys the image.
 
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I have the exact same problem, and haven't found a solution for it... Here is a link with the info in the greens particularly completely missing. No problem in photo mode, it has got to be software related

 
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That video is at least 2-3 full stops underexposed, which might have something to do with it. Do you have your saturation at -3?

Personally I have no problems with D-Cinelike and -3 contrast, -2 saturation and 0 sharpening. I use the Film Poets LUT as a starting point and it grades very well despite how flat it looks in "raw" form, but that is the point.
 
That video is at least 2-3 full stops underexposed, which might have something to do with it. Do you have your saturation at -3?

Personally I have no problems with D-Cinelike and -3 contrast, -2 saturation and 0 sharpening. I use the Film Poets LUT as a starting point and it grades very well despite how flat it looks in "raw" form, but that is the point.

You're right it is under exposed but it was set to automatic! I reseted back to factory settings and shot a test clip trying to replicate the problem, settings auto exposure, D-Cinelike -1 sharpening, -3 contrast, -1 saturation.
You might have a point about exposure though, you can see the color of the leaves when the sun hits them, and totally desaturated when they're in shadows in the following clip


P.S. sorry about the jerky movements the buzzards were getting a bit restless with the drone flying near by
 
That does look a bit odd still - it doesn't seem to want to put add color in the shadows. That was still under-exposed a bit, too, but it shouldn't be completely desaturated in the shadows. What if you tried some properly exposed footage, evenly lit by sunlight? Then does it look normal?
 
This I shot this morning it was a little hazy and totally lost the color information in the haze.

Here is a video "properly exposed exposed, evenly lit by sunlight". And yes, it does look normal.
 
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