Disappointed with Mavic 3 Classic image quality

[Filmarik]

Got to be honest, if I were turning over between £2 and £4 grand for a flying camera.... I'd expect Quality Control to go the full nine yards to ensure the imaging device lived up to the Hasselblad marque on the front of it BEFORE it left the factory. If the lens cover had 'VIVITAR' printed on it: I might expect dodgy optics.

DJI acquired Hasselblad and by the look of it with that comes their right to use its name on their drone cameras. The details of the deal are obviously not in a public domain but as far as it was disclosed, Hasselblad is only behind the color science of this DJI camera. Hasselblad does not do optics and their cameras always used Zeiss lenses made in Germany.
This little drone is remarkable in many ways but to expect IQ on a par with any genuine Hasselblad camera with a Zeiss lens, which itself costs and weights as much if not more than this entire drone, is unreasonable and quite frankly foolish.

 

[Felix le Chat]

DJI acquired Hasselblad and by the look of it with that comes their right to use its name on their drone cameras. The details of the deal are obviously not in a public domain but as far as it was disclosed, Hasselblad is only behind the color science of this DJI camera. Hasselblad does not do optics and their cameras always used Zeiss lenses made in Germany.
This little drone is remarkable in many ways but to expect IQ on a par with any genuine Hasselblad camera with a Zeiss lens, which itself costs and weights as much if not more than this entire drone, is unreasonable and quite frankly foolish.

Frank Wang could have the name Hasselblad printed on crisp packets if he wanted to, I am not naive enough to expect Hasselblad quality in a DJI drone, but the point is that if you sell a product to brand-buyers, you are selling the name first and foremost, not the quality.
Anyone who knows a thing about cameras knows that the 'H' name is iconic and up until 2018: synonymous with top level imaging devices. But using it to sell drones with variable quality cameras smacks of misrepresentation.

 

[Filmarik]

Frank Wang could have the name Hasselblad printed on crisp packets if he wanted to, I am not naive enough to expect Hasselblad quality in a DJI drone, but the point is that if you sell a product to brand-buyers, you are selling the name first and foremost, not the quality.
Anyone who knows a thing about cameras knows that the 'H' name is iconic and up until 2018: synonymous with top level imaging devices. But using it to sell drones with variable quality cameras smacks of misrepresentation.

That is the unfortunate consequence of being in financial trouble. They obviously badly needed cash injection/investment which came with conditions. Sad reality of takeover which is what effectively happened to the iconic "H" in 2017 when DJI became their majority shareholder.
H is no more what it used to be. I still have the C503 with 3 lenses in my closet as a sentimental reminder of the by gone years. It proudly wears the batch of the iconic brand and it is stil a marvel.

 

[Felix le Chat]

That is the unfortunate consequence of being in financial trouble. They obviously badly needed cash injection/investment which came with conditions. Sad reality of takeover which is what effectively happened to the iconic "H" in 2017 when DJI became their majority shareholder.
H is no more what it used to be. I still have the C503 with 3 lenses in my closet as a sentimental reminder of the gone by years. It proudly wears the batch of the iconic brand and it is stil a marvel.

I don't doubt it for a moment, I'm the same with my Sigma Sd1 Merrill (the one with the gen #1foveon X3 sensor). Terrible for the fast stuff, but point it at a landscape and you know what comes off the card is going to blow your eyeballs out.

 

[chong67]

Hello. I look at your DNG and one of the photo so far. I took this screenshot. I have sharpen the photo. Look at the pattern of bricks, from the edge all the way inwards. I see uniform sharpness and looks alright to me. I have look at the corners and outer edges & I do not see any blur. Any particular area you want to me to see?

 

[adeon]

Hello. I look at your DNG and one of the photo so far. I took this screenshot. I have sharpen the photo. Look at the pattern of bricks, from the edge all the way inwards. I see uniform sharpness and looks alright to me. I have look at the corners and outer edges & I do not see any blur. Any particular area you want to me to see?

As I have noted in the original post, it was the right side of the image that had sharpness issues.

 

[adeon]

Just to say how my story finished: I contacted DJI support via chat. They were quite friendly. After a series of standard procedures (firmware upgrades, test photos) they confirmed the issue and agreed to replace the drone. I got totally new copy.
The new copy is better. I can still spot a little bit more blurry area in the 1/3 of the frame, but it's at a level which I can accept. I decided to stay with it seeing the warnings in this forum about the randomness of the quality. The image degradation in the corners is similar.

But in general I need to say that overall I'm disappointed with the image quality from this drone. Large 4/3 sensor, 20mpix, Hasselblad camera and what not - I expected much more from equipment manufactured in 2023/2024. Some of my photos made 10 years ago with a compact camera have better quality than this.

 

[Filmarik]

Just to say how my story finished: I contacted DJI support via chat. They were quite friendly. After a series or standard procedures (firmware upgrades, test photos) they confirmed the issue and agreed to replace the drone. I got totally new copy.
The new copy is better. I can still spot a little bit more blurry area in the 1/3 of the frame, but it's at an level which I can accept. I decided to stay with it seeing the warnings in this forum about the randomness of the quality. The image degradation in the corners is similar.

But in general I need to say that overall I'm disappointed with the image quality from this drone. Large 4/3 sensor, 20mpix, Hasselblad camera and what not - I expected much more from equipment manufactured in 2023/2024. Some of my photos made 10 years ago with a compact camera have better quality than this.

I have become a big fan of DxO PureRaw plug in for LR. It has transformed my DNG files from barely acceptable to very usable. Download a free trial version of this software, put your DNG files through it, apply some sharpening in LR and you might change your mind about the IQ this Hassy camera is capable of producing..
Disclaimer: I have no association with DxO whatsoever, just a happy user.

 

[BobbyLashley]

Just to say how my story finished: I contacted DJI support via chat. They were quite friendly. After a series of standard procedures (firmware upgrades, test photos) they confirmed the issue and agreed to replace the drone. I got totally new copy.
The new copy is better. I can still spot a little bit more blurry area in the 1/3 of the frame, but it's at a level which I can accept. I decided to stay with it seeing the warnings in this forum about the randomness of the quality. The image degradation in the corners is similar.

But in general I need to say that overall I'm disappointed with the image quality from this drone. Large 4/3 sensor, 20mpix, Hasselblad camera and what not - I expected much more from equipment manufactured in 2023/2024. Some of my photos made 10 years ago with a compact camera have better quality than this.

I tested mine today for sharpness and it looks like I have a good copy? If you're using f2.8, you're going to get some softness in the corners. It's completely normal.

 

[Filmarik]

I tested mine today for sharpness and it looks like I have a good copy? If you're using f2.8, you're going to get some softness in the corners. It's completely normal.

View attachment 176721

This looks fine to me.

 

[BobbyLashley]

This looks fine to me.

Thanks. Im very relieved that I was fortunate to get a good copy the first go. I wasn't wanting to make multiple trips back to the store exchange it for another. It's a major pain and time consuming.