Exposure issue in panorama mode [Resolved]

[RomekCyborg]

When doing panoramas, sphere and 360, some pictures appear as having different exposures. See the picture attached.

Some things I checked:
- RAW and JPG pictures have same exposure, so this is not a JPG issue.
- Recorded camera settings on each picture are the same (e.g. F-stop = 2.8; Exposure time = 1/790 sec. etc.) so camera settings are kept the same for all pictures (I believe that's normal behavior, exactly to avoid the kind of problem I am having with differences in exposure between each shot!)
- Results are the same when using a stitching program like Microsoft ICE, so this is not a problem caused by the DJI stitching algorithm (it is indeed a problem with individual picture exposure).

At first, I thought this was caused by lighting condition changes between each shot. But I don't think that's the reason since I see only 2 types of exposures: 1 "right" and 1 "wrong". If this was caused by changes to natural lighting, I think there would be a lot more levels of exposure...

The effect seem to be worse in low light conditions.

Let me know what you think!

 

[djiboi]

Very strange, I guess you have set manual exposure and white balance before taking the shots?

 

[RomekCyborg]

No, but it shouldn't matter as all individual pictures used to generate the panorama show the same camera settings (F-stop, shutter speed, ISO), which is equivalent to using those settings in manual mode.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

No, but it shouldn't matter as all individual pictures used to generate the panorama show the same camera settings (F-stop, shutter speed, ISO), which is equivalent to using those settings in manual mode.

But it wouldn't hurt to try it in manual, manual white balance is also important. My guess is that the information is not correct and that the white balance or ISO IS changed like in auto. To shoot a panorama you should use manual settings for everything to keep the exposure consistent. It looks like a bug. The app should lock the exposure by itself for panos.

 

[RomekCyborg]

You are right, it is certainly good practice to use manual mode for panoramas. Even though I don't think switching to manual will fix this issue, I will do some testing and report. My hope is that it's a SW bug and not a HW sensor issue!

 

[Kilrah]

Unfortunately pretty unlikely it's a software issue since I've been following the Air discussions since day one and don't recall anyone else reporting that.

 

[RomekCyborg]

Strange thing is that I never really experienced exposure issues outside of panorama mode, and I also take a lot of standard pictures, HDR pictures and shoot 2.7K videos.

 

[melmartin]

I really think for panos you need to be in manual mode..... I could never get it to work otherwise.

 

[RomekCyborg]

So went off yesterday and took 5 panoramas at various exposure levels. 2 in Auto mode and 3 in Manual mode. All came out perfectly so it's not a problem I can reproduce easily. It would say out of 30 panoramas I took in the last few weeks, I had issues with about 5 of them From now on I will keep shooting panos in Manual mode and we'll see if the problem occurs again...

 

[Scrivlings]

I did a couple panoramas today, and had your exact same problem.

First in Auto mode, with every shot showing the same settings, but the results were a patchwork of light and dark 'squares' of landscape.

Second was in Manual mode. Except I notice that the EV option doesn't have a manual setting, it remains automatic even in manual mode, and seems to change itself depending on light settings. So while shutter and ISO are manual, EV remains fluctuating, and seems to be what it causing the problem?

Changing white balance to manual (cloudy) didn't seem to have any effect, but the weather started to seem like it might rain (which it did) so I packed up.

But yeh, panoramas didn't work today. The mavic seems to struggle with certain conditions. Might be something to do with the position of the sun, and it overcompensating for light/shadow. Dunno.

 

[RomekCyborg]

Second was in Manual mode. Except I notice that the EV option doesn't have a manual setting, it remains automatic even in manual mode, and seems to change itself depending on light settings. So while shutter and ISO are manual, EV remains fluctuating, and seems to be what it causing the problem?

It doesn't. In manual mode, you can adjust ISO and Shutter Speed. The EV just indicates what would be the exposure of the current scene if you were in Auto mode.

But yeh, panoramas didn't work today. The mavic seems to struggle with certain conditions. Might be something to do with the position of the sun, and it overcompensating for light/shadow. Dunno.

There are thousands of Mavic Air users, and just and handful who have reported this issue on the forum. I doubt it's a "feature" of all Mavic Air...

 

[Scrivlings]

It doesn't. In manual mode, you can adjust ISO and Shutter Speed. The EV just indicates what would be the exposure of the current scene if you were in Auto mode.

There are thousands of Mavic Air users, and just and handful who have reported this issue on the forum. I doubt it's a "feature" of all Mavic Air...

Well it's clearly a bug, and it's obviously not something unusual as several other people have had the exact same problem.

I think it might be because it was a cloudy day, and so clouds were passing in front of the sun during the shot. The mavic takes a long time to complete a panorama, and so during that time the light conditions changed.

If thats the case, then there's nothing that can be done about it, it just means you can't do panoramas in changing light as the system can't cope with it. But then you'd also have thought more people would have come up with the same problem.

 

[RomekCyborg]

Guys, I just want to get back to you on this.

I contacted support about this issue; they got back to me quite quickly and asked me to go through a few steps- the standard ones I believe for common panorama problems (reset picture settings, do gimbal calibration etc.). They said if it didn't help I should return it. I did follow all steps, and some of my panoramas still came out wrong.

I sent my MA for service (I'm in Europe; I sent it to Germany). I got an email saying I would get a free repair service (!) and that they replaced the "Lens Module". In the end they sent me a new drone (different serial number- it looked new but it could be as well refurbished).

I shot many panoramas with my new MA, and I can report I haven't been able to reproduce this issue.

The conclusion is that my original issue was probably a real HW problem with the lens module (whatever it is) or sensor itself.

 

[RomekCyborg]

I forgot to mention that before getting my new MA, I had problems in both Auto and Manual modes. See samples here:
Panorama Issue

 

[GuLe]

Also seems to have issue with pano's (now only see it with pano made horizontally, did not check other pano's yet). Is this same issue or something else (known DJI issue perhaps?)

 

[marciosantos]

I also have same kind of issues with my Mavic Air. Do you think it is a Hardware issue?

 

[GuLe]

I also have same kind of issues with my Mavic Air. Do you think it is a Hardware issue?

Looks like a simular issue. I used lightroom to make a panorama with the pictures and that worked fine (without the dark/light areas). So as I already see multiple posts about this, it looks more software related? Contacted dji and they asked me to do a firmware refresh via dji assistent 2. Not tried yet

 

[shane8289]

When shooting panorama manual exposure & iso should be used.

For me on MA all panorama modes work just fine.

 

[Kilrah]

It just screws up occasionally.
I've taken dozens of spherical panos with my MA without issue, and the other day it did that exposure error on one.

 

[genesimmons]

i get this to, mostly when i use lithci though for my panos, i shoot 2 rows of 5 images each row and in some i can see the lines of the 5 images, it seems more prominent in bright conditions, i am going to try setting my time beween exposres to 1 second, i have .5 secoond right now, i find dji panos struggle in bright light as they take the images wayyyyyy to fast, i think that ssome of the issues for dji users, ill try some panos tomrow with 1 second between shot, i wish dji offeered some adjustments like litchi does for panos, choosing your rows and how many images and times between images is awsome,,,