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First day with Mini 4 Pro. Returning it tomorrow.

Does using a ND filter make any difference?
I do not know if there is any possibility to fit a ND filter to the camera of the Mini 4.
I fly the Mavic Pro with filter attached, there is a big difference in picture quality.

Ruud
A 3 pce ND kit is available
 
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infuriating!

PS Please tell me you have tried to replicate the night flight intro IRL with your drone
LOL! Perhaps not exactly, but did get a few “over city lights” shots in the night portion of “Angelisqatsi: Life Out of Body” (an homage to Koyaanisqatsi, shot with mini 2 and mini 3 pro)

 
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I'm no expert, but something is wrong with that camera, IMO. That is more than just lens flare.
WOW yikes, that’s a sharp lens flare and artifacts of the HDR/quad Bayer debayring filter … yea, that’s not good at all. EDIT: now thinking something optical, possibly loose in the optics?

That kind of problem “might” be corrected in firmware?

It raises the question, what were the camera settings including denoise etc??
 
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WOW yikes, that’s a sharp lens flare and artifacts of the HDR/quad Bayer debayring filter … yea, that’s not good at all.
That didn't even look like normal lens flare - it had an animated weirdness to it, so maybe you're right. I also spotted something pretty strange around the 5:40 mark with those buildings flickering.

Other than that, the actual waypoint function demonstrated in that video was impressive.
 
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The OP had me chewing nails while waiting for my Mini 4 Pro delivery, first thing I checked.... I'm lucky, no more flare than on my Mini, Mini 2 or Mini 3.
DJI_20231007175733_0047_D_M4.jpg
 
I may be completely wrong here so excuse me if I am. During my 20+ years of lugging a TV news camera around in the Aussie sunshine. A camera which cost me $35,000 plus a lens which cost $10,000, I suffered from flare. After getting caught with useless footage a few times I decided to run some tests to see if I could lessen the flare. After a few hours I figured it was something I'd have to live with, but did find a couple of tricks which didn't cure the problem, it just made it less of a problem.

I got some flat black stick on fine cotton sheet. Sorry, I can't recall who made it, but a friend's wife told me she used it in her hobby work. I cut out enough to stick around the inside of the lens sun shield (the conical rubber piece on the end of the lens) Plus I spent 30 minutes cleaning the lens glass with alcohol and one of those cleaning cloths the optometrist supplies with new glasses. Actually I think the cleaning did about 60% better than the stick on cotton.

As I said t didn't cure it entirely, but it did make it easier to live with. Obviously I kept the Sun at my back as much as possible and even used my wife as a portable sun screen. (don't tell he I said that) :cool: According to out Prime Minister we were the only Husband and Wife news team in the entire world.

I realize your camera doesn't have a rubber glare shield, but I'm sure some Chinese manufacturer will design one soon, they always do. As for the cotton sheet, black paper or plastic can be reflective, but the cotton actually absorbs the light. If you can't find the adhesive type you can use the double sided adhesive tape instead. I purchased some only a few weeks ago and it was almost paper thin and would definitely do the job and I'd still use it on any after market Sun shield you buy in the near future.

Don't forget to give the lens a good cleaning to remove any oils, it's amazing how much it can mess with your recording. Good luck.
 
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OP lives north of Fairbanks, AK, where the sun never rises as high in the sky as it does in the contiguous 48. Thus he will have more flare issues than most of us. Too bad. It's a great drone.
First one returned. New one on the way
 
That didn't even look like normal lens flare - it had an animated weirdness to it, so maybe you're right. I also spotted something pretty strange around the 5:40 mark with those buildings flickering.

Other than that, the actual waypoint function demonstrated in that video was impressive.

You mean the two building with closely spaced vertical lines at about 5:23 to 5:44? That's actually a well known phenomenon, and can even affect material shot on film when transferred to video. Also, if you watch that section at various resolutions you'll notice some resolutions make it worse, some better, some resolutions turn the buildings in weird zebras...

As for the finger-of-god lens flare thing: does the Mini 4 have an optical image stabilizer in addition to the gimbal? on closer inspection the amount of displacement can't be anything to do with debayering, it looks like something optical... if there is an element in there that is somehow loose and vibrating... Is the proper factory lens hood on?

Was auto focus on? Or auto exposure?

Any chance of uploading just a few seconds of an example at the full resolution with no recompression, i.e. as it is out of the camera? I'm very curious now.

Also, send it back and get another. That's infant mortality, a common issue in electronics for early production units.
 
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Does using a ND filter make any difference?
I do not know if there is any possibility to fit a ND filter to the camera of the Mini 4.
I fly the Mavic Pro with filter attached, there is a big difference in picture quality.

Ruud
Neutral Density filters do nothing more than decrease the amount of light reaching the camera sensor. They do not effect the quality of the image in anyway. They do not saturate or effect color balance at all. It is to reduce f-stops when you have a fixed aperature.
 
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