Green Dot of Death

[Meta4]

The thing that I don't get is why is it so Green and uniform? I have dealt with lens flare and it never looked so uniform and it was never so perfectly green.
I was really thinking of buying an M3 but the amount of issues is really turning me off.

It's not a lens flare, it's a sensor flare.
The actual lens flare of the M3 is quite good.

 

[bkushner]

Here's another video I made showing what I call the green death...ha.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

The thing that I don't get is why is it so Green and uniform? I have dealt with lens flare and it never looked so uniform and it was never so perfectly green.
I was really thinking of buying an M3 but the amount of issues is really turning me off.

What is really frustrating is to I am trying to fly to get the cool Green dot and I never shows up. There must be a specific setting that is being used to get it. and I cannot find it.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain , with a green dot.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Here's another video I made showing what I call the green death...ha.

Does it happen in all zoom levels ?

I still cannot make the green dot appear , but i have not had the sun quite like that either.

 

[canadian drone videos]

Does anyone know if any filters help with the green lens flare people are seeing?

It looks like a coated polarized filter should help, in other articles it says a good UV coated filter can help. I’m eager to get my hands on a good quality polarizer for my 3, lack of having one is dumbing down a lot of my video. ND filters that are not polarized are useless to me, which is the fundamental reason I didn’t waist my money on the fly more kit. Standard ND filters let in all the light, polarized ND filters keep out the light we don’t want and let in the light we do want.

I’m hoping Polar Pro will have the filters for the 3 ready soon, and they should help with the green dot if they coat them well.

How to Prevent Lens Flare

Understanding Lenses: Part I, and is the third in a series of lessons about camera lenses. Links to the others are at the bottom of the article. If direct sunlight (or light from another source such as a street lamp) hits the front element of your lens, you will almost certainly get flare. There...

digital-photography-school.com

 

[Skyscope]

The thing that I don't get is why is it so Green and uniform? I have dealt with lens flare and it never looked so uniform and it was never so perfectly green.

It's because of the special lens elements that must be used with such compact camera modules. See a more detailed explanation here.
With other small lenses there is sometimes also a circle around the dot because of that (Donut shaped flare).

 

[Meta4]

It looks like a coated polarized filter should help, in other articles it says a good UV coated filter can help.

The article you linked doesn't say what you think it does.
It says that using a good coated filter might give you less flare than a cheaper non-coated filter.

 

[adcimagery]

It looks like a coated polarized filter should help, in other articles it says a good UV coated filter can help. I’m eager to get my hands on a good quality polarizer for my 3, lack of having one is dumbing down a lot of my video. ND filters that are not polarized are useless to me, which is the fundamental reason I didn’t waist my money on the fly more kit. Standard ND filters let in all the light, polarized ND filters keep out the light we don’t want and let in the light we do want.

I’m hoping Polar Pro will have the filters for the 3 ready soon, and they should help with the green dot if they coat them well.

How to Prevent Lens Flare

Understanding Lenses: Part I, and is the third in a series of lessons about camera lenses. Links to the others are at the bottom of the article. If direct sunlight (or light from another source such as a street lamp) hits the front element of your lens, you will almost certainly get flare. There...

digital-photography-school.com

A filter typically won't improve a flare issue. If the flare is occurring within the lens, the filter won't have any effect.

 

[canadian drone videos]

A filter typically won't improve a flare issue. If the flare is occurring within the lens, the filter won't have any effect.

The jury is still in on this one, some pros say they help some say they won’t, I guess we won’t know for sure till we get a good polarizer in front of the lens with proper coatings and see how she goes? Maybe they will make a lens hood for this camera like we have for the P4P? Could probably make a homemade one that’s lightweight might do the trick, how hard could that possibly be? Problem is no accessories for this drone are out there yet. I generally don’t shoot facing the sun, so maybe we can just work with it.

 

[Meta4]

The jury is still in on this one, some pros say they help some say they won’t,

What experienced photographers say it would help?
I've only seen that suggestion from people with a poor understanding of photographic issues.

Maybe they will make a lens hood for this camera like we have for the P4P? Could probably make a homemade one that’s lightweight might do the trick, how hard could that possibly be? Problem is no accessories for this drone are out there yet. I generally don’t shoot facing the sun, so maybe we can just work with it.

How would a lens hood make a scrap of difference when the problem comes from pointing the camera right at the sun?

 

[adcimagery]

The jury is still in on this one, some pros say they help some say they won’t, I guess we won’t know for sure till we get a good polarizer in front of the lens with proper coatings and see how she goes? Maybe they will make a lens hood for this camera like we have for the P4P? Could probably make a homemade one that’s lightweight might do the trick, how hard could that possibly be? Problem is no accessories for this drone are out there yet. I generally don’t shoot facing the sun, so maybe we can just work with it.

There's no logical way that this can improve the flare situation, unless the flare is entirely caused by the DJI protective filter on front. I'm not sure if anyone has flown without that, but I fully expect the flare to be from within an internal element.

Furthermore, a lens hood will only help with light coming from outside the frame and causing flare. In these examples, it's flare from a bright element within the frame, hence the lens hood would make no difference.

 

[canadian drone videos]

There's no logical way that this can improve the flare situation, unless the flare is entirely caused by the DJI protective filter on front. I'm not sure if anyone has flown without that, but I fully expect the flare to be from within an internal element.

Furthermore, a lens hood will only help with light coming from outside the frame and causing flare. In these examples, it's flare from a bright element within the frame, hence the lens hood would make no difference.

Since we don’t know exactly what’s causing this flare we won’t know till we try. I can tell you the x5s has the exact same sensor and it doesn’t have this flare so it shouldn’t be sensor related. There’s probably nothing can be done about it, that’s not going to stop us from trying though.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Since we don’t know exactly what’s causing this flare we won’t know till we try. I can tell you the x5s has the exact same sensor and it doesn’t have this flare so it shouldn’t be sensor related. There’s probably nothing can be done about it, that’s not going to stop us from trying though.

We do know what's causing the flare, it's the lens. This has always been the case. The green color is caused by the anti reflective coatings on the lens. The sensor has little to do with it but in rare cases even the sensor can reflect light back into the lens elements, but when that happens it is typically red in color and there are many of them. Adding a polarizer or any other filter will always make things worse because you are introducing another air/glass gap into the lens grouping, which is how flare comes to be in the first place.

Everything has been explained earlier in this thread, and even $15,000 DSLR lenses are not immune to flare if you're going to shoot directly into the sun like many people seem to like to do with their drones. If those lenses can't completely defeat flare, a simple polarizer or the M3's cheap lens group isn't going to stop it either. It's a fact of life with photography and you just deal with it.

Which pros are telling you a polarizer helps reduce flare? I've been a professional photographer for over 20 years and that is certainly not my experience nor have I ever seen evidence of it. It doesn't make any sense.

 

[Robbyg]

My flares are always yellowish and not so uniform.
This one looks like a solid Green UFO! It's really distracting because it looks so artificial looking.

 

[Point Zero]

My flares are always yellowish and not so uniform.
This one looks like a solid Green UFO! It's really distracting because it looks so artificial looking.

I completely agree with your post Rob!

It seems we have to reiterate this point over and over again.

We know how and why lens flares work, thanks to the wealth of detailed and informative posts by many on this forum. We mostly love lens flares.

The lens flare on the Mavic 3 is the most distracting and alien looking lens flare I have ever seen. It possesses no redeeming features whatsoever and absolutely detracts from the quality of footage taken with the M3.

We do not want to avoid shooting footage with the sun in the frame because doing this with the Mavic 2 was fine.

When you have abilities on a previous drone 3 years older than the brand new Mavic 3, you cant help but ask why?

DJI's Quality Assurance for the Mavic 3 has been shockingly poor. This along with a few other major issues should have been picked up and flagged very early on in development.

 

[canadian drone videos]

We do know what's causing the flare, it's the lens. This has always been the case. The green color is caused by the anti reflective coatings on the lens. The sensor has little to do with it but in rare cases even the sensor can reflect light back into the lens elements, but when that happens it is typically red in color and there are many of them. Adding a polarizer or any other filter will always make things worse because you are introducing another air/glass gap into the lens grouping, which is how flare comes to be in the first place.

Everything has been explained earlier in this thread, and even $15,000 DSLR lenses are not immune to flare if you're going to shoot directly into the sun like many people seem to like to do with their drones. If those lenses can't completely defeat flare, a simple polarizer or the M3's cheap lens group isn't going to stop it either. It's a fact of life with photography and you just deal with it.

Which pros are telling you a polarizer helps reduce flare? I've been a professional photographer for over 20 years and that is certainly not my experience nor have I ever seen evidence of it. It doesn't make any sense.

Same pros who say adding a lens hood so direct sunlight isn’t hitting the lens helps get rid of flaring.

Anyways you hit the nail right on the head, this is a cheap point and shoot miniature camera which I totally agree with, which is why we have this ugly flare to begin with. In the spirit of making a compact foldable drone we get a basic limited camera system. I don’t want to debate your knowledge you are clearly far more knowledgeable then I, but I bet we can both agree this sensor is better suited on a P4 airframe with a camera twice as big which would also support interchangeable lenses. DJI already made the P5 then abandoned it, had interchangeable lenses and could have supported the 4/3rds sensor. But who would buy the I2 after that... who cares I just sold mine because it’s a pain in the...

I don’t know why pilots shoot towards the sun, I tend to avoid it if possible.

In my opinion this M3 nicely showcases the limitations that will always be there when using a compact camera. It’s a nice drone flys well, but I know from experience what that sensor is capable of in a larger more proper camera system, most M3 pilots don’t. I know for a fact DJI can double the size of that camera add it to an airframe comparable in size to the P4 that supports interchangeable lenses, this will be the last DJI drone I buy till they mass produce the drone they abandoned back in 2018.

 

[Steve Wells]

Does anyone know if any filters help with the green lens flare people are seeing?

at 40 seconds (bottom center) and at 1:12. I have so much footage with the greet dot of death!

 

[Steve Wells]

A beautiful lens flare that you would be happy to see anywhere on your photos or footage.
View attachment 140200
An ugly lens flare that does not sit well at all and looks terrible, almost like a defect...
View attachment 140201
Its that simple...

So how many people here would honestly prefer to have the second example overlaid and dancing around their Mavic 3 5K footage?

Its a laser pointer with absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever.

Your bottom photos is more like what i see all the time! It’s a perfect circle with no “flair” what so ever.

 

[tbrownold]

Nice footage. The green dot is not that big of a deal. But if you want to get rid of it try editing in adobe’s Premiere Pro. You may find a fix using that. Search it out within YouTube. Good luck.

 

[Bussty]

Does it happen in all zoom levels ?

I still cannot make the green dot appear , but i have not had the sun quite like that either.

Just love your posts still laughing about the rubbish tins, the Karen and now the Green Dot please keep up the excellent work