Is this amount of distortion normal?

[AmmuNation]

Hello fellow Air pilots

Recently I got myself a Mavic Air and while I'm mostly happy with its handling and the pictures I took of landscapes, it does bother me that parallel lines get quite distorted. I'd like to ask you if that amount is normal. If yes, are there are any presets to bend it straight? If no, what should I do?

You'll find two pictures attached, one shows a simple grid i took a photo of from my screen. It's not a particularly good picture, but you'll get an idea. The other was made out there in the real world and that is the picture that made me think about this amount of distortion. The train in the center appars straight, but the two tracks above are very curved, not only in the corners, but also in the middle of the screen. Both pictures are unedited.

Grid photo:


Real world photo:


While we're at it - the real world photo looks very grainy. It was shot in bright sunlight with ISO100 and 1/5000 shutter speed and it is only an experimental picture, but that amount of grain shouldn't be there, or am I wrong?

Your help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[Deleted member 94047]

There is another thread about this here

Mavic Air - Lens distortion (creating awareness!)

Hi all, In another thread, a group of Mavic Air users including me found out that the lens on the Mavic Air has some pretty severe distortion when shooting in JPEG or shooting video's. Some examples: YouTube - You can clearly see the 'waving'/'warping' distortion during panning on the roof...

mavicpilots.com

But it seems to me this distortion can be mitigated by shooting RAW as the lens distortion correction profile is saved in the file and automatically applied when you edit in Lightroom or Photoshop. The video distortion is quite another matter and one I am still looking for solutions.

 

[AmmuNation]

Thanks for your reply. That is exactly the thread I found a few days ago, but couldn't find it before opening this one - sorry.

So my Air should be fine? Not saying I'm 100% satisfied with the results, but if everybody's Air has that same output, then at least I don't have to worry about the camera being defective.

Working with Lr is "okay" for me, but I'd certainly prefer it if the Mavic would apply the correction directly onto the jpegs, that really shouldn't be hard to do. I don't think that anyone out there looks for this kind of distortion in their pictures. The sample from above does look better in the RAW files, but the distortion is still slightly visible. So far I've been mostly taking pictures and Lr does fix that to some extent, but I will need a solution for video, too. If anyone has a solution or a preset for Sony Vegas, I'd be more than happy to have it.

 

[Mossiback]

...While we're at it - the real world photo looks very grainy. It was shot in bright sunlight with ISO100 and 1/5000 shutter speed and it is only an experimental picture, but that amount of grain shouldn't be there, or am I wrong?...

It looks like that picture may be the thumbnail version. Was it copied directly from the SD card? What is the file size of the picture?

 

[AmmuNation]

It looks like that picture may be the thumbnail version. Was it copied directly from the SD card? What is the file size of the picture?

Well, it IS a thumbnail here in the forum, but you'll see the original, unedited file directly from the SD card when clicking it. Nevermind the grainy thing, It was one of my first pictures and I still have to get used to the right settings for the given situation.

I've been flying again today and it really bothers me more than it should. It's such a great little drone, but the distortion is just extremely irritating. It shouldn't be the users job to correct for such bad lens distortion. A fisheye looks more or less natural, but this unnatural distortion isn't fixed as easy with that pinch in the middle...

I'll leave another example. This is a screenshot out of a video where the drone slowly flew higher and the bends are extremely noticable on the straight lines, like the street or the building, even during flying on a cell phone.

 

[Mossiback]

Well, it IS a thumbnail here in the forum, but you'll see the original, unedited file directly from the SD card when clicking it...

That's why I asked about the file size. I did not know that my tablet viewing program default was set to show the thumbnail version even when I clicked on the full version.

That does not address the distortion though. I agree that the dip in the middle is not right and you should not have to do any corrections to make it right. If it were me, I would return it.

It is my understanding that people are happy about the quality of Air pictures and videos. I don't think they would be if they all had this problem. Perhaps some actual Air owners can chime in here.

 

[sebip]

I have the same distortion .

 

[Kilrah]

It is standard for the MA. Its camera isn't great, and that's the reason I sold mine pretty quickly.
The distorsion won't show up in the vast majority of common drone photos, so most people likely never notice.

 

[AmmuNation]

That's a pity. I really like the overall package, how it handles, the form factor, pretty much everything. Since you're also Swiss, you'll probably understand why I wanted a drone under 500g. The Air sits just under that and still has many of the great things of a heavier Mavic Pro in the package, minus the weight. The image quality is good enough for me, but those stupid bends and the pinch in the middle do make a huge negative impact. I like to film or photograph architecture and engineering structures and with all those parallel lines in that sector, it will be pretty much always visible for me. Of course, when filming landscapes or holiday memories from above, most won't even notice, like you said, and if, it won't matter that much. But a road, a building or whatever it might be that bends while the drone rises or passes it... ouch.

And I'm not even putting the lens to a shame here. What bothers me most is that it would probably be a quite easy fix for DJI to let the drone correct jpegs and videos aswell and put them out onto the SD card. Just correcting the DNGs isn't enough, unfortunately!

 

[Kilrah]

Yeah, got mine for the same reason, and mostly for photos, but as mentioned it wasn't satisfying. Got a Parrot anafi instead for the kind of things I intended to do with the Air, it's got its own slew of issues but photos come out way better so it's kinda worth the compromise. Got a Mavic 2 Zoom for the rest.

I always shoot RAW/DNG, JPG output never satisfies me beyond the utilitary cell phone snap so couldn't care less about built-in distortion correction.

 

[Thomas B]

Wonder if this will persist of the field of captur is reduced. The images have a “ wide angle” appearance.