Is this fogging?

[grugerflap]

Hi everyone,

I recently moved from an original mini1 to the mini 3. So far the mini 3 has been great however I am having a regular issue with the camera footage that looks like the lens is fogging. It’s not something I ever experienced with the original mini. If you have a look at the clip below you will see the fogging starting on the top left of the screen. What I am wondering is, do I have an issue with my drone or is it something I am doing wrong? I had image/video parameters on auto. I was around 70m in altitude at the highest point. I did thing it was glare at first but it is visible on this footage even after turning through 180 degrees. It also seems to disappear as quickly as it comes. Has anyone ever seen this before?

I will appreciate any thoughts,

stuart

 

[Garloff]

DJI Mini 3 Pro In-Depth Review (Including Sports Tracking)

DJI has just announced their newest sub-250g drone, the DJI Mini 3 Pro –and this time, it’s a massive step up in functionality and hardware over the previous iterations. It adds 4K/60FPS shooting modes, up to 46 minutes of battery

www.dcrainmaker.com

Quirks and bugs.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

DJI Mini 3 Pro In-Depth Review (Including Sports Tracking)

DJI has just announced their newest sub-250g drone, the DJI Mini 3 Pro –and this time, it’s a massive step up in functionality and hardware over the previous iterations. It adds 4K/60FPS shooting modes, up to 46 minutes of battery

www.dcrainmaker.com

Quirks and bugs.

From the blog . . .

3) Internal Lens Fogging: After about a week of flying, I started having significant internal-lens fogging troubles. While I had been in a humid (Caribbean) location, it never rained on the drone nor got wet. I tried all the usual suspects, but ultimately determined it’d actually fog-up just sitting inside as soon as the camera started recording. DJI was able to confirm that my specific serial number was part of a batch of units that had a manufacturing error, and the company says that’s been resolved and that batch has been returned. In the meantime, I simply dismantled my camera assembly to get whatever moisture was trapped in there, and that seemed to resolve it.
------------------

So worth checking with DJI, they might replace if in the known problem batch.

 

[grugerflap]

Many thanks to you both! I have raised a ticket with DJI.

 

[richandhiscat]

I had the same thing first time out - better get in touch with DJI.

 

[fRog2]

Hi everyone,

I recently moved from an original mini1 to the mini 3. So far the mini 3 has been great however I am having a regular issue with the camera footage that looks like the lens is fogging. It’s not something I ever experienced with the original mini. If you have a look at the clip below you will see the fogging starting on the top left of the screen. What I am wondering is, do I have an issue with my drone or is it something I am doing wrong? I had image/video parameters on auto. I was around 70m in altitude at the highest point. I did thing it was glare at first but it is visible on this footage even after turning through 180 degrees. It also seems to disappear as quickly as it comes. Has anyone ever seen this before?

I will appreciate any thoughts,

stuart

Yes. A lot of us in the UK seem to be suffering from this.

 

[richandhiscat]

From the blog . . .

3) Internal Lens Fogging: After about a week of flying, I started having significant internal-lens fogging troubles. While I had been in a humid (Caribbean) location, it never rained on the drone nor got wet. I tried all the usual suspects, but ultimately determined it’d actually fog-up just sitting inside as soon as the camera started recording. DJI was able to confirm that my specific serial number was part of a batch of units that had a manufacturing error, and the company says that’s been resolved and that batch has been returned. In the meantime, I simply dismantled my camera assembly to get whatever moisture was trapped in there, and that seemed to resolve it.
------------------

So worth checking with DJI, they might replace if in the known problem batch.

How did he 'simply dismantle the camera assembly'?

Just spoke to customer support - waste of time, he just said to take the lens protector off and clean it. Knew nothing about a problem batch.

 

[Cymruflyer]

How did he 'simply dismantle the camera assembly'?

Just spoke to customer support - waste of time, he just said to take the lens protector off and clean it. Knew nothing about a problem batch.

Call again and speak with a different customer support person. He may have not wanted to acknowledge he knew about a bad batch, in the same way that it took over a year for DJI to admit they had a bad battery batch for the M2Pro that were all swelling. I found DJI customer support to be excellent on a number of occasions. Good luck.

 

[SpinItUp]

Hi everyone,

I recently moved from an original mini1 to the mini 3. So far the mini 3 has been great however I am having a regular issue with the camera footage that looks like the lens is fogging. It’s not something I ever experienced with the original mini. If you have a look at the clip below you will see the fogging starting on the top left of the screen. What I am wondering is, do I have an issue with my drone or is it something I am doing wrong? I had image/video parameters on auto. I was around 70m in altitude at the highest point. I did thing it was glare at first but it is visible on this footage even after turning through 180 degrees. It also seems to disappear as quickly as it comes. Has anyone ever seen this before?

I will appreciate any thoughts,

stuart

Do a reset of camera settings

 

[Dave Maine]

It sure looks like normal moisture fogging. Finding the moist optical surface and drying it is the solution.

Often happens when taking a cold camera from a less humid place to a more humid warmer environment.

 

[SpinItUp]

I had a weird similar issue the other day. I thought it was the weather but the video was corrupted too. I reset the camera and all was good

 

[fRog2]

It sure looks like normal moisture fogging. Finding the moist optical surface and drying it is the solution.

Often happens when taking a cold camera from a less humid place to a more humid warmer environment.

I am not 100% certain, but think it is internal fogging in the case of the mini 3. Presumably moisture in the camera that gets heated up and then condenses on the inside of the cooler lens. Looking at my flights it isn't there on startup and also disappears later on in the flight - presumably when the lens gets a bit warmer too.

I will put the drone in a box with some desiccant and see if that improves things.

 

[SpinItUp]

Granted the weather was rather murky but after my reset it cleared

 

[fRog2]

Granted the weather was rather murky but after my reset it cleared

I wish I could reset the weather.

 

[YVRGUY]

I hope you find a fix regarding the fogging. On a somewhat related note, I have both an Air2S and a Mini2 and for both I keep 4 small packs of desiccant in each of their carry cases. I think you can buy desiccant on line, but what I do is use the ones that come in other packages from shoes to electronics. Does it help? I hope it does…if not, only for peace of mind.

Enjoy your Mini3

 

[grugerflap]

Thanks for everyone’s suggestions. I have started the process with DJI support so we will see what comes of that. I am going on holiday tomorrow and will try resetting the camera settings. By the way, I have noticed something else. Have a look at the clip below. When the sun is behind the drone I often get a bright spot, in this case to the right of centre of the screen. It seems fixed in position whilst the drone yaws.

has anyone else seen such an effect?

stuart

 

[SpinItUp]

Thanks for everyone’s suggestions. I have started the process with DJI support so we will see what comes of that. I am going on holiday tomorrow and will try resetting the camera settings. By the way, I have noticed something else. Have a look at the clip below. When the sun is behind the drone I often get a bright spot, in this case to the right of centre of the screen. It seems fixed in position whilst the drone yaws.

has anyone else seen such an effect?

stuart

could be related to what you initially thought then

 

[Kilrah]

Have a look at the clip below. When the sun is behind the drone I often get a bright spot, in this case to the right of centre of the screen. It seems fixed in position whilst the drone yaws.

This is a physics phenomenon.

Heiligenschein - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[richandhiscat]

Tried mine today, and no fogging problems (warm and sunny)...however, the first flight the video was very soft, like the resolution was very low, the still shots were excellent, but were single shots at 12mp - how can that happen?
The second flight the video was perfect.

 

[scro]

Thanks for everyone’s suggestions. I have started the process with DJI support so we will see what comes of that. I am going on holiday tomorrow and will try resetting the camera settings. By the way, I have noticed something else. Have a look at the clip below. When the sun is behind the drone I often get a bright spot, in this case to the right of centre of the screen. It seems fixed in position whilst the drone yaws.

has anyone else seen such an effect?

stuart

Yup, it's a halo/Heiligenschein as @Kilrah says. I've often seen it when flying with the sun behind the drone, and often seen it on drone videos on youtube etc. The bright spot is around the drone's shadow.