Lens Distortion Fix

[VegasDisplays]

In case we don't get an update that will fix the fish eye that the M2 is giving us on our photos and videos, we can fix it in post pretty quick and easy. I'm sure this has been mentioned at some point, but if you're saving your photos from the M2 in RAW format and using Photoshop, it just takes a few clicks to straighten it out (see attachment). Premiere CC for videos also has a similar feature and I'm sure most of the other editing programs offer something.

 

[sar104]

I'm not seeing any fisheye effects except on D-log and HLG video. And there is none that I see visible on photos, either JPEG or RAW.

 

[lil Glock]

im shooting jpeg and 4k 30. no fisheye here

 

[gnirtS]

It shouldn't be needed for photos - its baked into the DNG by default.

The main issue with video is its easy to fix if the horizon remains stationary. Its much harder for a scene where the horizon pans up or down.

 

[msavic6]

The profile you are using is for the original DJI Mavic Pro which has a much different lens than the Mavic 2 in terms of focal length and characteristics. ACR updates usually once a month to include new lens profiles, I would hold off until then and use the proper lens profile instead of this one.

 

[gnirtS]

Nope - its baked into the DNG. The ACR profile doesnt matter in that case.

Stills really aren't the issue. Its absolutely trivial to fix. Video is harder without a specific release.

 

[VegasDisplays]

There is just a generic DJI one available right now. The attachment was showing from a photo off the old Mavic. I didn't really notice it much until I applied the lens correction and it did change quite a bit. I don't think it's that bad, but it seems to be bothering a lot of people though.

 

[gnirtS]

"not that bad" isnt why people bought the expensive camera version. That's the problem you can put up with "not that bad" if its a cheaper version drone. But this one was sold specifically on the camera above everything else. For this money "not that bad" isnt good enough.

 

[Roamer105]

Yes I just found out that the M2P applies a lens correction when shooting video in NORMAL mode (both Full & HQ). It results in a very small crop when compared to the exact same recordings in Dlog-M. I am starting to like Normal mode more and more as the results are very good especially with a style that lightly boosts sharpness in NORMAL mode (+1,0,0 for HQ and +1,+1,0 for Full). I have been shooting test video with exact same conditions in all modes using different aperture settings from max to min. I specifically checked for shadow and highlight definition shooting Normal vs Dlog-M (graded) and I find almost no shadow definition improvement shooting Dlog, but I guess since both are encoded in 10-bit H265, maybe there just is not much advantage shooting Dlog. Since Normal also applies a very good lens correction, I am getting sold on simply shooting (Mavic 2 PRO) in Normal mode with style +1,0,0.

I also shot stills (raw) of the same UHD test pattern looking for the "sweet spot" in aperture. I found it to be right in the middle (not surprised), a bit sharper (but more a bit more moire) in 2.8 when compared to 11, but not really that much at all. Overall picture quality (subjective of course) was best at 7.1.

 

[gnirtS]

Normal is going to give you less scope for editing in tricky lighting situations. You'll be able to post process less - its already got a colour curve and is 8 not 10 bits per channel.
Im struggling to see the reason to spend the extra money on the pro then not use most of the quality improvements by going to "normal".

 

[Roamer105]

Normal is going to give you less scope for editing in tricky lighting situations. You'll be able to post process less - its already got a colour curve and is 8 not 10 bits per channel.
Im struggling to see the reason to spend the extra money on the pro then not use most of the quality improvements by going to "normal".

I am just waiting for the next firmware release that will (hopefully) apply the same lens correction to all modes. Not sure why they chose not to do that for the start. I am sure that there are situations where it is possible to extract a bit more dynamic range definition using Dlog (and with my Mavic Pro I always used Dlog) however if the target viewing format ultimately is going to be 8-bit encoded (not HDR or left in 10-bit which significantly reduces the breadth of viewing devices). The camera's image processor is using the full 10-bit information to begin with attempting to produce a good 8-bit result (given my tests, pretty darn close to what I can do in post with Resolve and Dlog-M). This, while leaving alone the obvious encoder advantage (same encoder, profile and bitrate, but 10 vs 8 bits which appears to give Normal mode a slight encoding quality advantage).

 

[sar104]

I am just waiting for the next firmware release that will (hopefully) apply the same lens correction to all modes. Not sure why they chose not to do that for the start. I am sure that there are situations where it is possible to extract a bit more dynamic range definition using Dlog (and with my Mavic Pro I always used Dlog) however if the target viewing format ultimately is going to be 8-bit encoded (not HDR or left in 10-bit which significantly reduces the breadth of viewing devices). The camera's image processor is using the full 10-bit information to begin with attempting to produce a good 8-bit result (given my tests, pretty darn close to what I can do in post with Resolve and Dlog-M). This, while leaving alone the obvious encoder advantage (same encoder, profile and bitrate, but 10 vs 8 bits which appears to give Normal mode a slight encoding quality advantage).

An explanation has already been given by DJI – they chose to leave out lens correction to leave more processing overhead for the higher-bit-depth recording and HDR, on the basis that those modes will always be post-processed anyway.

 

[Roamer105]

OK makes sense. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Lon Denard]

An explanation has already been given by DJI – they chose to leave out lens correction to leave more processing overhead for the higher-bit-depth recording and HDR, on the basis that those modes will always be post-processed anyway.

Yep.