Major Shadow Artifacts

[RC5728]

All of a sudden (seemingly), my Mavic is having major issues with artifacts in the shadows.

I haven’t changed any of my firmware recently, so it’s not that. What happened?

This Mavic has been working faithfully for months, with none of the infamous gimbal issues, so I’m afraid of replacing it.

I’ve tried different exposure levels and that doesn’t seem to fix it.

 

[MadValley]

Can you post an example?

 

[RC5728]

Not really, because I'm still traveling atm.

Basically there are a lot of artifacts/flickering in the shadows and it looks bad.

 

[Qoncussion]

Any chance that you are viewing 4K footage on a 1080 (or less) screen? I have seen non-existent artifacts before on my laptop screen, which then did not appear on my 4K TV. Just a thought...

 

[RC5728]

Nope, that's not it.

This is really strange because this Mavic hasn't had any shadow/artifact problem in the past (worked great for months).

I didn't change any firmware either. Only thing I can think of that I changed is from Vivid color to Normal (Vivid was too much), and messed around with the exposure.

But I can't imagine why either of those would cause artifacts, and I already tried a bunch of different exposure levels and I still get the same artifacts.

 

[RC5728]

I checked the footage again, and it's not just the shadows. It's a lot more noticeable in the shadows, BUT the artifacts are everywhere.

What in the world would cause a perfectly working Mavic to start doing this?

It's almost like someone turned the bit rate down 50%.

 

[Qoncussion]

Go into the video file's properties to see what the ISO value is. It kinda sounds like a noise or excessive grain issue.

 

[4wd]

You might also try a camera reset, however could be something gone bad obviously.
'Travelling' could it have had a bang.

 

[MadValley]

There's also the possibility of prop shadows if the sun angle was right and you weren't flying with a sun shade on the gimbal.

 

[RC5728]

Go into the video file's properties to see what the ISO value is. It kinda sounds like a noise or excessive grain issue.

How can I do that?

When I right-click, and go to properties it doesn't tell the ISO value.

 

[RC5728]

There's also the possibility of prop shadows if the sun angle was right and you weren't flying with a sun shade on the gimbal.

It seems to be doing this at all angles.

 

[RC5728]

You might also try a camera reset, however could be something gone bad obviously.
'Travelling' could it have had a bang.

What is a camera reset?

I always keep a gimbal cover on when traveling, so I know the camera wasn't banged up.

Only thing I can think of is that I kept the Mavic in my closet for a few weeks where the temperature went down to -10 or -15 F at night. Maybe the cold damaged something in the camera?

 

[Qoncussion]

How can I do that?

When I right-click, and go to properties it doesn't tell the ISO value.

Once in properties, click on the Details tab.

 

[RC5728]

Once in properties, click on the Details tab.

It still doesn't tell the ISO when I go to the Details tab.

 

[Qoncussion]

It still doesn't tell the ISO when I go to the Details tab.

Sorry, you are correct. All digital cameras I've owned have the meta data where I described. The alternative is to go out and shoot some footage in manual camera mode, forcing an ISO of 100 - to see if the problem still exists.

 

[RC5728]

I was already shooting in manual mode, at various ISO.

Any chance this was from using Sunny white balance instead of Auto WB? I don't normally use that, but seemed like people normally use that setting.

 

[Callum]

I was already shooting in manual mode, at various ISO.

Any chance this was from using Sunny white balance instead of Auto WB? I don't normally use that, but seemed like people normally use that setting.

WB shouldn't cause that.

Have you changed anything else? Like sharpness?

 

[RC5728]

WB shouldn't cause that.

Have you changed anything else? Like sharpness?

Didn’t change sharpness recently.

I changed color from Vivid to Normal, but that’s about all.

 

[RC5728]

I filmed more stuff today and it seems fixed.

I dropped the ISO down to 100 and then played with different shutter speeds. Could that be what fixed it? Looks like the ISO was set higher.

 

[Callum]

I filmed more stuff today and it seems fixed.

I dropped the ISO down to 100 and then played with different shutter speeds. Could that be what fixed it? Looks like the ISO was set higher.

Higher ISO can introduce grain and noise. Incorrect shutter leaving image underexposed will also introduce noise in the shadows.

Ive found shooting slightly overexposed but not so much to blow out highlights works well when corrected in post. Much less noise in image. A few ETTR luts out there as well.