Mavic 3 color shifting in white balance / color tint

flyliedutch · Apr 8, 2023

akdrone said:
I'd be contacting DJI for warranty service.

That's not the solution.
My unit was replaced for the 4th time. Still has the issue.

Phantomrain.org · Apr 8, 2023

Is something that i more prone on the Mavic 3 as I am not seeing this on the Mavic 3 Classic. ?
This makes me think it is a Hardware problem , or has it been fixed now ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water

akdrone · Apr 8, 2023

flyliedutch said:
That's not the solution.
My unit was replaced for the 4th time. Still has the issue.

wow....although I see you aren't alone, the board is not rife with other complaints so I wonder if (I imagine you have) shot without the filter as suggested in an earlier response. 3 other Mavics with the same issue. I assume you have tried viewing with other programs...on a different computer or tablet etc. It boggles the mind that so many people have no problem and you've had 4 Mavics with an issue. I feel for ya but don't have a clue what it might be since I and so many others don't see this issue. Ever.

psybear · Apr 9, 2023

Without wishing to cause offence to anyone here, I'm wondering if those who are noticing the issue are (like me) photographers who also use a drone, as opposed to 'pure' drone flyers, who take photographs?

As a photographer, I'm very sensitive to colour issues.

I've previously owned a Phantom 3 Advanced, a couple of Mavic 2 Pros, and still own an Air 2s. The Air 2s has the most natural colour of all of those - the Mavic 2 Pro tends to over saturate and doesn't deal well with clear blue skies and direct sunlight, but these were usually manageable on post production.

This colour cast issue is something altogether new to me - and it's impossible to deal with effectively in post-production due to its nature.

I really love many features of the Mavic 3 Classic but if it can't maintain colour consistency then it's not the drone for me.

I've raised the issue on the DJI Forum also.

A few more examples taken yesterday, first four unedited, next four with vibrance boosted. The green in particular is evident even in the unedited shots:

akdrone · Apr 9, 2023

I'm sure there are several pro shooters or as in my case a retired pro. I just retired my calibrated Eizo monitor and consider myself at least reasonably aware of color

and carefully color grade my video and still images and I've never had any problem with such color casts.

c.oberschneider · Apr 9, 2023

psybear said:
Without wishing to cause offence to anyone here, I'm wondering if those who are noticing the issue are (like me) photographers who also use a drone, as opposed to 'pure' drone flyers, who take photographs?

As a photographer, I'm very sensitive to colour issues.

I've previously owned a Phantom 3 Advanced, a couple of Mavic 2 Pros, and still own an Air 2s. The Air 2s has the most natural colour of all of those - the Mavic 2 Pro tends to over saturate and doesn't deal well with clear blue skies and direct sunlight, but these were usually manageable on post production.

This colour cast issue is something altogether new to me - and it's impossible to deal with effectively in post-production due to its nature.

I really love many features of the Mavic 3 Classic but if it can't maintain colour consistency then it's not the drone for me.

I've raised the issue on the DJI Forum also.

A few more examples taken yesterday, first four unedited, next four with vibrance boosted. The green in particular is evident even in the unedited shots:

You're not alone with this problem, my M3 Cine shows exactly the same green & magenta color casts. I'm mostly shooting winter sports (professionally, if that matters to get credibility?) and have a hard time getting rid of those colors on an (originally) white background.
I'm using a selection of adapted color profiles in Lightroom that emphasize blue and reduce green & magenta, but that's just a workaround for a problem we should not have to deal with.

psybear · Apr 11, 2023

Thanks for the responses, I was kind of surprised that there were not more - looking back over the thread it seems that this has affected a lot of folk, but only a few more recent updates following my post, which makes me wonder if others have found a workaround of some sort.... I'd obviously be very interested to hear of any post-processing solutions, besides just fiddling with the hue and saturation sliders.

Interestingly, I posted about my issue on the DJI forums also, and received this back from DJI.

Hi there. Thanks for your patience. We just received feedback from our team. This issue has been located and is expected to be resolved in the next firmware update. Temporarily, please downgrade the firmware to v01.00.0200 until the new version is released. Thanks for your understanding.

I have yet to try it and I am not hopeful, given what else I have read about the issue and how long it has been going on for.

DJMoka · Apr 17, 2023

psybear said:
Thanks for the responses, I was kind of surprised that there were not more - looking back over the thread it seems that this has affected a lot of folk, but only a few more recent updates following my post, which makes me wonder if others have found a workaround of some sort.... I'd obviously be very interested to hear of any post-processing solutions, besides just fiddling with the hue and saturation sliders.

Interestingly, I posted about my issue on the DJI forums also, and received this back from DJI.

Hi there. Thanks for your patience. We just received feedback from our team. This issue has been located and is expected to be resolved in the next firmware update. Temporarily, please downgrade the firmware to v01.00.0200 until the new version is released. Thanks for your understanding.

I have yet to try it and I am not hopeful, given what else I have read about the issue and how long it has been going on for.

Hello, I've owned a Mavic 3 classic for a few months and I'm having exactly the same problem with magenta/green casts on my photo DNGs. I hesitate to send the beast back given the lack of success you have had… (French-English translation)

DJMoka · Apr 18, 2023

Good morning,
magenta and green DNGs are unbearable and difficult to fix. I will still request the return of my Mavic.
Some questions:
-Is there a pilot who has no problem with his DNG?
-if so, if the problem affects only a few drones, why are the returns not satisfactory?
-did firmware updates fix the problem for anyone?

psybear · May 2, 2023

I've just installed the laest firmware update (V01.00.0400) having been assured by DJI that it would fix the issue. It hasn made zero difference. And they are still refusing to either refund me or replace my drone.

kanesimages · May 2, 2023

I had the awful magenta casting when the M3 was first released. I bitched about it, and only a few of us noticed it....About 6 months later it was corrected in a firmware update. Cannot remember where that transition happened since its been a while. Ive had very good color rendering for almost a year and half. There is hope.

psybear · May 3, 2023

kanesimages said:
I had the awful magenta casting when the M3 was first released. I bitched about it, and only a few of us noticed it....About 6 months later it was corrected in a firmware update. Cannot remember where that transition happened since its been a while. Ive had very good color rendering for almost a year and half. There is hope.

Thanks for this. I assumed that the worst of the issue had been corrected in this way, given the fall-off in posts about it here. I'm not getting the magenta to any noticeable extent but the green is horrendous. I still have my Air 2s so I can easily do side by side comparisons in different conditions.

Unfortunately DJI are really dragging their heels, refusing a refund (under the 14 day refund policy) and assuring me the next firmware will fix it.

I'm pushing the (approved) retailer I bought it from for assistance.

I just want a properly working drone....

brett8883 · May 3, 2023

Something I have figured out recently is the auto white balance seems to work a lot better than manual white balance. On my other DJI drones I always leave the white balance in manual daylight and just fix in post if needed but with the M3 Classic it’s much more difficult to manage the green-magenta shifts in post. It can be done but requires not only green-magenta white balance shift but also HSL and calibration correction as well.

In auto white balance mode this issue goes away.

psybear · May 3, 2023

Oh that's good to know Brett, thanks. I usually have mine set to cloudy but I'll check. With various firmware rollbacks and updates recently it's probably reset itself to auto anyway though.

flyliedutch · May 4, 2023

brett8883 said:
Something I have figured out recently is the auto white balance seems to work a lot better than manual white balance. On my other DJI drones I always leave the white balance in manual daylight and just fix in post if needed but with the M3 Classic it’s much more difficult to manage the green-magenta shifts in post. It can be done but requires not only green-magenta white balance shift but also HSL and calibration correction as well.

In auto white balance mode this issue goes away.

I will try that for sure. I'm curious if it's possible to change the WB (little bit warmer by example) in post-processing (LR) without getting the magenta colors back.

brett8883 · May 4, 2023

flyliedutch said:
I will try that for sure. I'm curious if it's possible to change the WB (little bit warmer by example) in post-processing (LR) without getting the magenta colors back.

It can be pushed warmer, yes. It’s really the green-magenta axis that seems to not operate normally. What I mean by that is the green-magenta white balance doesn’t seem to operate the same across Luminance and saturation ranges.

What caused me to realize this is I was having the green-magenta issues with white balance in video but in DaVinci resolve it has the color warper tool that allows you to adjust luminance, saturation, and hue simultaneously and that fixed the issue easily which made realize it wasn’t just a white balance issue.

In Lightroom a pro tip is to use curves to correct this issue. The blue channel for warm-cool and green channel for green-magenta. There by you can adjust in a non-linear fashion

psybear · May 4, 2023

Will definitely be trying that LR tip,.one that I hadn't thought of, thanks. If it worked for me I might be able to make a suitable preset to be applied at import stage.

Of course, none of this should be necessary....

brett8883 · May 4, 2023

psybear said:
Will definitely be trying that LR tip,.one that I hadn't thought of, thanks. If it worked for me I might be able to make a suitable preset to be applied at import stage.

Of course, none of this should be necessary....

Yea get as close as you can with the white balance tool since with raw it’s metadata based and then use curves to tweak it. I also find curves to be better for creative balance adjustments since you have a lot more control over it. A little goes a long way and, in Lightroom Classic anyway. Sometimes I have to use the up and down arrows the keyboard to move points on the curve precisely

flyliedutch · May 5, 2023

psybear said:
Will definitely be trying that LR tip,.one that I hadn't thought of, thanks. If it worked for me I might be able to make a suitable preset to be applied at import stage.

Of course, none of this should be necessary....

Would be great if you can share such preset (later) here

psybear · May 9, 2023

By way of an update - and for the information of anyone with a Mavic 3 Classic drone - DJI has now confirmed by email to me that "The issue with your Mavic 3 Classic is not related to hardware, but to firmware. Sadly, the fix could not be implemented in the recent update, but we will follow up in the future."

That 'recent update' was firmware V01.00.0400.

Unbelievable really.

They told me to rollback firmware, then await new firmware, then refresh the new firmware - and now they're telling me to await some future fix, with no timescale given?

They have confirmed that my drone has a defect - one that is firmware related, not hardware related - but they maintain their position of no refund? This makes no sense and is a clear breach of consumer law.

They have offered to check my drone - by doing a comparison - but what is the point since they appear to be acknowledging that all Mavic 3 Classic drones have this issue? And why, given the presumably vast numbers that have been sold to date, are there only a few people like me complaining - if the issue is firmware-related?

I am going to have to take some time here to consider my options and next steps.