Mavic 3 lags during shooting

dastax · Jan 2, 2022

Hello,
I am a quite new in drone video/photography, but I've already tried to google it (and search within this forum) with no success...

While recording 5.1K into d-log, sometimes I am dealing with lags during flight. Even though the mavic is quite close to me (e.g. 100 m at maximum), perfect signal on the field with no other inteferences. I thought it is only on the phone screen and it will not be in the video, but it is... (you can check bellow - some frames have the DiffTime much higher - that is the point when lag happens)
Sometimes, during the lag the drone stops on its place...

I need to do more tests, but I thing it is only during recording... In my opinion, the SD card might be slow, BUT I also searched the forum and found answer, that while slow card, it will rather stop recording, but not lagging. And I do not think that slow card could somehow lag the flight, not only the recorded movie...

Don't you have any idea what might be the problem? Thanks!

4631
00:02:50,170 --> 00:02:50,203
FrameCnt: 4631, DiffTime: 33ms
2022-01-02 16:02:19.497
[iso: 400] [shutter: 1/50.0] [fnum: 2.8] [ev: 0] [ct: 5600] [color_md : d_log] [focal_len: 24.00] [latitude: 49.11375] [longitude: 15.02494] [rel_alt: 18.200 abs_alt: 467.998] 

4632
00:02:50,203 --> 00:02:50,503
FrameCnt: 4632, DiffTime: 300ms
2022-01-02 16:02:19.518
[iso: 400] [shutter: 1/50.0] [fnum: 2.8] [ev: 0] [ct: 5600] [color_md : d_log] [focal_len: 24.00] [latitude: 49.11375] [longitude: 15.02494] [rel_alt: 18.200 abs_alt: 467.998] 

4633
00:02:50,503 --> 00:02:51,437
FrameCnt: 4633, DiffTime: 934ms
2022-01-02 16:02:19.540
[iso: 400] [shutter: 1/50.0] [fnum: 2.8] [ev: 0] [ct: 5600] [color_md : d_log] [focal_len: 24.00] [latitude: 49.11375] [longitude: 15.02494] [rel_alt: 18.200 abs_alt: 467.998] 

4634
00:02:51,437 --> 00:02:51,471
FrameCnt: 4634, DiffTime: 34ms
2022-01-02 16:02:19.562
[iso: 400] [shutter: 1/50.0] [fnum: 2.8] [ev: 0] [ct: 5600] [color_md : d_log] [focal_len: 24.00] [latitude: 49.11375] [longitude: 15.02494] [rel_alt: 18.200 abs_alt: 467.998]

calmar81 · Jan 3, 2022

Welcome to our forum and to the skies ;-)

I once had a micro sd card in my Mavic Air (1st gen) that was too slow and had lags in the video. It seemed to record normally and didn’t stop but on playback with my computer, there were lags.

It seems pretty obvious to me that your card may be too slow but you could check that easily when recording the same resolution on the internal memory and see if there are also lags in your footage.

dastax · Jan 3, 2022

Oh right! Thanks, I almost forgot that it also has the internal storage. I will try that...also I ordered the sandisk extreme pro and hopefully this helps

I'll post a feedback here within few days...

JohnChap · Jan 3, 2022

I haven't noticed the lagging but will investigate. On possibly a similar matter, after the joys of photographing with a Mavic Pro, I find that with the M3 when I take a photo the view freezes for a few secs, which can be very annoying if you are chasing a moving scene. I also note that the video footage that is transferred to my phone is higher resolution than the Pro and takes up lots of memory on my phone. How can I have it transferred at a lower res.

PHZ · Jan 3, 2022

You may want to consider if your phone is slowing this down. I have a similar issue with my iPad 5th Gen. If I shoot an AEB with my Mavic 2 ir Inspire 2, the view in the ipad freezes for about five seconds.
I thought something was happening with the drones. But while shooting with two controllers and the Inspire 2, my iPad and controller as the Master was doing the same feezeup, while the iPad Pro on the slave controller was showing real time camera with no lags. We did not exchange iPads to further test, but my guess is that it is my “oldish” iPad that cannot keep up.
I should note that this issue did not always exist with this combo, so not sure if it was updated DJI Go 4 updates or something else.
This is not an uncommon problem, so it would be great if someone so inclined would test and troubleshoot the problem.
It is not only maddening when it is happening, it is debilitating.

JohnChap · Jan 3, 2022

I have an iphone 12 so it is quite modern and it didn't suffer the 'freeze' problem with a Mavic Pro. I'm using DJI Fly for M3 rather than DJI Go for MP, so presume it has something to do with the app.

dastax · Jan 7, 2022

The most easy solution - Sandisk Extreme PRO solved this.
So slow card can really cause some lagging not even to recorded video, but also live view when flying...

Thanks everyone.

calmar81 · Jan 7, 2022

dastax said:
The most easy solution - Sandisk Extreme PRO solved this.
So slow card can really cause some lagging not even to recorded video, but also live view when flying...

Thanks everyone.

Glad your problem is solved! Happy flying!

PHZ · Jan 7, 2022

With the same issue on an M2, using the Sandisk Extreme Pro, it seems the more full the card gets, the more this seems to be an issue. This is only an untested feeling at this point.

adcimagery · Jan 9, 2022

PHZ said:
With the same issue on an M2, using the Sandisk Extreme Pro, it seems the more full the card gets, the more this seems to be an issue. This is only an untested feeling at this point.

That wouldn't surprise me. A full card may mean writing to weaker cells, the flash controller having to perform more garbage cleanup ops, or something else entirely. Micro SD cards are so cheap relative to the cost of the drone that there's no reason not to overspec.