Mavic Pro Excessive Image Noise

[Streetpilot]

I recently bought a mavic pro (a month ago) and since day 1 it seemed like the image quality was quite bad... now before everyone tells me it’s the sensor size, I am aware of the limitations of such a small sensor and do have a background in video production as well... to answer the questions in advance that are going to be asked, yes I shoot manual, iso 100, 180 rule shutter speed and tried with and without ND’s... images also turn out excessively noisy also in raw full manual iso 100


my question is simply has anyone else experienced EXCESSIVE noise in properly exposed video footage even when exposed further to the right of the histogram?

And if yes, what did you do to resolve it? I have already tried reinstalling the firmware, and resetting all camera and gimbal settings to no avail

 

[Plawa]

You know what they say about an image being worth a thousand words?

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Check your sharpness setting for the custom mode you're shooting in. 0, +1, is a good compromise. Lower settings promote excessive noise reduction and the dreaded watercolor.

 

[Streetpilot]

Check your sharpness setting for the custom mode you're shooting in. 0, +1, is a good compromise. Lower settings promote excessive noise reduction and the dreaded watercolor.

Forgot I shoot +1 sharpness to eliminate DJI noise algorithm

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Forgot I shoot +1 sharpness to eliminate DJI noise algorithm

Yeah, there is a sweet spot around zero for most situations. I've had incredible noiseless 400 ISO footage in low light.

 

[Streetpilot]

Yeah, there is a sweet spot around zero for most situations. I've had incredible noiseless 400 ISO footage in low light.

I have opened a repair request... there is no using iso 400 on mine that’s for sure!! My iso 100 looks like iso 1600 level noise

 

[Plawa]

And still no image we can check...

 

[Streetpilot]

The Video Quality is worse than the still photos heres a link to a quick video:

DJI_0009.MP4

You will need to download and watch at 100% size, googles video compression mushes the noise

 

[Pedwards]

The Video Quality is worse than the still photos heres a link to a quick video:

DJI_0009.MP4

You will need to download and watch at 100% size, googles video compression mushes the noise

I have the same concern when using ISO 100. Very noisy image. This is with a MPP. I'm currently on a trip but can post an example on my return.

 

[4wd]

I'm not downloading 600mb on a 3mb connection, but it doesn't look bad to me.

 

[Fmoots]

I am experiencing the exact same on a MPP, I posted a thread about it afew days ago with samples

Very Noisy Footage Straight Out of Camera - Normal? (Samples)

As you say, it's not as obvious when streamed via drive or watched on a phone screen, but when downloaded full quality and viewed on a monitor or 4k it's very obvious. Let us know how your repair request goes

 

[Paul2660]

I guess I don't understand the "definition" of noise here. The video downloaded is clean, no traditional noise i.e. grain or blotchy areas, banding etc. The sky, and water are both smooth and clean. On my laptop the downloaded file is a bit choppy, which may be the player I have used (default mac), but I play 4K from my Mavic all the time on this same machine.

I agree the Mavic will show a lot of noise if under exposed and I tend to slightly over expose when I can.

But the noise I tend to see is in raw files (dng) stills, as the videos captured will have some form of noise reduction applied just like they do on the Spark. In fact the Mavic has the same problem the Spark does in application of excessive noise reduction which I feel is very visible in the other post mentioned above. By default the Mavic will turn darker areas, with less visible detail mush due to default noise reduction. The Mavic Air does seem to have a better algorithm for this. But on the Mavic, sharpening needs to be at least +1 IMO, which can and will pull "noise" in the shadows if you under expose. It's a trade off, more detail less noise reduction (remember it's a MP4 or MOV file not a raw so you will not have as much recovery of details), or less details, more noise reduction. I would rather not have the drone process out noise reduction on my videos as once it's applied there is really no recovery, instead allow for a bit of noise and use a 3rd party app in post to reduce the noise and keep more details.

I will be interested to see what DJI states as this file is both clean of artifacts (noise) and still has the finer details visible, (finer tree limbs along the river bank and the suspension cables on the bridge are good examples).

As a professional photographer, all stills, all digital, I am very familiar with noise and the problems it creates in a digital file but on this video I don't see what I call noise as a problem.

I have not viewed it on a 4K screen, only the 27" retina on iMac and 15" retina on MacBook pro.

I am away from my main server, but I will find some of my Mavic stills, that have "noise" and post them, so at least it can be visually clear what I am calling noise.

Paul Caldwell

 

[Streetpilot]

I guess I don't understand the "definition" of noise here. The video downloaded is clean, no traditional noise i.e. grain or blotchy areas, banding etc. The sky, and water are both smooth and clean. On my laptop the downloaded file is a bit choppy, which may be the player I have used (default mac), but I play 4K from my Mavic all the time on this same machine.

I agree the Mavic will show a lot of noise if under exposed and I tend to slightly over expose when I can.

But the noise I tend to see is in raw files (dng) stills, as the videos captured will have some form of noise reduction applied just like they do on the Spark. In fact the Mavic has the same problem the Spark does in application of excessive noise reduction which I feel is very visible in the other post mentioned above. By default the Mavic will turn darker areas, with less visible detail mush due to default noise reduction. The Mavic Air does seem to have a better algorithm for this. But on the Mavic, sharpening needs to be at least +1 IMO, which can and will pull "noise" in the shadows if you under expose. It's a trade off, more detail less noise reduction (remember it's a MP4 or MOV file not a raw so you will not have as much recovery of details), or less details, more noise reduction. I would rather not have the drone process out noise reduction on my videos as once it's applied there is really no recovery, instead allow for a bit of noise and use a 3rd party app in post to reduce the noise and keep more details.

I will be interested to see what DJI states as this file is both clean of artifacts (noise) and still has the finer details visible, (finer tree limbs along the river bank and the suspension cables on the bridge are good examples).

As a professional photographer, all stills, all digital, I am very familiar with noise and the problems it creates in a digital file but on this video I don't see what I call noise as a problem.

I have not viewed it on a 4K screen, only the 27" retina on iMac and 15" retina on MacBook pro.

I am away from my main server, but I will find some of my Mavic stills, that have "noise" and post them, so at least it can be visually clear what I am calling noise.

Paul Caldwell

As viewed at 100% on my 4K iMac screen there is a lot of noise... the file is huge I understand if you don’t download, but if you just play it from it’s location you will not see the noise due to additional compression added by google drive... DJI support has confirmed this and told me I could start a repair request so there definitely is a lot of noise happening I have many other videos at various exposures all at iso 100 that are excessively noisy

 

[Fmoots]

I guess I don't understand the "definition" of noise here. The video downloaded is clean, no traditional noise i.e. grain or blotchy areas, banding etc. The sky, and water are both smooth and clean. On my laptop the downloaded file is a bit choppy, which may be the player I have used (default mac), but I play 4K from my Mavic all the time on this same machine.

I agree the Mavic will show a lot of noise if under exposed and I tend to slightly over expose when I can.

But the noise I tend to see is in raw files (dng) stills, as the videos captured will have some form of noise reduction applied just like they do on the Spark. In fact the Mavic has the same problem the Spark does in application of excessive noise reduction which I feel is very visible in the other post mentioned above. By default the Mavic will turn darker areas, with less visible detail mush due to default noise reduction. The Mavic Air does seem to have a better algorithm for this. But on the Mavic, sharpening needs to be at least +1 IMO, which can and will pull "noise" in the shadows if you under expose. It's a trade off, more detail less noise reduction (remember it's a MP4 or MOV file not a raw so you will not have as much recovery of details), or less details, more noise reduction. I would rather not have the drone process out noise reduction on my videos as once it's applied there is really no recovery, instead allow for a bit of noise and use a 3rd party app in post to reduce the noise and keep more details.

I will be interested to see what DJI states as this file is both clean of artifacts (noise) and still has the finer details visible, (finer tree limbs along the river bank and the suspension cables on the bridge are good examples).

As a professional photographer, all stills, all digital, I am very familiar with noise and the problems it creates in a digital file but on this video I don't see what I call noise as a problem.

I have not viewed it on a 4K screen, only the 27" retina on iMac and 15" retina on MacBook pro.

I am away from my main server, but I will find some of my Mavic stills, that have "noise" and post them, so at least it can be visually clear what I am calling noise.

Paul Caldwell

You might be right in that it's not noise as such that we're seeing, but more of a 'flicker' in the image. Here's a 200% crop of the clips on my thread where's it's very apparent in the shadows. Whatever it is anyway, it looks pretty terrible for a 100 ISO straight out of camera clip.


MavicNoise.mp4

 

[Plawa]

Looks more like compression noise rather than sensor noise to me...

 

[Streetpilot]

Looks more like compression noise rather than sensor noise to me...

I’m afraid you could be right... I can run everything through neat video and get acceptable video. Don’t know if I should follow through with sending in my drone just for them to send it back telling me it is what it is... I am not looking for pro grade footage out of this price point of drone... just want to make sure I’m getting what I’m supposed to get out of it. The person I was talking with a DJI that viewed it might just be someone with a checklist in front of them... just expected at least a little bit better quality... I’m looking for someone that can upload to Dropbox or google drive a clip from their mavic un edited and not uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo so I can compare... it mine is on par with others then I know there is no point in sending it in

 

[Plawa]

I’m looking for someone that can upload to Dropbox or google drive a clip from their mavic un edited

I can do that later today...

 

[Paul2660]

I am glad that DJI agrees and they are willing to open a repair ticket.

I downloaded the entire file, but don't have a 4K screen currently. Hope they get it worked out.

Paul Caldwell

 

[Paul2660]

You might be right in that it's not noise as such that we're seeing, but more of a 'flicker' in the image. Here's a 200% crop of the clips on my thread where's it's very apparent in the shadows. Whatever it is anyway, it looks pretty terrible for a 100 ISO straight out of camera clip.


MavicNoise.mp4

That clip helped a lot, it would look very harsh in 4K as I can see it my 15". I feel it's noise reduction, i.e. the plastic look to the subject matter. The side walks and street about 1/2 through the video clearly are way to smooth, no details. As previously mentioned it also might be compression artifacts.

I gave up on 4K with the Mavic, and dropped down to 2.7K.

Hopefully DJI will resolve it for you.

Paul Caldwell

 

[Plawa]

These are 2.7k but should help...

Dropbox - DJI_0005 - D-Log.MP4
Dropbox - DJI_0002 - Vivid.MP4
Dropbox - DJI_0001 - None.MP4