Mavic Pro Excessive Image Noise
- Thread starter Streetpilot
- Start date
wow as feared yours looks as bad as mine.... guess every single clip will have to be ran through neat video..... Thanks!
Plawa
Well-Known Member
Who's your intended audience and platform? I put my amateur videos on Youtube where they get barely a couple hundred views, most people watch them at 1080p butchered by YT compression, their TVs/monitor and nowhere near being calibrated, they really don't care about noise and probably shoot their own videos vertical. I want my videos to look good, but there's a point where I simply go with "good enough, not worth nerding out"..
Not sure if it will help but here's a straight out of camera Mavic Air file from the same location as the MPP clips I posted in my thread above. The noise/flickers isn't nearly as apparent. I know the MA has a higher bittrate but I believe it is the same sensor, which is why I was so surpised by the difference in quality when I went from MA to MPP an thought my camera might be a dud.
DJI_0046.MOV
DJI_0046.MOV
Plawa
Well-Known Member
I think this may be the case. I have managed to get some very nice clips with the MPP in the right lighting & abit or post processing. I think I just went in expecting abit more after seeing many YouTube clips (also heavily processed I guess. Maybe neat video would be a good investment.
Neat video works magic on it for sure, I’ve used neat video for years, usually don’t start with this much noise in video to begin with unless you a shooting VERY low light... but you get what you pay for I guess... still a nice drone hopefully the MP2 will come with a larger sensor and faster bitrate
Exactly my thoughts. I’m so impressed by the aircraft ability, occusync & extremely quiet propeller features of the Platinum, and the camera quality of the Air, so if the MP2 is a combination of them both I will be extremely happy. I’d imagine it will be this and some
Using the Mavic to produce professional level footage is a challenge. I find I must do one of two things for my Mavic footage, regardles of its Intention for “web publication”
As an experienced videographer, I’m sure you can relate.
1. Shoot with sharpness +1, and run the footage through Neat Video or,
2. Shoot with sharpness 0, and live with a bit of watercolor.
There seems to be no in between.
If all other factors are paid attention to, eg. proper exposure, white bal, shutter speed, etc, you can get pretty darn good results, despite the small sensor, noise and compression.
One follow up comment: MAVIC II, with a larger sensor, and we’d have the ultimate portable flying camera!!
I've never been much for the technical aspect of photography, but the Mavic has given me a reason to want to learn more. I've noticed that my photos this week seem...off. I'm not sure if this is a recent thing (need to check my archives once I get home), or just something I'm noticing now. These were all taken toward the end of the day, about an hour before sunset, and I'm curious if the lower light is a large contributor. Advice on how to reduce this effect (and what it's called) would be most appreciated!
In this example, the top of the derrick looks pretty good, but everything below it, especially the rock walls seems noisy.
In this other landscape shot, everything seems kind of smudgy.
In this example, the top of the derrick looks pretty good, but everything below it, especially the rock walls seems noisy.
In this other landscape shot, everything seems kind of smudgy.
Scarnag
Active Member
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@hillridge neither image has noise problems within what the hardware is capable of. The first one has chromatic aberrations in high contrast areas, the focus point is the top of the tower so things on the ground are getting soft, there is a good bit of compression artifacts (I think that is what you are calling noise) and it is generally hitting the limit of what a tiny sensor can manage as far as contrast range. Not that there is no noise, it is pretty minimal and not something that sticks out as any issue to me.
The second one reminds me of what I have seen when an image is overly processed and run through a lossy compression algorithm multiple times. The focus in at infinity which is why is gets worse closer to you. If that came out of the drone like that I would go back and check others and see if that is common as it should not be. That much small detail will take a beating with jpeg compression especially from a tiny sensor but unless you have the compression turned way up one pass should not do that. I have an air and it has no setting for compression that I have noticed maybe the pro does. I may have missed it as I don't care about jpeg only RAW. If it does let you control compression set it to as little as possible.
JPEG has its place but it is terrible for your images as is all lossy compression.
The second one reminds me of what I have seen when an image is overly processed and run through a lossy compression algorithm multiple times. The focus in at infinity which is why is gets worse closer to you. If that came out of the drone like that I would go back and check others and see if that is common as it should not be. That much small detail will take a beating with jpeg compression especially from a tiny sensor but unless you have the compression turned way up one pass should not do that. I have an air and it has no setting for compression that I have noticed maybe the pro does. I may have missed it as I don't care about jpeg only RAW. If it does let you control compression set it to as little as possible.
JPEG has its place but it is terrible for your images as is all lossy compression.
My camera is similar. I'm shooting in 2.7k and living with it due to neat video etc. Not exactly future proof shooting in 2.7k but it works for me.
Last edited:
I'm not seeing noise, but what I AM seeing is "watercolor".
Do you have your sharpness at -1, or 0? If so try +1.
Shoot your stills at 100 ISO at the highest shutter speed possible. NO ND for stills. It only raises your ISO (noise) or lowers your shutter speed (blur). Video is a different animal.
Always shoot .DNG and post process if possible.
Last thing. Click your saturation down a notch. On my calibrated 4k monitor the colors are a bit over-sat, and blues a bit excessive in the shadows. You can always add saturation in post.
Otherwise, nice work. I like your composition and subject treatment.
This. Also, for some reason, shooting in 2.7k produced a cleaner image for me (possibly due to an increased bitrate when compared to resolution).
People blame "sensor size" but it isnt. You can have the same size sensors with much less noise and range. Ultimately DJI chose a very cheap low spec sensor for the mavic.
Exposing to the right as someone mentioned is really tricky on the MP due to the sensors low dynamic range - its difficult if not impossible to stop burning out highlights so you cant really expose much right.
Plus for video you dont WANT ETTR - it produces a compressed jpg so less detail and levels stored in the first place. ETTR is a raw photo thing.
I'd agree with the above advice.
For stills, firstly remove all the NDs. They'll make noise worse by forcing up the ISO and/or introduce blurring due to a low shutter speed. This blurring is worse on areas like trees and grass that contain fine detail AND sway gentle in the wind at a low shutter speed.
i) So no ND, try to keep ISO at 100 but if the shutter speed drops below say 1/120th i'd up it a bit to keep the shutter high.
ii) Make sure you're shooting DNG.
iii) Use PS or LR noise reduction on important - they do a good job
iv) He's right, the image is way too saturated on my screen (which is correctly calibrated and profiled for photo editing)
For video its trickier as you have the low bit rate and the compression codec adding to the noise.
Only use an ND if you can still film at ISO 100. Above that, forget the ND
Sharpness MUST be +1 and not lower
Shoot in 2.7k unless you absolutely NEED 4k
Run something like NeatVideo to reduce noise on the video
Exposing to the right as someone mentioned is really tricky on the MP due to the sensors low dynamic range - its difficult if not impossible to stop burning out highlights so you cant really expose much right.
Plus for video you dont WANT ETTR - it produces a compressed jpg so less detail and levels stored in the first place. ETTR is a raw photo thing.
I'd agree with the above advice.
For stills, firstly remove all the NDs. They'll make noise worse by forcing up the ISO and/or introduce blurring due to a low shutter speed. This blurring is worse on areas like trees and grass that contain fine detail AND sway gentle in the wind at a low shutter speed.
i) So no ND, try to keep ISO at 100 but if the shutter speed drops below say 1/120th i'd up it a bit to keep the shutter high.
ii) Make sure you're shooting DNG.
iii) Use PS or LR noise reduction on important - they do a good job
iv) He's right, the image is way too saturated on my screen (which is correctly calibrated and profiled for photo editing)
For video its trickier as you have the low bit rate and the compression codec adding to the noise.
Only use an ND if you can still film at ISO 100. Above that, forget the ND
Sharpness MUST be +1 and not lower
Shoot in 2.7k unless you absolutely NEED 4k
Run something like NeatVideo to reduce noise on the video
Sorry for the multi-month bump - for some reason I never got any notifications of replies and didn't find the thread again until now. I will give all of the advice a try. For the saturation, is that a setting on the drone itself? I don't think I did any processing on the images above, so it wouldn't have been increased beyond that. I can't remember if I had NDs on for those. If I was flying for video and happened to grab some stills I might have been using them. If I fly just for stills (which is what I think I'll be doing more of) I always leave them off.
@gnirtS I don't understand your "Use PS or LR noise reduction on important - they do a good job", could you explain please?
I've slowly been getting the hang of it, 2019 I hope to step it up a notch!
@gnirtS I don't understand your "Use PS or LR noise reduction on important - they do a good job", could you explain please?
I've slowly been getting the hang of it, 2019 I hope to step it up a notch!
I'll answer for him since I'm already here. PS is Photoshop, and LR is Lightroom. They both have excellent noise reduction capabilities which you use in post production.
Thanks, I've been using GIMP because free, but I'll see if I can play around with lightroom, I've heard good things about it.
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