Mavic's Lends Hood, not a good idea,

ElGuapo · Mar 22, 2017

I am going to calibrate the Gimbal once again and see if that works. Last time re-calibrated everything was when I installed the latest fw update.

Needless to say I fly my Mavic very gentle, I never fly it like if I stole it.

NickB · Mar 22, 2017

I just use ND filters now, i feel that hood won't give any video advantages.
Mines going on ebay when i cba.

ElGuapo · Mar 22, 2017

I use ND filters, but now and then I get lens flare when the sun is on either side ( left or the right ).

NickB · Mar 22, 2017

ElGuapo said:
I use ND filters, but now and then I get lens flare when the sun is on either side ( left or the right ).

Don't get much sun in the uk

minimpw · Mar 22, 2017

ElGuapo said:
I just purchased a lens hood for my Mavic to help against sun glare, and that was a bad idea, it ruined my videos. Normally I do not write many reviews but I am going to write a 1 star review on Amazon, 0 stars if I could.

I am sharing my experience here with y'all hoping you do not make the same mistake, if you have not already.

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It did the same thing to me. Would not recommended.

ElGuapo · Mar 22, 2017

Ah I see. We get a lot of sun out here in California, last week we had temperatures in the mid 90s F.

Kilrah · Mar 22, 2017

NickB said:
Don't get much sun in the uk

Hey that solves the problem! Maybe I should... erm NOPE

Grey Wolf · Mar 22, 2017

I have a similar one. I used a file to trim away the edges until I got it just right.
Then it works great, although not as much sun protection but it does indeed help.

Wombat55 · Mar 22, 2017

Helo said:
Lens flare is cause by light being reflected off of the elements of the lens so the more errant light you can keep out the better.

Yes, you want to keep out unwanted direct sunlight but the problem is that a wide angle lens takes in so much of the sky that it's impossible for the lens hood to block out much direct sunlight without also blacking the field of view of the camera. With wide angle lenses, better solutions to lens flare are (1) don't shoot in the general direction of the sun and (2) use a lens with good anti-reflection optics and good internal design to absorb stray beams of light.

The only times a shallow lens hood like the ones I've seen on the Mavic are going to save you from getting lens flare is if the sun is coming in at a very steep angle of almost 90-degrees perpendicular to the direction the camera is pointing, and that's going to be very rare.

mfarris2 · Mar 22, 2017

ElGuapo said:
I just purchased a lens hood for my Mavic to help against sun glare, and that was a bad idea, it ruined my videos. Normally I do not write many reviews but I am going to write a 1 star review on Amazon, 0 stars if I could.

I am sharing my experience here with y'all hoping you do not make the same mistake, if you have not already.

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Something is not quite right with yours or your set up. I have the exact same lens hood and I almost never see it. (I only see it show up when i give it full throttle forward. Otherwise I almost never see any sign of the lens cover. Check to make sure you have it snapped in with the two tabs up front correctly. And of course make sure the big snap is snapped in until it clicks.
Perhaps yours is not trimmed correctly. Take a close look at it. Then finally take a look at your gimbal and make sure that is working properly. Do a gimbal calibration.
141 reviews. 59% 5 star, 4 star 9%, 3 star 10%,....it cant be horrible.
Check everything I mentioned. And if you still have problems,...use a file to clean up the edges a bit. Remember,..it does not only help shade your camera a bit,.....but it also offers some protection.

ElGuapo · Mar 22, 2017

mfarris2 said:
Something is not quite right with yours or your set up. I have the exact same lens hood and I almost never see it. (I only see it show up when i give it full throttle forward. Otherwise I almost never see any sign of the lens cover. Check to make sure you have it snapped in with the two tabs up front correctly. And of course make sure the big snap is snapped in until it clicks.
Perhaps yours is not trimmed correctly. Take a close look at it. Then finally take a look at your gimbal and make sure that is working properly. Do a gimbal calibration.
141 reviews. 59% 5 star, 4 star 9%, 3 star 10%,....it cant be horrible.
Check everything I mentioned. And if you still have problems,...use a file to clean up the edges a bit. Remember,..it does not only help shade your camera a bit,.....but it also offers some protection.

I know I have another problem with my aircraft but that should not have anything to do with it, maybe it does.
On occasions the Gimbal rolls to the left and the right but when I was shooting video with the hood the Gimbal was steady.

take a look at this video, a video is worth a thousand words:

mfarris2 · Mar 22, 2017

ElGuapo said:
I know I have another problem with my aircraft but that should not have anything to do with it, maybe it does.
On occasions the Gimbal rolls to the left and the right but when I was shooting video with the hood the Gimbal was steady.

take a look at this video, a video is worth a thousand words:

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I am not a gimbal expert. But I do shoot a lot of video. And my cover is ALWAYS on. I live in Florida where the sun is always bright. Even when its raining. I rarely see the cover. (As stated earlier,..only when hard throttling) I would recalibrate that gimbal. Has your Mavic been in a crash that is causing the shake. (If it shakes to left or right without much excelleration,....could that actually be any issue when moving left or right and you did not notice it until a shade was added?

ElGuapo · Mar 22, 2017

mfarris2 said:
I am not a gimbal expert. But I do shoot a lot of video. And my cover is ALWAYS on. I live in Florida where the sun is always bright. Even when its raining. I rarely see the cover. (As stated earlier,..only when hard throttling) I would recalibrate that gimbal. Has your Mavic been in a crash that is causing the shake. (If it shakes to left or right without much excelleration,....could that actually be any issue when moving left or right and you did not notice it until a shade was added?

I've had this issue from day one, right out of the box, I received the Mavic in December, it has never been crashed, I treat it like I treat my girlfriend.
I read couple of threads about it and the theory is that it can be fixed with a fw update, well, since then there have been 3 fw updates. The gimbal roll is not getting better, if anything, is getting worse. I have calibrated the Gimbal numerous time, specially right after an update, to no avail.

I did not want to send the aircraft back to DJI for warranty work because I do not want to deal with their customer service, not to mention I am not going to see it in a month.

This video was taken at the beginning of last month, since then 2 updates have been released and have applied them to the aircraft. As you can see the rolls were not that bad:

JHSlayer · Mar 22, 2017

If you are flying to do photography, skip the protection. I would be more concerned with flying safe to protect the Mavic itself. At that point, it is exactly what you bought... A 1000 dollar piece of equipment. It is what it is. Not more.

NickB · Mar 23, 2017

ElGuapo said:
I've had this issue from day one, right out of the box, I received the Mavic in December, it has never been crashed, I treat it like I treat my girlfriend.
I read couple of threads about it and the theory is that it can be fixed with a fw update, well, since then there have been 3 fw updates. The gimbal roll is not getting better, if anything, is getting worse. I have calibrated the Gimbal numerous time, specially right after an update, to no avail.

I did not want to send the aircraft back to DJI for warranty work because I do not want to deal with their customer service, not to mention I am not going to see it in a month.

This video was taken at the beginning of last month, since then 2 updates have been released and have applied them to the aircraft. As you can see the rolls were not that bad:

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That's some bad twitches....does it with no ND filter?

Hivoltage · Mar 23, 2017

What kind of hood are we talking about. I bought a black one to protect but have not used it yet.

Malavic · Mar 23, 2017

Hivoltage said:
What kind of hood are we talking about. I bought a black one to protect but have not used it yet.

It sounds like the Hood/Sun Shade that I bought. This one: Amazon.com : Mavic Lens Hood Sun Shade Lens Hood Gimbal Protective Cover For DJI Mavic pro : Camera & Photo

I bought it more to protect the gimbal than anything. I found the exact same issue. That said, it only happens when there are gusts of wind or you throttle up. Probably wouldn't see it all in tripod mode.

I shot the below video with that hood on. In two spots it showed up when the drone was hit with some wind. I zoomed and shifted in Premiere pro to eliminate it.

In future video flights, it's coming off. For general fun flying, it's staying on...it may provide some slight protection of the gimbal in the event of a crash and for that, I'm willing to hassle with it on there.

Kestrel · Mar 23, 2017

Yep I bought one about a month ago, Had the exact same problem's still had lens flare and seen the hood in my shots, used it once then threw it in the trash.

dbsanders · Mar 23, 2017

I do notice in my videos, but I'm not shooting professionally. Only happens when I try to go too fast (even in P-mode, not sport. If I am very gentle on the controls (like I would be for a high quality shoot), then I don't think I'd see the issue, unless there was high wind to overcome maybe.