Mini 3 Pro Halts while Processing Photos

[jphoto]

It actually occurs AFTer the shot, while it is processing and storing the image.
Manipulating motion blur on HQ shots was how this all started, and it is present if other settings allow for it.

People should really watch Mike's video before commenting. His demo shows clearly exactly what's going on, and it's quite obvious, the halt is after the shot when an image would be written to the card, not before or during.

Mike, have you tried saving to internal memory rather than the card? (Determines if its a data communication bit rate thing related to the card or interface)
How about shooting 12MP, or JPG only, just as a test? (Determines if its a file size thing)
Just a few ideas. I'll try mine ASAP.

 

[jphoto]

Just tested this on my Mini 3 Pro, and yes, shooting a 48MP photo while flying causes the drone to halt after the shot for about 3 seconds then resume forward flight. Here's more:

• The "halt" effect occurs after shooting regardless of internal memory or SD card storage
• The "halt" effect is confined to shooting 48MP photos. Shooting a 12MP photo does not cause the "halt" at all

Note that the 48MP files are not shot using 48M of "real" pixels, they are created by working with the sensor's native resolution and/or combining 48M of single-color pixels into full color (the exact method is unknown at this point). Hence DJI's specs say "effective pixels". If someone tears down the camera and gets a number on the sensor we might figure this out exactly.

Note also that a 12MP photo taken with the Mini 3 Pro produces an image of sufficient resolution that a 10"x15" print could be made at 300ppi (though current inkjet printer technology always has a higher dot pitch and invoves up-sampling, so always get better than 300ppi), and the "largest possible" print would be around 30" x 45". A true 48MP image at roughtly 8000 x 6000 (from the Mini 3 specs) would result in a print around 20" x 30" at 300ppi, and "largest possible" print at nearly 60" x 90". See this link for my reference on these numbers.

Realizing that most people may never print, and allowing for cropping, it may never be necessary to capture such huge 48MP images anyway, especially if they are created in the image processor.

Lastly, if you do need real, huge, images, Topaz Gigapixel with AI would be your tool. It's actually astounding, and the Topaz Sharpen tool is the tool we've all wanted once we tried Photoshop's sharpening tools and gotten frustrated. I don't work for Topaz, I'm just an impressed user that bought their bundle deal. I'm now waiting for their video tool to go on sale.

 

[Mike107]

Just tested this on my Mini 3 Pro, and yes, shooting a 48MP photo while flying causes the drone to halt after the shot for about 3 seconds then resume forward flight. Here's more:

• The "halt" effect occurs after shooting regardless of internal memory or SD card storage
• The "halt" effect is confined to shooting 48MP photos. Shooting a 12MP photo does not cause the "halt" at all

Note that the 48MP files are not shot using 48M of "real" pixels, they are created by working with the sensor's native resolution and/or combining 48M of single-color pixels into full color (the exact method is unknown at this point). Hence DJI's specs say "effective pixels". If someone tears down the camera and gets a number on the sensor we might figure this out exactly.

Note also that a 12MP photo taken with the Mini 3 Pro produces an image of sufficient resolution that a 10"x15" print could be made at 300ppi (though current inkjet printer technology always has a higher dot pitch and invoves up-sampling, so always get better than 300ppi), and the "largest possible" print would be around 30" x 45". A true 48MP image at roughtly 8000 x 6000 (from the Mini 3 specs) would result in a print around 20" x 30" at 300ppi, and "largest possible" print at nearly 60" x 90". See this link for my reference on these numbers.

Realizing that most people may never print, and allowing for cropping, it may never be necessary to capture such huge 48MP images anyway, especially if they are created in the image processor.

Lastly, if you do need real, huge, images, Topaz Gigapixel with AI would be your tool. It's actually astounding, and the Topaz Sharpen tool is the tool we've all wanted once we tried Photoshop's sharpening tools and gotten frustrated. I don't work for Topaz, I'm just an impressed user that bought their bundle deal. I'm now waiting for their video tool to go on sale.

Hey, JPhoto!
Nice Work and good education!

I hope to get some flights in tomorrow to check my results formally.
While on vacation I believe I saw some other occasions of "drone halts to work" including during panorama processing (as is previously described) but perhaps also a shorter stutter in other conditions. Honestly, my head was on flight safety in the new and environs and on the image formation more than drone performance, so who knows what was going on. we shall see!

Thanks so much for contributing.
The more we more the less we don't--and the fewer surprises.

Mike

 

[Mike107]

Thank you for the info!!

You bet!

 

[Mike107]

Wowser!
I just discovered that in Sport Mode the “drone halt” for post-capture photo processing of 48 mp photos does NOT occur—However, screen updates do halt while the drone continues uninterrupted forward flight. I could see that being a problem if one wasn’t aware…

I verified I don’t get drone halts for Single shots.

I noticed there appears consistently to be a minor stutter of flight in the midst of shooting AEB while in forward Normal mode, but not when shooting Bursts. The “stutter” is a slight up-pitch during recording of the 5 frames. Unfortunately it is too windy and I won’t have an opportunity to time-match some “flying AEB’s” with flight logs to tell with certainty. See if you notice a consistent slight pitch up during flying AEB’s…

Hope something here keeps you flying safer!
Mike

 

[Cymru]

Mine is similar, especially when its faking up a 48mp image which takes more processing and writing.

On older drones the drone was still responsive to controls even if the screen wasnt. The mini 3 for me literally stops in the air and ignores inputs for a few seconds instead.

 

[rbtf70]

Took some 48 MP pictures this afternoon. After taking a picture I would yaw the drone a few degrees to take additional images. If the picture was still processing the display was frozen, but the drone did yaw as commanded. This resulted in a sudden jump in the display to the actual new position when the picture finished processing. Not dangerous like not seeing the forward movement but irritating. Not the smooth yaw expected.

 

[Cymru]

Took some 48 MP pictures this afternoon. After taking a picture I would yaw the drone a few degrees to take additional images. If the picture was still processing the display was frozen, but the drone did yaw as commanded. This resulted in a sudden jump in the display to the actual new position when the picture finished processing. Not dangerous like not seeing the forward movement but irritating. Not the smooth yaw expected.

Its annoying when trying to take manual portrait panos where the jump can make it hard to judge overlap.

 

[jphoto]

Mike, are you shooting RAW photos or JPG only?

 

[Mike107]

For the Sports mode test I shot in J-RAW, 48 MP. Drone continues forward flight without screen updates while the image file is processed.
I can dry JPEG only when I am out next if you haven't already.

 

[Mike107]

Update summary re jpg vs j+raw.

Normal or Cine mode, 48 MP, JPG or JPG+RAW = Drone Forward flight halts and Screen Updates halt (As in, it keeps you from flying blind). The halt occurs after the shot, during photo processing/storage.

Sports mode, 48 MP, JPG or JPG+RAW = Drone Forward flight CONTINUES and Screen Updates HALT (as in, you are flying blind). Halts occur After the shot, as above. (There may have been an exception to forward flight halting in Sports mode, which appears to be related to the drone not changing “cleanly and completely” between modes, but that will have to wait for another day and another thread.)

Mike

 

[Flashheart]

48mp mode also has a shutter release delay of about 200-500ms. I had to scrap some good photos I had taken of a train exiting a tunnel next to a viaduct because of this delay.
A UHS-I class U3 SD card has a write speed of about 90mb/s. The onboard processor is the bottleneck that causes the M3P to freeze for 3-5 seconds after taking a 48mp image.
The chart above shows the write speed performance over a 10 second burst of j+raw for some leading class 3 SDs.

 

[TBuckner]

Aircraft Firmware 01.00.0201, RC Firmware 01.01.0300, Fly 1.6.9
Edit || Youtube Link
The new Mini 3 Pro I flew for the first time today comes to a complete halt while processing photos.
During the halt it responds to no stick commands then responds again when it is done storing the shot.
Once the photo processing caused a brief "aircraft not connected" condition.
It is completely reproducible--another example here.
In these shots I had Right Stick fully forward from before the beginning until after the end of the clip.
I was in Normal mode.
I shot a single frame landscape photo in Auto mode. The aircraft stops on its own while storing/processing then begins to again respond to the forward stick command already in progress.

It happens regardless of which SanDisk Extreme miniSD I use.

I don't recall this happening with these cards on previous drones. I do recall having to wait for a shot to process before the next one could be taken (which lag improved with a recent update), but don't recall losing ability to control aircraft, nor that they ever came to a halt.
I was working out how to take action shots for an upcoming mission, so am not sure I ever did exactly what I did today.

Did I just miss this on the previous M3P I have flown?
Does this happen to you?
I'm glad it stops if it is overwhelmed (beats flying blindly into something) but wonder if you find this concerning.

Thanks,
Mike

I’ve had the same lag you speak of and what my problem was, was the microSD card. Thought I had a good enough card but didn’t. I bought the Sandisk extreme pros and it has fixed my issues in my mini 3 pro and air 2s

 

[Mike107]

I’ve had the same lag you speak of and what my problem was, was the microSD card. Thought I had a good enough card but didn’t. I bought the Sandisk extreme pros and it has fixed my issues in my mini 3 pro and air 2s

Are you saying you have no drone+screen halt whatever when shooting 48 mp in Normal mode, and no screen halt when shooting in Sports mode?

 

[MS Coast]

Are you saying you have no drone+screen halt whatever when shooting 48 mp in Normal mode, and no screen halt when shooting in Sports mode?

I'm using Sandisk Extreme Pro cards in my Mini 3 and there is definitely a processing lag when shooting 48 mp photos.

@TBuckner?

 

[DeltaAlphaZulu]

Late to this thread, just discovered the 48MP photo halt thing, and trying to figure it out ... ie what am I doing wrong. Good to hear its not me overlooking something but just "how it is". Can confirm with testing that 48MP set ON the drone will halt for processing AFTER taking the shot with ANY movement ie left / right / forward / backward / yaw (just realised I didn't test up / down but assume same will happen). This DOES NOT happen in normal 12MP mode. Kind of a bummer cos I had a particular set of pics I wanted to do and do multiple shots keeping the framing of a moving subject (train), but this halting will mess up with that, and probably / possibly optimal focus too as the train will move quite a bit while the drone is processing the pic.

 

[DeltaAlphaZulu]

I'm using Sandisk Extreme Pro cards in my Mini 3 and there is definitely a processing lag when shooting 48 mp photos.

@TBuckner?

I'm using SanDisk Extreme Pro 512G card and it happens for me in 48MP mode but not in 12MP

 

[Frank071]

As was already written: a 48MP photo is the result of some algorithm doing fancy things with the (far less) amount of pixels from the sensor. I gather that doing that fancy thing consumes so much processing power that obstacle avoidance no longer functions (correctly). As there is no OA in Sports mode, the stalling does not happen in that mode, but for nomal mode the drone stops mid-air to avoid any possible obstacles it would otherwise miss.