New Mavic 3 Pro arrived. Not a great start.

[Meta4]

Mavic 3 Pro left, Autel Evo 2 Pr V3 right. Massive compression and jpg artifacts from the Mavic DNG. What gives?

Impossible to say without seeing the full-sized images.

 

[mavicpilotsnumpty]

Initially I thought the perceptive low Res jpg artefacts were because I was using Capture one 21 or Affinity Photo 2.2.1. Capture one seemed to have an issue with the first set of DNGs, just would not open them. The rest seem ok. Some of the video also corrupted. I had formatted the SD card before hand.

.DNG into Lightroom 2023, jpg export, with sharpness set to zero, and no lens correction, no editing.
Link is here.

The apple converted jpgs are attached. More compression there.

Drone up 40 metres, or so, above my head. Ground level not sloping. Not many areas where I live, in the Highlands of Scotland, with really flat areas that does not have Highland cattle or sheep in. Nearest football pitch is in town, and 35 minutes away.
Conditions, no wind, sun just coming up.

Softness evident left side and bottom right from f2.8 - f7 then diffraction kicks in.
The video I did had this weird extreme softness top left, when I first got the drone up.
Though I did a video yesterday and whilst the softness is there it was less so than the day before. The only thing different was switching from C4k to 4k and h264 to h265.
Not noticed an edge softness with the Autel V3, with my V1 I went through a couple before I got the sweet spot.
The shot with my V1 were phenomenal, shame it's in the sea.

I wondered if the odd compression thing going on is something to do with the SD card (Sandisk Extreme V30 V2), though the Autel never had an issue using it so I have bought one specifically recommended by DJI for the Mavic 3 Pro.

 

[Filmarik]

Initially I thought the perceptive low Res jpg artefacts were because I was using Capture one 21 or Affinity Photo 2.2.1. Capture one seemed to have an issue with the first set of DNGs, just would not open them. The rest seem ok. Some of the video also corrupted. I had formatted the SD card before hand.

.DNG into Lightroom 2023, jpg export, with sharpness set to zero, and no lens correction, no editing.
Link is here.

The apple converted jpgs are attached. More compression there.

Drone up 40 metres, or so, above my head. Ground level not sloping. Not many areas where I live, in the Highlands of Scotland, with really flat areas that does not have Highland cattle or sheep in. Nearest football pitch is in town, and 35 minutes away.
Conditions, no wind, sun just coming up.

Softness evident left side and bottom right from f2.8 - f7 then diffraction kicks in.
The video I did had this weird extreme softness top left, when I first got the drone up.
Though I did a video yesterday and whilst the softness is there it was less so than the day before. The only thing different was switching from C4k to 4k and h264 to h265.
Not noticed an edge softness with the Autel V3, with my V1 I went through a couple before I got the sweet spot.
The shot with my V1 were phenomenal, shame it's in the sea.

I wondered if the odd compression thing going on is something to do with the SD card (Sandisk Extreme V30 V2), though the Autel never had an issue using it so I have bought one specifically recommended by DJI for the Mavic 3 Pro.

For a record diffraction starts affecting sharpness upwards of f5.6. The sweet spot is f4.5 to f5. I do not shoot JPEG but DNG files shot with this 1x Hassy camera look pretty soft when imported to LR. They take sharpening really well though and look crisp and sharp when processed and exported. Not sure what focusing method you used for the posted test shots but I would try to eliminate all potential user errors before passing a judgement. I would use MF and focus peaking set to low and shoot all shots as DNG with that focus locked in. With low contrast scene like that one, focus could be marginally off in AF and that could contribute to the overal softness. Then I would play with various sharpening parameters, noise reduction etc in a program (App) of your choice to see if a decent IQ can be achieved.

 

[mavicpilotsnumpty]

Thank you for your advice. However, I did that already.
I did not realise that you needed to see the raw files. I tried to upload them here, but the files are too large. Hence me providing a link. I will have to clear off some space from my Google Drive in order to upload the raw files.

 

[Filmarik]

6

Thank you for your advice. However, I did that already.
I did not realise that you needed to see the raw files. I tried to upload them here, but the files are too large. Hence me providing a link. I will have to clear off some space from my Google Drive in order to upload the raw files.

I do not need to see anything. But if you want to objectively assess the camera performance you should not use JPEG for that. Shoot raw, process to your liking, apply decent amount of sharpening and then be the judge.

 

[mavicpilotsnumpty]

I do not need to see anything. But if you want to objectively assess the camera performance you should not use JPEG for that. Shoot raw, process to your liking, apply decent amount of sharpening and then be the judge.

I’m sorry, but I don’t understand.

I always shoot in Raw I never shoot in JPEG. I only processed in JPEG due to the file size is being too large for me to upload them here.

And as I already had mentioned, when attempting to sharpen the images, they had artefacting.
I am well versed in photo processing and image taking.

Do appreciate your advice however.

 

[Filmarik]

I’m sorry, but I don’t understand.

I always shoot in Raw I never shoot in JPEG. I only processed in JPEG due to the file size is being too large for me to upload them here.

And as I already had mentioned, when attempting to sharpen the images, they had artefacting.
I am well versed in photo processing and image taking.

Do appreciate your advice however.

If the sharpening creates artifacts then try different sharpening parameters. You should be able to get a decent IQ out of the raw files unless you got a drone with a decentered or fawed lens. It that case return yor M3P and ask for a replacement drone. Try also a different subject. Something with more contrast and definition. Such as a scenery with buildings and trees under direct sunlight or similar

 

[mavicpilotsnumpty]

If the sharpening creates artifacts then try different sharpening parameters. You should be able to get a decent IQ out of the raw files unless you got a drone with a decentered or fawed lens. It that case return yor M3P and ask for a replacement drone.

Thank you once again for your valued advice.

However, I have tried multiple different methods of sharpening each of them result in artefacting.

The edge softness is more of a decentralised lens than a software issue.

I never have softness on lenses as much as I have had on the Mavic drones. Maybe I am expecting too much. I own hasselblad Sony and canon cameras with their sharpest ranges of lenses. So my expectation was high for the DJI Mavic three pro. However, from past experience of my Mavic, 2 pros my Autel was significantly sharper without retouching out of the box.

 

[Filmarik]

Thank you once again for your valued advice.

However, I have tried multiple different methods of sharpening each of them result in artefacting.

The edge softness is more of a decentralised lens than a software issue.

I never have softness on lenses as much as I have had on the Mavic drones. Maybe I am expecting too much. I own hasselblad Sony and canon cameras with their sharpest ranges of lenses. So my expectation was high for the DJI Mavic three pro. However, from past experience of my Mavic, 2 pros my Autel was significantly sharper without retouching out of the box.

I had a fair share of troubles with Mavic 3, the original one with 2 cameras. I went through 4 units, all having issues with softness caused by lens flaws. The QC at the end of DJI production line is not their biggest strenght, if I should put it gently.
If your Mavic is one of those which should have never made it to the market, return it. I know how frustrating and time consuming this is but paying customers are DJI's QC team and DJI usually replace a "faulty" unit without kicking too much fuss.. Wish you will be lucky enough to get a decent one at the end. You just need to persist. But do not expect the IQ you get from your MF Hassy or FF Canon or Sony. It would be foolish and it is never going to happen. With careful processing, Adobe LR works really well and their latest Enhance Noise Reduction tool makes wonders with the Mavic 3 DNG files. It not only eliminates noise from skies and all uniform colour areas but somehow brings out more fine details too. I am a long time user and big fan of CaptureOne but it does not process well these DNG files from Mavic, I do not know why.
The Mavic 3 Pro 1x camera and also the other two cameras are capable of producing pretty decent photos (and videos) and let's not forget that from vantage points you would be struggling to get your other big three cameras to..Something like this (sorry, this image was posted before in Gallery section)
Good luck!

 

[mavicpilotsnumpty]

Thank you once again for your valued advice.

However, I have tried multiple different methods of sharpening each of them result in artefacting.

The edge softness is more of a decentralised lens than a software issue.

I never have softness on lenses as much as I have had on the Mavic drones. Maybe I am expecting too much. I own hasselblad Sony and canon cameras with their sharpest ranges of lenses. So my expectation was high for the DJI Mavic three pro. However, from past experience of my Mavic, 2 pros my Autel was significantly sharper without retouching out of the box.

To illustrate my point about hardware vs software issues.

This is a jpg from the raw file, unedited and with the lens profile removed. Iou can see the lens casing in the shot, for a start and it is off centre. And there is a blurry top right. When lens correction is turned on, the edging goes away but it also enhances the defect. The drone is going back. DJI have already sent me a returns label as they agree too.

 

[Filmarik]

To illustrate my point about hardware vs software issues.

This is a jpg from the raw file, unedited and with the lens profile removed. Iou can see the lens casing in the shot, for a start and it is off centre. And there is a blurry top right. When lens correction is turned on, the edging goes away but it also enhances the defect. The drone is going back. DJI have already sent me a returns label as they agree too.

I wish you good luck hoping the replacement unit will be better than the first one. There is no guarrantee though. I reckon that you will need to lower your expectations a bit. As said before this is never going to be perfect or on the par with your big cameras with big lenses. I would suggest trying Adobe Lightroom as a start and play with DNG files there. Apply Enhance NR, export and play further in Photoshop to see if you can achieve acceptable (to you) results. I believe that it is possible. The corners or edges are not going to be perfect when viewed at 100%. You will need to accept the reality of this small but very capable drone otherwise you will not be happy with it.

 

[mavicpilotsnumpty]

Already tried Lightroom 2023. Makes no difference to the hardware misaligned lens.
Was just checking the Autel V3 shots from f2.8 to f11. Not an issue.
If only there was not an issue with the OA I would have kept that. Stupidly decided to shift to DJI in the hopes their QC was finally going to be better. Nope.
It's was like hoping Canon would remove their cripple hammer from their products.
Lowering expectations would be to accept failure. Never going to happen with me.
Drone is going back, if they fail again, it's back off to Autel for me.
Thanks for your advice though.

 

[Filmarik]

Already tried Lightroom 2023. Makes no difference to the hardware misaligned lens.
Was just checking the Autel V3 shots from f2.8 to f11. Not an issue.
If only there was not an issue with the OA I would have kept that. Stupidly decided to shift to DJI in the hopes their QC was finally going to be better. Nope.
It's was like hoping Canon would remove their cripple hammer from their products.
Lowering expectations would be to accept failure. Never going to happen with me.
Drone is going back, if they fail again, it's back off to Autel for me.
Thanks for your advice though.

Keep us posted about the progress but mostly let us know when you get the new drone. If it is better or worse...
Did you have chance to look at my sample photo? What do you think of the IQ of that photo?

 

[GadgetGuy]

Already tried Lightroom 2023. Makes no difference to the hardware misaligned lens.
Was just checking the Autel V3 shots from f2.8 to f11. Not an issue.
If only there was not an issue with the OA I would have kept that. Stupidly decided to shift to DJI in the hopes their QC was finally going to be better. Nope.
It's was like hoping Canon would remove their cripple hammer from their products.
Lowering expectations would be to accept failure. Never going to happen with me.
Drone is going back, if they fail again, it's back off to Autel for me.
Thanks for your advice though.

It is unfair to judge the QC of any company based upon a single recent purchase.
Lemons do make it through even the best of QC. How they handle the lemon replacement is what sets apart a good company from a bad one.
Let's hope the replacement meets your discriminating standards.

 

[mavicpilotsnumpty]

It is unfair to judge the QC of any company based upon a single recent purchase.
Lemons do make it through even the best of QC. How they handle the lemon replacement is what sets apart a good company from a bad one.
Let's hope the replacement meets your discriminating standards.

As I had already purchased many Mavic pros 2s in the past and each of those had quality control issues with the lens, Gimble all damaged boxes. I think I have maybe a little bit more experience in DJI quality control than I would have liked.
Either something is right, or it’s not.
My ‘discriminating Standards’ as you put, is just a standard level of expectation, one would expect when you’re paying almost £3000 for a product which sole purpose is the camera and quality from it.
Maybe if I was only paying £200 for a secondhand drone, I would be less ‘discriminating’.

 

[rp6]

"just a standard level of expectation, one would expect when you’re paying almost £3000 for a product which sole purpose is the camera and quality from it."

A significant part of the 3000 that you paid goes toward, batteries, charger system, case and etc. Another part is the aircraft and control system that makes the photography possible. I suggest that the camera (gimbal assembly) is only a part of the 3000 and not the majority of the cost. And then these modest censors are subjected to the rigors of flight...not a system amenable to "perfection" IMO

 

[Filmarik]

Exactly! I would suggest that some of his "sharpest" lenses for his cameras are probably close in price to this entire drone with 3 cameras + controller + batteries etc. His expectations from this little gem might be simply too high, I reckon. We will see

 

[mavicpilotsnumpty]

Had a notification from DJI last week that the replacement was due to arrive Monday from 9am to 12pm. It never arrived. I then had notification it was due to arrive yesterday from 9am to 12pm. It never arrived. Just received notification this morning, it is now due on the 28th. Might never see his thing if they continue like this.

 

[Filmarik]

Had a notification from DJI last week that the replacement was due to arrive Monday from 9am to 12pm. It never arrived. I then had notification it was due to arrive yesterday from 9am to 12pm. It never arrived. Just received notification this morning, it is now due on the 28th. Might never see his thing if they continue like this.

Stay positive and good things will happen to you

 

[mavicpilotsnumpty]

Stay positive and good things will happen to you

Much to my surprise a UPS person arrived with a very sturdy box. Within contained the replacement drone and fly more kit.
Do damage apart from some stickey sweet smelling residue on all three batteries.

Batteries on charge, lights flashing so seem to be working.

Now the fun of updating and testing begins.