Not faulting B&H in any way for what are obviously DJI QC issues, nor did I regarding the bad P4P units. If the replacements are coming directly from DJI, that helps somewhat to try and randomize the inventory from which your units are being sourced from. However, the Cine units are certainly manufactured in significantly smaller numbers, so that may be the problem. Could be that the Cine units are batch manufactured, and all the recently sold ones have the same issue, which might explain why the non-Cine versions in the distribution channel aren't experiencing the same issue. If the third Cine unit shares the same issues as the first two Cine units, try a non-Cine version from either B&H or DJI.
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- Thread starter Eagle430
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As far as I know both versions have exactly the same camera. I do not think that the cameras for Cine are made in different factory. All the IQ issues experienced by OP are hardware camera related. So, I am not sure why getting non Cine version should increase his odds getting a good one, TBH..
While cameras are indeed "the same," they may still be coming from different inventory, made at a different time. Very few Cine units are sold relative to the non-Cine versions, so trying a non-Cine version helps randomize the camera manufacturing date and parts sources. We already know with certainty that there are two different 7x lenses installed above the main camera. One is round. One is oval. How many other parts have been changed on the main camera over time? Sourcing components has been a problem for all manufacturers. Replacements are not identical. Trying a non-Cine version is just another possibility. Maybe the camera can be swapped! Once you get a good one, you'll appreciate the difference!
No matter what assertions we are resorting to, one thing we can safely say is that this is a sad set of circumstances. It is like playing a russian rulette before parting with your hard earned, hoping for the best and be prepared for a getting a dud. What are the odds for one and the other is the question????
It explains my advice, which you questioned...
"So, I am not sure why getting non Cine version should increase his odds getting a good one, TBH.."
It's only sad if you are one of the unlucky ones to get a bad camera. Keep trying until you get a good one. Most are!
I'd like to believe that you are correct but to this point the "evidence" is not supporting your claim. I have seen numerous DNG files from various owners and all suffered from one issue or another. I understand that this is more of a circumstantial evidence rather than proof of a systemic production variation issues but it does not support your assertion that most get a good one. It looks to me more like most either do not care or are not fastidious enough to notice these issues.
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Selectively finding examples of bad cameras is hardly proof that no good cameras exist. Keep trying. Hundreds of thousands of happy Mavic 3 owners who are too busy to participate in online forums can’t all be wrong. Only unhappy owners come searching for help. Then again, maybe your expectations are, indeed, too high. Mavic 3 is now so far superior to anything that has preceded it in this price range that those of us who have been buying from DJI since 2015 are blown away. Dual cameras with a 35 minute realistic flight time and 9 mile signal strength make it a game changer. If you are comparing its cameras to the best terrestrial cameras that can‘t fly, weighing twice as much, costing more than the drone with dual cameras, it may come up a bit short.
I've been flying Inspire 2 for 6 years and when M3 came out I started to get really interested and read just about everything I could lay my eye on. Then I started to search for DNG examples since I am more interested in photos than I am in videos at the moment. I asked on various forums if people would share their DNG photos with me.Trust me I was not selectively looking for bad samples, quite the opposite. I wanted to support my desire and excitement to get this new drone. On paper it looked like a worthy replacement for my ageing (and heavy to carry around) I2. I got first few DNG files from various owners. Not sure if they were from Cine or non Cine version. Loaded them in LR and applied my usual settings, then tweeked the sharpening parameters etc etc. My first impression was pretty positive until I started to have a closer look at detail and sharpness uniformity. First I noticed pretty ordinary sharpness in one corner, then an entire one half of the frame much softer than the other half on another DNG file from a different person. It started to be quite obvious to me that this camera/lens have pretty inconsistent IQ/sharpness issues. Then I read on this forum about the experience of the fellow who is now waiting for his third M3 observing the same issues. My excitement has slowly started to fade away. I am sure there must be a good M3 somewhere, (hopefully more than one
) with sharp well centered and alligned lens but I am yet to see a single DNG sample demonstrating that. So, if you have some and are willing to share them, I'd love to look at them. I remain openminded and would be happy to accept certain degree of uniform sharpness fall-off towards edges and corners but if 3 corners are perfectly sharp at f5.6 and one is terribly soft, or large area of the frame is visibly softer than the rest, that would bother me. I do not think I am expecting too much here, or am I ?? After all this is a $4K+ drone !!
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At this stage with only a couple weeks to go until I split for Iceland and with no RC Pro's to be had on their own, I'm afraid that is not an option. I have a strict policy to never use a cell connected or tablet device with my drones so all my other drones have dedicated smart controllers and are flown as closed loop systems.
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I've been flying Inspire 2 for 6 years and when M3 came out I started to get really interested and read just about everything I could lay my eye on. Then I started to search for DNG examples since I am more interested in photos than I am in videos at the moment. I asked on various forums if people would share their DNG photos with me.Trust me I was not selectively looking for bad samples, quite the opposite. I wanted to support my desire and excitement to get this new drone. On paper it looked like a worthy replacement for my ageing (and heavy to carry around) I2. I got first few DNG files from various owners. Not sure if they were from Cine or non Cine version. Loaded them in LR and applied my usual settings, then tweeked the sharpening parameters etc etc. My first impression was pretty positive until I started to have a closer look at detail and sharpness uniformity. First I noticed pretty ordinary sharpness in one corner, then an entire one half of the frame much softer than the other half on another DNG file from a different person. It started to be quite obvious to me that this camera/lens have pretty inconsistent IQ/sharpness issues. Then I read on this forum about the experience of the fellow who is now waiting for his third M3 observing the same issues. My excitement has slowly started to fade away. I am sure there must be a good M3 somewhere, (hopefully more than one
100% all day long, this.
Right away when the samples started appearing I started looking at them because all else considered, the M3 looks fantastic on paper and it flies wonderfully in my experience. When the telephoto cam got RAW, I knew I had to try to get one. So for a couple weeks I tried to find good samples from it too and finally got some from Meta4. Once I ran them through my process, I saw good enough IQ from the 7X cam to give it a shot.
I went for the Cine version because I needed the RC Pro and that is still the only way to get it, I *never* fly drones with phones or tablets and I do commercial motion work near weekly.
I was about ready to give up on seeing anything from the M3 that looked as good as my M2P until I located these samples from another guy in OZ, check out the link ( M3TEST) in the last part of the post:
Is my Mavic 3 just not sharp or is this normal
I have a new drone to replace my aging P4A which was, and still is, a great camera. My raws don't seem very sharp. Corners are fine, just overall. Seems to be off. Can anyone check these dngs for me? M3TEST
mavicpilots.com
To me, these are the benchmark and DJI customer service knows that if the next replacement does not look like this or at least close to it, I have to get my money back. I did notice the serial number convention is different so it might either be a case of being a non-Cine version or non-FCC version. Either way, the SN is very different that what the Cine versions look like so I am still concerned that the 3rd one I get due to me Tuesday will still have this image quality issue.
I can not tell you how bummed out I am about this now, poor image quality from the main cam not withstanding, this is such an outstanding piece of hardware but from a business case, it simply has to deliver results on par with the samples at the link above.
All good points. However, the Mavic 3 drone is actually a $2k drone, not a $4k+ drone. Adding an SSD and an RC Pro to it doesn't change the camera. The cameras are supposed to be identical, although it appears that some bad cameras may have made their way onto some of the recent Cine versions.
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I was wondering why I was seeing $1500 scalping prices on RC Pro's!
Amazon Warehouse has one with return privileges. Open box $1352.
I am in OZ and the Cine version sells here for A$7,200. Quite frankly I do not care what amount the so called Hasselblad camera or its lens contributes to that price. To pay that amount and risk to get "one with the bad camera" is to my way of thinking simply unacceptable risk. I have seen too many bad samples from bad cameras to take the gamble. That is what's holding me back from placing the order. I re-visited some of the DNG files I've downloaded and most seem to have worst the top left corner, so it appeares that it might be some pattern here. If you have the M3, have a look at your photos and let us know if your camera exhibits the same softness in top left corner. On the files I looked at it is visibly blurry and even not too fastidious owners should be able to notice it.
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Definitely don't buy if it doesn’t meet your discriminating standards or risk tolerance. Every camera purchase comes with an element of risk. Better and worse copies exist within every production run, whether from Nikon, Canon, Sony, or Hasselblad/DJI. If a Mavic 3 Classic at $1300 becomes available, perhaps try one of those, to lower your "risk" during a tryout, to see if it meets your standards.
Please don't take this wrong, but I think what Filmarik and certainly I may be tiring of is the appearance of perhaps the unintended dismissal of the severity of these degraded image samples in using terms like discriminating or just get another one and it will likely be better. I can't imagine anyone even paying $1300 being happy with these cases and as more of these reports surface, and they seem to be, well then it might be more widespread than it is not.
I have never seen any lens from any camera maker deliver results as bad as some that I have seen from other's Mavic 3 main cameras and the two I have used thus far. The bad examples I have seen well exceed what I would consider normal sample variation in what are admittedly hard to engineer and manufacture drone cameras.
I sincerely hope there are a lot more good examples than bad out there, people pay a pretty penny for these and deserve to get what they pay for.
Thanks for your advice. The samples from M3TEST, KS-6 refered to, look pretty darn good to me! Uniformly sharp across the frame, reasonably sharp corners. I'd be happy with that. Anyway, enough to this topic from me. Thanks to everyone who cared to reply.
I think I can be done with it too. If my replacement M3 Cine looks like the one from M3TEST, I will be elated. Good night all!
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