Soft corner issue on my Mavic 2 Pro too?

[globetrotterdrone]

Hi fellow drone flyers,

I've been successfully testing my new Mavic 2 Pro today and was really suprised with the performance - flying and taking pictures feels so smooth and is indeed satisfying.
Coming home I had a look on the RAW files from the flights and noticed, that the left side seems to be a bit off of sharpness and contrast, particularly the corners (which is to be expected to some extent, but the right side is fine).

Digging further in this behaviour, this seems to be well documented with the previous Mavic with soft corners and also seems going on with the current gen 2.

All settings on manual with f 4 bracket exposures of 3, AF via touch mostly to center (and therefore to infinity).
Is this tolerable, ie normal or already far off?

middle exposure, f4, 1/240, ISO 100

100 % crop of lower left side

100 % crop of lower right side

100 % crop of upper left side

100 % crop of upper right side

crop marks


Other shots





I had another quick test at home with just a poster and f 5.6 which seems to help at least a bit for the sharpness although the left side is still softer than centre and the right side on same levels.

Thanks for your evaluation.

 

[brett8883]

Hi fellow drone flyers,

I've been successfully testing my new Mavic 2 Pro today and was really suprised with the performance - flying and taking pictures feels so smooth and is indeed satisfying.
Coming home I had a look on the RAW files from the flights and noticed, that the left side seems to be a bit off of sharpness and contrast, particularly the corners (which is to be expected to some extent, but the right side is fine).

Digging further in this behaviour, this seems to be well documented with the previous Mavic with soft corners and also seems going on with the current gen 2.

All settings on manual with f 4 bracket exposures of 3, AF via touch mostly to center (and therefore to infinity).
Is this tolerable, ie normal or already far off?

View attachment 72812 middle exposure, f4, 1/240, ISO 100

View attachment 72813 100 % crop of lower left side

View attachment 72814 100 % crop of lower right side

View attachment 72815 100 % crop of upper left side

View attachment 72816 100 % crop of upper right side

View attachment 72817 crop marks


Other shots

View attachment 72818

View attachment 72821

I had another quick test at home with just a poster and f 5.6 which seems to help at least a bit for the sharpness although the left side is still softer than centre and the right side on same levels.

Thanks for your evaluation.

Issue with the sensor. Return it if it’s new enough or contact DJI support for a warrantee fix and be sure to show them these pictures. It’s happening in the same spot on certain ones. DJI has been conspicuously quick to replace them so they must know about the issue.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Good morning!

Thanks @brett8883 for your response.
The drone is 8 days old, bought it as a package with the smart controller.

I am a bit worried to exchange it via Amazon and get another model that's even worse. But considering the costs, I am not really up to accept this issue. With f5.6 it's getting less noticable but still a falloff to the rest of the image.

 

[brett8883]

Good morning!

Thanks @brett8883 for your response.
The drone is 8 days old, bought it as a package with the smart controller.

I am a bit worried to exchange it via Amazon and get another model that's even worse. But considering the costs, I am not really up to accept this issue. With f5.6 it's getting less noticable but still a falloff to the rest of the image.

You know either way. Sounds like DJI has been really good about quickly getting this issue fixed. They may try to send you a refurbished one even if they tell you it’s been fixed and you are getting your original bird back.

Maybe this isn’t that big a deal for you but let them know you received a defective unit from the get go and you want a brand new one. I’ve heard people having success with this. Just make note of the serial number before you send it off if you decide to go that route that way you at least know what your are getting. DJI usually marks their refurbished drones with an R in the serial number.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Thanks @brett8883, that's good to know.
I will most probably return it to Amazon with the note to the blurry image. If the 2nd drone will also show this behaviour, I certainly will contact DJI directly.

 

[Paul2660]

I wish you good luck on getting a different unit without corner softness. I am on number 4, still same issues. I quickly gave up on getting a unit that is 100% sharp across the entire frame. It's frustrating for sure.

Personally I am not sure it's anything to do with the sensor, but instead the lens. The MP2 seems to have a issue for sure. However I also feel some of it's due to the AF setup. I don't attempt MF with the drone as IMO the 100% view is just not sharp enough, even with peaking on. So I will hit multiple spots on the image with AF.

You are under warranty, and with Amazon you can send the unit back for sure and try another. If you use DJI, odds are you will get a refurb, and I don't feel that DJI really can check a lens and or make any real changes to the lens, they are just not setup for that on a setup such as the MP2 camera.

It's interesting to see that the image can improve with different AF hits.

The P4 Pro Vr 2.0 camera can show the same issues. Without a way to really focus at 100% LiveView as on a DSLR, you really can't get a great manual focus and instead just have to rely on the AF setup.

If you shoot raw, and try various raw converters, you can improve on the issue considerably. Capture One, currently I feel has the best conversion for this issue, if you use generic pincushion. This will pull a bit more details out of the corners and you can add a sharpening layer to the part of the file that is slightly softer. LR will give a similar result but I find the C1 conversion works better as it pulls less noise out of the files with a bit less sharpness, which can be added at later time.

The only issue with generic pincushion is that if the camera is pointed up, you will still see all of the distortion on the horizon. Note, the lens has terrible distortion by default. This is being corrected in jpgs, but not raw files. LR applies the built in lens info from the exif and corrects it, but again I don't like the LR conversion as much.

There is no doubt that DJI has focused most of their development on the video side. All of their products are limited for stills at least on the consumer side not sure on the Inspire. But just the fact that you can't see the image on any iOS or smart controller when viewed at a 100% view to really dial in focus is pretty telling. And the fact that bracketing is limited to only a .07 step ,when a 1.0 step would be much more useful.

Also, you can alleviate the problem a bit by shooting a series of images, with overlap then creating a short pano, the areas that are soft will get over written by the rest of the images. More work for sure, but one solution.

Paul C

 

[Northern_Bob]

Right on - what Paul said. Very good info.
NB

"They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum."
• Tallulah Bankhead

 

[globetrotterdrone]

I thank you Paul for your extensive reply and telling your experience from struggling with 4 units already.
I took the chance to head out again this afternoon and get a series of images with f5.6 and multiple lock-ons of AF on different points within the AF radius.

Long story short, there's the chance to get the left side a bit sharper from time to time, but that's pure luck and nothing I could repeat or control with certainty. I have experienced that the AF in general is a bit wonky and therefore without the possibility to check focus (as you said), you really need to do a couple of exposures to get confidence.

I've contacted Amazon on this behalf and already asked for a replacement (actually I ordered a new one as they only offered money back on the old one) which will arrive on Tuesday. I truly hope, that one will show no signs of this failure. I guess soft corners is not the right term but somehow an imbalance of the sensor/lens/gimbal combination ...

f5.6, 1/800 s, ISO 100, AF centred

 

[brett8883]

I wish you good luck on getting a different unit without corner softness. I am on number 4, still same issues. I quickly gave up on getting a unit that is 100% sharp across the entire frame. It's frustrating for sure.

Personally I am not sure it's anything to do with the sensor, but instead the lens. The MP2 seems to have a issue for sure. However I also feel some of it's due to the AF setup. I don't attempt MF with the drone as IMO the 100% view is just not sharp enough, even with peaking on. So I will hit multiple spots on the image with AF.

You are under warranty, and with Amazon you can send the unit back for sure and try another. If you use DJI, odds are you will get a refurb, and I don't feel that DJI really can check a lens and or make any real changes to the lens, they are just not setup for that on a setup such as the MP2 camera.

It's interesting to see that the image can improve with different AF hits.

The P4 Pro Vr 2.0 camera can show the same issues. Without a way to really focus at 100% LiveView as on a DSLR, you really can't get a great manual focus and instead just have to rely on the AF setup.

If you shoot raw, and try various raw converters, you can improve on the issue considerably. Capture One, currently I feel has the best conversion for this issue, if you use generic pincushion. This will pull a bit more details out of the corners and you can add a sharpening layer to the part of the file that is slightly softer. LR will give a similar result but I find the C1 conversion works better as it pulls less noise out of the files with a bit less sharpness, which can be added at later time.

The only issue with generic pincushion is that if the camera is pointed up, you will still see all of the distortion on the horizon. Note, the lens has terrible distortion by default. This is being corrected in jpgs, but not raw files. LR applies the built in lens info from the exif and corrects it, but again I don't like the LR conversion as much.

There is no doubt that DJI has focused most of their development on the video side. All of their products are limited for stills at least on the consumer side not sure on the Inspire. But just the fact that you can't see the image on any iOS or smart controller when viewed at a 100% view to really dial in focus is pretty telling. And the fact that bracketing is limited to only a .07 step ,when a 1.0 step would be much more useful.

Also, you can alleviate the problem a bit by shooting a series of images, with overlap then creating a short pano, the areas that are soft will get over written by the rest of the images. More work for sure, but one solution.

Paul C

Have you tried the Lightroom “enhance details” conversion? Kinda a pain just to get what should already work but I’d be interested to see if that fixes it.

Also the brand new Camera Raw for Lightroom and Photoshop has the new “texture” slider which can be applied globally or with a local adjustment brush. It basically sharpens fine details only so you can jack it up to get texture without making the larger details look over sharp.

Again a pain to have to do just to get back to normal but I’d like to see if it solves this issue.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Hi Brett,

Actually, I really tried to do so even with the new 'Texture' slider in LR as the blurry parts of the images also lack contrast.
So these admittedly fix the lower contrast but the steep loss of sharpness cannot be stopped.

Looking through the pictures, I noticed, that most of them shooting with the camera up have a slate slanted horizon although I did a full IMU, compass and gimbal calibration at home before heading out for the latest pics.

Probably really something going on with the whole construction down there.
I guess, in 2 days on Tuesday, I will know if this gets better or worse when I can compare with the 2nd unit.

 

[Paul2660]

You wrote Slate, I assume you meant slanted? Did you see this with the camera level on the horizon, just curious. Tilted horizon issues have been noted, but they were more common for me on the MPP, which was really bad at times. But if you did a gimbal calibration and the horizon leveled back out with the camera level, good that you are getting a different drone. Make sure to update this thread once you get it up and shoot a few frames, I am just curious if they can make a camera that's really sharp across the entire frame. The MPP camera/sensor were better at this IMO, and that drone allowed a Portrait orientation, wonderful for a pano (take shots in portrait then blend them into a landscape oriented pano).

The MP2's I have will tilt at times on the horizon, especially during a pan, but if I slow the pan down, they tend to level back out.

Paul C

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Hi Paul,

Yeah, I meant slanted, corrected that, thank you.
Reading in the DJI board too, I got to think that this issue might not be a simple corner softness but most probably an out of focus area due to misalignment of one or more elements of the sensor, lense, aperture, gimbal, etc. I've taken pictures with DSLR since 1995, wide angle shots are my favourites so I can tell the difference of being soft or decentred most likely.

The loss of sharpness and contrast is so rapidly, you can either see it in the field or in the parking lot shot I send. Black becomes greyish ... and muddy.
Going back to yesterday's images (the very first) I can confirm that the horizon was off there too but I did not notice due to the fact that flying and taking pictures from perspectives I've always dreamt of is quite overwhelming. Later on the softness was more obvious than the horizon, but I guess I just finish with this unit for now.

On Tuesday, I will just unwrap the new bird and have a quick test to re-assure ...
I will keep you posted either way, but wish me luck (at least a bit). ??

 

[Paul2660]

Coming from DSLR and Medium Format the DJI cameras in the consumer line are a bit disappointing. The single biggest issue for me is lack of ability to check the image at a 100 percent view for critical focus. iOS devices are too soft IMO and the smart controller screen is a bit better but still I can reliably dial in focus manually.

Hope your replacement works out.

Great flight tech. Just a bit lacking in cameras. And the Inspire is too loud and expensive.

Paul C

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Indeed, I got the Smart Controller and even though it is absolutely amazing with the controls and the bird itself, one cannot rely on the focus. Combined with the fact, that focus is not always achieved although I got the confirmation and the red highlights, that's really a bummer.

Thank you for the cheerup, will report on Tuesday ...

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Full success!

I have received my replacement by Amazon this morning and while the weather is certainly not in the mood for flying, I am stuck on ground doing simple focus chart tests. But man, what a difference already. Camera tilted 90° down to floor with a test chart.

Replacement unit, f2.8, 1/5th, ISO 100, focus on centre:


Old unit, f2.8, 1/5th, ISO 100, focus on centre:


As you can see, the left side of the old unit shows literally an abrupt change of details, loosing a lot of resolution as the lines cannot be distinguished anymore. Characters are hard to read too, like 4:3 etc. This will only slightly be influenced by raising the aperture to f5.6

Replacement unit, f5.6 0.8 sec, ISO 100, focus on centre (you can see, diffraction already kicked in, so slightly softer, but vignetting is better):


Old unit, f5.6 0.8 sec, ISO 100, focus on centre:



While the 2nd Mavic still shows some slight softness towards the edges, this is what I am used to and is gradually happening - unlike in the first, where you could see, that the area seems more like out of focus. And especially, the results with the new one are already top for f2.8, nothing like the old one.

I am aware, that these are by no means scientific tests but as they were made with identical settings and light and therefore are comparable between these 2 units. I am most happy to say, that I am very satisfied with the replacement and the quality of the 2nd camera is what I expected with the first.

So, what else to do? Wait for weather and hope that the new bird will fly as good as the pictures promise.
Again many thanks to you for your tips.

Another edit: the new unit has a production date of 27th February, 2019 whereas the old one was built one day later on 28th February, 2019 according to the serial number.

 

[brett8883]

Full success!

I have received my replacement by Amazon this morning and while the weather is certainly not in the mood for flying, I am stuck on ground doing simple focus chart tests. But man, what a difference already. Camera tilted 90° down to floor with a test chart.

Replacement unit, f2.8, 1/5th, ISO 100, focus on centre:
View attachment 73089

Old unit, f2.8, 1/5th, ISO 100, focus on centre:
View attachment 73091

As you can see, the left side of the old unit shows literally an abrupt change of details, loosing a lot of resolution as the lines cannot be distinguished anymore. Characters are hard to read too, like 4:3 etc. This will only slightly be influenced by raising the aperture to f5.6

Replacement unit, f5.6 0.8 sec, ISO 100, focus on centre (you can see, diffraction already kicked in, so slightly softer, but vignetting is better):
View attachment 73090

Old unit, f5.6 0.8 sec, ISO 100, focus on centre:
View attachment 73092


While the 2nd Mavic still shows some slight softness towards the edges, this is what I am used to and is gradually happening - unlike in the first, where you could see, that the area seems more like out of focus. And especially, the results with the new one are already top for f2.8, nothing like the old one.

I am aware, that these are by no means scientific tests but as they were made with identical settings and light and therefore are comparable between these 2 units. I am most happy to say, that I am very satisfied with the replacement and the quality of the 2nd camera is what I expected with the first.

So, what else to do? Wait for weather and hope that the new bird will fly as good as the pictures promise.
Again many thanks to you for your tips.

Another edit: the new unit has a production date of 27th February, 2019 whereas the old one was built one day later on 28th February, 2019 according to the serial number.

Glad you got it worked out!

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Had an ultra short flight of only 3 mins due to wind with 4 photos and I can say, it's a beauty.
There may is a spot on the right side probably a bit softer, but only in f4. In f2.8 it's sharper all across the picture - so I guess, I'll stick with that. ?

Great bird for sure, will have a lot of fun.
Thank you @brett8883

 

[Dakrisht]

Nice that you got this resolved.

Curious - why are you shootijg at F/5.6 when there’s significant info that anything above F/4.0 is when the lens starts to loose detail and sharpness?

From tons of comparisons, F/4 seems to be the sweet spot on this camera.

Very alarming that there’s such a large sensor disparity between units. Another user mentions 4x replacement drones which is a scary number of Mavic’s with issues.

We’re all probably nitpicking extremes and for 99% of average users, they probably won’t ever notice but I agree on all points that the sensor / camera needs to be sharp out of the box without blurry edges, etc.

Might have to go do something testing myself at this point!

 

[brett8883]

Nice that you got this resolved.

Curious - why are you shootijg at F/5.6 when there’s significant info that anything above F/4.0 is when the lens starts to loose detail and sharpness?

From tons of comparisons, F/4 seems to be the sweet spot on this camera.

Very alarming that there’s such a large sensor disparity between units. Another user mentions 4x replacement drones which is a scary number of Mavic’s with issues.

We’re all probably nitpicking extremes and for 99% of average users, they probably won’t ever notice but I agree on all points that the sensor / camera needs to be sharp out of the box without blurry edges, etc.

Might have to go do something testing myself at this point!

Depth of field. Of course a lower f-stop is sharper because it will have a faster shutter but you won’t get the depth of field as a higher f-stop. Note: we have determined that going over f8 is pointless due to already reaching maximum depth of field past a subject that is more then ~3 meters from the lens.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

@Dakrisht besides Brett's given clue, I want to add that f5.6 on the old unit showed some better results in the soft areas, guess the depth of field somehow made it a little bit better. That's why I should call it 'Out of focus areas' rather than soft areas, as this seemed exactly what happened when raising the aperture.

With the new one, I cannot see any difference after f2.8, so will stick with it. ?
Guess there are samples that are really sharp from left to right, buttom to top, but I am quite confident now with my probably 96 % drone. No comparision to the old one.