Still seeing issues even at higher resolutions. Oil painting effect.

nickelphoto · Dec 19, 2016

I put this out as a bookmark for myself to show my progress in learning Davinci Resolve. The clip was filmed at 4K 24p just before sunset. If you look in the trees, you'll see the pastel effect. It's like posterization or painterly filters were added. Is there some kind of controlled test I can run to find out if my camera is defective? Is it just because of the time of day?

visualair · Dec 19, 2016

I am having the same issues with filming, I get this alot and I keep putting it down too me screwing up the focusing, as some shots are very clear with the usual compression, and then other times, pure mush which is very unusable despite me using the C1 for center focus.

I still think its user error and I need to practise with manual focusing really but it is hard with a small screen although Infinity focus would always be the way to go when in the air, I have this on my olympus 12mm on the x5r all the time and I get crystal clear imagery. The sensor is much smaller on the Mavic so should be an even wider depth of field despite the aperture of the lens. I need to do some tests with manual focusing to try, but I think also the bad processing from the software could play a part too

Fredo · Dec 25, 2016

I have got the same problem. Trees look like painting. And pictures don't have the definition I should expect from a 4k camera. I tried all modes and they are all the same.
Drone itself work very well. Just that bad video quality
I sent an email to dji with a Dropbox link to one of my videos. I'm waiting for an answer.

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nickelphoto · Dec 25, 2016

Fredo said:
I have got the same problem. Trees look like painting. And pictures don't have the definition I should expect from a 4k camera. I tried all modes and they are all the same.
Drone itself work very well. Just that bad video quality
I sent an email to dji with a Dropbox link to one of my videos. I'm waiting for an answer.

Sent from my A0001 using MavicPilots mobile app

Please update is with the response if any! Also, do you notice a difference when flying in sunlight vs cloudy or dusk? While I still have some of the painting look, flights during sunny conditions are sharper on mine.

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Fredo · Dec 26, 2016

I didn't had the chance yet to fly in sunny conditions. But I will try it for sure as soon as I can. But however the result is, there is a problem with my Mavic when I compare my videos to what we can find on YouTube.

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TRP · Dec 26, 2016

Interesting. I noticed the same issue but not as dramatic as yours. Here is my youtube video, the first few seconds shows some flora but not as sharp as I expected. Shot in 2k 30fps. There seems to be aliasing of sorts on the upper edges of the trees.

Kilrah · Dec 26, 2016

Please record a raw clip with video caption enabled, or remember and list what were your iso/shutter speed and exact color profile and style settings.
It really seems to be related to how the camera is configured, but given nobody posts the details it's impossible to try and figure out what are the parameters/combinations susceptible to cause it most.

Fredo · Dec 26, 2016

TRP said:
Interesting. I noticed the same issue but not as dramatic as yours. Here is my youtube video, the first few seconds shows some flora but not as sharp as I expected. Shot in 2k 30fps. There seems to be aliasing of sorts on the upper edges of the trees.

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Your video look good. At least huge way better than mine. I just watched it on my phone but it's enough to tell you that you are not concerned by the problem.

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TRP · Dec 26, 2016

Ok upon closer view of your footage it seems that the tree almost blends in with itself? I have aliasing on mine but I did notice it wasnt as "pastel-y" as yours. What are your video settings? I shoot at 2.7k 30fps, -1,-1,0, wb adjusted as needed and everything else pretty much auto. Have you also tried comparing video footage from a sunny day? Are you using any kind of polarization filters?

Fredo · Dec 27, 2016

nickelphoto said:
Please update is with the response if any! Also, do you notice a difference when flying in sunlight vs cloudy or dusk? While I still have some of the painting look, flights during sunny conditions are sharper on mine.

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

Here is their answer (pretty standard) :

We are sorry to hear about the issue with your DJI Product. We recommend sending your product into our North American Support center, for diagnosis and repair. Please reply with the below info, so we can arrange for a RMA repair or return & exchange. If you have any questions, please be sure to ask them in your reply. We look forward to assisting you soon!

First and Last Name:
Shipping Address (no PO box):
Phone number:
Name of DJI Product:
Purchase date of product:
DJI account for activation: (Only applicable for Phantom, Inspire, OSMO and Ronin MX)
Dealer name or DJI Order Number:
Brief Description of damage or technical issue:
Troubleshooting steps you have tried to fix the issue before contacting support:
Do you have DJI Care:
Do you have OSMO Shield:
(If yes, please include a copy of your DJI Care proof of purchase with your RMA.)

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Fredo · Dec 27, 2016

Here is the shot I sent to dji. For info:
Dropbox - DJI_0005.MP4

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Kilrah · Dec 27, 2016

This looks fine to me given you've shot in 50fps, and thus the footage will suffer from the known poor resizing when shooting >30p.

visualair · Dec 27, 2016

Fredo said:
Here is the shot I sent to dji. For info:
Dropbox - DJI_0005.MP4

Sent from my A0001 using MavicPilots mobile app

That does look bad... im starting to wonder if there is some kind of heavy noise reduction going on that isn't necessary. It is definitely not an issue with the sensor, as I have seen pre-production footage that looks superb, and 100% on par with the p3 or p4.

I am almost convinced now its bad software processing of the footage from DJI.

visualair · Dec 27, 2016

nickelphoto said:
Please update is with the response if any! Also, do you notice a difference when flying in sunlight vs cloudy or dusk? While I still have some of the painting look, flights during sunny conditions are sharper on mine.

Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

This is an interesting point actually. I have noticed this too, all my really mushy footage is when it was a bit over cast, so does this now point to certain shutter speeds a noise reduction kicks in totally screwing up the footage.

Steve Masen · Dec 28, 2016

Videos like this are all over youtube if you take a closer look at their footage... but people are so over whelmed by a folding drone that is so easy to fly, that nobody is analising the video quality.. I personally like the small form factor of the Mavic, but the video quality is a big let down.. Maybe this is why DJI brought out the Phantom 4 pro with it's 1 inch sensor and 20mb camera

visualair · Dec 29, 2016

Steve Masen said:
Videos like this are all over youtube if you take a closer look at their footage... but people are so over whelmed by a folding drone that is so easy to fly, that nobody is analising the video quality.. I personally like the small form factor of the Mavic, but the video quality is a big let down.. Maybe this is why DJI brought out the Phantom 4 pro with it's 1 inch sensor and 20mb camera

Steve, what is frustrating is the sensor isnt the weak point not even the 60mbit compression for this to be happening, for some reason they have added some weird processing algorithm to the footage which makes it look like an oil painting, or just heavy use of noise reduction. Really is very strange, it should be identical to the x3, p3 and p4. I was fully expecting the quality to be the same to be honest, and in RAW images it is identical, but they have screwed up the processing of the footage somehow. The early footage I saw of the Mavic looked excellent, and no sign of this noise reduction processing apparent. Even the jpegs are awful.

lee11lee · Dec 30, 2016

Hi,

I've seen a similar behaving on my DJI Mavic. I've shot all shots but the last with 2.7k cinelike -1 -1 -1 setting and the last with 4K none -1 -1 -1.

As you can see the behaviour is still present on shots in sunlight. I think the problem it has to do with high frequency detail..

FYI I think my iso was at around 100 with EV -0.7 and a quite high shutter (around 1/1000).

Hope this helps DJI making some changes to the compression..
The sensor and the mbit/s should be able to record a way better picture then those.

visualair · Dec 30, 2016

Ok a quick test in dull light, screengrabs from 4k footage at 100% crop, it seems Sharpness 0 and -1 and lower are awful (and showed identical results). +1 looks to be the most crisp, and +2 makes no difference. I also used Truecolour on this.

100% crops below, obviously compression is is visible, but look at the massive difference between +1 and 0. This is much more like I was getting from the x3. Look at the detail in the leaves on the second images from zero sharpness to +1. What a massive difference. This is using the latest firmware as well.

raybanner · Dec 30, 2016

I noticed the exact same thing. Very strange. I put the sharpness to -2 and -3 and the trees are almost not recognizable except being green

Its worse in cloudy days, a little better at sunny days. I hope this can somehow get fixed!?

erikgraham · Dec 30, 2016

visualair said:
Steve, what is frustrating is the sensor isnt the weak point not even the 60mbit compression for this to be happening, for some reason they have added some weird processing algorithm to the footage which makes it look like an oil painting, or just heavy use of noise reduction. Really is very strange, it should be identical to the x3, p3 and p4. I was fully expecting the quality to be the same to be honest, and in RAW images it is identical, but they have screwed up the processing of the footage somehow. The early footage I saw of the Mavic looked excellent, and no sign of this noise reduction processing apparent. Even the jpegs are awful.

This is the issue. DJI has implemented their own h.264 compression algorithms, and they aren't very good. Even on an X5r, if you look at the compressed video on the SD card (vs the RAW footage on the SSD), you get the same kinds of issues.