When can we expect the low resolution geo tagging issue with images to be resolved?  This issue makes using the Mavic Air almost impossible for mapping.

Brantel, Mavic Air does not support DJI GO 4 waypoints and DJI GS Pro so far, so could you please be more specific? Some screenshots or pictures will be helpful. Thanks in advance.

This has nothing to do with waypoint support or DJI GS Pro.  Hopefully the new SDK release will allow third party developers to solve that issue outside of DJI.

The issue I am describing is how the EXIF data encoded with images has been crippled when compared to other DJI drones in that the GEO Tags are low resolution:

Mavic Air example:




Mavic Pro example:





The lack of additional decimal places worth of precision won't allow mapping tools to properly locate the images resulting in errors in the processing and the resulting maps can be many meters off.

Drone Deploy also has this listed as one of the reasons why they will not release support for the Mavic Air.  You can see that on the bottom of this page:  https://support.dronedeploy.com/docs/supported-drones

from Drone Depoy website: "Future Support for DJI Drone Models
Mavic Air - We intend to support this model once DJI adds SDK support and fixes the image geotagging which is causing the Latitude and Longitude to be inaccurate. There is no ETA at the moment."

Also....

1 second of Latitude is 30.78 meters
1 second of Longitude is 24.384 meters

Not embedding additional decimal places of the seconds in Lat and Long can lead to significant errors trying to locate the camera that took the image in 3D space.

In order to get better resolution I read flight record on this website (http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/). Flight record has good resolution, so what I did is match time in the log with the time on the JPG files to extract to position from log.

If you check your flight records you can see that images are correctly geo-positioned. Unfortunately I haven´t found a way to extract directly the images geo tag.

I worked with Pix4d and have acceptable results. I have some doubts about the sensor width of the camera. Are you using Pix4d?  

AlenDioses8 Posted at 2018-4-24 13:29
In order to get better resolution I read flight record on this website (http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/). Flight record has good resolution, so what I did is match time in the log with the time on the JPG files to extract to position from log.

If you check your flight records you can see that images are correctly geo-positioned. Unfortunately I haven´t found a way to extract directly the images geo tag.

Yes,

When I open the images in Photoshop, I can see that their are two position's recorded in the meta data.  One is the drone position which is high resolution.

Example:
<drone-djiatitude>+35.8997016</drone-djiatitude>
<drone-djiongitude>-83.3720444</drone-djiongitude>
<drone-dji:AbsoluteAltitude>+1.20</drone-dji:AbsoluteAltitude>
<drone-dji:RelativeAltitude>+46.10</drone-dji:RelativeAltitude>

and the second position is the camera position...
Example:
<exif:GPSLatitude>35,53,58N</exif:GPSLatitude>
<exif:GPSLongitude>83,22,19W</exif:GPSLongitude>
<exif:GPSAltitudeRef>0</exif:GPSAltitudeRef>
<exif:GPSAltitude>461/10</exif:GPSAltitude>

Seems that all mapping software looks at the camera position which is intentionally crippled by DJI on the Air.

I have used DroneDeploy, Autodesk Recap Photo and WebODM.  The only one that I use that allows the sensor width to be set is WebODM.  I have been using 6.29 but the new Autopilot beta list it as 6.17.

Brantel Posted at 2018-4-24 13:44
Yes,

When I open the images in Photoshop, I can see that their are two position's recorded in the meta data.  One is the drone position which is high resolution.

could you explain me how do you get that position in Photoshop?. I can´t see that information with any other program

AlenDioses8 Posted at 2018-4-24 14:23
could you explain me how do you get that position in Photoshop?. I can´t see that information with any other program

I open the image in Photoshop then go to the file menu then click on file info then select the raw data option.  

Any news on this?  Been trying to generate models with Webodm and I think is the reason my output is garbage.

Wished I'd seen this Thread before buying my Mavic Air last week, I got it specifically to do small mapping missions, using Litchi and DJI Flight planner. The flight went great, until I tried to process the photos in Maps Made Easy and I started getting all these bad precision warnings. The map stitched but was 30m out of position! I was getting better results with my old Yuneec Breeze flying the missions by eye. I hope they resolve this as I love my Air

You can try to correct the EXIf GPS data in an additional step.
Look at this howto

yes, doable, but why @#$@# should we have to do extra work,
it can be done by drone itself, just make it add detailed loc coordinates in right place @ image

I've added this thread to my own as the list of issues continues to grow:

Threads detailing SERIOUS issue with Mavic Air FW v01.00.0400
Cheers

Keule Posted at 2018-6-8 02:47
You can try to correct the EXIf GPS data in an additional step.
Look at this howto

Yeah, I've gone through the whole process of correcting GPS camera positions for a 40+ photo flight.. Learning the process was good, but I sure don't want to ever repeat it.

So, will DJI address this issue? I am also struggling with this issue. There are others who are interested in using Mavic Air for small scale mapping projects but unable to do so... Does DJI at least acknowledge this problem or is it their intention to leave as it is? They should at least clear about this. Local DJI technical staffs aren't aware of this problem and I purchased Mavic Air with intention of using it for Mapping. Have already installed necessary hardware/software to process it and result isn't as accurate as I hoped. In some cases, produced orthophotograph is complete garbage.

Please, at least acknowledge the problem and tell us that you will fix it!

EdisonW1979 Posted at 2018-6-8 07:48
I've added this thread to my own as the list of issues continues to grow:

Threads detailing SERIOUS issue with Mavic Air FW v01.00.0400

What does this have to do with 0.400 FW?

It's like saying having no waypoints is something for 0.400FW to blame.

This is something actively cripple by design by DJI either with a purpose or just by mistake...

This is very bad indeed. When are they going to address this problem? In my local DJI service center, staffs weren't even aware of this problem. DJI at least acknowledge this problem and make clear what their intention is on this matter. I begin to suspect that DJI is intentionally truncating the GeoTag on EXIF. Then they have to make this public so that people would not waste their money!

techgenie Posted at 2018-7-10 22:12
This is very bad indeed. When are they going to address this problem? In my local DJI service center, staffs weren't even aware of this problem. DJI at least acknowledge this problem and make clear what their intention is on this matter. I begin to suspect that DJI is intentionally truncating the GeoTag on EXIF. Then they have to make this public so that people would not waste their money!

Well, no need to begin to suspect, because this is clearly intentional. Not that they hide it though.

In many companies, you leave room for third parties to add their own "improved" software by purpose. In this case, as we know, MA admits waypoints as other DJI drones but we don't have all the unlocked features you can see in other drones. Why? IMHO, it's a clear company strategy.

I have same issue
My region(Japan) DJI customer support didn’t know this ploblem…
Do you know when this problem will be solved?

I also doubt in "mistakes"...

Hi all,

Just logged support case today on the dji site and got this:

Dear Andre,

Thank you for contacting DJI Support.

In regards to the issue you have encountered, wherein "the Photos taken by drone not accurate, is out by 15-30m and this is caused because the Latitude and Longitude ignore some of the decimal values of the seconds reading in the HH:MM:SS value". This has been forwarded to our Research and Development Department, and as per advised, the GPS latitude and Longitude which show in pictures properties will Improve accuracy in the next firmware. Thank you so much for your understanding.

andre.schoeman Posted at 2018-8-29 07:43
Hi all,

Just logged support case today on the dji site and got this:

Have you heard anything back from DJI about this problem. I about ready to sell my air and get something that can do the job.

I’m Just adding my input to the same thread, the issue of Image GPS Low “Resolution accuracy Geo Tagging”, rather than start afresh.
I bought a Mavic Air recently and the location accuracy of the image taken is important to me, I had expected that the very minimum resolution it had would be identical to the flight recorded GPS location … I feel cheated.

I’ve tried my own test’s and it clearly shows a 1 Second of a Degree discontinuity in the embedded “GPS” Tab on a series of sequentially separated spatial images, which amounts to errors, or an effective resolution of 24-30m Longitude (depending where you are) and 30m Latitude.

The flight record data that is uploaded is much more accurate than that, as one would expect and indicates the location where the Images were taken accurately (but of course NOT embedded in the image, which is the main issue).

I certainly wish to raise this an issue that I would like to see resolved as a commitment from technical support, …… as with SDK and Waypoints … but those are separate issues.

DJI GO 4 App v4.3.2 (2007)
Aircraft Version 01.00.0400
Remote Controller Version 01.00.0100

Mweelrea

so much time passed, nothing was done... IMHO MA is just left to die :/

As usual, DJI admins are no use in helping. We are the market leader, so f... the customer.

biob_mav Posted at 2018-9-27 13:46
As usual, DJI admins are no use in helping. We are the market leader, so f... the customer.

I think it may be fixed in the new FW, release notes mention a fix.

So it means that .500 should fix it right DJI???

Resolved with firmware v01.00.0500.