Hi, I've been reviewing the raw footage straight from my new Mavic Pro and noticed in all of the clips a noticable strobing effect on my videos. I first thought it was perhaps because the Auto Explosure setting had been set accidentally (I use manual). After a series of tests using various camera settings, both on the ground and in flight, I've found that it occurs with all the settings I've tested. This included manual/auto exposure, various resolutions, color (D-Log, D-Cinelike, Art, etc.), style, and file type.  All my parts have the latest firmware.

I am leaving on a trip to Iceland soon and don't want to return with a bunch of footage that has this distracting strobing. I've verified in Adobe Speedgrade, using the scopes, that the strobing is real and not just my eyes. It looks like the data from about 60-70% and below are 'dancing' as the video plays, in a pretty well-defined cadence, about 1 per second, although watching the video if feels more like twice a second. That's consistent with the visuals where the strobing is most visible in the mid to lower tones.

I started to make a clip in Premiere, but the rendered file didn't seem to exhibit the same behavior. Of course, it was highly compressed for upload, and scaled down from 4k to 1080p.

Has anyone else noticed such artifacts on their raw footage from the Mavic Pro Platinum?

Thanks,
Shane

BTW, by 'strobing', I'm not referring to what is also known as judder. What I'm talking about is a slight pulsating change in brightness all over the scene, mostly in the mid to lower tones.

Have you tried using ND filters with fixed iso and shutterspeed settings? Maybe it can reduce the strobing effect.
Do film in Pal or ntsc? If selected wrong some flickering might occur.

OK, so never mind. I found on mavicpilots.com several posts explaining that his is a common artifact on most DJI drone cameras, and it is due to the H.264 I-Frame compression algorithms used by the chip.  A full frame is taken three times a second (@24 fps), and the chip fills in only what has changed from those key frames for the remaining frames. That's why you can see flicker/strobing as the filled in portions change, 3 times a second. Various settings have been found by people that vary somewhat that minimize the problem, but the common thread seemed to be 2.7k @ 24fps with a sharpness setting of -1 works well, but the footage needs to be sharpened in post with some noise reduction. I have not yet tried this, but plan on doing more experimentation. This seems to be a flaw in DJI's video chip and processing. Hopefully, they can update the firmware to allow the full 60 Mbps throughput on all resolutions as well, since many people are shooting in 1080 and 2.7k to avoid the flicker. I suspect the compression is done on a chip and can't be 'fixed' with a FW update, so current owners may have to live with it. People have found ways to remedy the defect in post, but it is expensive and time consuming.

GrizzlyAK Posted at 2018-5-26 00:00
OK, so never mind. I found on mavicpilots.com several posts explaining that his is a common artifact on most DJI drone cameras, and it is due to the H.264 I-Frame compression algorithms used by the chip.  A full frame is taken three times a second (@24 fps), and the chip fills in only what has changed from those key frames for the remaining frames. That's why you can see flicker/strobing as the filled in portions change, 3 times a second. Various settings have been found by people that vary somewhat that minimize the problem, but the common thread seemed to be 2.7k @ 24fps with a sharpness setting of -1 works well, but the footage needs to be sharpened in post with some noise reduction. I have not yet tried this, but plan on doing more experimentation. This seems to be a flaw in DJI's video chip and processing. Hopefully, they can update the firmware to allow the full 60 Mbps throughput on all resolutions as well, since many people are shooting in 1080 and 2.7k to avoid the flicker. I suspect the compression is done on a chip and can't be 'fixed' with a FW update, so current owners may have to live with it. People have found ways to remedy the defect in post, but it is expensive and time consuming.

Interesting info there     

chiplifter Posted at 2018-5-25 23:41
Have you tried using ND filters with fixed iso and shutterspeed settings? Maybe it can reduce the strobing effect.
Do film in Pal or ntsc? If selected wrong some flickering might occur.

chiplifter are you saying that I should only use Pal or ntsc?  which one are you using because I seen your vids and they are super.

Picanoc Jack Posted at 2018-6-4 13:32
chiplifter are you saying that I should only use Pal or ntsc?  which one are you using because I seen your vids and they are super.

Let me try to explain. If you film in PAL 25 or 50 fps and review the footage in a room lit with artificial light on a 60Hz frequency (us) system, interference can (not will)  occur. You will notice scrolling lines when viewing. Same happens when filming in NTSC (30 or 60 fps) and viewing in a 50Hz lit room.
However modern systems are less sensitive to flickering caused by frequency differences, it still can occur. So IMHO best to use PAL in Europe, and NTSC in US.

Picanoc Jack Posted at 2018-6-4 13:32
chiplifter are you saying that I should only use Pal or ntsc?  which one are you using because I seen your vids and they are super.

Hi Picanoc Jack,
I found some clip that explains the flickering

chiplifter Posted at 2018-6-4 21:53
Let me try to explain. If you film in PAL 25 or 50 fps and review the footage in a room lit with artificial light on a 60Hz frequency (us) system, interference can (not will)  occur. You will notice scrolling lines when viewing. Same happens when filming in NTSC (30 or 60 fps) and viewing in a 50Hz lit room.
However modern systems are less sensitive to flickering caused by frequency differences, it still can occur. So IMHO best to use PAL in Europe, and NTSC in US.

thanks for the info chiplifter

Picanoc Jack Posted at 2018-6-5 01:29
thanks for the info chiplifter

you are welcome.
of course you can test it by yourself. Make some footage in Pal (25 fps) and the same footage in NTSC (30 fps) and see what works best for you.

chiplifter Posted at 2018-6-5 02:27
you are welcome.
of course you can test it by yourself. Make some footage in Pal (25 fps) and the same footage in NTSC (30 fps) and see what works best for you.

will do, thanks chiplifter.

Yup if it is the '8 frame temporal aliasing' that you're getting its he camera conversion chip trying to reduce data flow as recorded to SD card. It's a function of this model of chip installed on the MP & MPPs - not sure about the Air as it has an upper data rate of 100 megabits per second (MP/MPP camera is limited to 60mbts). I shoot with UHD (pseudo 4K) as it crops just a tad left and right so reducing the frame to frame data rate by just enough to mitigate the temporal aliasing but still is nearer to 4K than 2K. The problem mainly occurs in low contrast green areas in particular. Setting the sharpness to -1 also stops the chip from doing spatial compression in these low contrast areas too - check out Film Poets (YT) for a fuller breakdown of the ideal settings. I use Neat Video to deal with the high frequency spatial noise in post (FCPX plugin).