how is white balance not easy to control on drones?

Let the Mini pick it's white balance like it's doing and when you lock the exposure, lock the white balance as well.


Please explain to me what's hard about that.

When you sold it did you tell the buyer about the problem?

He was planning to only use it for pictures only, not for videos. So it was fine for his photography needs.

jhamelinjhdproductions.com Posted at 2-9 10:59
how is white balance not easy to control on drones?

Let the Mini pick it's white balance like it's doing and when you lock the exposure, lock the white balance as well.

I suppose that question should be asked of you, what would you lock it to?

To whatever the mini decides... The issue is not recording at the wrong Kelvin, that's easily fixable in post. The issue is when it's shifting mid-shot. When the temperature goes from 4600 to 6800 and back down to 4200. That's harder to fix and can ruin a shot, especially with these smaller sensors where you don't have much to work with.  

Lucas775 Posted at 2-9 11:07
When you sold it did you tell the buyer about the problem?

How is that relevant for anything else other than deflecting the discussion?.....

jhamelinjhdproductions.com Posted at 2-9 11:19
To whatever the mini decides... The issue is not recording at the wrong Kelvin, that's easily fixable in post. The issue is when it's shifting mid-shot. When the temperature goes from 4600 to 6800 and back down to 4200. That's harder to fix and can ruin a shot, especially with these smaller sensors where you don't have much to work with.

You’re wasting your breath. Believe me, I tried as well.

jhamelinjhdproductions.com Posted at 2-9 11:19
To whatever the mini decides... The issue is not recording at the wrong Kelvin, that's easily fixable in post. The issue is when it's shifting mid-shot. When the temperature goes from 4600 to 6800 and back down to 4200. That's harder to fix and can ruin a shot, especially with these smaller sensors where you don't have much to work with.

I don’t know but this seems all a bit unreal, maybe I have something wrong here, but what is it your filming that keeps going wrong ?
Is this pro work your doing, I’m lookin at videos all over this forum fantastic videos all shot on mini, but you can only seem to get totally unusable footage, so maybe something was wrong with your mini.

I have video I shot many moons ago with my first drone, it was sh*t but it wasn’t unusable, I mean I wasn’t using it for anything only my own purpose and I still have it.

Many years on when going out filming to get 5 minutes I have to shoot almost 90mins and this is for many reasons and sometimes I wish I had a better camera but I don’t so I manage, I don’t think , well I’ll sell then complain.

I hope and think we will get some extra features with mini don’t know what they will be and I was 100% aware of what I purchased and what was important to me just as poster above was.

So unless your shooting for someone else or pro shooting there are many ways to get good usable footage and if it is professional then that’s because your using the wrong drone.

I think reason for selling doesn’t hold water, it’s a reason for looking for improvements yes, but selling I don’t think so, particularly because it looks like your not that happy moving on .

I wish you luck but I don’t think you would ever be ok with this drone, it’s a great little drone with a camera that produces really good footage the bulk of which is very usable IMO .

Ice_2k Posted at 2-9 11:32
You’re wasting your breath. Believe me, I tried as well.

How does that help discussion ?

Smaller clips is the key! And if it shifts during one clip, just cut and fix white balance in each clip. Not the easiest way but it works!

Ice_2k Posted at 2-9 11:30
How is that relevant for anything else other than deflecting the discussion?.....

It doesn't, but I just wanted to ask the person who started this thread not the person who wants to troll.

SveinDJI Posted at 2-9 12:47
Smaller clips is the key! And if it shifts during one clip, just cut and fix white balance in each clip. Not the easiest way but it works!

Almost all drone videos are made up of short clips particularly if you go out with a plan for shooting, get plenty of footage and get important footage twice .

hallmark007 Posted at 2-9 15:33
Almost all drone videos are made up of short clips particularly if you go out with a plan for shooting, get plenty of footage and get important footage twice .

Yup you have to use small clips. To long clips could easely be boring also.

yup i agree.. short clips this angle and that angle...repeat if necessary since 25mins of fly time with 3 more batteries (with the combo) is more than enough to sort of mitigate the WB problem..
and most importantly, do lock the exposure when filming should be alright?

Also, I personally think, there'll be never a perfect product i guess?
If it doesnt suite the needs, then sell it and upgrade to a better drone with better controls, although it'll be pricier but as long as it meets your requirement who cares about the price hehe...

Lucas775 Posted at 2-9 15:28
It doesn't, but I just wanted to ask the person who started this thread not the person who wants to troll.

Not sure why you think I'm trolling. This is quite literally my biggest gripe with the Mini, I even opened a thread a few weeks ago where I uploaded a clip that showed the problem and why the footage came out really bad.

Steve Tron - thanks for the informative video on the subject.  Appreciate the discussion and the clips showing with and without adjustments to the auto-exposure.

Steve Tron Posted at 2-9 05:01
Whilst we cannot lock the White balance locking the Exposure value can minimise the white balance changes a good example of this can be seen in the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ufrD24BpDc

Thanks for the informative video!  I appreciate the discussion and your clips showing with and without adjustments to autoexposure.  So much to learn.

Drone are used for reveal shot. They introduce a place or a scene. They are perfect for an intro or conclusion. Most times people will add titles and or logos over it. A nice drone shot can be up to 10 even 15 seconds. Who the hell edits in 2 seconds drone clips.


And seriously "use all 3 batteries until the white balance doesn't suck"  how is that even a solution? Yeah, I will tell my friend to keep walking back and forth for 1h30 until I get the shot lol



I think I just found a more loyal fanbase then apple users. Get off the bandwagon at some point guys. It's alright that the drone has a problem, you don't need to defend DJI and try to invent solutions or excuses for it.


Gotta change my preference so I stop getting emails each time someone reply here. My forehead starts to hurt because I've been facepalming so much.

jhamelinjhdproductions.com Posted at 2-10 06:31
Drone are used for reveal shot. They introduce a place or a scene. They are perfect for an intro or conclusion. Most times people will add titles and or logos over it. A nice drone shot can be up to 10 even 15 seconds. Who the hell edits in 2 seconds drone clips.

They’re not defending anything, they’re showing you how it can be done and I would have expected you would have known this, you come across as someone who knows, but can’t figure it out, maybe you’ll explain how others have managed where you completely failed, this is a Mavic mini not an inspire.
I can tell you I have had to return to some locations to try get something I wanted just right, it’s all part of it, I can post professional user quite happy to work with what he has to adapt, not to whinge whine not adverse to help taking a different view, but simply creating the best footage with what he has now, with great results, you have surrendered because your not capable of making the best of what you had, so maybe look inside yourself, I still think you made a mistake selling from the excuses you put forward.

I don’t know if it will ever come, but I’m on all threads supporting those asking for it so hopefully it will and you can re buy and you’ll only be out a few quid no harm done .

Ice_2k Posted at 2-10 00:51
Not sure why you think I'm trolling. This is quite literally my biggest gripe with the Mini, I even opened a thread a few weeks ago where I uploaded a clip that showed the problem and why the footage came out really bad.

Sorry to hear that!

jhamelinjhdproductions.com Posted at 2-9 10:37
Once again, you can't compare RAW photos with WB control. No, you cannot make the same argument for that. There are both software and hardware improvements that would need to be added for raw photos. Making the drone heavier of course.

What hardware change would you need to capture RAW?  Every image sensor captures RAW data and then the camera uses processor overhead to compress and convert to a JPEG format.  I believe it would be relatively easy to write the RAW files to storage and use existing RAM for buffer with a delay to shot-to-shot times.  I have an inexpensive point and shoot camera that captures RAW and I can also get RAW files from my iPhone.  It's just another feature that many imaging product manufacturers do not include in "beginner" level models.  

Occams Razor Posted at 2-10 14:47
What hardware change would you need to capture RAW?  Every image sensor captures RAW data and then the camera uses processor overhead to compress and convert to a JPEG format.  I believe it would be relatively easy to write the RAW file to storage and would probably add a small time delay to shot-to-shot times.  I have a point and shoot camera that captures RAW and I can also get RAW files from my iPhone.  It's just another feature that many imaging product manufacturers do not include in "beginner" level models.

I imagined it would require a bigger processor? Surely it can't just be software?

jhamelinjhdproductions.com Posted at 2-10 14:56
I imagined it would require a bigger processor? Surely it can't just be software?

I don't know about it but I thought that the "raw data" is the data which gets collected first and then it gets compressed and processed to .jpg?

So the .RAW is there anyways and just needs to be saved by a (fast) SD card.

But this is just a pure assumption by myself. I didn't research it yet.

jhamelinjhdproductions.com Posted at 2-10 14:56
I imagined it would require a bigger processor? Surely it can't just be software?

If the Mini is processing 2.7K frames at 30 FPS then it can write RAW files.  DJI has dumbed down the camera to the point where there are almost no controls or options because that's what they feel is appropriate for this part of the market at this price point.  They can add the controls and options via firmware but highly unlikely unless they see a market/sales advantage. i.e. they don't want to cannibalize their higher end drone sales unless they are forced to.

I'm also considering selling my Mavic Mini due to the horrible white balance issues - and I would most likely not go for a DJI next time in that case, and I already warn people about the white balance issue whenever I'm asked about the drone.

A few days ago, a firmware update allowed for manual white balance.  Just wanted you to know.

Alan Carvalho Posted at 3-31 15:57
A few days ago, a firmware update allowed for manual white balance.  Just wanted you to know.

I tried it today and it is working great.

White Balance now sorted after latest update. I guess that DJI was listening after all.

Oooooops! Seems like someone has listened to your complaint with the latest update.

Seems someone made a hasty decision Manual WB is here

It's nice that they added it! And you can even select the kelvin, splendid! Happy for the mini users. But no one can go out too film

But I am not looking back, I made too many nice shots last winter with my new toy!

Good job DJI, even if that took a while. Hopefully, the next ones will always come with that feature now.

I am not interested in white balance, I need them to take care of the battery level Yes we had an update and all is well.......but they forgot the white battery percentage I can't make out how much battery life is left unless I find a dark background. otherwise thanks for the update. Not only the battery percentage, but also, GPS, signal strength indicator and flight time as well. None of those are easy to see IMHO. this has been said since last update, and they decided to add these nonsense updates, you want better pictures get a better drone.