Hello all!

I'm trying to figure out what could be the cause of this random distortion/artifacts in my Mavic Pro (original) footage.  I have three of these drones... all three seem to do the same thing, but completely random.  I thought maybe it was my editing software causing it during import (FCP)... but the distortion is in the actual native files right on the card, right out of the drone.  


Has anyone experienced this before?  


It happens at the following timecods in the video below:  1 sec, 6 sec, and a much more subtle artifiact at 12 sec.


https://youtu.be/fmZY-sZOsJ0

Hello there raven13mb. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and thank you for reaching out and for posting this video link as well. Can you please try using a different suggested SD card ( Max capacity: 128 GB. Class 10 or UHS-1 rating required ) on your DJI Mavic Pro to see if the issue will still persist? Please keep us posted for further assistance. Thank you.

Did you use the same SD card on all of theese flights?  This smells like SD card problem, like DJI Stephen said. Try another better quality card. Good luck!

Yep, SD card issue... get a better card.

i agree, sd card issue

Thanks for the responses all!  I, too, assumed SD cards (not my first rodeo)... but thought it was weird that it would become a problem in all three drones seamlessly overnight.   One drone uses a Sandisk Extreme 16GB, the other two Lexar 633x 16GB cards.  They're cheap enough so I'll swap them all out with SanDisk Extremes and see how it goes.  Thanks again.  

raven13mb Posted at 12-3 18:20
Thanks for the responses all!  I, too, assumed SD cards (not my first rodeo)... but thought it was weird that it would become a problem in all three drones seamlessly overnight.   One drone uses a Sandisk Extreme 16GB, the other two Lexar 633x 16GB cards.  They're cheap enough so I'll swap them all out with SanDisk Extremes and see how it goes.  Thanks again.

It is not caused by the SD card. Please note, the SD card cannot cause visible artifacts in the recorded stream. It looks to me as if that clip came from the cache on your phone?

Geebax Posted at 12-3 19:22
It is not caused by the SD card. Please note, the SD card cannot cause visible artifacts in the recorded stream. It looks to me as if that clip came from the cache on your phone?

I wouldn't know how to even save the clips to my phone... lol.  I take the SD cards out and plug them into my computer for archival and import into my editing software.

raven13mb Posted at 12-3 19:25
I wouldn't know how to even save the clips to my phone... lol.  I take the SD cards out and plug them into my computer for archival and import into my editing software.

OK, that's fine. Did you do that with the footage you have posted? What was the footage shot at?

Geebax Posted at 12-3 19:59
OK, that's fine. Did you do that with the footage you have posted? What was the footage shot at?

Indeed!  I've never done it any other way.  It was shot at 1080p, 30fps.

raven13mb Posted at 12-4 10:29
Indeed!  I've never done it any other way.  It was shot at 1080p, 30fps.

Sorry for the delay, I have been away. OK, then the artifact you are seeing has been introduced by the editing app you imported the material into.

Geebax Posted at 12-5 18:50
Sorry for the delay, I have been away. OK, then the artifact you are seeing has been introduced by the editing app you imported the material into.

Not possible... the artifacts are in the native files that are recorded on the card.  IE... they're there before I import the footage into FCP.   If you open the file in Quicktime or Windows Media Player, before they're ever imported into the editing software, the artifacts are there in the files natively.   After importing into FCP or Premiere (I have both), they're still there, as expected since they're in the native files to begin with.   Seems it's a mystery.  I'll try new SD cards and hope for the best.  

raven13mb Posted at 12-6 07:21
Not possible... the artifacts are in the native files that are recorded on the card.  IE... they're there before I import the footage into FCP.   If you open the file in Quicktime or Windows Media Player, before they're ever imported into the editing software, the artifacts are there in the files natively.   After importing into FCP or Premiere (I have both), they're still there, as expected since they're in the native files to begin with.   Seems it's a mystery.  I'll try new SD cards and hope for the best.

You could post the file from the SD card on Dropbox and I could then take a look at it?

Geebax Posted at 12-7 16:07
You could post the file from the SD card on Dropbox and I could then take a look at it?

Sure!  Here's a good example.  Happens at the 5 second mark.  This is native footage directly from the drone/SD card.  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mhvfut55dv38h85/DJI_0031.MOV?dl=0

raven13mb Posted at 12-8 03:01
Sure!  Here's a good example.  Happens at the 5 second mark.  This is native footage directly from the drone/SD card.  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mhvfut55dv38h85/DJI_0031.MOV?dl=0

OK, yes, it is odd. But I am sorry, I cannot think of any circumstance that would cause that in the camera. It has to be a camera issue, certainly not the SDS card.