REviewing some of my footage of a few days ago I noticed kiund of a reflection of a mirror at some point coming fom a wooded area. When played frame by frame (weel, I don't know if it is really frame by frame, I clicked the fotward arrow twice between every picture while the movie was in 'pause'-position in the Mac Qyicktime player) I saw this very vague and not well defined spot 'fly by'.
Anyone has any idea what this might be ?

a tiny bug/insect on the lens or loose dirt/dust perhaps?

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 4-23 03:28
a tiny bug/insect on the lens or loose dirt/dust perhaps?

Doesn't seem very probable to me as the drone was travelling full speed forward and the Mavic seemed to be on a (near-) collision course with the 'object'. If it was a tiny particle on the lens I would have expected that it would have stayed on the same place in the image ?

And insects can't walk? Dust couldn't be adhering to a lens through static electricity charge and moved by wind blast?

Maybe other people will come up with different suggestions that are more to your liking.

Hello there PhanFran. Good day and thank you for sharing these information and these photos that you have captured with us. Have a safe and a happy flying always.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 4-23 03:56
And insects can't walk? Dust couldn't be adhering to a lens through static electricity charge and moved by wind blast?

Maybe other people will come up with different suggestions that are more to your liking.

Insects can walk but will have great difficulty doing that on the lens of a drone that is travelling at a speed of 52 km/h. And it's not that your suggestion is not to my liking. Any suggestion is ok. I'm just not sure.

PhanFran Posted at 4-23 04:04
Insects can walk but will have great difficulty doing that on the lens of a drone that is travelling at a speed of 52 km/h. And it's not that your suggestion is not to my liking. Any suggestion is ok. I'm just not sure.

You could just start up M3 and look at the picture wide open if its still showing just zoom in if it disappears when zoomed in, its something on your lens cover or sensor. Is it showing in all photos or is this just a once off “so far”

Fair enough.
Just for the record I have seen flies etc. walk across the windscreen of a car that was moving at a fair speed, their wings were being blown all over the place. It was actually quite interesting and surprising to watch.

A raindrop, perhaps?  I had a similar incident one time, and the raindrop stayed in view for about 30 seconds of the flight before the wind whipped it away.

hallmark007 Posted at 4-23 04:24
You could just start up M3 and look at the picture wide open if its still showing just zoom in if it disappears when zoomed in, its something on your lens cover or sensor. Is it showing in all photos or is this just a once off “so far”

No, it is only showing up in this one series of images. The difference in time between pic1 and pic 6 = 6 frames of a video shot at 4k30fps , so I/5 th of a second. During that time, the drone travelled 2,89 meters forward.
It seemed to originate from the far side of the treeline and coming at high speed (and increasing in speed and size) in the following frames.
Was my drone being shot at ?

It's nothing on the lens or the camera.
It's a small airborne bit of fluff, maybe an airborne dandelion or thistle seed that you flew past.
By the time it's close enough to see, it's out of focus and blurred from the motion.

PhanFran Posted at 4-23 06:16
No, it is only showing up in this one series of images. The difference in time between pic1 and pic 6 = 6 frames of a video shot at 4k30fps , so I/5 th of a second. During that time, the drone travelled 2,89 meters forward.
It seemed to originate from the far side of the treeline and coming at high speed (and increasing in speed and size) in the following frames.
Was my drone being shot at ?

It may have been slight condensation of mist/fog clearing itself. First picture looks like this might be the case. But at least you will live to fight another day ;+)….

hallmark007 Posted at 4-23 06:19
It may have been slight condensation of mist/fog clearing itself. First picture looks like this might be the case. But at least you will live to fight another day ;+)….

A spot of condensation (if it showed at all) wouldn't migrate across the frame

PhanFran Posted at 4-23 06:16
No, it is only showing up in this one series of images. The difference in time between pic1 and pic 6 = 6 frames of a video shot at 4k30fps , so I/5 th of a second. During that time, the drone travelled 2,89 meters forward.
It seemed to originate from the far side of the treeline and coming at high speed (and increasing in speed and size) in the following frames.
Was my drone being shot at ?

A worrying possibility?

hallmark007 Posted at 4-23 04:24
You could just start up M3 and look at the picture wide open if its still showing just zoom in if it disappears when zoomed in, its something on your lens cover or sensor. Is it showing in all photos or is this just a once off “so far”

Dust is much easier to see with a narrow aperture, because the light will be hitting it more directly.

Blériot53 Posted at 4-23 06:24
A worrying possibility?

I wouldn't worry about it.  Whatever it was is probably long gone.

Spazoo Posted at 4-23 06:43
I wouldn't worry about it.

It's not my worry, I'm safely in a different country

Blériot53 Posted at 4-23 06:44
It's not my worry, I'm safely in a different country

There's nothing to worry about.
He just flew past a drifting dandelion seed.

Spazoo Posted at 4-23 06:36
Dust is much easier to see with a narrow aperture, because the light will be hitting it more directly.

It should work, he has said it has only happened on this shot, so I presume if its not repeating its most likely  a foreign body on the outside of the lens.

hallmark007 Posted at 4-23 06:48
It should work, he has said it has only happened on this shot, so I presume if its not repeating its most likely  a foreign body on the outside of the lens.

It's not on the lens.
It was airborne, small and he flew past it.
How else would you explain the movement and increase in size?

Blériot53 Posted at 4-23 06:44
It's not my worry, I'm safely in a different country

At this point I am ready to classify it as a UFO.  

Stay safe, Captain!!

Good point about the increase in size but are Dandelions etc. in seed in Belgium? They're just in bloom here but I am a bit north of Belgium so probably a bit behind.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 4-23 07:03
Good point about the increase in size but are Dandelions etc. in seed in Belgium? They're just in bloom here but I am a bit north of Belgium so probably a bit behind.

It's a bit of fuzzy fluff ... I offered a dandelion seed as a commonn example.
There are many other plants in the daisy family that have wind-carried parachute seeds, like sow thistles as another (and smaller) example.

I'm tempted by the dandelion-theory. Didn't see any of them in bloom this year but it must be the time around now. Maybe the windmap on Airdata can tell me if the wind came from that direction at that point.

Big jump in location from 2nd to bottom to bottom picture, leaves me wondering if its a reflection artifact of drone's camera lenes.

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 4-23 12:17
Big jump in location from 2nd to bottom to bottom picture, leaves me wondering if its a reflection artifact of drone's camera lenes.

It's less than 2 metres from the lens and getting closer as the drone flies past.

Labroides Posted at 4-23 15:14
It's less than 2 metres from the lens and getting closer as the drone flies past.

I agree, it is a possibility.

djiuser_tDysKtQSWAwH Posted at 4-23 15:40
Absolutely not condensation as it would be in the same spot on the lens and not get bigger as he flew closer.

Really dumb hypothesis easily disproven.  ;+)

Hardly a thistle , you won’t see one of them flying through the air in April in Belgium ;+)…

I don't care as long as it's not the ghost of my math teacher  

djiuser_tDysKtQSWAwH Posted at 4-24 06:03
I said “or something”. A dandelion, something. But certainly not “condensation”. It was an object that he flew by. But you speculated something on the lens. Wrong. ;+)

“Clearly something flew past like a thistle“

Looks like thistle , no sign of dandelion There. ;+)….

hallmark007 Posted at 4-24 05:43
Hardly a thistle , you won’t see one of them flying through the air in April in Belgium ;+)…

Hardly a thistle , you won’t see one of them flying through the air in April in Belgium ;+)…
So now you're a botanist?
Someone that thinks the phenomenon is a spot of dust or condensation, isn't someone to take advice from.
Stick to your field of expertise (whatever that is).

If you could read, you'd have noticed that I mentioned a sow thistle.
They have much smaller parachute seeds.
It could have been Emilia sonchifolia, or something else that's even smaller.
There are several hundred other members of the family Asteraceae that have pappus-equipped seeds like that.

Labroides Posted at 4-24 07:27
Hardly a thistle , you won’t see one of them flying through the air in April in Belgium ;+)…
So now you're a botanist?
Someone that thinks the phenomenon is a spot of dust or condensation, isn't someone to take advice from.

If you had of read the thread you would clearly see I was  responding to someone who wrote a thistle. I can read fine and know exactly what you wrote. I was not answering your comments, but you seem hell bent on trying to find every or way your can to attack me.

So go back and read posts from 33,37.39 and 40.

djiuser_tDysKtQSWAwH Posted at 4-24 09:03
No - you attacked me for suggesting it could be a thistle. Yet Labroides also suggested a thistle.
But your suggestion was that it was "condensation" or a "spot of dust" that magically got bigger as the drone got closer?
I believe he very well knew you were responding to me. He was just pointing out the ridiculous nature of your broken response.

Again you seem to be getting this completely Wrong. Labroids didn’t say a thistle. You did.

djiuser_tDysKtQSWAwH Posted at 4-24 09:28
See pictures. Seems like you need to work on those reading skills....  ;+)

Care to embarass yourself any further? You still standing by that it is "moisture" or a "spot on the lens"?

You obviously Don’t know the difference between a sow thistle or thistle seed, and what you said “a Thistle” but labroids does and so do I. So go away with your cut and paste because you’re wrong .

djiuser_tDysKtQSWAwH Posted at 4-24 09:28
See pictures. Seems like you need to work on those reading skills....  ;+)

Care to embarass yourself any further? You still standing by that it is "moisture" or a "spot on the lens"?

Just so you know the difference , because you seem to be having some difficulty.

.