Kind of frustrating to see a legacy list of drones in the Lightroom lens correciton dropdown. The Mavic 3 needs lens correcting and it's frustrating to not have a profile ready for us to use. All other camera brands update their profiles, but DJI seem to have just given up.
The picture below shows the horizon bending. At the moment, the nearest profile is the Phantom, but I would like a DJI-specific one to be released and also for the other drones they're currently selling.





Here is the old list I have to look at each time, whilst all other camera brands keep theirs up to date.

The lens correction profile is baked into the RAW file. It doesn't show on the list but is applied automatically. DJI may have to work on this further.

Kind of frustrating to see a legacy list of drones in the Lightroom lens correciton dropdown
You'll notice that the most recent camera on that list is the original Phantom 4 (released in March 2016).
Since then, all DJI cameras create image files that include a built-in lens profile, thus eliminating the need to release a separate lens profile for each new camera.

The picture below shows the horizon bending. At the moment, the nearest profile is the Phantom,
How does it look without applying any lens profile?

Labroides Posted at 5-16 04:17
Kind of frustrating to see a legacy list of drones in the Lightroom lens correciton dropdown
You'll notice that the most recent camera on that list is the original Phantom 4 (released in March 2016).
Since then, all DJI cameras create image files that include a built-in lens profile, thus eliminating the need to release a separate lens profile for each new camera.

The image I've posted doesn't have any lens corrections applied, this is what I get when I put a RAW file into LR. I was just explaining that the Phantom one seems to be about right.

If there's a profile baked in, why isn't it applying to the image?

CloudVisual Posted at 5-16 06:23
The image I've posted doesn't have any lens corrections applied, this is what I get when I put a RAW file into LR. I was just explaining that the Phantom one seems to be about right.

If there's a profile baked in, why isn't it applying to the image?

The profile is baked into adobe camera raw.

hallmark007 Posted at 5-16 07:05
The profile is baked into adobe camera raw.

Yeah, I can now see in LR that a profile has been applied, but my photos all need the distortion correcting, the horizon shouldn't look like that.

CloudVisual Posted at 5-16 07:06
Yeah, I can now see in LR that a profile has been applied, but my photos all need the distortion correcting, the horizon shouldn't look like that.

Most photos do have some corrections hence the need for lens profiles. Are you by any chance using the wide angle lens ? I only ask because it does require distortion correction. But I can tell you some of mine do require corrections and some don’t, its just basically down to lens quirks. It shouldn’t lose any resolution after correction’s.

hallmark007 Posted at 5-16 07:13
Most photos do have some corrections hence the need for lens profiles. Are you by any chance using the wide angle lens ? I only ask because it does require distortion correction. But I can tell you some of mine do require corrections and some don’t, its just basically down to lens quirks. It shouldn’t lose any resolution after correction’s.

I'm just using the normal lens.

I get that there needs to be a touch of correction made in some circumstances, but all of my landscape shots are showing a warped horizon which isn't at the extremities of the photo  - the profile should really fix this.

CloudVisual Posted at 5-16 07:16
I'm just using the normal lens.

I get that there needs to be a touch of correction made in some circumstances, but all of my landscape shots are showing a warped horizon which isn't at the extremities of the photo  - the profile should really fix this.

All I can tell you is mine don’t show this distortion all of the time. So not sure if its some kind of bug with yours, maybe needs a software fix, with Mavic2 this was also the case but seemed to improve over time.

CloudVisual Posted at 5-16 06:23
The image I've posted doesn't have any lens corrections applied, this is what I get when I put a RAW file into LR. I was just explaining that the Phantom one seems to be about right.

If there's a profile baked in, why isn't it applying to the image?

I had similar discussion with DJI's tech support in their official user forum in China, and the followings are what I learnt.

1) You don't get RAW files from Mavic 3's main camera. What you get are DNG files, which is Adobe's proprietary image standard, created to store image data in a generic, highly-compatible format, unlike RAW files that have specific formats based on manufacturer and camera type.

2) DJI worked with Adobe to write a specific file header into Mavic 3's DNG file, and it contains information to tell Adobe's post-processing tool (i.e., Camera Raw) to apply certain post-processing operations (including but not limited to corrections for distortion, chromatic aberration, & vignetting). This approach essentially "baked" a lens profile into every Mavic 3 DNG file, which is automatically applied, when you open DNG files in Adobe Lightroom. You can not turn off this baked lens profile  during the file opening operation.

3) The bending horizon in your image simply means DJI's distortion correction algorithm is not perfect, and you have to do some manual modification after the file import.

4) There is a dark reason why DJI is using this approach, instead of adding a separate lens profile for Mavic 3 main camera, but I am not going to elaborate on that yet.

jerryway Posted at 5-16 08:13
I had similar discussion with DJI's tech support in their official user forum in China, and the followings are what I learnt.

1) You don't get RAW files from Mavic 3's main camera. What you get are DNG files, which is Adobe's proprietary image standard, created to store image data in a generic, highly-compatible format, unlike RAW files that have specific formats based on manufacturer and camera type.

Thanks, very helpful information.

Of all the DJI drones I've owned, this one requires the most amount of lens correction for the horizon. I don't even recall the M2P being this bad (except for video).

Perhaps the next firmware will refine it. It's far from perfect...

The picture below shows the horizon bending.
I'd suggest a little testing shooting away from the sun to get a  photo with a clear, distinct sea horizon and check that.
When I look closely at the image above, the horizon line is lost on the left side and vague on the right so it's hard to tell whether there is actually a curve.

jerryway Posted at 5-16 08:13
I had similar discussion with DJI's tech support in their official user forum in China, and the followings are what I learnt.

1) You don't get RAW files from Mavic 3's main camera. What you get are DNG files, which is Adobe's proprietary image standard, created to store image data in a generic, highly-compatible format, unlike RAW files that have specific formats based on manufacturer and camera type.

"You don't get RAW files from Mavic 3's main camera. What you get are DNG files, which is Adobe's proprietary image standard,"

Argh, no. DNG is RAW but standardized and DNG is NOT proprietary. It is patented yes but it is open free license so long as you don't sue Adobe over anything in DNG. Adobe has also expressed wishes that it would be taken over by an Open Standards body and has been submitted to ISO to solidify it as an open standard.

djiuser_CgYhBqmxP83j Posted at 5-16 14:41
"You don't get RAW files from Mavic 3's main camera. What you get are DNG files, which is Adobe's proprietary image standard,"

Argh, no. DNG is RAW but standardized and DNG is NOT proprietary. It is patented yes but it is open free license so long as you don't sue Adobe over anything in DNG. Adobe has also expressed wishes that it would be taken over by an Open Standards body and has been submitted to ISO to solidify it as an open standard.

DNG is Adobe's version of RAW image format. It is not the same as RAW files.

RAW files are untouched, and unprocessed images recorded directly from a camera’s sensor. All available image data is there with no information cut or compressed.

DJI worked with Adobe to create a Mavic 3-specific DNG file, with a special header containing post-processing information to the RAW image data. This post-processing (correction to distortion, chromatic aberration, vignetting etc) happens automatically during the file importing process by Adobe Camera RAW, and there is no way you can turn it off, and see the untouched, unprocessed image data, captured by the original image sensor. When you open Mavic 3's DNG file in Adobe Lightroom, what you see is an image post-processed by DJI already. It would be unwise to call it RAW.

Perhaps this article can help you better understand the differences between the two.

https://photographylife.com/dng-vs-raw

jerryway Posted at 5-16 16:42
DNG is Adobe's version of RAW image format. It is not the same as RAW files.

RAW files are untouched, and unprocessed images recorded directly from a camera’s sensor. All available image data is there with no information cut or compressed.

RAW files are ALWAYS processed because you have to deal with signal noise on the sensor and that requires at capture processing.

See Sony ARW files and the star eater problem.

djiuser_CgYhBqmxP83j Posted at 5-16 17:08
RAW files are ALWAYS processed because you have to deal with signal noise on the sensor and that requires at capture processing.

See Sony ARW files and the star eater problem.

So you claim RAW file is the same as DNG, and is always processed. It is funny that even Adobe does not agree with your point of view.

By the way, the moment SONY decide to force noise-reductoin in their "RAW" files, they have crossed the line. What SONY users get from their camera can not longer be qualified as RAW files.

jerryway Posted at 5-16 17:42
So you claim RAW file is the same as DNG, and is always processed. It is funny that even Adobe does not agree with your point of view.

By the way, the moment SONY decide to force noise-reductoin in their "RAW" files, they have crossed the line. What SONY users get from their camera can not longer be qualified as RAW files.

The wording on the Adobe site clearly says it is a a type of RAW file with a structured meta data file. It doesn’t mean at all that the actual sensor data has been manipulated in away as a requirement.  

You can turn off the noise reduction on Sony cameras but even off all sensors have to deal with signal noise since the data being collected is analog to digital.

ALL Micro Four Thirds sensor cameras do all lens correction in-camera.

jerryway Posted at 2022-5-16 08:13
I had similar discussion with DJI's tech support in their official user forum in China, and the followings are what I learnt.

1) You don't get RAW files from Mavic 3's main camera. What you get are DNG files, which is Adobe's proprietary image standard, created to store image data in a generic, highly-compatible format, unlike RAW files that have specific formats based on manufacturer and camera type.

Do you have the link to the Chinese DJI forum conversation?  Is the dark reason in that post?  Keen to see what it is