Hello everyone,

I am a new drone user (dji mini 2) and I started flying last summer during vacation. I am really new and don't know much about settings, I only flied in auto mode, sometimes adjusting exposure, 4k30 frames/s. My issue is that I noticed that when moving the drone (simply forward for example) or when using the gimbal, the video footage looks grainy (I don't know exactly how to describe that) but the footage quality is lesser to when the drone is just steady or meaving really slow in the same conditions/settings.

I have joined few examples of my videos when I notice the problem:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c4vbS7qS6SYKAwkQDxUwZqHVmfieUzDz/view?usp=share_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OW7RhTs0fHTmwA9C7mPNMY1Ashh01bXP/view?usp=share_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15wsoVW0pp0AIm_PD-joFkyJBiCN9EC_Q/view?usp=share_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R6kZSMb12vYBR44-aRdWKEJoo27ngNZ1/view?usp=share_link


For instance in the church video, the footage is fine but as soon as I use the gimbal you can see the video becoming grainy (I don't know the exact term to describe what I see so please let me know)

I thaught that this was gimbal related, but in the home video when I am filming the party from above, you can also see that the video looks great but as soon as I start moving the drone the quality deterioates.

I tried finding answers in the forum, the only thing I found is that maybe it is a coder artifacts and that I should try filming at 2.7k60. I am not sure if that solves the issue.

Any of you encountred similar issues on the mini 2, I would be very grateful for your insights?

The problem isn't your Mini 2 or the videos.

Out of the four google drive links you posted, only two are able to be watched (the first, the backyard scene and the third, flying in towards the coast). The other two (the church and the shoreline) were still 'processing' but were able to be downloaded.

The problem is how you are viewing your videos.

I always remove the SD card from my Mini 2 and place it in my computer to be viewed, copied or transferred. I uploaded your church video to my youtube channel (the video is unlisted) I uploaded in with no changes, it's exactly as you uploaded to google drive. And if you check out the public videos on my channel....I'm a noob at editing. But anyways, here is your video. There is no graininess and the quality is fantastic. Personally, I stopped recording in 4K because the files take up so much space.

dnddad324 Posted at 11-4 19:05
The problem isn't your Mini 2 or the videos.

Out of the four google drive links you posted, only two are able to be watched (the first, the backyard scene and the third, flying in towards the coast). The other two (the church and the shoreline) were still 'processing' but were able to be downloaded.

Thank you for your reply.

What a relief, I have been looking in the wrong place all this time. I have a 2019 MacBook Pro and I have tried various players (QuickTime, VLC...)  but they all give me the same noisy playback when the drone is moving in the video. But when I play your YouTube video, I can see how good the footage is.

Now I was thinking that this might be a hardware issue on my Mac but if it was so why don't I see the same problem when on YouTube ?

And if it is just a software issue do you know what kind of software should I be using for playback ?

I precise that I copied all the videos from the drone on my laptop before playback.

Please do forgive my ignorance on video technical details as I am new to all of this.

Thank you very much for the insights.

I have downloaded your video's and there is some noise indeed. (not sure about the technical term)
But that is to be expected from this kind of small sensor.
It is visible when moving the drone around, just like a blanket of fine pixels that is overlaying the footage.
It is not worse than with my Mini 2, so you don't have a faulty unit.

Montfrooij Posted at 11-5 03:31
I have downloaded your video's and there is some noise indeed. (not sure about the technical term)
But that is to be expected from this kind of small sensor.
It is visible when moving the drone around, just like a blanket of fine pixels that is overlaying the footage.

This is really annoying, like you can't get a good shot when moving fast you really need to move slow with the mini 2. I am not sure if it is related to the shutter speed in auto mode (maybe slowing it down might solve the issue but there is the risk of overexposure which is bad as well). I am really disappointed. I am wondering if this exists in sport mode as well but such a huge limiting factor.

yaya-7513 Posted at 11-5 09:21
This is really annoying, like you can't get a good shot when moving fast you really need to move slow with the mini 2. I am not sure if it is related to the shutter speed in auto mode (maybe slowing it down might solve the issue but there is the risk of overexposure which is bad as well). I am really disappointed. I am wondering if this exists in sport mode as well but such a huge limiting factor.

If we are talking about the noise in the footage (grain), that is not related to speed of the drone.

Montfrooij Posted at 11-5 13:33
If we are talking about the noise in the footage (grain), that is not related to speed of the drone.

Then how come when the drone is not moving the picture is crystal clear? How come I see the noise only when my drone is moving at a certain speed, and mostly when the gimbal is moving. In other footage where the drone is moving very slow or when I don't touch the gimbal I see no noise or grain.

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out and we're sorry for the trouble. I was able to check the link that you posted and see no issues with the videos. Could you please try to use a different media player or a different computer to playback your videos for us to further isolate the issue? Please keep us posted. Thank you.

yaya-7513 Posted at 11-5 16:26
Then how come when the drone is not moving the picture is crystal clear? How come I see the noise only when my drone is moving at a certain speed, and mostly when the gimbal is moving. In other footage where the drone is moving very slow or when I don't touch the gimbal I see no noise or grain.

The video noise (grain) is caused by the camera's compression system and will be more noticable when the drone is moving. You could use the Neat Video plugin to get rid of the video noise or maybe you could upgrade to the Mini 3 Pro which doesnt have this problem.

If there is more detail visible as the bitrate can support... detail is lost. The video needs to be compressed, otherwise 4K video would be:
3 colors * 8 bit/color * 3840 pixel wide * 2160 pixel height * 30 frames/s = 6'000 Mbit/s, compared to the 100 Mbit/s acutally used to store the compressed video. So recording 1 minute would result in 45 GB data instead of 0.75 GB. The compression tries to use existing data to represent new data, thus static images can have more details. The faster any motion is, the less details it can capture. In the extreme case very fast movement, every of those 30 frames is a completely different picture/scene. So we would need an equivalent datarate as if it were 30 seprate pictures to make sure we dont lose details. Pictures compressed as JPEG at 4 K look good (low loss of detail) at maybe... 2 MB? So for 30 FPS that would be in the region of 60 MB/s or ~500 Mbit/s. At such a data rate the video sould not show those artifacts even with lots of detail and fast movement - just like in professional gear.

The drone records with 100 Mbit/s, not up to 500 Mbit/s. Thats the issue.

For instance in the church video, the footage is fine but as soon as I use the gimbal you can see the video becoming grainy (I don't know the exact term to describe what I see so please let me know)

Ditto the gimbal movement was too fast. If you pause the video in mid-tilt, you'll see the picture is as sharp and clear as when it's static. The "noise" that you see is flickering from a gimbal movement that's too fast to record smoothly.It looked like you didn't have an ND filter on the lens. Slowing the shutter speed should reduce the stuttering to a point.


So the good news is that there's nothing wrong with your drone.

fans3d974efb Posted at 11-8 23:41
The video noise (grain) is caused by the camera's compression system and will be more noticable when the drone is moving. You could use the Neat Video plugin to get rid of the video noise or maybe you could upgrade to the Mini 3 Pro which doesnt have this problem.

Thank you for your answer, I am thinking about upgrading to the mini 3 but I heard it has range issues especially in Europe so I am still hesitating.

Eheran Posted at 11-9 05:54
If there is more detail visible as the bitrate can support... detail is lost. The video needs to be compressed, otherwise 4K video would be:
3 colors * 8 bit/color * 3840 pixel wide * 2160 pixel height * 30 frames/s = 6'000 Mbit/s, compared to the 100 Mbit/s acutally used to store the compressed video. So recording 1 minute would result in 45 GB data instead of 0.75 GB. The compression tries to use existing data to represent new data, thus static images can have more details. The faster any motion is, the less details it can capture. In the extreme case very fast movement, every of those 30 frames is a completely different picture/scene. So we would need an equivalent datarate as if it were 30 seprate pictures to make sure we dont lose details. Pictures compressed as JPEG at 4 K look good (low loss of detail) at maybe... 2 MB? So for 30 FPS that would be in the region of 60 MB/s or ~500 Mbit/s. At such a data rate the video sould not show those artifacts even with lots of detail and fast movement - just like in professional gear.

Thank you for your reply, so basically the solution is either to move slow or shift from 4k to have a lower bitrate ? Do you have an idea if this rate is achievable with the mini 3 for instance or any other models?

Thanks in advance

Prairie Chicken Posted at 11-9 10:56
For instance in the church video, the footage is fine but as soon as I use the gimbal you can see the video becoming grainy (I don't know the exact term to describe what I see so please let me know)

Ditto the gimbal movement was too fast. If you pause the video in mid-tilt, you'll see the picture is as sharp and clear as when it's static. The "noise" that you see is flickering from a gimbal movement that's too fast to record smoothly.It looked like you didn't have an ND filter on the lens. Slowing the shutter speed should reduce the stuttering to a point.

Thank you for the answer.

Indeed I am thinking about testing using different (slower) shutter speeds with an ND filter to see how the footage varies. But do you think that this could eliminate the issue completely or just reduce the noise?

Unfortunately it is very complicated to fly in Paris so I need to get away from the city to test this.

Dirty Bird Posted at 11-9 06:17
You will probably notice the effect you mention when rotating horizontally.  It doesn't seem to show up when rotating vertically.  This has always been an issue when rotating quickly but is much improved in the latest models.  I believe it is a combination of how the sensor scans, resolution, & bit rate.  Essnetially a data bottleneck.

Thank you for the reply.

Unfortunately I notice this when moving vertically as well. Does the mini 3 fix this ?

yaya-7513 Posted at 11-14 16:57
Thank you for the answer.

Indeed I am thinking about testing using different (slower) shutter speeds with an ND filter to see how the footage varies. But do you think that this could eliminate the issue completely or just reduce the noise?

You'll find it makes a difference but there is still a limit on how fast you can move the gimbal, either sideways or up/down. It's a limitation of the system of recording video, not of any particular camera, and you'll find out those limits when you test it out.

yaya-7513 Posted at 2022-11-4 20:52
Thank you for your reply.

What a relief, I have been looking in the wrong place all this time. I have a 2019 MacBook Pro and I have tried various players (QuickTime, VLC...)  but they all give me the same noisy playback when the drone is moving in the video. But when I play your YouTube video, I can see how good the footage is.

I have same issues with my drone footage and I use a Windows PC my editing software is Davinci Resolve and Premiere Pro, but after exporting to YouTube or WhatsApp it is fine. is there a way to fix it cause it gives me an uneasy feeling when am editing, especially now that am doing some CGI effects ontop of the footage