DJI Wanda Posted at 4-6 04:31
Kindly understand that we have forwarded your advice to our related department for evaluation.  We hope this function can be realized through the updates in the future, too.

Hi DJI Admin,

Is there a release date confirmed for a firmware update to include manual white balance capability for the Mavic 3E.

This is a major issue for mapping & creating Orthomosaics.

I have had to switch back to using my Phantom 4 RTK until this issue is fixed with the Mavic 3E.

If the Mavic 3 has this cpapability surely its an easy fix?

Cheers

HiperGA Posted at 7-21 17:08
Hi DJI Admin,

Is there a release date confirmed for a firmware update to include manual white balance capability for the Mavic 3E.

This is a major issue for mapping & creating Orthomosaics.
Hello, there. Sorry for the inconvenience. May we have more information about the issue?
I will confirm with our engineers first.

DJI Wanda Posted at 7-23 02:51
This is a major issue for mapping & creating Orthomosaics.
Hello, there. Sorry for the inconvenience. May we have more information about the issue?
I will confirm with our engineers first.

The issue is very simple and straight forward. What more information is needed? There is no adjustable or lockable white balance. There is only auto white balance which ruins far too many maps/models. What is there to confirm with your engineers? You confirmed, on this very thread, nearly 3 months ago that this is indeed not possible to do on the M3E. Us users don't need confirmation of an issue that we already know exists. We need the known issue to be addressed and fixed already.

Johnnokomis Posted at 7-23 06:50
The issue is very simple and straight forward. What more information is needed? There is no adjustable or lockable white balance. There is only auto white balance which ruins far too many maps/models. What is there to confirm with your engineers? You confirmed, on this very thread, nearly 3 months ago that this is indeed not possible to do on the M3E. Us users don't need confirmation of an issue that we already know exists. We need the known issue to be addressed and fixed already.

Issue confirmation is different from advice forwarding.
If it is an issue, we have to confirm with our engineers and see how can we help the users.
If it is advice, we will forward it to our related departments.
To offer precise suggestions, it is a regular process. Kindly understand that.

DJI Wanda Posted at 7-24 01:49
Issue confirmation is different from advice forwarding.
If it is an issue, we have to confirm with our engineers and see how can we help the users.
If it is advice, we will forward it to our related departments.

I feel for you Wanda and I could never do your job. DJI couldn't care less about their customers opinions and/or needs. This is proven time and time again to the point there's no denying it. Then, you're given to task of trying to make is seem like DJI cares and listens to your customer's wishes. All while having to keep a neutral tone to a bunch of upset and angry customers. I'm sure you get a bit aggravated yourself hidden behind a keyboard and public relations filter. Who you should really be upset with is the company who puts you in this situation of defending the inexcusable.  

This thread's request of simply having manual white balance control is now 4 months old and still hasn't even been commented on, much less implemented. This has been available on every one of your products that I can think of including the lowest end entry level drones.  There is no help that can be offered, no issue that needs confirming, and your engineers are well aware of this missing setting. The only way to fix this issue is for your engineers to do something about it.

Thank you much,
John

DJI Wanda Posted at 7-24 01:49
Issue confirmation is different from advice forwarding.
If it is an issue, we have to confirm with our engineers and see how can we help the users.
If it is advice, we will forward it to our related departments.

So nothing has been done by DJI for over 4 months? The issue is the Mavic 3E needs manual white balance just like every other DJI product including the Mavic 3. This whole thread explains the issue in great detail. DJI customers want confirmation that DJI acknowledge the auto white balance issue for the Mavic 3E & that they are adding manual white balance option ASAP. Thanks

As a geologist, I have to say, color is very, very important to me. If I have to go out to the site and re-ground truth what a series of drone photos is misrepresenting. The value of my time wasted on this exercise exceeds the value of the drone very quickly. It is hard to justify to customers in mining that you were supposed to be saving money and time by using a drone. Not wasting even more time than simply walking it or having an aircraft do the same with standard cameras in the first place. The utility of drones decreases very rapidly when the data contained in the photographs has no basis in reality. It is small wonder many mining companies are not accepting DJI drones for serious work as other drone systems become available. While DJI's products seem attractive on a price point in acquisition. If professionals waste very expensive hourly time on worthless data and/or have to have geotechs correct it manually post processing. It makes the seemingly attractive price to be a sham. This is most likely why so many of the drone companies were having so much interest in them at the last SME conference in Denver this year. Letting defects like this languish will make acquisition decisions shy away from DJI products and purchase other, albeit more expensive systems. The acquisition cycle is around 36 months. So DJI could look at a famine in professional sales for 3 years or more. Now perhaps this is of small consequence if all the money is coming in from consumer products. So panning professional products is just good business and you're just letting it die off. Kind of sad.

HiperGA Posted at 7-25 14:44
So nothing has been done by DJI for over 4 months? The issue is the Mavic 3E needs manual white balance just like every other DJI product including the Mavic 3. This whole thread explains the issue in great detail. DJI customers want confirmation that DJI acknowledge the auto white balance issue for the Mavic 3E & that they are adding manual white balance option ASAP. Thanks

Sorry for the late response. We understand your request. Currently, we are also confirming the issue with our engineers, too.
From our side, we also hope it can be supported by updating later.

DJI Wanda Posted at 7-27 02:35
Sorry for the late response. We understand your request. Currently, we are also confirming the issue with our engineers, too.
From our side, we also hope it can be supported by updating later.

Thank you for confirmation. Hopefully the update is soon rather than later. The Mavic 3E is unusable for mapping and creating Orthos

HiperGA Posted at 7-28 23:41
Thank you for confirmation. Hopefully the update is soon rather than later. The Mavic 3E is unusable for mapping and creating Orthos
[view_image]

Sorry for the late response.
Currently, we were only told that Mavic 3 Enterprise does not support white balance adjustment.  and there is no
plan to support this function currently.
Our engineers would like to know what are your specific usage scenarios.
We are unable to find the difference you mentioned between the Phantom 4 RTK and Mavic 3 Enterprise.

DJI Wanda Posted at 7-30 04:30
Sorry for the late response.
Currently, we were only told that Mavic 3 Enterprise does not support Auto White Balance and there is no
plan to support this function currently.

Thank you for speaking with your engineers about this topic. I think you're slightly confused however. The M3E does support auto white balance. In fact, this is the only mode of white balance that is offered. This is the whole problem and the whole purpose of this thread. We don't want the camera choosing the white balance value on its own. We want to tell the camera what value we want. Imagine buying a high end racecar only to find out the transmission is an automatic and not a manual stick shift.

How is there no plan to support a function that has been implemented since the drone launched? You and/or your engineers must have not looked very hard in the difference versus a Phantom 4 RTK. It very clearly has an option to choose between several different white balance values.
Lastly, what difference does it make on what specific usage scenarios someone has with this drone? It has been an issue with numerous people here and on other threads for some time now. Anyone who has at least 5 minutes of experience with photogrammetry understands this issue that DJI refuses to address.

Johnnokomis Posted at 7-31 00:30
Thank you for speaking with your engineers about this topic. I think you're slightly confused however. The M3E does support auto white balance. In fact, this is the only mode of white balance that is offered. This is the whole problem and the whole purpose of this thread. We don't want the camera choosing the white balance value on its own. We want to tell the camera what value we want. Imagine buying a high end racecar only to find out the transmission is an automatic and not a manual stick shift.

How is there no plan to support a function that has been implemented since the drone launched? You and/or your engineers must have not looked very hard in the difference versus a Phantom 4 RTK. It very clearly has an option to choose between several different white balance values.

We corrected the post. This was the only response we got from the related departments.
Engineers will evaluate the advice or suggestions and consider updating them later if successful.

DJI Wanda Posted at 7-31 00:47
We corrected the post. This was the only response we got from the related departments.
Engineers will evaluate the advice or suggestions and consider updating them later if successful.

All users want is to be able to set the Mavic 3E to manual white balance like the M300, Phantom 4 RTK & many other DJI products. Without manual white balance option the Mavic 3E is redundant for Aerial mapping & creating orthomosaics. It really should be an easy update for DJI to release

HiperGA Posted at 7-31 19:04
All users want is to be able to set the Mavic 3E to manual white balance like the M300, Phantom 4 RTK & many other DJI products. Without manual white balance option the Mavic 3E is redundant for Aerial mapping & creating orthomosaics. It really should be an easy update for DJI to release

In the time DJI has spent trying to figure out why we need white balance control.. they could have already had it implemented by now. 4 months here talking about it and all we've heard back is 2 separate confirmations that it isn't available and being asked why we think we need this setting. Imagine a professional camera with only auto focus. This isn't far from being the same type of issue.  

Johnnokomis Posted at 7-31 19:13
In the time DJI has spent trying to figure out why we need white balance control.. they could have already had it implemented by now. 4 months here talking about it and all we've heard back is 2 separate confirmations that it isn't available and being asked why we think we need this setting. Imagine a professional camera with only auto focus. This isn't far from being the same type of issue.

Its a joke really, especially when you spend such a significant amount of money on an enterprise drone that doesn't have basic options similar to much cheaper drones

HiperGA Posted at 7-28 23:41
Thank you for confirmation. Hopefully the update is soon rather than later. The Mavic 3E is unusable for mapping and creating Orthos
[view_image]

Hello, there. I tried my best to forward your voice to our R&D department. After reading your post, our engineers were interested in the scenarios you took and would like to collect some data for analysis, which might be utilized in futural improvements.
Kindly understand that our engineers will evaluate users' requests cautiously and consider adding the function through later updates.
We would like to have a set of original photos you think the White Balance has problems with.
To facilitate the analysis, please export the Flight Controllers' Logs of the flight for us as well.
They saw the picture you uploaded here. Thus, could you please share with us all the photos you took of the same flights and the corresponding Logs?
Thank you in advance.  

DJI Wanda Posted at 8-2 05:29
Hello, there. I tried my best to forward your voice to our R&D department. After reading your post, our engineers were interested in the scenarios you took and would like to collect some data for analysis, which might be utilized in futural improvements.
Kindly understand that our engineers will evaluate users' requests cautiously and consider adding the function through later updates.
We would like to have a set of original photos you think the White Balance has problems with.

Hi DJI Wanda, I wont be uploading my 3000 odd photos from this job. Hope your engineers fix the issue asap considering you had the same issue with the M300 as describe by other posters. Otherwise the Mavic 3E will become redundant & likely replaced by other brands. I'm contemplating selling mine. Cheers

I would suggest everyone start opening support tickets on the white balance deficiency.  That and bad press will be the only factors to get DJI motivated to correcting this oversight.  Pity when it is technically such a trivial fix.

HiperGA Posted at 8-11 21:48
Hi DJI Wanda, I wont be uploading my 3000 odd photos from this job. Hope your engineers fix the issue asap considering you had the same issue with the M300 as describe by other posters. Otherwise the Mavic 3E will become redundant & likely replaced by other brands. I'm contemplating selling mine. Cheers

We are sorry that we do not have and are unable to acquire the data from other posters. Our engineers just want to see why the issue you said will appear in your projects.
Without the data and photos, we are unable to analyze the issue and thus unable to find the reason.
Thank you for your understanding.

DJI Wanda Posted at 8-13 03:36
We are sorry that we do not have and are unable to acquire the data from other posters. Our engineers just want to see why the issue you said will appear in your projects.
Without the data and photos, we are unable to analyze the issue and thus unable to find the reason.
Thank you for your understanding.

We are sorry that we do not see the need for complete dataset to help troubleshoot this lack of a camera setting. Your customers just want to have a simple white balance slider in our projects.
Without white balance control, we are unable to consider this a professional product and thus will look elsewhere for our next drone purchase.

Every other drone of yours has some form of white balance control. Why are your engineers pretending to be so clueless as to why this is causing so many problems? This isn't complicated at all. 60 replies on this thread alone and DJI still pretends to not understand what the whole issue is here. You are a top camera manufacture and even acquired Hasselblad years ago but pretend to not understand the importance of having control over white balance? Wanda, I appreciate your forwarding of this issue to the related team. This time it sounds genuine and not like a robot talking. I'm calling your engineers bluff here however. This is a way to kick this issue down the road so nothing has to be done about it.

Wanda,
I think there is misunderstanding with your engineers about this issue. Myself and I am sure this is the case with many of the other posters. Imagery I work with is protected by NDA agreements. We cannot share it, we would be sued or lose our jobs. Suffice it to say, it is a feature we had before, it worked for the applications most of these professionals used them in. They are requesting it be implemented in the newer hardware, as it was in the older hardware. I do not want to make any comments on the competency of your engineers, but I feel this is more sidestepping the issue than claiming it absolutely cannot be understood without the accompanying imagery. So your engineers understand; our images are like your underlying code, you are hardly going to release that and we imperil our employment releasing our imagery.

This probably will not be a problem much longer for myself and many other Earth Science Professionals. It would seem that the geotechnical units that do the drone operations (I rarely do any of the drone operations at mines myself) who are directly employed by various larger mining firms (at least the ones I consult with) will not be making any further DJI purchases this year. Apparently over failures like this. Two of them are actually neck and neck the largest in the industry. This is most certainly many millions in purchases DJI is losing, while the engineers contemplate this. Of course once the departments switch providers, software changes, workflow changes there will be a long road to getting their business back.

Johnnokomis Posted at 8-13 09:31
We are sorry that we do not see the need for complete dataset to help troubleshoot this lack of a camera setting. Your customers just want to have a simple white balance slider in our projects.
Without white balance control, we are unable to consider this a professional product and thus will look elsewhere for our next drone purchase.

It is a regular procedure. The need to add the function is an important aspect of evaluation.
The pictures or the issues appear to be the ones we have never met before so our engineers have the interest to investigate.
We asked for data with sincerity. It if is confidential and is unable to share, we will not force users to do that. We just explain what would we do with the data.

Dogpilot Posted at 8-13 10:01
Wanda,
I think there is misunderstanding with your engineers about this issue. Myself and I am sure this is the case with many of the other posters. Imagery I work with is protected by NDA agreements. We cannot share it, we would be sued or lose our jobs. Suffice it to say, it is a feature we had before, it worked for the applications most of these professionals used them in. They are requesting it be implemented in the newer hardware, as it was in the older hardware. I do not want to make any comments on the competency of your engineers, but I feel this is more sidestepping the issue than claiming it absolutely cannot be understood without the accompanying imagery. So your engineers understand; our images are like your underlying code, you are hardly going to release that and we imperil our employment releasing our imagery.

We do not mean to force users to transfer confidential data to us.  As we explain above, it is a regular procedure to forward advice and the truth is that the issue is what we want to investigate.

DJI Wanda Posted at 8-14 01:22
It is a regular procedure. The need to add the function is an important aspect of evaluation.
The pictures or the issues appear to be the ones we have never met before so our engineers have the interest to investigate.
We asked for data with sincerity. It if is confidential and is unable to share, we will not force users to do that. We just explain what would we do with the data.

There's nothing wrong with requesting user data for certain scenarios. I understand where this would be beneficial in many troubleshooting cases. This however, is not one of those instances. The root problem here is so fundamentally basic that the already attached photo is enough evidence alone to expedite a firmware update to fix this problem. Seriously, my 5 year old can even spot the issue and know that something is wrong with these photos. As the top drone maker we expect so much more from an Enterprise product. DJI needs to cool it with the constant new product releases and concentrate on finishing development on the already released ones. The $99 DJI Tello has manual white balance but your Enterprise flagship doesn't for goodness sakes. I know you're just the middle man in this conversation, but your engineers are embarrassing themselves with their own replies and pretending to not see an issue here.

Johnnokomis Posted at 8-14 06:11
There's nothing wrong with requesting user data for certain scenarios. I understand where this would be beneficial in many troubleshooting cases. This however, is not one of those instances. The root problem here is so fundamentally basic that the already attached photo is enough evidence alone to expedite a firmware update to fix this problem. Seriously, my 5 year old can even spot the issue and know that something is wrong with these photos. As the top drone maker we expect so much more from an Enterprise product. DJI needs to cool it with the constant new product releases and concentrate on finishing development on the already released ones. The $99 DJI Tello has manual white balance but your Enterprise flagship doesn't for goodness sakes. I know you're just the middle man in this conversation, but your engineers are embarrassing themselves with their own replies and pretending to not see an issue here.

Sorry for the late response. Kindly know that we will not ask for unnecessary data or photos and we left messages here with sincerity.

Without white balance and exposure lock, the Mavic 3E and 3T cannot be used for enterprise work and mapping and are faulty products. I am submitting a bug report as this is a fault in the software and hardware and constitutes false advertising. I encourage all users to submit beg reports on this problem until we get the product that we paid for.

Big DZ Posted at 8-28 11:56
https://youtu.be/6fky9tAdWqs?si=zO2VFftEpayu5w01

I clicked downvote when trying to click the view on YouTube button and it won't let me change it. This is a great video though and I've been watching your stuff for a long while now, big fan. I hope DJI watches it because so far they are still playing like they don't understand what the whole problem is. You talk about this being an issue for your timelapses which is exactly what I've shared here and had the same issue with. I feel the same about your overall opinion on the M3E. I don't regret buying it but it has forever changed the way I look at DJI as a whole. They still have time to correct their mistakes but I feel as if they've moved on from this platform already. It's kind of pitiful.

Johnnokomis Posted at 8-28 15:23
I clicked downvote when trying to click the view on YouTube button and it won't let me change it. This is a great video though and I've been watching your stuff for a long while now, big fan. I hope DJI watches it because so far they are still playing like they don't understand what the whole problem is. You talk about this being an issue for your timelapses which is exactly what I've shared here and had the same issue with. I feel the same about your overall opinion on the M3E. I don't regret buying it but it has forever changed the way I look at DJI as a whole. They still have time to correct their mistakes but I feel as if they've moved on from this platform already. It's kind of pitiful.

I was surprised to find my new video linked here so quickly.  Thanks for sharing it with the forum.  We've only been running the M3E for 2 months now.  As I've noted before, there are some things we like about the M3E, and some things we don't.

The issue with White Balance really jumped out at me while doing regular photo flights of a job site.  Not maps, models, or waypoint flights.  Just standard photos from a high point above some rock formations. While white balance fixes can be dealt with in post processing, it just doesn't make sense that a "common" feature on most digital cameras like White Balance should be missing.  Given we've purchased the M3E and won't be sending it back, I hope DJI puts some thought into missing or limited features that are available in their non-enterprise drones.  

RLCDesign Posted at 8-29 05:52
I was surprised to find my new video linked here so quickly.  Thanks for sharing it with the forum.  We've only been running the M3E for 2 months now.  As I've noted before, there are some things we like about the M3E, and some things we don't.

The issue with White Balance really jumped out at me while doing regular photo flights of a job site.  Not maps, models, or waypoint flights.  Just standard photos from a high point above some rock formations. While white balance fixes can be dealt with in post processing, it just doesn't make sense that a "common" feature on most digital cameras like White Balance should be missing.  Given we've purchased the M3E and won't be sending it back, I hope DJI puts some thought into missing or limited features that are available in their non-enterprise drones.

There's countless small issues I've found in the 9 months I've owned an M3E. Most of them would be a simple fix from DJI but they refuse to even acknowledge them. White balance is probably the biggest. Like you said, it can usually be fixed in post. To do it the right way this would require shooting everything in raw. This however slows down your capture rate tremendously. Which as you said in the video, this fast capture rate is the biggest advantage the M3E has over say a Mavic 2 or P4 RTK. So to solve the white balance issue you're losing the whole advantage of upgrading to an M3E.

Johnnokomis Posted at 8-28 15:23
I clicked downvote when trying to click the view on YouTube button and it won't let me change it. This is a great video though and I've been watching your stuff for a long while now, big fan. I hope DJI watches it because so far they are still playing like they don't understand what the whole problem is. You talk about this being an issue for your timelapses which is exactly what I've shared here and had the same issue with. I feel the same about your overall opinion on the M3E. I don't regret buying it but it has forever changed the way I look at DJI as a whole. They still have time to correct their mistakes but I feel as if they've moved on from this platform already. It's kind of pitiful.

Not my video, felt compelled to share.

Yea I realized that already. I've started picking up a little side work recently with Zeitview (formally known as DroneBase). Here's a screenshot from a job I just accepted yesterday. It speaks to the importance of having white balance control. I guess they haven't realized yet that this little requirement isn't possible as of today with the M3E.

Another masterpiece created using the DJI Mavic 3E.

White balance appears to be changing between, sunny, cloudy and incandescent when there is no change to cloud conditions.  Have experimented with other DJI products that offer present white balance setting to confirm.

Blue = incandescent white balance
Red (centre of  orthomosaic) = cloudy white balance
The remaining appears to be sunny white balance

The auto white balance (AWB) was an issue for the DJI M300 with P1 payload, but much more subtle that the M3E.

DJI fixed this during their September 2022 release, by adding the ability to select preset white balance options such as sunny, cloudy etc.
https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... tes_en_20230426.pdf

@ DJI Admin
We have purchased 11 M3E to replace our Phantom 4 RTK fleet.
When can we expect to see a new firmware version release for the M3E where this feature has been added?

Labroides Posted at 3-30 14:24
Why is the White Balance of the Mavic 3 Enterprise locked to automatic White Balance?
Is that really the problem you are experiencing?
If white balance was properly auto adjusting, the colour balance of your images should be similar even when lighting conditions change.

Unless you fly over a Perfect 50% grey balanced area, which We do not,  Auto wb Will probably always be a non professional function for this purpose that Enterprise drones are sole and used for
There for this New removal must be a mistake that should be fixed sooner than later

DJI Wanda Posted at 4-4 02:47
We confirmed again with our engineers that, currently, DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise does not support the white balance adjustment.   Thank you for your feedback. We have forwarded it to our R&D department for evaluation.

This is urgent and you will face a serious sales problem for this model on a rising scale when this problem starts to spread
Let your ai and humans evaluate just what these remarks in this thread can conclude - that will not stop when it is not just a question of a “nice to have” feature but is a basic necessity and understanding of the product being made.

I have the drone and was not being told that this was  a missing feature and could never dream of asking if it was there. Since it is an absolute standard in All cameras since ever

It is a bad a mistake as selling a car that changes speed at random.

I cannot even sell it knowing this is absent!!!

DJI Wanda Posted at 4-4 02:47
We confirmed again with our engineers that, currently, DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise does not support the white balance adjustment.   Thank you for your feedback. We have forwarded it to our R&D department for evaluation.

This is urgent and you will face a serious sales problem for this model on a rising scale when this problem starts to spread
Let your ai and humans evaluate just what these remarks in this thread can conclude - that will not stop when it is not just a question of a “nice to have” feature but is a basic necessity and understanding of the product being made.

I have the drone and was not being told that this was  a missing feature and could never dream of asking if it was there. Since it is an absolute standard in All cameras since ever

It is a bad a mistake as selling a car that changes speed at random.

I cannot even sell it knowing this is absent!!!

Labroides Posted at 4-5 18:31
White balance has nothing to do with exposure settings. It will fluctuate when everything is set to manual exposure settings.
White balance fluctuates based on the range of colours within the frame when the lighting conditions are consistant.  So when the aircraft flys over differen material types, vegetated / non vegetated, water / no water.

[Image]

This makes no sense

Auto should not be used in a professional workflow where you want to match 2 or more pictures pictures together. Period

It is the most basic learning through all the technical photography I have made or have been tought

What are our best possibilties to get a big corporation like DJI to make this firmware update to give us back this function

I have just bought the Mavic 3M enterprise unknowing this essential function was missing - and I will not recommned it to others before this feature is implemented
This drone holds so much possibility but as of right now it is not very professional or scientifically precise in its approach  in several aspects of data collection for mapping / cartography / 3d