The past few flights with my new MPP I've gotten a lot of shimmering in my videos.  Didn't get this with my previous MP.  Here's an example, which appears pretty prominently on the left side of the image.  There's also some prop flicker at the top, as I was moving fast, in Sport mode, but the shimmering that you see on the bottom appears even at slower speeds.

I got this both in a video that was at 1920x1080 @ 24fps and this video, shot at 3840×2160 (4K) 24fps.


I'm waiting for the arrival of ND filters, so this is shot without, on a bright day, but I suspect the origin of this isn't something that'll be fixed by filters.  Any advice on how to fix this?

are you flying with the crash protection dome cover on? looks like that it the cause of that curved light on the footage

or ar you referring to the bands that are horizontal? that may be your shutter speed

I believe the "Shimmering effect" is caused by the sun's angle to the props as you were flying in the same direction towards the sun for the entire duration of the video, as far as the rainbow type glare would be caused by flying with the dome on or again relative to the angle of the sun, if it happens again just yaw the drone a little and see if that makes them disappear, if so you know it just a sun thing. If that doesn't cure it I would try a Gimbal reset & calibration. Is this a continual problem on many flights?

EmmferMedia Posted at 2018-1-18 03:14
are you flying with the crash protection dome cover on? looks like that it the cause of that curved light on the footage

or ar you referring to the bands that are horizontal? that may be your shutter speed

Good question, but no, the protective cover wasn't on.  Yes, referring to the horizontal bands.  The weird thing is that on my previous Mavic, I never saw this (and shot with similar settings).

QuadKid Posted at 2018-1-18 03:35
I believe the "Shimmering effect" is caused by the sun's angle to the props as you were flying in the same direction towards the sun for the entire duration of the video, as far as the rainbow type glare would be caused by flying with the dome on or again relative to the angle of the sun, if it happens again just yaw the drone a little and see if that makes them disappear, if so you know it just a sun thing. If that doesn't cure it I would try a Gimbal reset & calibration. Is this a continual problem on many flights?

No dome on.  This has been a problem with flying both yesterday (in a different location) and today.  Will have a go with reseting/recalibrating the gimbal.  Can you explain why the gimbal would be causing this?

QuadKid Posted at 2018-1-18 03:35
I believe the "Shimmering effect" is caused by the sun's angle to the props as you were flying in the same direction towards the sun for the entire duration of the video, as far as the rainbow type glare would be caused by flying with the dome on or again relative to the angle of the sun, if it happens again just yaw the drone a little and see if that makes them disappear, if so you know it just a sun thing. If that doesn't cure it I would try a Gimbal reset & calibration. Is this a continual problem on many flights?

No dome on.  This has been a problem with flying both yesterday (in a different location) and today.  Will have a go with reseting/recalibrating the gimbal.  Can you explain why the gimbal would be causing this?

These are the prop's shade.
1. do you have the gimbal protector on? (that plastic bulby thing)
2. If not, use a sunhood.  (filters won't help you too much I think)

Montfrooij Posted at 2018-1-18 04:21
These are the prop's shade.
1. do you have the gimbal protector on? (that plastic bulby thing)
2. If not, use a sunhood.  (filters won't help you too much I think)

1-Read the comments above.
2-Used this in the past and it didn't add anything, but I'll have another go.  It's odd that I never encountered this with my previous Mavic.

GMG Posted at 2018-1-18 04:30
1-Read the comments above.
2-Used this in the past and it didn't add anything, but I'll have another go.  It's odd that I never encountered this with my previous Mavic.

Ah, I missed 1. My reply form was on for some minutes as I was interrupted..
Sorry.
All I know that I had this on some angles and adding a sunhood (I believe I got a rather large one from Psy-Tech) did solve that issue on most angles.
The glass on the Mavic Pro / Mavic Pro Platinum does not handle the light coming from those directions very well.
Now I can't confirm, but if you have some decent coated filters, that might solve the issue also.
But best is to avoid filming in those directions.

GMG Posted at 2018-1-18 04:16
No dome on.  This has been a problem with flying both yesterday (in a different location) and today.  Will have a go with reseting/recalibrating the gimbal.  Can you explain why the gimbal would be causing this?

Just could be something is off, if calibration doesn't cure it it may be a hardware issue but it really looks like a prop thing, if you have a set of MP props I would try them, MPP props are very flexible, this should not be happening with the MPP stock props but stranger things have happened. Really just a process of elimination, a sunshade may be all you need but if it is happening in all instances I don't think that will help.
Also as EM stated could be shutter, you shutter speed should be 2 times your FPS

I have this (sometimes) too, the dark scrolling bars. IMO it is caused by angle of the sun causing shades from the props, but not quite sure. If I rotate the AC to a different angle it disappears. Somedays it happens on all footage (under certain angle) other days it never happens. Now waiting for better weather to do more tests on this.
example (after 5 seconds):

Maybe try another sd card? I had something similar on my Panasonic video cam. When i
replaced the sd card everything was fine.

tomkrist Posted at 2018-1-18 07:11
Maybe try another sd card? I had something similar on my Panasonic video cam. When i
replaced the sd card everything was fine.

In my case the 'shimmering' was also visible on the cached recording on my phone (android).

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I’ll also try the pgytech wide shade of recalibration and filters don’t work. Funnily enough I was just looking at that, as I’ve got my old shade (same shape/profile as the dome) in a shipping container on its way back to Oz. When I used it, i saw no effect, so the wide shade may be worth a go. As for the card, I need to pick one up anyway, so will check those out (anyone know the minimum specs for those to ensure it’s writing 4K without issues?).

The dark bars you see at the bottom are due to the props casting a shadow across the lens, depending on the frame rate and shutter speed this will be more or less apparent.
The only fix is to not fly at that angle to the sun. You could minimize this a little if you are shooting at 24fps shutter @ 50 there should be enough motion blur to counter these black lines, they might still be there but not as pronounced, you will probably need an ND filter to achieve this combination of fps and shutter depending on the environment. A shade might help but personally I wouldnt fly with one, DJI wont help if you have an accident because of third party attachments.