Bad lens on my Mavic Air? Haven’t even flown it yet due to the terrible weather so thought i would test out the camera quickly and was massively disappointed in what I saw, both in the video and photos (yes my bifolds are perfectly straight ;-)

The first image a photo and the second is a screen shot from the video (both just resized). Your thoughts? For those don’t immediately see the issue look at the top and bottom of the bifolds near the centre and notice the distortion. You can expect curvature at the edges but the odd curves in the middle can’t be right

possibly something that can be fixed with a lens profile in post processing?  Does look somewhat pincushioned

I am not sure what you consider to be a problem?

What are you disappointed in? The pictures both look good to me and I'm sure if you did some additional photo editing, you'd be able to achieve whatever desired effect you like? As far as image quality, again, looks really good so I'm not sure what you're unhappy with?

Not bad stills at all and from a £750 drone I would say they are outstanding. What specifically do you not like?

the verticals i am happy with considering  the fov.  the horizontals though.. eeek.  not something that would be noticeable in most circumstances, unlike vertical where bowed trees and such are more noticeable and horrible.  

need some others to do some similar tests to see if it's all or just yours

AIister Posted at 2018-2-3 11:27
the verticals i am happy with considering  the fov.  the horizontals though.. eeek.  not something that would be noticeable in most circumstances, unlike vertical where bowed trees and such are more noticeable and horrible.  

need some others to do some similar tests to see if it's all or just yours

Exactly, it is the horizontals and I’m not talking about the curvature at the edges, but look at the near middle top and bottom, yes something that could be fixed in a photo, but not easy in a video and not something that occurs with my Mavic Pro, or my old Inspire 1...

JBInspire Posted at 2018-2-3 11:32
Exactly, it is the horizontals and I’m not talking about the curvature at the edges, but look at the near middle top and bottom, yes something that could be fixed in a photo, but not easy in a video and not something that occurs with my Mavic Pro, or my old Inspire 1...

You should keep in mind that the camera lens of the Air has a wider angle than Pro and the others. Going that close to the objects will inevitably have this effect. Take the same picture with a GoPro camera and you will be shocked I believe.

I am not pleased with the photos of mine either.  Why is there distortion all along the edges??

Brian MacDonald Posted at 2018-2-3 14:00
I am not pleased with the photos of mine either.  Why is there distortion all along the edges??

Because of lens.... software is probably not mature enough to correct things good enough yet.
Just to calm you down... my very expensive, very fast, very heavy and bulky and full frame DLSR lens, when first released had distortion issues even worse than this. Than, it got solved with the next release of lens firmware.

Brian MacDonald Posted at 2018-2-3 14:00
I am not pleased with the photos of mine either.  Why is there distortion all along the edges??

I understand there will be some distortion, but normally at the edges (which is visible), not in the middle. Here is a zoomed in section of the middle, clearly showing the horizontal wiggle where it should be straight top and bottom of the doors.

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 2018-2-3 14:17
Because of lens.... software is probably not mature enough to correct things good enough yet.
Just to calm you down... my very expensive, very fast, very heavy and bulky and full frame DLSR lens, when first released had distortion issues even worse than this. Than, it got solved with the next release of lens firmware.

Thanks, does help a little I guess, but I would like to hear other peoples experience of the air to see if they are having similar issues to discount an issue with my camera/lens.

JBInspire Posted at 2018-2-3 14:20
I understand there will be some distortion, but normally at the edges (which is visible), not in the middle. Here is a zoomed in section of the middle, clearly showing the horizontal wiggle where it should be straight top and bottom of the doors.[view_image]

Now I see what you mean!

JBInspire Posted at 2018-2-3 14:20
Thanks, does help a little I guess, but I would like to hear other peoples experience of the air to see if they are having similar issues to discount an issue with my camera/lens.

For most people here, this is even fine. I bet 80% readers even did not figure out what's wrong here.
I would suggest bringing this issue with DJI Support to check if this is normal and if they do plan to fix it in a next FW release. Sometimes, DJI being primarily the hardware company, has a habit to fix issues in next iteration of HW instead of SW, which is dissapointing sometimes.

I have the same distortion and it's particularly noticeable on horizons. Oddly, the curvature seems to be worse on the left than the right. I figure a 4K camera that flies amazingly well is going to have some weaknesses. I would like to be able to fix distortion in Final Cut Pro X using some kind of lens profile. Perhaps someone here knows how to do that, if it's possible.

I have the exact same issue, I can live with it with stills, but when filming the horizon and panning it looks like this YouTube video, even at very slow yaw movements it can clearly be seen.



I really hope this is a fixable software issue which can be mend with a firmware update...

LoSBoL Posted at 2018-2-16 04:57
I have the exact same issue, I can live with it with stills, but when filming the horizon and panning it looks like this YouTube video, even at very slow yaw movements it can clearly be seen.

https://youtu.be/Va4WexM8xTY

It’s very clear in your video, I’m also hoping it can be fixed with FW update.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-2-16 05:04
It’s very clear in your video, I’m also hoping it can be fixed with FW update.

Yes, I hope so, it looks like many have this problem, I've read on an other forum it is the imaging software that is responsible for this, and it should be easy for DJI to fix.

Yeah that's pretty bad even for a wide angle lens. Might be a defective lens, don't know what the acceptable tolerances are for DJI on this.

In my opinion each camera should be tested on a some kind of grid or some other pattern for geometry.For me, this flaw is unacceptable.

This isn't a software issue causing it, it is the lens itself. The lens in these drones is fairly cheap, it takes expensive glass to correct the distortion you see. Thankfully, software can fix this issue and I would expect that Dji will roll out a FW update in the future that will do so. I would consider it a temporary issue.

Fingers crossed on a quick FW fix!

That is a weird distortion indeed.
Especially for a fixed lens (that should have less issues because of it's simple design).

A CW Posted at 2018-2-16 12:34
Fingers crossed on a quick FW fix!

In any ways, you will loose sharpness by fixing this in post.
But I guess that is better than nothing.

Zatx Posted at 2018-2-16 10:29
This isn't a software issue causing it, it is the lens itself. The lens in these drones is fairly cheap, it takes expensive glass to correct the distortion you see. Thankfully, software can fix this issue and I would expect that Dji will roll out a FW update in the future that will do so. I would consider it a temporary issue.

I hope so indeed. Although you will loose sharpness by correcting a 'bad' lens.

Mohinder Posted at 2018-2-16 08:59
In my opinion each camera should be tested on a some kind of grid or some other pattern for geometry.For me, this flaw is unacceptable.

If you are Zeiss or Leica: yes.
Otherwise....
Mwa.
I doubt Nikon does this with their point and shoot cameras.....
After all, the MA is a point and shoot....

LoSBoL Posted at 2018-2-16 04:57
I have the exact same issue, I can live with it with stills, but when filming the horizon and panning it looks like this YouTube video, even at very slow yaw movements it can clearly be seen.

https://youtu.be/Va4WexM8xTY

You will always have some warping with a wider lens, but this is a bit too much if you ask me.

Remember, it is a fixed focus, wide angle lens.  There will always be some distortion on such a lense.  It isn't a portrait lens.  It's designed for taking arial photos from long distances.  I've been a photographer for 30 years and I am very pleased with all of my DJI drones.  MPP, Spark and Air.  They are all excellent for what they are.  When I take portraits my Canon lens costs twice as much as the MPP and it doesn't fly or even have a sensor in it.

LoSBoL Posted at 2018-2-16 04:57
I have the exact same issue, I can live with it with stills, but when filming the horizon and panning it looks like this YouTube video, even at very slow yaw movements it can clearly be seen.

https://youtu.be/Va4WexM8xTY

Just tell people that's the natural curvature of the earth.                           

I noticed the distortion on the left in my videos too from the get go but I'm not really worried. The horizon level in my MA is far better than my MP. That being said, DJI should be able to fix the distortion in a FW update.

Zatx Posted at 2018-2-16 10:29
This isn't a software issue causing it, it is the lens itself. The lens in these drones is fairly cheap, it takes expensive glass to correct the distortion you see. Thankfully, software can fix this issue and I would expect that Dji will roll out a FW update in the future that will do so. I would consider it a temporary issue.

The other forum spoke of it being the lens itself aswell, but the imagingsoftware that is supposed to fix this just isn't doing a good enough job in doing so. I hope that it indeed is a temporary issie...

I'll post another video later

Thats pretty bad.   Overall Pin-cushion or fish-eye yes - but not distortion in the middle of the frame.  I would not expect that from a dji product.

RocketChap Posted at 2018-2-17 13:35
Thats pretty bad.   Overall Pin-cushion or fish-eye yes - but not distortion in the middle of the frame.  I would not expect that from a dji product.

+1 - agreed

So, I finally had some time to upload a video




I would really like to know if others experience the same when yawing the aircraft.  Also would like to know if a moderator could forward this issue to their engineers.

Mavic Ace Posted at 2018-2-16 12:55
Just tell people that's the natural curvature of the earth.

  

In case of my own video above here, I could always say I edited to look like the first seconds of the Matrix intro...  



On a more serious note, I think this sucks...

Just got mine today. Notice the tree line across the water. Guess ill have to get the spark back out for a while.

I do have this also on distant horizons....hopefully dji can remedy this

You can add me to the list ... I am experiencing the same video warping when panning to the left to the right... exactly like the videos posted above... and posted here with a growing community of disgruntled users here https://mavicpilots.com/threads/mavic-air-bad-camera-lens.34076/

Personally of course I hope its a software fix as I think if its a lens issue then how on earth did it get past quality control?

Dji should be all over this and any business owner worth their salt would at least set out a statement to say they are looking into the problem... this should not be a fix made in post, nor should it be accepted in any way as normal due to the cheapness or the wide angled nature of a fixed focal length lens... the function of the drone is to take images and video and I cant find anywhere in DJi's promotional literature that "you may expect some slight warping"

Looking at the evidence this should be a fairly trivial software fix, as the thread on mavic pilots suggests the DNGs already contain the lens correction details and Lightroom applies them correctly.

Not much word from the moderators....