Hello there. I'm having trouble getting video footage from my Phantom 4 standard that doesn't contain noisy disturbances, and it also seems there is also a general fuzziness or dirtyness about the footage. The attached screenshots were taken from d-log footage that had been color graded using a fairly standard LUT in Adobe Premiere. The color grading isn't masterful but nevertheless the noise is there - it is *not* a product of the color grading. The darker green splotching happens all of the time, and it moves and undulates in accord with the movement of the drone over the ground. I'm shooting mostly rural areas with a lot of open grass and fields, so this noise is unacceptable. There is also a general halo-ing from time to time of various areas where it appears the encoding struggles to adapt to zones of color.
It seems this a firmware / encoding issue that can not be mitigated with color grading. I'd appreciate any suggestions as to how I might get rid of these issues and clean up the footage so it's usable in a professional capacity. As it stands it's total garbage and I'm very frustrated and embarrassed to have spent so much money with the expectation that the video would be professional quality. The footage I've seen from P4 did not look like this, and from some other threads I've read in various places it seems the encoding quality may have taken a sharp dip after the P3, or there may be problems with some of the P4s out there that don't exist on other specimens. You really shouldn't have to bend over backwards to make video look passable. "Crap in, crap out" seems to apply here. I really hope I'm missing something!

I will very much appreciate any suggestions about how I might eliminate this issue. Thank you.

Sorry for the trouble. Is this the first time that you encounter this issue? Also, may I know if your aircraft is up to date? It is not recommended to capture images in D-Log.
D-Log is utilized for retaining more details when RAW videos cannot be captured. Raw data will be recorded in RAW photos and no color mode will be enabled. If RAW photos can be captured, there is no need to use D-Log.
D-Log is enabled when capturing JPEF images. That is why brightness of the JPEF images differs from that of the RAW images.

Hi there, I assume you're asking if the firmware is up to date?
If so, yes I performed a firmware update straight out of the box about a month ago. I was prompted in the DJI GO 4 app to do so.
The aircraft firmware version listed in "About" in the app is 02.00.0700.
I appreciate the quick response.
I'm going to do some tests to see if I might be better off using one of the standard settings for video (not d-cinelike, d-log, art, etc. - something more like "normal" or "classic"). I didn't see if
this noise I'm getting happens while using those settings, or at closer distances. Regardless, though, this noise shouldn't happen in footage from a camera that is supposed to be professional
quality.

Is this the "raw" video from the SD card, or is it low bitrate re-encoded stuff from the app?

Also I can't tell if your screen captures are hugely zoomed in or full frames, 4K or 720, which makes it very hard to judge what is happening.

In a scene like that D-Log is not a good idea, should only be used if you really need to increase the dynamic range because you need really bright highlights or very dark shadows.  Much better to get the recorded video as close as possible to the end target before it is encoded in the drone.

This is the video from the SD card, not in the app. It's 1080p 120fps, and the top 2 images are zoomed a bit - the top is zoomed a lot actually. You can see, though, in the bottom image, that the quality is not a whole lot improved with zero zooming. It's still sort of dirty and the splotching is still visible - especially when you watch the moving clip.

I've been leaning toward what you're saying about capturing the video "as close as possible to the end target", and will be attempting that mode of operation from here on out. I shot some test footage this morning in "natural" to compare. Perhaps that's the big portion of my problem; that the circumstances I'm shooting in are not at all best suited for using the 'raw' styles of capture?

This is the type of scene I will most often be capturing. Can you recommend the best settings from your perspective?

Also: When is D-Log a good idea?

Thanks so much for your input! Gives me hope!