I have been finding jaggies in all of my footage, which I did not notice for a long time since I was shooting in 4K and viewing at half resolution on my computer. But when I started to crop in I noticed what looks like the Mavic is actually SHOOTING at half resolution. I did some tests in both 1080 p and 4K and noticed that 1080p looks MUCH worse, but both look bad when shown at 100%
I am used to shooting in 4K with my Osmo and haven;t noticed anything like this. In fact it was when I compared similar footage from the Osmo to the Mavic that I noticed there was definitely a problem.

The attached screenshots we're taken from FCPX at 100% (So the 1080p shot is technically zoom cropped) As you can see the "jaggies" really become evident in the paper. The warmer image is 1080p and the cooler one is 4K.


I have sluced through all of the camera settings I could find, even "Hardware Decoding" and also reset all the settings to scratch in case I had toggled something without knowig it, but the footage remains like this. Any ideas?

EDIT: I have found that between 1080p 24fps and 1080p 60fps the problem makes itself evident. Despite the 24fps footage shooting at 24 Mbit vs 60 Mbit for the 60fps footage. See second post for attachments.

EDIT #2: More testing has revealed that the aliasing issue dissapears at 1080p 96fps which makes this even more evident that it is a software glitch.

So I have already discovered the culprit and it lays in the frame rate for 1080p at least. Check out this comparison of 24 fps vs 60 fps in 1080p. Both are on a 4K timeline in FCPX so this is a 2x zoom crop. Both were taken within seconds of each other and both focused to the same spot (the M) with thouch focus. Both are on "Soft" shooting profile so, -1 sharpness.

Yes, that's already known and a 99% no-go for me... If they won't fix this in future updates I'll definitely send the Mavic back since they marketed this as a feature BEFORE I bought it and the clarification from DJI came AFTER I bought it.

EpicLPer Posted at 2016-11-4 15:13
Yes, that's already known and a 99% no-go for me... If they won't fix this in future updates I'll de ...

Wait... they marketed aliasing as a feature? Not following you.

To me the Pictures from post 2 look like:
1080p @ 24 fps = crappy/no AA
1080p @ 60 fps = good AA but soft

Is it the bad Monitor at my Office or am I right?

I'd love to use Mavics 1080p @ 60 for slowmotion editing, would I have a Problem with to soft Video then?

fans4e0cc7b3 Posted at 2016-11-4 15:55
So I have already discovered the culprit and it lays in the frame rate for 1080p at least. Check out ...

Are these labeled correctly?

So the 1080p 24fps is Jaggier than the 60fps?
Seems like it should be the other way around..

Looks like pretty standard line skipping/pixel binning to get the full 12mp sensor scaled to 1080p
It's fairly understandable that a camera this small will have to make some compromises to achieve certain frame sizes and rates as quality down-sampling is not a cheap process.

From other examples i've seen it does appear the 1080p@60fps is pretty much unusable.
Glad i only ever shoot in 4k 24p

48fps would be nice though..

Maybe its a software AA filter and at higher frame rates its disabled. I used to own a Nikon D800e. The E meaning with no AA filter. I go used to doing it in post and it's really easy, just google the guides and use it if your shooting in the higher frames rates.  

fans4e0cc7b3 Posted at 2016-11-4 08:31
Wait... they marketed aliasing as a feature? Not following you.

No, they marketed the 1080p60 mode

1080p 24p has the same issue??? Or not reading correctly?

fansf906a12b Posted at 2016-11-4 17:44
Maybe its a software AA filter and at higher frame rates its disabled. I used to own a Nikon D800e.  ...

Considering that the Osmo footage at 1080p looks incredible it would be unnacceptable to me to add in a post process for something like this.

Droney McDronef Posted at 2016-11-4 16:23
Are these labeled correctly?

So the 1080p 24fps is Jaggier than the 60fps?

Yes they were labeled incorrectly, fixed it.

As I mentioned, the Osmo handles 1080p 60 fps without this issue and heck, so does the iPhone! So no, I don't consider an acceptable comprimise for a small camera that can achieve 4K.

Have a look:

Dji already stated that it can't do 60 in 1080.

This is a known problem with the Mavic.  The optimal mode is 2.7K/30.
It can't be fixed with software as it is a limitation of the sensor per the PDF above.  
It can't be fixed with camera settings or filters either.  

If you want to shoot in 60 fps (or higher) then you'll have to use a Phantom.  

I found this article which does a pretty good job explaining the PDF.  
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3922435

Be sure to tell DJI that this is unacceptable and hopefully Mavic 2 will have proper sensor sampling at all resolutions and frame rates.  

Just to test, what does 1080/30 look like?  

FFS Posted at 2016-11-5 01:51
Yes they were labeled incorrectly, fixed it.

As I mentioned, the Osmo handles 1080p 60 fps withou ...

Sure, An iPhone has a good camera and is roughly the same footprint as a Mavic.. But an iPhone can't fly.

I guess there's not really an alternative that exists which is going to give you a well resolved 1080p@60fps..
Not at this size.. But maybe Mavic 2!

"The optimal mode is 2.7K/30...."

In my part of the world we use PAL not NTSC. So we end up with quite different refresh rates in the camera settings. I think 2.7K/24 and 2.7K/25. Would this mean 2.7K/25 would be the optimum for me to select?

Thanks for the explanations and that sheet explaining the issue. I had not seen those as I guess they weren't in the marketing materials for the Mavic. :S

But I have to note that 1080p at 96fps looks like it does not have this issue, which makes this all even more confusing.

FFS Posted at 2016-11-5 04:00
Thanks for the explanations and that sheet explaining the issue. I had not seen those as I guess the ...

Encoding is really weird sometime. It's often related to the multiplier of the frame rate. The reason you have 96 is its 4x24p. The aliasing is caused by the physical Sensor grid matching a pattern in the subject, so like a fence, a tiled roof or a grid pattern on a shirt. You don't see it in higher 4k resolutions just due to the defect being too small to see. Now if the you record 4k and down sampling, you are actually supersampling which should give a better result and is actually a method of anti-aliasing But obviously it cannot record at 4k/60 due to bandwidth.  I chatted for ages on this Subject with the D800e, and it's not a new thing even with $3000 slr cameras. To be honest once the D800e was being used it was such a small problem people never mentioned it. Just have to be careful at certain modes with specific subjects. Or fix it in post.   IF you want to read a lot about it search for moire artifacts at dpreview and there will be a million threads.

fansf906a12b Posted at 2016-11-4 14:40
Encoding is really weird sometime. It's often related to the multiplier of the frame rate. The rea ...

The reason it wasn't a big issue with the 800e (other than oil splatter on the sensor), is it isn't moving through the air at speed.

Logger Posted at 2016-11-4 13:49
"The optimal mode is 2.7K/30...."

In my part of the world we use PAL not NTSC. So we end up with qu ...

Yes, 2.7K at any frame rate less than or equal to 30 is going to be your best bet for quality to bits per second.  2.7k and 4K both use 60 Mbps.  This means in order to get the 4K squeezed down to a 60 Mbps pipe you have to compress it...a lot.  The result of all that compression on Phantoms (don't have my Mavic yet so can't say for sure!) is pretty poor video.  Unless your project specifically asks for it, I wouldn't shoot 4K with these little guys (or Phantoms).  That's why the pixel binning is a real bummer for me because I primarily shoot 1080/60 in order to have nice smooth video in a 30 fps timeline.  This is of course all relative and next year we should all come back and read these posts when we're flying our 8K Phantoms around.  

DRONE-flies-YOU Posted at 2016-11-5 05:57
The reason it wasn't a big issue with the 800e (other than oil splatter on the sensor), is it isn' ...

Not a clue how it relates. It's more to do with the subject. You could be in a plane, a car, a train or filming moving objects. It's to do with the physical sensor, the pattern on the subject and lack of AA filtering.  

FFS Posted at 2016-11-5 04:00
Thanks for the explanations and that sheet explaining the issue. I had not seen those as I guess the ...

you've tried 1080p/96?  it looks like crap on mine- where have you seen sample which doesn't have this issue?

Well thanks for all the info guys.