Digital 'spots' all over image in P4; Started mid-flight

[steelwheelsphoto]

Hello group and thanks for any help in advance. I'll preface the following with fact that I've searched for similar issues in the forums and have not found same thing, so I apologize if this is an old issue and I missed it. I have a few UAVs but my quick deploy Phantom P4 is usually along for any ride. I had used it multiple times this week without any issue and with the normally beautiful photo quality. When I downloaded the photos pre and post using the DNG cleaner, I noted a loss of quality to the final four photos I had taken yesterday. 6 were fine and 4 had the attached defects. The drone was not crashed, hard landed or otherwise stored as I had seen questioned in another thread regarding white or yellow spots. It was flying and handling fine, camera responding normally, etc. EVERY photo since those 4 that I've taken as a test image in sunlight and shade has produced the same defects. Has anyone else seen this or experienced anything similar? I did open the camera and check all cables from the UAV to the processor and nothing was apart or loose. The camera is a DJI replacement that I obtained last October following a camera disconnect from the P4 that couldn't be resolved any other way than through a replacement. It has worked flawlessly until yesterday. I surmise that the processor may have failed, but was hoping for an easier fix than acquiring a new one.

I should also mentioned I tried two other SD cards and also have not recently updated firmware.

Again, any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Kevin

 

[Fly Dawg]

Does this occur in any original format you shoot in, without post-edits? I would only suspect a processor or sensor failure if this were to be the case in all formats, including video as well. Other than that, it could possibly be on the computer side during post edits. I suggest that you try several different formats and try to reproduce this, with no post-editing to isolate one side or the other.

 

[steelwheelsphoto]

It is occurring right from the UAV itself. I looked at the images even directly into the editor on the DJI app and they are there in jpg and raw format. I was surmising that it was some sort of processor error. Conducted an interesting experiment though and found that if I do the burst of 7 photos, the 6th and 7th particularly have a LOT less of the artifact on them, however still too much to correct.

 

[Fly Dawg]

It is occurring right from the UAV itself.

That is what I was asking really, if this occurred " identically the same in different formats. This would suggest a possible imaging sensor issue of some sort. Not likely that this is temperature related, but that was one of my thoughts to start with. Another thought might be a write speed issue using bursts. You could try a different SD card in the AC as a first easy step. Does your card meet these specs?

Max Capacity: 128GB
Write speed ≥15MB/s, Class 10 or UHS-1 rating required

 

[steelwheelsphoto]

Yes unfortunately I've tried other cards as well. All are above the recommended and have been used flawlessly for more than a year with this particular UAV. The photos taken between last Sunday and today were all taken with temps in the 70-80 degree F range and again without issue, until halfway through yesterday. I've tried every possible combination, single shot, HDR (don't normally use that one), and the 3, 5 and 7 bursts. At 7 bursts the final two frames are significantly less but still very obviously present. I've tried several different locations to see if I could reduce it through potential interference of some sort and that too has not produced any change. I'm thinking the sensor has had some type of failure. Thank you for your prompt replies.

Kevin

 

[MTO]

This guy had a similar problem

 

[Micky]

Hi kevin I have had the same problem with my p4 well my research brought another camera at $300 unscrew an unplug an all is good

Does this occur in any original format you shoot in, without post-edits? I would only suspect a processor or sensor failure if this were to be the case in all formats, including video as well. Other than that, it could possibly be on the computer side during post edits. I suggest that you try several different formats and try to reproduce this, with no post-editing to isolate one side or the other.

 

[steelwheelsphoto]

Micky - thanks! I was afraid that was going to be the resolve. This will be the third camera under this particular P4, the first having just disconnected and couldn't be reconnected, this being the second and this particular problem... I'm thinking the backup is going to be back shelved for a while. Thanks for the help folks!

 

[The Phantom]

My X3 Camera on my Inspire 1 got this exakt same looking dots, and in my case it was unfortunately the camera sensor, it had to be swapped out for another camera by DJI. It came from nowhere and nothing i did could get rid of the dots and lines in the video recordings and photos.
Also in some photos and videos the problem was much less visible than in others.