Serious geolocation imagery input problem with Pix4D in Mac OS / DJI Mavic Air.

PIX4Dmapper PIX4Dmapper Questions/Troubleshooting
1

Hardware and software used for processing: MacBook Pro loaded with Sierra OS 10.13.6 and with Pix4DMapper 3.0.18.

Problem:

When importing imagery from a Mavic Air into the main menu of Pix4DMapper automatically, the imagery is shifted for no apparent reason about 1km northings on the viewing map.

Imagery from Mavic Air were acquired using Pix4DCapture. WGS84 coord. system.

EXIF data inspected and read from the original images without Pix4D are correctly positioned in Lat Long DD.

Coords of imagery in Pix4D image database list is incorrect (large northing shift) despite the fact of importing either automatically or with EXIF option.

When importing the Pix4DCapture project file into Pix4DMapper, the software (magically) places the images in the correct position and work can be done.

It seems that a bug is present in this particular version that corrupts the input of the image geolocation when creating a new project and importing the images.

There is also no option in the Map View general tab to get the satellite view instead of the OpenStreet map option.

Is someone experiencing the same issue in that configuration ?

PS: Computers with software should work for the user, not the opposite. EXIF data has all the geo location info. Hence the software is incapable of reading it … properly. 

 

2

Hi Simon,

Your shift issue could be related to the firmware of the drone.

You should have a look on this post. Some users have experienced the same issue and Blaž proposed a workaround in the official comment:

Pix4D Mavic 2 Processing Issues

Regarding the satellite map view, It is indeed not possible to have the satellite base map on Mac at the moment.
You can find more information about this and other differences with the Windows version here: 
Beta macOS version of Pix4Dmapper 3.0

Hope this will help,
Best,

3

Hi, thanks for your swift reply.
Sorry but I checked and I have the latest firmware for my Mavic Air.
As said in my post, this is an issue with Pix4D as all images geotagged by DJI and read independently by other EXIF readers shows the correct location of the images. It is when the geolocation information is imported, handled by Pix4D Mapping software that the shift occurs.

The work around is simply not practical and also laborious with the risk of making more errors.

4

Hi Simon,

The behavior you are describing seems to be the same issue than occurred when DJI updated the firmware for DJI Mavic 2 Pro.

Daniel from Pix4D describes HERE the nature of this shift.
I am afraid that the same occurred with the Mavic Air.

Have you at least tried the workaround? Does it work in this case?

May I ask you to share with us your dataset so we can further investigate in order to check if the same happened?
You can upload your files here:
One drive

Thank you,
Best,

5

Hi Marco

I have the same problem with the DJI Mavic Air (shift by 2.3 km to south-west). The coordinates in the exif data are correct, but the Pix4D image properties editor displays the wrong coordinates. Is there already a solution or do you need another data set?

Best greetings
Thomas

6

Hi Thomas,

Have you used Pix4Dcapture for your mission? If yes, you should be able to use the *.p4d file that contains the correct geolocations.

Have you tried the workaround proposed by Blaž here?
If yes and it still not work, could you please upload your images either on the Cloud (and provide me the name of your project) or here (in a zip file):
One drive

So we can have a look a try to provide you the most adequate solution.

Best, 

7

Hi Marco

Thanks for your feedback. Yes i used Pix4Dcapture and with the p4d file it works with the right positions. I could also write a script that extracts the coordinates (which are correct) from the exif data and writes them into a file that can be imported into the image settings. It was more the question if you need more user data to solve the problem.

As i saw now, you fixed the problem for Mavic 2 in version 4.4.9. I assume that this also applies to the Mavic Air? When will this be integrated into the regular version?

Best regards
Thomas

8

Hi Thomas,

Glad to read that it is working for you.
At the moment, we had enough data sets.
But thanks for the proposition.

As the bug is the same for both, yes it is fixed with the 4.4.9 version.
As soon as our development team will be sure that this version is stable with all the new features added. I cannot give you a precise date. However so far the preview version is working fine and I recommend you to use it. 

Best,

9

Hello,

Is there any update with the Mavic Air and the shifting bug?

I am using the 4.5.0 app version, and the 4.3.33 desktop mapper version.

 

Regards

Arik

10

Hi Arik, 

The new firmware v01.00.04.00 for Mavic 2 Pro/Zoom/ Air has been released on 2019.04.17. DJI claims to solve the issue of geotags in that upgrade.

I would also suggest you have a look at the official comment that has been made by our technical support on community post about the Mavic geotag issues. It will suggest two possible workarounds to apply about the issue you are experiencing. You could also upgrade to Pix4Dmapper 4.4.10, the issue is solved in this version.