DJI D-Log M to Rec.709 in Premiere Pro, step by step

D-Log M clips from a DJI drone, pocket gimbal or action camera land in Premiere Pro gray and flat, and Premiere does not name D-Log M anywhere in its list of log formats. DJI publishes its own D-Log M to Rec.709 LUT for each camera. This guide shows where to get it, how to attach it as an Input LUT, and how to avoid converting a clip twice.

Last checked 2026-10-10.

Which DJI cameras shoot D-Log M

DJI's help-center article on D-Log support lists D-Log M, with an official D-Log M to Rec.709 LUT, for the Mini 4 Pro, Mini 5 Pro, Air 3, Air 3S, Avata 2, Osmo Pocket 3 and the Osmo Action 4, 5 Pro and 6. Its LUT page adds more products, such as the Flip, Osmo Nano and Osmo 360.

The same article is just as useful for what it leaves out. DJI lists the Mini 3 Pro, Mavic Air 2, Osmo Pocket and Osmo Action 3 as D-Cinelike only, not D-Log, and the Neo's spec sheet gives Normal as its only color mode. Footage from those cameras can look flat, but it is not D-Log M, and the D-Log M LUT is the wrong tool for it.

Where to get DJI's LUT

DJI hosts the official LUTs itself: the LUT page at dji.com/lut has a D-Log M to Rec.709 download for each product, and the help-center article above names the LUT for each model. The Osmo Action 4 and 5 Pro entries are labeled as the vivid version of the LUT, and the Action 6 and Pocket 3 entries use the plain D-Log M to Rec.709 name. DJI also publishes a user guide for the D-Log M LUT that covers DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X.

DJI's page gives download links, not file names or a format, so open the download and look for a .cube file.

What Premiere Pro does with D-Log M on its own

Adobe's Color Management options page lists DJI D-Log/D-Gamut as a camera log color space Premiere can assign to a clip. It does not list D-Log M. Adobe also warns that QuickTime, MXF and MP4 files may or may not carry metadata Premiere can use to assign a color space, so a DJI MP4 is easy to leave unidentified. Do not pick the DJI D-Log/D-Gamut entry for a D-Log M clip on the assumption that it is close enough. DJI treats the two modes as separate, and the safe route is the LUT DJI made for your camera.

Step by step

1. 1. Confirm the clip really is D-Log M

   Look at the picture first. D-Log M footage is gray, low in contrast and low in saturation. A clip that already looks normal was shot in a normal color mode, and DJI's LUT will ruin it. If you are not sure, check the color mode in the DJI Fly app or on the camera's screen, and match it to the right LUT: D-Log M and plain D-Log have separate LUTs in DJI's table.

2. 2. Pick one conversion route for the sequence

   Select the sequence, choose Sequence > Sequence Settings, and open the Color tab. For a Rec.709 delivery, Direct 709 (SDR) is the preset to look for. Adobe describes it as letting SDR media pass through while log and wide-gamut sources are tone-mapped and gamut-compressed on input. A D-Log M clip that Premiere does not identify passes through untouched, which leaves DJI's LUT to do the whole conversion. Adobe's Disable Color Management preset turns every automatic conversion off for people who work fully by hand, and the steps below assume Direct 709 (SDR).

3. 3. Open Source Clip and read Media Color Space

   Select a DJI clip in the timeline, open the Lumetri Color panel, go to the Settings tab and expand Source Clip. If Media Color Space says Rec. 709 and the picture is flat, Premiere has not converted the clip. That is the usual result for D-Log M. Adobe's input list names DJI D-Log/D-Gamut and does not name D-Log M.

4. 4. Set DJI's LUT as the Input LUT

   Still in Source Clip, open the Input LUT menu and choose Browse (or pick the LUT if you saved it to Premiere's Input folder). Select DJI's D-Log M to Rec.709 .cube file. Then set Media Color Space to Rec. 709, the color space the LUT outputs. In Adobe's words, Input LUT does the conversion and Media Color Space tells Premiere what the LUT produces. Leave Preserve RGB off.

5. 5. Do the whole batch at once

   Back in the Project panel, select every clip from the same camera and choose Clip Modify, Color, then set the same Input LUT and Media Color Space on all of them. Keep the clips from different DJI models separate if their LUTs differ, because DJI publishes one LUT per product.

6. 6. Set white balance on the converted picture

   Premiere converts at the clip's input, before Lumetri's Basic Correction, so what you adjust there is already the converted picture. Use the White Balance Selector on something neutral, such as concrete, a white railing or gray cloud, then fine-tune Temperature and Tint. Auto white balance moves between takes on a drone, so do it clip by clip.

7. 7. Set exposure on the scopes

   Open Window > Lumetri Scopes and show the waveform. Aerials are mostly sky, and your eye reads them brighter than they are. Keep the sky from clipping, pull faces or ground detail to a sensible level and trust the waveform over a laptop screen. Match the drone to your ground cameras last, as in the multi-cam order.

Where to put the LUT file

You can import a LUT from anywhere with the Input LUT menu. To make it show up in the menu every time, copy it into Premiere's Input LUT folder (Premiere Pro 24.0 and later list these in Source Clip). If it does not appear, restart Premiere.

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/LUTs/Input
• Windows: C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common\LUTs\Input

Where DJI footage goes wrong in Premiere

• The wrong LUT for the mode. A D-Log LUT on D-Log M footage, or either LUT on a normal-mode clip, gives you wrong contrast and color. Match the LUT to the mode the clip was shot in.
• Converting twice. DJI D-Log/D-Gamut set as Media Color Space plus DJI's LUT on the same clip gives you far too much contrast and color. Choose one route per clip.
• Trusting the tag. A DJI file can read as plain Rec. 709 in Premiere when the picture is log. Judge the image, not the label.
• One LUT for a mixed flight. A shoot with two DJI models, or log and normal clips from the same camera, needs the right LUT on each clip, not one on everything.
• Grading the sky by eye. Skies fool your eyes within seconds. Use the waveform.

Where Basecut fits

A wedding card dump puts D-Log M clips next to normal-mode ones, and the file's tag is not always honest. Basecut checks the picture as well as the tag when it decides whether a DJI clip is log, because a log clip can be tagged as Rec.709. Its D-Log M conversion uses the D-Log curve and leaves out the D-Gamut matrix on purpose. When Basecut tested the matrix against DJI's own Osmo Action 6 LUT on real footage, it about doubled the saturation.

In Premiere Pro, Basecut does not apply that color. It opens a project with label colors, markers and a sequence for each verdict, and ships one .cube file per clip for you to attach as the Input LUT. Do not stack it on top of DJI's LUT. The 14-day free trial has 5 free exports and needs no card. See it on real footage.