You know, I have always wondered why these owners manual aren't more detailed than they are and aren't shipped with the machine. I am beginning to think it is purposeful because if they were detailed at the time of writing, in 2-3 weeks they would be wrong because of FW upgrades.
Digital zoom coming?
- Thread starter Cale262
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First, let me start by making a strong statement: there is no such thing as digital zoom.
Digital zoom is a simulation of zoom, done by cropping the image
Optical zoom provides vastly superior images when compared with digital zoom systems
A digital zoom, is simply some in-camera image processing. When you use a digital zoom, the camera enlarges the image area at the center of the frame and trims away the outside edges of the picture. The result is the same as when you open an image in your photo-editing program, crop away the edges of the picture, and then enlarge the remaining portion of the photo.
This type of zoom will result in a loss of quality and image resolution because the image is simply being enlarged without any extra details or pixels being added
Enlarging the “zoomed” area also enlarges the pixels and reduces the image resolution and the image quality.
No improvement to the sensor or lens is necessary for the addition of a digital zoom, is it made possible in the software.
As you zoom in on a scene, the camera draws a crop box around the pixels in the image sensor and discards information outside the frame. Only the pixels inside the frame are recorded. And that means that the sensor's full resolution isn't being used. The more you zoom in, the fewer pixels you'll have in your final image. That's a real waste of your camera, because you're throwing away image quality.
There is one area of using digital zoom, may, benefit you.
If you are only using the zoom as a viewfinder to get a closer look at an object, zooming in could help, but keep one thing in mind, your depth perception will be altered, as you are not seeing the whole picture, and objects up, down, left, and right, are still there, but now you can't see them, not a good thing while flying a $1400 camera a mile away, and watching on a 5 or 7 inch screen.
Also the resolution of the feed to the live view will be reduced when zooming.
O.K. this in my last post on this topic, my only intent was to share my view on digital zoom.
It seems some people get offended when others don't share their opinions, I am not one of them.
If the digital zoom feature works well, please post your results, so others can judge it's merits.
Digital zoom is a simulation of zoom, done by cropping the image
Optical zoom provides vastly superior images when compared with digital zoom systems
A digital zoom, is simply some in-camera image processing. When you use a digital zoom, the camera enlarges the image area at the center of the frame and trims away the outside edges of the picture. The result is the same as when you open an image in your photo-editing program, crop away the edges of the picture, and then enlarge the remaining portion of the photo.
This type of zoom will result in a loss of quality and image resolution because the image is simply being enlarged without any extra details or pixels being added
Enlarging the “zoomed” area also enlarges the pixels and reduces the image resolution and the image quality.
No improvement to the sensor or lens is necessary for the addition of a digital zoom, is it made possible in the software.
As you zoom in on a scene, the camera draws a crop box around the pixels in the image sensor and discards information outside the frame. Only the pixels inside the frame are recorded. And that means that the sensor's full resolution isn't being used. The more you zoom in, the fewer pixels you'll have in your final image. That's a real waste of your camera, because you're throwing away image quality.
There is one area of using digital zoom, may, benefit you.
If you are only using the zoom as a viewfinder to get a closer look at an object, zooming in could help, but keep one thing in mind, your depth perception will be altered, as you are not seeing the whole picture, and objects up, down, left, and right, are still there, but now you can't see them, not a good thing while flying a $1400 camera a mile away, and watching on a 5 or 7 inch screen.
Also the resolution of the feed to the live view will be reduced when zooming.
O.K. this in my last post on this topic, my only intent was to share my view on digital zoom.
It seems some people get offended when others don't share their opinions, I am not one of them.
If the digital zoom feature works well, please post your results, so others can judge it's merits.
Where I primarily would be utilizing it, I think you worded it better than I was...
You are a 100 percent correct on this.
But there is benefits - framing the subject.
Have you tried cropping a 4K and tracking the object and making sure it stays in frame?? Its hard work and time consuming. Adding the zoom ability will save post processing times as you can see and frame exactly what you are recording and discarding. The concerns I have is that pilots may lose special awareness and end up crashing because the zoom affects their FPV judgement. I hope DJI will leave the FPV as is and introduce a 1080p transparent masking box in the app so it will only record what's in that box and yet still allow us to see the same as we always have.
Storrowdrive is right, digital zoom IS HERE, enabled in P4. I tested today. Just pinch and zoom the screen up to 2X when using 1080 video. It's pretty decent, it doesn't over zoom to see pixelation, it zooms in to the point to crop the 4K sensor in the app, which is decent clarity. This can come in handy for search an rescue, inspection, and getting closer to animals before they get spooked from the noise.
I don't think that's the case from what I saw, maybe just a little. The live feed is 720 even when I'm shooting 1080, and the sensor is 4K. So a 2X zoom by simply cropping the 4K sensor down to 1080 provided about the same clarity. Tomorrow I'll be shooting some test video to compare zoom and no zoom from a production clarity point of view. But from the "live view" aspect, it's pretty good.
I took two photos of myself from the same place, on right after the other. One was 2X zoomed and the other was not. Result below. You have to admit this looks pretty darn good for digital zoom. Yeah, you do lose a little, but it's not bad overall.
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I still think it really odd that DJI hasn't advertised this fact especially when there were so many who publicly voiced initial displeasure that P4 didn't have this feature...I still can't find it noted anywhere in P4 documentation...???
Yes, I agree, a bit strange. I think it was added in the last firmware update, so it didn't make it into the manual. None of the initial reviews talked about it, so I gotta believe their firmware didn't support it.
Not bad, maybe they are not mentioning it to keep that paranoid / stalker crowd at bay
The
The community that we live in down in AZ is a gated community with a lot of retirees, some of them are very paranoid to the point that new technology freaks a lot of them out and most are very anti-drone/quadcopter. I do my best to sway/educate them by showing them my videos which 99% of them love...basically trying to show them that very few drone pilots if any are interested in looking through their window and that even if I wanted to I couldn't really see Much of anything anyway (most are tinted etc.). We really need to take every opportunity educate these types of people.
Not bad, maybe they are not mentioning it to keep that paranoid / stalker crowd at bay
The community that we live in down in AZ is a gated community with a lot of retirees, some of them are very paranoid to the point that new technology freaks a lot of them out and most are very anti-drone/quadcopter. I do my best to sway/educate them by showing them my videos which 99% of them love...basically trying to show them that very few drone pilots if any are interested in looking through their window and that even if I wanted to I couldn't really see Much of anything anyway (most are tinted etc.). We really need to take every opportunity educate these types of people.
Very possible. I mean..... you don't want to be bragging that your drone has a zoom lens, right? Immediately they'll start thinking 50X zoom. I guess if we ever mention zoom to anyone, that we should ALWAYS include the clarification it's ONLY a 2X zoom.Not bad, maybe they are not mentioning it to keep that paranoid / stalker crowd at bay
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Whilst having a little flight yesterday, I pressed my screen and the camera zoomed in - I haven't noticed this before. I took a few pictures but when I downloaded the pics the were just white with a few blue pixelations - does it work or not ?? - I was flying with my phone and I usually use an iPad - not sure if this makes any difference
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
Photos are traditional digital zoom, so the results aren't great. However when capturing video in 1080, zooming in crops the 4k sensor, so it's a lossless zoom. It works quite well and the results are impressive. The key benefit is seeing things 2X while flying, which can influence where and how you fly, since you can see real time CLOSE UP views.
This only works on iOS, DJI has never implemented it on Android, hence this feature isn't in the manual.
This only works on iOS, DJI has never implemented it on Android, hence this feature isn't in the manual.
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First of all, there's no need to shout.
"Digital Zoom" is hardly a rigorous, industry-standard or scientific term. Rather, it's vernacular. As such, the definition is somewhat fluid, and up to the user to some degree. Anything that magnifies the image through processing in the digital domain qualifies as "digital zoom", as distinct from the other kind, optical manipulation of the light before it strikes the sensor.
In any case, you're wrong about the "digital zoom" already available in the P4 (more in a moment), and that reported to be coming in the next firmware update. There is no loss of resolution at all, because zoom is only available in resolutions lower than 4K, so full 720, 1080, or 2.7K resolution is available after decimation.
One indication of this is the fact that the amount of magnification available in each resolution varies -- most in 720, least in 2.7k. Max zoom in 1080 is 2x, because at that magnification you are cropping exactly 1/4 of the sensor, the cropped frame being exactly 1920x1080 pixels on the sensor -- no decimation needed when filming in 1080 at 2x zoom.
Zoom is available now on the P4 in 1080. It can be invoked on the iOS version of GO 4 by pinching on the screen, unavailable on Android. In Litchi (can only verify Android) there is a zoom in and zoom out button assignment for the C1 and C2 buttons that zooms in/out in 0.1x increments.
So, bottom line is, there is no loss of resolution using "digital zoom" on the P4.
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