Picture quality (with 100% crop exemple)

AndersE · Oct 2, 2015

I took a few pictures in raw format today and with just minor pp. It came out pretty good. Far better than the jpg. Maybe it's the internal sw that compress jpg a bit too much. But I also had much faster shutter speed today (even if yesterday's 1/200 should not produce any motion blur)
I have never minded the raw format on my DSLR before, but from now on I will change from jpg on that camera also.

mirrorimage · Oct 2, 2015

Is this because the settings to turn down sharpness and contrast on the video also effect photography?? I hope those settings are separate.

bobmyers · Oct 2, 2015

AndersE said:
I took a few pictures in raw format today and with just minor pp. It came out pretty good. Far better than the jpg. Maybe it's the internal sw that compress jpg a bit too much. But I also had much faster shutter speed today (even if yesterday's 1/200 should not produce any motion blur)
I have never minded the raw format on my DSLR before, but from now on I will change from jpg on that camera also.

a good comparison
RAW vs JPEG

amonge · Oct 2, 2015

Hi guys! Im a mac user. What app can I use to work with RAW files? Regards

bobmyers · Oct 2, 2015

amonge said:
Hi guys! Im a mac user. What app can I use to work with RAW files? Regards

search RAW editor MAC in google and go shopping It is all a matter of opinion-- there are free choices and pay for play choices

AndersE · Oct 3, 2015

bobmyers said:
a good comparison
RAW vs JPEG

Try Lightroom. They offer 30 days free trail.

Justin Namon · Oct 3, 2015

gonna throw this in there. DJI has a DNG converter for downloads in the Phantom area. I would suggest processing all your DNG's through that before you import to your PP application. The reason I do this is because, like mentioned above, this is only a $500 camera. turns out there's dead pixels all across the raw files if you zoom in even more. normally Lightroom takes care of this automatically but that's not always the case. the converter really helps clean up the image for PP.
Secondly, when exposing on DJI's camera for Raw images it's best to overexpose ever so slightly. Like +.03-.06. The camera images do better recovering highlights over shadows. this took me a while to get because I shoot Nikon all day under exposing because of Nikons amazing shadow recovery (in low ISO's). and frankly I never ever leave 100 ISO unless I'm shooting video. Wish it did 50 ISO. Best options at the end of the day is to keep playing around. Lots of YouTube videos to learn techniques!

Jim Wilkinson · Oct 3, 2015

ATPhoto said:
Initially I was also disappointed with P3P, however I've learnt that to get the best out of the files you do need to be quite proficient in your post-processing. I'm wondering if shooting in LOG has given this a murky, soft look? I didn't even realise you could shoot stills in LOG, I thought that was just for video.
This is a gallery of images, mostly P3P, that I have shot over the last few months....
As The Crow Flies - atphoto

Just checked out your Gallery. VERY nice shooting. Great photos.

envisionabove · Oct 3, 2015

4wd said:
It's best to use RAW for still photos - provided you have prior experience of getting the best from this mode on other cameras.
You need suitable software to tweak RAW images and convert them.
Lightroom works well. There are various others and some are free.

The image quality is comparable to a mid-range compact camera or a good mobile phone.
You can get good results.

Have you done any prints? If so what are you finding as a sweet spot?

viewkopter · Oct 3, 2015

villep said:
I like picture quality of my 3a. Took these couple days ago.

Have these been edited?

SightFlight · Oct 3, 2015

lotusteve said:
This is a picture from mine took todayView attachment 32460

In bright sunlight, it's not so bad. I tried HDR, but things moved during taking it.

AndersE · Oct 3, 2015

Justin Namon said:
gonna throw this in there. DJI has a DNG converter for downloads in the Phantom area. I would suggest processing all your DNG's through that before you import to your PP application. The reason I do this is because, like mentioned above, this is only a $500 camera. turns out there's dead pixels all across the raw files if you zoom in even more. normally Lightroom takes care of this automatically but that's not always the case. the converter really helps clean up the image for PP.
Secondly, when exposing on DJI's camera for Raw images it's best to overexpose ever so slightly. Like +.03-.06. The camera images do better recovering highlights over shadows. this took me a while to get because I shoot Nikon all day under exposing because of Nikons amazing shadow recovery (in low ISO's). and frankly I never ever leave 100 ISO unless I'm shooting video. Wish it did 50 ISO. Best options at the end of the day is to keep playing around. Lots of YouTube videos to learn techniques!

Below is a cut out from a raw file. A lot of red dots

Are these really dead pixels? Its seem they are in different sizes. If there were dead pixels, shouldn't they at least be in the same size?

Justin Namon · Oct 3, 2015

AndersE said:
Below is a cut out from a raw file. A lot of red dots Are these really dead pixels? Its seem they are in different sizes. If there were dead pixels, shouldn't they at least be in the same size?

View attachment 32642

thanks for the correction. I labeled them as dead pixels incorrectly. I actually believe it's noise. I think it's crazy DJI can't just send it in an update. the DNG converter always fixes it though.

cornishchris · Oct 4, 2015

AndersE said:
Im new to drones and just bought my phantom 3 Adv 2 weeks ago. Im pretty pleased with the video quality, especially when I turn down the in-camera picture processing and have that done in Final Cut Pro instead.

But when it comes to still images I'm disappointed with the outcome. I know its not a flying DSLR, but the picture lacks a lot of details. Most of the picture is just blurry. I have attached a link to a JPG which is straight out of the camera (I just did a 100% crop in PS, center of picture); ISO 100, 1/200, LOG) Yeah I know that the picture is a bit underexposed, but I wanted to keep the ISO low and shutter speed fast enough.

Is this what you other guys also get from the camera when it comes to still pictures?

Dropbox - 100% crop.jpg

View attachment 32438

villep · Oct 4, 2015

viewkopter said:
Have these been edited?

Yes they are some color grading and sharpening.

mirrorimage · Oct 4, 2015

I did a ton of test yesterday. Just shoot DNG (raw). If you shoot raw+jpg it takes to long to write photos to disk. If you shoot JPG only you will have a muddy in unsharp images. All my photos came out wonderful until I switched to jpeg the other day and now they look muddy like the original posters pictures. Dji did a really bad job choosing jpg settings and hopefully they can fix it in the software. Also I notice images looks lot better shot in 16:9 than 4:3. Not sure why or what the image sensor actually shoots but they are always better. Just my tips after shooting tons and tons of photos yesterday to test

GadgetGuy · Oct 5, 2015

sdharris said:
You can do a lot in post but at the end of the day it is a small sensor and a low cost lens. I tend not to look at 100% nowadays and even the most striking of pictures including the ones above which are awesome are not that pretty at 100%.

One thing I would suggest is shoot in both JPG and DNG for a while and look at the output from the JPG to get an idea of what DJI get out of that camera and then better it with the DNG in post.

+1. That's what I do, even with my spherical panoramas. Do a quick and dirty spherical panorama with just the camera jpg's for immediate sharing, and then backfill the URL with a "pro" version made from the DNG's optimized in Lightroom, exported as jpg's, and then recreate the same spherical panorama from the optimized DNG jpg's. If necessary, import the stitched spherical panorama back into LR for more optimizing, and then export to web from PTGui or PanoramaStudio Pro or ICE. Huge difference between the camera jpg's and the DNG optimized jpg exports from LR!

RCPILOT · Oct 5, 2015

amonge said:
Hi guys! Im a mac user. What app can I use to work with RAW files? Regards

Adobe - Adobe Camera Raw and DNG Converter : For Macintosh

GadgetGuy · Oct 5, 2015

mirrorimage said:
I did a ton of test yesterday. Just shoot DNG (raw). If you shoot raw+jpg it takes to long to write photos to disk. If you shoot JPG only you will have a muddy in unsharp images. All my photos came out wonderful until I switched to jpeg the other day and now they look muddy like the original posters pictures. Dji did a really bad job choosing jpg settings and hopefully they can fix it in the software. Also I notice images looks lot better shot in 16:9 than 4:3. Not sure why or what the image sensor actually shoots but they are always better. Just my tips after shooting tons and tons of photos yesterday to test

The 16:9 is a crop of the 4:3 sensor data, and throws away the rest, and the edges of the frames of most lenses reveal their weaknesses. That perhaps explains why the 16:9 crops look better. You are seeing a sharper, richer portion of the field of view of the lens. Cropping the 4:3 image to 16:9 in post should yield identical results, while having the rest of the frame still available for a different crop.

GadgetGuy · Oct 5, 2015

Justin Namon said:
gonna throw this in there. DJI has a DNG converter for downloads in the Phantom area. I would suggest processing all your DNG's through that before you import to your PP application. The reason I do this is because, like mentioned above, this is only a $500 camera. turns out there's dead pixels all across the raw files if you zoom in even more. normally Lightroom takes care of this automatically but that's not always the case. the converter really helps clean up the image for PP.
Secondly, when exposing on DJI's camera for Raw images it's best to overexpose ever so slightly. Like +.03-.06. The camera images do better recovering highlights over shadows. this took me a while to get because I shoot Nikon all day under exposing because of Nikons amazing shadow recovery (in low ISO's). and frankly I never ever leave 100 ISO unless I'm shooting video. Wish it did 50 ISO. Best options at the end of the day is to keep playing around. Lots of YouTube videos to learn techniques!

I am assuming you meant +.3 to +.6 overexposure rather than +.03 to .06?
Thanks for the tip about the DJI DNG converter. However, since DNG is Abobe's open source RAW format, and not proprietary in any way, I would be far more confident in adobe LR's ability to convert that DNG than DJI's version of it, which is offered by DJI for convenience, rather than because it is the best tool for the job.