Reducing image sharpening

[Zak]

I'm looking to purchase a drone, and tying to strike a balance between ease of use and image quality. I've heard a lot about how simple the Phantom is to use (easy flight modes, refined software, collision avoidance...) but I've never been satisfied with the image quality. I assumed this was due to the H264 compression, but I'm starting to realize it's more about the heavy sharpening DJI applies. This forum has a good example of the difference in sharpening between ProRes and H264 on the Inspire:
ProRes/CinemaDNG vs h264/h265

So... does anyone have any experience in reducing the sharpening / artifacting on the Phantom 4, either in camera or in post? Is it possible to get a more natural image out of it, or are you basically stuck with the heavy sharpening?

 

[KevMo Photog]

I'm looking to purchase a drone, and tying to strike a balance between ease of use and image quality. I've heard a lot about how simple the Phantom is to use (easy flight modes, refined software, collision avoidance...) but I've never been satisfied with the image quality. I assumed this was due to the H264 compression, but I'm starting to realize it's more about the heavy sharpening DJI applies. This forum has a good example of the difference in sharpening between ProRes and H264 on the Inspire:
ProRes/CinemaDNG vs h264/h265

So... does anyone have any experience in reducing the sharpening / artifacting on the Phantom 4, either in camera or in post? Is it possible to get a more natural image out of it, or are you basically stuck with the heavy sharpening?

You can use a custom camera setting to turn down 3 points I think. That should help maybe. I have been just fine with it set to zero on mine. But a lot of guys go to -1 or -2. There are 3 things you can change in custom settings btw. Sharpness, Saturation, and Contrast. This menu is under your camera settings.

 

[John Locke]

I use -2 sharpening when shooting ocean scenes and it helps a lot to reduce artifacts.

 

[Zak]

Thanks guys. I'm thinking I may have to borrow a friend's P4 and test it out for myself before purchasing. Maybe I'll do a comparison of ProRes (from a professional camera) and the Phantom.

I'll report back when I can!

 

[deezid]

Thanks guys. I'm thinking I may have to borrow a friend's P4 and test it out for myself before purchasing. Maybe I'll do a comparison of ProRes (from a professional camera) and the Phantom.

I'll report back when I can!

Would really love about your expierences.
The Phantom 4 Pro footage I saw so far looks completely overprocessed and the codec seems to struggle thanks to the crazy sharpening.
Would love to know if it's possible to get a smooth but detailed picture or if you need to buy the Inspire 2 with X5s and RAW licence instead, lol

 

[KevMo Photog]

Would really love about your expierences.
The Phantom 4 Pro footage I saw so far looks completely overprocessed and the codec seems to struggle thanks to the crazy sharpening.
Would love to know if it's possible to get a smooth but detailed picture or if you need to buy the Inspire 2 with X5s and RAW licence instead, lol

You can process the files how you like them out of a RAW processor. Theyre pretty darn good if you know what your doing some. You can also adjust your settings to not sharpen as much at capture in the software too. But if you want better IQ without any sharpening your prob not gonna be happy until you go X5 or a Matrice with a DSLR.

 

[Zak]

I've only just started shooting the film I bought it for, but so far I'm happy with the results when using D-log color and sharpening down to -3.

Here's a test clip (shot at 4K H.265 and converted to ProRes LT)
Dropbox - DJI_0015-Apple ProRes 422 LT.mov

It's definitely a little soft/compressed in the details, but it's mostly free of that awful over-sharpened look that the standard settings have. Haven't had a chance to try grading it yet.

 

[Tomas Wangen]

Would really love about your expierences.
The Phantom 4 Pro footage I saw so far looks completely overprocessed and the codec seems to struggle thanks to the crazy sharpening.
Would love to know if it's possible to get a smooth but detailed picture or if you need to buy the Inspire 2 with X5s and RAW licence instead, lol

I find the quality rather excellent for most scenes. Here is some difficult-ish footage from earlier captured in 4k 30 / h265 / dCineLike / -1 sharpness

Graded / noise-reduced in Davinci Resolve

I used dlog for a while but found that the reduced tonality in highlights were unacceptable for most footage.

 

[Zak]

I used dlog for a while but found that the reduced tonality in highlights were unacceptable for most footage.

Just curious what you mean by reduced tonality here Tomas? I've been using D-log specifically to retain more dynamic range.

 

[Tomas Wangen]

Just curious what you mean by reduced tonality here Tomas? I've been using D-log specifically to retain more dynamic range.

Very simplified, dlog sacrifices tones in the highlights to use them for shadows. As only total 8 bits (256) tones are available, this causes very few tones with typical banding-artifacts in bright and uniform areas (such as a clear sky), but shadows that are easy to recover as compared to eg dCineLike or none.

 

[shockwave199]

Don't bother with a p4. If quality is the thing, only go for the p4a or preferably, the p4p.

 

[Zak]

That's good to know Tomas, I've seen banding before on 8-bit cameras like the a7S, but thankfully I've been spared it on the Phantom so far. If it starts cropping up, I'll consider switching to D-Cine.

 

[John Locke]

I've only just started shooting the film I bought it for, but so far I'm happy with the results when using D-log color and sharpening down to -3.

Here's a test clip (shot at 4K H.265 and converted to ProRes LT)
Dropbox - DJI_0015-Apple ProRes 422 LT.mov

It's definitely a little soft/compressed in the details, but it's mostly free of that awful over-sharpened look that the standard settings have. Haven't had a chance to try grading it yet.

Zak, that clip needs a lot more grading work if it's D-log, unless you want it to look like a dreary day in London.

 

[Zak]

Ha, like I said John I haven't gotten a chance to grade it yet. I've applied the DJI LUT to it in Resolve as a basic test and haven't spotted any banding yet, though there is a bit of color noise. I'm going to give D-cine a try and see how it goes-- I'm mostly just concerned with retaining the highlight detail.