Mini 4 Pro losing video quality when zooming

[Beckham1121]

Please forgive me if I am posting this in the wrong section or, if this has been discussed already (I wasn't able to find any previous threads). I've noticed, while in flight as I am recording video, when I zoom in to the maximum 3X everything on the ground starts to look like mine craft. Visibly pixeled. It's especially noticeable in trees. I'm hoping it's just a minor issue in the camera settings but, I am nowhere near being a professional photographer and always set my camera to auto because of this. This is shooting 4K at 48fps. It also doesn't seem to make a difference what filter I am using.

Has anyone else had this issue and if so, how did you fix it? Thank you for any suggestions you can provide.

 

[GFields]

Please forgive me if I am posting this in the wrong section or, if this has been discussed already (I wasn't able to find any previous threads). I've noticed, while in flight as I am recording video, when I zoom in to the maximum 3X everything on the ground starts to look like mine craft. Visibly pixeled. It's especially noticeable in trees. I'm hoping it's just a minor issue in the camera settings but, I am nowhere near being a professional photographer and always set my camera to auto because of this. This is shooting 4K at 48fps. It also doesn't seem to make a difference what filter I am using.

Has anyone else had this issue and if so, how did you fix it? Thank you for any suggestions you can provide.

I am not having that issue. Do you have it set for AF or MF?

 

[davidarmenb]

When you zoom like that, which is a digital zoom, the video is just being cropped in, so the more you zoom, the less resolution you have. The physical lens on the drone isn’t zooming, it’s just a crop. It is totally normal and not an issue.

Here is a quick explanation on YouTube.

 

[Beckham1121]

I am not having that issue. Do you have it set for AF or MF?

It is set for AF. I try not to do anything manual so I don't screw up the image. The majority of the time I record video. I rarely do still shots. I figure if I see something in the video I want to make a still shot out of, I just capture a screen shot of it.

 

[Beckham1121]

When you zoom like that, which is a digital zoom, the video is just being cropped in, so the more you zoom, the less resolution you have. The physical lens on the drone isn’t zooming, it’s just a crop. It is totally normal and not an issue.

Here is a quick explanation on YouTube.

That video is an excellent explanation of optical zoom. I'm from the old school where with 35mm when you zoomed the lens physically moved. This digital stuff is still foreign to me but, I do understand some of it. Thank you.

 

[Droning on and on...]

When you zoom like that, which is a digital zoom, the video is just being cropped in, so the more you zoom, the less resolution you have. The physical lens on the drone isn’t zooming, it’s just a crop. It is totally normal and not an issue.

Here is a quick explanation on YouTube.

Depends on output resolution.

A 4k (3840×2160) sensor can be zoomed 2× shooting 1080p, center cropped to 1/4 of the pixels without losing resolution.

The imaging pipeline does not first decimate the full 4K sensor to FHD, and then crop out the center quarter of that reduced-resolution set of pixels, then blow them up with bicubic or some other pixel duplication algorithm. That would obviously be stupid.

 

[EssenYVR]

Digital zoom cannot exceed the resolution of the lens/sensor without loosing quality.

If quality at 3X zoom is important, then you need a drone with a longer lens, like the Mavic series. It has three separate cameras with three different focal lengths.

 

[Beckham1121]

Should have clarified better... I also fly a mini 2 and 3. They don't seem to lose as much clarity when d zooming compared to the mini 4 pro. I guess my question is... Is there a way to pick up additional clarity (through settings, etc.) while d zooming the mini 4 pro, to bring it into parity with the mini 2 and 3?