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New Mavic User - Sharpness ok?

dacoco

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Hi,

i'm kind of a photo enthusiast but i also read about all the Mavics with sharpness problems.

So would you mind to watch this picture and (you can download it in full resolution with the download button on the lower right side) tell me if the sharpness in the edges is good?
Picture Link to Flickr
The cars on the upper right side are a good indicator for seeing the sharpness decrease.

Would you keep it or get another one from the dealer?

Thanks
 
Hi,

i'm kind of a photo enthusiast but i also read about all the Mavics with sharpness problems.

So would you mind to watch this picture and (you can download it in full resolution with the download button on the lower right side) tell me if the sharpness in the edges is good?
Picture Link to Flickr
The cars on the upper right side are a good indicator for seeing the sharpness decrease.

Would you keep it or get another one from the dealer?

Thanks
I would try tapping the screen to focus in an area slightly closer to the upper right side, many users have found they have a "sweet spot" on the screen they can tap and all will be in good focus.
Regards,
-d.
 
Hi Bunny Too,

thanks - already tried that but the sharpness is completely the same no matter where i tap on it. At least on my test footage at home it was that way (which is a good thing). Are your edges completely sharp?

Thanks
 
Hi Bunny Too,

thanks - already tried that but the sharpness is completely the same no matter where i tap on it. At least on my test footage at home it was that way (which is a good thing). Are your edges completely sharp?

Thanks
I am not a photography guy so I have not paid as much attention. I will take a photo when I get home and post it.
Regards,
-d.
 
Hi,

i'm kind of a photo enthusiast but i also read about all the Mavics with sharpness problems.

So would you mind to watch this picture and (you can download it in full resolution with the download button on the lower right side) tell me if the sharpness in the edges is good?
Picture Link to Flickr
The cars on the upper right side are a good indicator for seeing the sharpness decrease.

Would you keep it or get another one from the dealer?

Thanks

Yours looks quite acceptable to me - and better than mine.

It's normal that the extreme edges and corners be a little soft - yours for example in the upper left and right corners is slightly soft - that may even be a focus plane issue which is out of your control as there is no aperture control. Even the very top of yours is slightly soft - but again, I'd put that to either "that's lenses for you" or out of depth of field.

Mine has a definite soft left 1/3 side and is now at DJI for repair/replacement.
 
This may get a little winded but I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

As a photographer myself I'm not sure what your intentions with the Mavic are because as an enthusiast you should already know that if you were looking for the best image quality, the Phantom 4 would have been a better choice at this price point. Now with an Aperature of 2.2 you can't expect the camera/sensor to perform any better than it did in your shot. Most lenses have a sweet spot (where it will perform best in most conditions) and that sweet spot usually falls somewhere between f5.6 - f8. The lack of sharpness is not what first caught my attention in your shot, the over saturation did.

Although a shutter speed of 1/50 of second is good for most handheld applications, you might want to try to bump that up a little higher, especially if you're shooting in broad daylight because that shutter speed could also be contributing to the lack of sharpness you're experiencing. The cars are indeed blurry but so are other parts of this image. That blurriness could a characteristic of the lens but I would lean towards the less than optimal camera settings.

When in post, (because I feel like everything needs a second look before being put on display) how much I sharpen an image depends on where it will be seen. Web sharpening is different from print sharpening which is also dictated by size of the print, etc. The mistake that some people make is; they think they can apply a global adjustment and just be done but it very rarely works that way.

The cars in the upper right are blurry but so are the trees in the upper left and in some spots the tree limbs get mushy. I think you may have to ID the limitations of your tools and make up for those limitations with the other photography skills that you posses. If it makes you feel better, tons of many more expensive lenses fail at the edges, not just the Mavics. If the edges are going to drive you crazy, shoot in DNG, shoot wider and crop.
 
I don't think the shutter speed was much issue. 1/50 s for a ~5 mm lens is plenty of margin. Whatever blur there is is not due to motion or vibration. I see it soft in the corners and maybe the top edge and that's it. Cars dead centre are sharp.
 
Perhaps a little softness in the corners, but for a picture taken with a moderately wide-angle lens it looks pretty good to me. Even high-quality SLR wide-angle lenses from major lens companies such as Nikon or Canon can show a little softness in the corners.

Of course on these forums more people seem to be into taking videos with their Mavics than taking still pictures, and they're often trying to deliberately add motion blur to their video clips with ND filters so the slight amount of blur in the corners that you pointed out wouldn't even be noticeable in those videos.
 
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Interesting because I don't see any part of the image that is tack sharp. In broad daylight with an image like the one posted there's no reason to be shooting at such a slow shutter speed. Any small gust of wind (which is highly likely at that altitude is enough to cause blur). If we assume the wind is faster than a running person or someone swinging a hammer, it's easy to see that even at 1/60, blur is highly likely. I'm finished here.

shutter-speed-chart-1.jpg


BTQlxKw.jpg
 
Interesting because I don't see any part of the image that is tack sharp. In broad daylight with an image like the one posted there's no reason to be shooting at such a slow shutter speed. Any small gust of wind (which is highly likely at that altitude is enough to cause blur). If we assume the wind is faster than a running person or someone swinging a hammer, it's easy to see that even at 1/60, blur is highly likely. I'm finished here.

shutter-speed-chart-1.jpg


BTQlxKw.jpg

Of course it's not tack sharp. What kind of camera do you think it is?

The issue with his image is that the centre is sharp (the tackiness being another issue) but the corners are a little soft and maybe the edges too.

It's not camera shake or movement that is going to result in one part of the image being sharp and another part being soft.

The "hand hold" rule-of-thumb is shoot 1/FL. The FL here is about 5mm. 1/50 is plenty of margin.

Showing photos of subject movement is beside the point (the cars are all parked). There is no aperture control either so that's not useful.
 
Thanks for your responses.

Yes i'm a photo enthusiast, and i also got two DSLR with good lenses and of course also expensive lenses have decreasing sharpness at the edges. I already had decentered lenses from good manufacturers (which i swapped), BUT when a lens is not that good in the edges it's the same amount of "not that good" in any edge. In my picture i see that the upper edges are really soft, but the lower aren't. So i suppose the camera (if the lens is correctly centered and calibrated) is capable of doing a better sharpness in the edges. Nevertheless there are plenty of decentered Mavic lenses out there because you read a lot of the sweet spot mentioned in the second post. This is just wrong. When you have a wall 3 meters in front of you it shouldn't matter where you focus when all the parts of the image are the same wall. But this is what's happening when you have a decentered lens.

Also you're right with the P4 or better the P4Pro. It has a better sensor but i don't have enough hands. Hands? I travel a lot and carry a big DSLR bag with me, also a GoPro, a Gimbal and a Drone. I had the P3P but it was way to big and my GF always had to carry it :) - So i went for the Mavic because of it's trasportability. Of course i agree to make compromisses, but if i could have a Mavic with a great camera i want to have one. And the thread is about to find out if this is the maximum which is possible or if there will be better Mavics (and i think - yes).

1/50 wasn't for purpose because i just tested the Mavic in my first flight and everything was set to auto. Also it's just the OOC JPG, so no sharpening from my side. And as i read night shots with 1-2seconds are possible because of the gimbal, i don't think 1/50 should be an issue.
 
Now with an Aperature of 2.2 you can't expect the camera/sensor to perform any better than it did in your shot. Most lenses have a sweet spot (where it will perform best in most conditions) and that sweet spot usually falls somewhere between f5.6 - f8.

These numbers are completely bupkis when it's not a 35mm equivalent sensor and lightbox. The measure of an aperture is the ratio of the opening vs the distance to the sensor/film. In small cameras, the distance to the sensor is tiny, and the hole is tiny also, changing the entire dynamic of edge refraction at the iris. Also, the "sweet spot" is entirely a design decision; making a lens for a fixed aperture camera would definitely drive a design with a sweet spot at that aperture.
 
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Thanks for your responses.

Yes i'm a photo enthusiast, and i also got two DSLR with good lenses and of course also expensive lenses have decreasing sharpness at the edges. I already had decentered lenses from good manufacturers (which i swapped), BUT when a lens is not that good in the edges it's the same amount of "not that good" in any edge. In my picture i see that the upper edges are really soft, but the lower aren't. So i suppose the camera (if the lens is correctly centered and calibrated) is capable of doing a better sharpness in the edges. Nevertheless there are plenty of decentered Mavic lenses out there because you read a lot of the sweet spot mentioned in the second post. This is just wrong. When you have a wall 3 meters in front of you it shouldn't matter where you focus when all the parts of the image are the same wall. But this is what's happening when you have a decentered lens.

Don't forget that you were shooting on an angle so the bottom of the frame is objects far closer than at the top. This makes evaluating it much different. Shoot at a brick wall, straight on, flat on and then you'll have a far better idea.

IMO your Mavic lens is much better than mine and I hope when it comes back that it will be at least as good as yours appears to be.

I also have P4P arriving today or tomorrow...
 
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