3x vs 9x Zoom... why?

[Supernootz]

Why can you use the 3x zoom in photo but to zoom in more you need to be in video mode?

 

[WanderLost]

Why can you use the 3x zoom in photo but to zoom in more you need to be in video mode?

It's weird I suppose since we are used to using our cell phones for instance this way.
The only thing I can think of is that DJI wants you to take photos at maximum resolution and then, if you want, you can zoom in after when viewing the photos offline.

That way, you at least have a full res copy of the view. If you use the drone to zoom, it crops out more and more of the sensor, killing your resolution and increasing noise.

As a photographer, it would be my preference to have the drone make a full res photo since the noise reduction and other built-in photo enhancement may be far less sophisticated than an external program like Photoshop or similar.

 

[Supernootz]

I see. I'm not a photographer so I don't really understand it that much. Personally, I just like to use my drone for leisurely sightseeing from above and occasionally snap a picture. I really have very little, if any need to take video, however I do appreciate a good zoom feature for "surveillance" of my neighborhood.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I'd like to see a feature where you can digital zoom and frame the shot exactly as you want it in situ, then it stores both the zoomed shot and the full-sensor capture for later post-processing.

 

[winmeister6]

If you take lots of Panoramic photography, not just videos, and manually shoot/stitch for large prints, 24-28mm focal range becomes like fish bowl effect. Super wide, subjects tiny and large corners too stretched.

I am shooting with Mini3 Pro right now, I wished I had 3x (Air 3 or Mavic 3 Pro) and take from further away will look much better, more natural looks, larger subject matter and less blurred corners.

This is example. I am about 50m in elevation, about 100m from Dubrovnik city wall over water.

Background seem so far away, when in reality it's just 1km away from the drone and the mountain is about 400m in height! No compression and looks unnatural.

 

[GadgetGuy]

If you take lots of Panoramic photography, not just videos, and manually shoot/stitch for large prints, 24-28mm focal range becomes like fish bowl effect. Super wide, subjects tiny and large corners too stretched.

I am shooting with Mini3 Pro right now, I wished I had 3x (Air 3 or Mavic 3 Pro) and take from further away will look much better, more natural looks, larger subject matter and less blurred corners.

This is example. I am about 50m in elevation, about 100m from Dubrovnik city wall over water.

Background seem so far away, when in reality it's just 1km away from the drone and the mountain is about 400m in height! No compression and looks unnatural.


View attachment 167894

Looks pretty cool to me, especially if you can zoom in to see the detail from the original images that were stitched together!

You'll also have better results from 20MP stills than 12MP stills.
The HiRes in-camera 75MB stitch from the 4/3 sensor is very impressive.
Can't wait to try the new 106 image stitch from the 70mm 3x camera in the new Mavic 3 Pro update!

 

[GadgetGuy]

I'd like to see a feature where you can digital zoom and frame the shot exactly as you want it in situ, then it stores both the zoomed shot and the full-sensor capture for later post-processing.

Maybe take a screenshot of the digital zoom in Video in the field, as your test print, and as a reminder of what you intend to do later with the full-sensor Photo you then capture on the microSD card?

 

[GadgetGuy]

Why can you use the 3x zoom in photo but to zoom in more you need to be in video mode?

i think what you meant to ask is why can't you use digital zoom on the 3x telephoto lens while in Photo mode. Video mode allows a 3x digital zoom on both cameras, but separately. The 1x camera can digital zoom to 3x. The 3x telephoto can digital zoom to 9x. Photo mode only allows switching between optical 1x and optical 3x on the telephoto. No digital zoom is supported in Photo mode.

 

[WanderLost]

I'd like to see a feature where you can digital zoom and frame the shot exactly as you want it in situ, then it stores both the zoomed shot and the full-sensor capture for later post-processing.

The video in my Matrice 30 is saved that way. It can record the views from the wide and zoom camera and the screen at the same time. So even if you're watching the zoom camera for example, it's still recording the wide and the screen.

What you mentioned for stills would be very nice. I'd love to have a Raw feature on our Enterprise drones. I have to use my Mavic 3 if I want some more video options.

 

[GadgetGuy]

The video in my Matrice 30 is saved that way. It can record the views from the wide and zoom camera and the screen at the same time. So even if you're watching the zoom camera for example, it's still recording the wide and the screen.

What you mentioned for stills would be very nice. I'd love to have a Raw feature on our Enterprise drones. I have to use my Mavic 3 if I want some more video options.

Would love to have that feature on the Mavic 3 series! Simultaneous video recording on all three cameras on the Mavic 3 Pro! Wouldn't mind having an SDK, too! You Enterprise guys get all the cool tools! LOL!

 

[WanderLost]

Would love to have that feature on the Mavic 3 series! Simultaneous video recording on all three cameras on the Mavic 3 Pro! Wouldn't mind having an SDK, too! You Enterprise guys get all the cool tools! LOL!

Haha - it's a 2 edged sword. Every time I fly, there's at least 20 GB of video and photos to download and process.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Haha - it's a 2 edged sword. Every time I fly, there's at least 20 GB of video and photos to download and process.

Indeed! However, I assume the data is segregated in some way to easily separate the recordings taken by each camera, if only the active camera is of interest. Is that the case? I don't mind extra data, if I can quickly parse it to get to what I want. Kind of like multiple security cameras. Just show me the footage from the relevant cameras at the time of interest.

 

[WanderLost]

Indeed! However, I assume the data is segregated in some way to easily separate the recordings taken by each camera, if only the active camera is of interest. Is that the case? I don't mind extra data, if I can quickly parse it to get to what I want. Kind of like multiple security cameras. Just show me the footage from the relevant cameras at the time of interest.

Yes, they are separate files, one with s, w and z in the end of the file name that includes the date and file #.

 

[Droning on and on...]

The supported bitrate would have to triple... that would be a stretch, methinks.

 

[WanderLost]

The supported bitrate would have to triple... that would be a stretch, methinks.

Well, the screen resolution is 1920 x 1080 and the max res on the other two is 4k 30 fps. Why would the reality be "a stretch?"

 

[Droning on and on...]

Well, the screen resolution is 1920 x 1080 and the max res on the other two is 4k 30 fps. Why would the reality be "a stretch?"

Looked it up, the M3P Cine can record 4k/120 ProRes 422HQ @ 3772 Mbps

So...

 

[WanderLost]

Looked it up, the M3P Cine can record 4k/120 ProRes 422HQ @ 3772 Mbps

So...

Haha - we're talking about different machines altogether. The consumer drones have much better video options than the Matrice M30. Look at the specs for the Enterprise aircraft and you can see they provide simultaneous recording.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Haha - we're talking about different machines altogether. The consumer drones have much better video options than the Matrice M30. Look at the specs for the Enterprise aircraft and you can see they provide simultaneous recording.

Yeah, my bad, was responding to post #10 and had missed you were talking about the Matrice.

I suspect the only way the Cine models can achieve that near 4Gbps rate is writing to the internal SSD. The micro SD card that can write that fast simply doesn't exist.

Back to my original comment, assuming the owner of an M3P had this feature, it would seem to me they'd not want to compromise quality by having to compress 3 4k streams into the same 200Mbps limit for one camera, it would need to be able to process and write 600Mbps to the SD card.

Since we're just speculating, I'd guess this desire for symmetry would be even stronger with Air 3 owners should this feature come their way, as the two cameras have the same sensor.

 

[WanderLost]

Yeah, my bad, was responding to post #10 and had missed you were talking about the Matrice.

I suspect the only way the Cine models can achieve that near 4Gbps rate is writing to the internal SSD. The micro SD card that can write that fast simply doesn't exist.

Back to my original comment, assuming the owner of an M3P had this feature, it would seem to me they'd not want to compromise quality by having to compress 3 4k streams into the same 200Mbps limit for one camera, it would need to be able to process and write 600Mbps to the SD card.

Since we're just speculating, I'd guess this desire for symmetry would be even stronger with Air 3 owners should this feature come their way, as the two cameras have the same sensor.

Yeah - the Cine models need that high speed internal drive. It would be great if our drones took a 2230 NVME drive. They are small and light and have the bandwidth for Cine quality video and are CHEAP. The M3P should be able to record 4K-30 and a 1920 x 1080 full screen video at the same time to higher speed SD cards.

 

[GadgetGuy]

The supported bitrate would have to triple... that would be a stretch, methinks.

Indeed! We can dream, though!