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4K to 1080p zoom

ccoltmanm

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I don’t see why we can’t digitally zoom on the Mavic 2 Pro. If the drone can shoot in 4K, let it crop and zoom in on the 1080p frame. I know you can do it in post but why not during too?

I miss the fake zoom the Mavic 1 had.
 
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I don’t see why we can’t digitally zoom on the Mavic 2 Pro. If the drone can shoot in 4K, let it crop and zoom in on the 1080p frame. I know you can do it in post but why not during too?

I miss the fake zoom the Mavic 1 had.
Then how would sell anybody the zoom model. I agree it’s dumb they certainly could they just won’t.
 
Clearly, it is technically possible, because you actually get up to 4x Dynamic Zoom with the M2Z while shooting in 1080p at up to 30fps. It's a combination of the 2x optical and the digital crop of the 4K sensor into 1080p. The zoom dial then goes from 24-96mm.
 
With the M2Z, you at least get 2x zoom in any mode since it is optical.

But I see OP's point. As long as you're doing a video in a lower resolution, you should be able to zoom as much as the recording resolution to max resolution will allow. Part of the problem may have been on how to control the zoom. The right wheel is used for zoom on the Zoom, but on the Pro, it controls one of the exposure variables. Speaking of which, I wish the right dial could be pushed in to change control modes like on the Phantom remotes.
 
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With the M2Z, you at least get 2x zoom in any mode since it is optical.

But I see OP's point. As long as you're doing a video in a lower resolution, you should be able to zoom as much as the recording resolution to max resolution will allow. Part of the problem may have been on how to control the zoom. The right wheel is used for zoom on the Zoom, but on the Pro, it controls one of the exposure variables. Speaking of which, I wish the right dial could be pushed in to change control modes like on the Phantom remotes.
Agreed. Replacing the exposure control on the right wheel with the zoom on the M2Z is awkward, as there is now no way to adjust exposure on the M2Z without taking one of the hands off the sticks to play with the 5 way button to adjust exposure. A digital zoom solution on the M2P would be to allow a pinch pull zoom on the touch screen of the tablet, even if only to better see the subject in flight, while still recording the full selected field of view (FOV or HQ) in 4K. Autel does this on their EVO at up to 8x, but it is to the exclusion of the recording of the rest of the frame, and it is a stepped digital zoom of 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 7x or 8x, instead of a linear continuous zoom, like the M2Z optical zoom.
 
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Then how would sell anybody the zoom model. I agree it’s dumb they certainly could they just won’t.
Because the zoom is actual optimal zoom with no reduction in resolution. Digital zoom isn't zoom - it's merely cropping in this instance.
 
True but the M2 Pro sensor cropped to x2 would still be larger than the zoom’s sensor.
View attachment 82229
Indeed! Which is why the M2P in HQ (40mm equiv vs. 28mm equiv for the FOV mode) is vastly superior in video image quality to the 48mm (equiv) 2x optical zoom video of the M2Z, especially in low light, as the M2P HQ crop is still at f/2.8, while the M2Z at 48mm drops to f/3.8 on a much smaller sensor, because the M2Z is not a fixed aperture zoom. It is a variable aperture zoom. When you zoom the M2Z to 2x at 48mm, you lose nearly a full stop of light over the wider 24mm setting. However, on the M2P, you lose the ability to gradually zoom in or out, and actually have to stop the FOV video at 28mm to change to HQ recording at 40mm. It's all a series of compromises.

M2Z

FOV: about 83° (24 mm); about 48° (48 mm)
35 mm Format Equivalent: 24-48 mm
Aperture: f/2.8 (24 mm)–f/3.8 (48 mm)
 
I don’t see why we can’t digitally zoom on the Mavic 2 Pro. If the drone can shoot in 4K, let it crop and zoom in on the 1080p frame. I know you can do it in post but why not during too?

I miss the fake zoom the Mavic 1 had.
marketing reasons - they really did not want to give pro any features zoom carries. no other good reason at all. same with the 'superres' pano mode. they could have done it on pro also, without zooming in, of course, but - dji did do what they believed was best for them to allow to market both models separately.
 
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Indeed! Which is why the M2P in HQ (40mm equiv vs. 28mm equiv for the FOV mode) is vastly superior in video image quality to the 48mm (equiv) 2x optical zoom video of the M2Z, especially in low light, as the M2P HQ crop is still at f/2.8, while the M2Z at 48mm drops to f/3.8 on a much smaller sensor, because the M2Z is not a fixed aperture zoom. It is a variable aperture zoom. When you zoom the M2Z to 2x at 48mm, you lose nearly a full stop of light over the wider 24mm setting. However, on the M2P, you lose the ability to gradually zoom in or out, and actually have to stop the FOV video at 28mm to change to HQ recording at 40mm. It's all a series of compromises.

still, zoom model in max optical zoom position gives slightly better detail level than a pro model in HQ in a comparable bright light day shoot when properly exposed to the right. i find it to be quite odd, to be honest, but, it is a fact. results are quite comparable, but, zoom gives a bit better detail. i think pro could have used a better quality lens...
 
still, zoom model in max optical zoom position gives slightly better detail level than a pro model in HQ in a comparable bright light day shoot when properly exposed to the right. i find it to be quite odd, to be honest, but, it is a fact. results are quite comparable, but, zoom gives a bit better detail. i think pro could have used a better quality lens...
If you fly at sunset and return in the dark, the smaller M2Z sensor cannot keep up, especially if you expect to use the 2x zoom, which loses another stop of light. Effectively, the M2P in HQ mode offers 2 more stops of exposure over the M2Z at 2x zoom in low light.

In bright light, they are definitely comparable. Most of my flying is at sunset because of the golden hour lighting, so I find myself flying the M2P most of the time, and the M2Z only when I need the magnification of the zoom, in which case, I'll often shoot in 1080p to get 4x for skittish wildlife, bird nests, and discreet surveillance. The extra distance away on the M2Z attracts far less attention. For spherical panoramas, the 20MP of the M2P stills and the higher dynamic range makes it a clear winner for me. Both have their place. They complement each other well. It's not an either/or for me.
 
They complement each other well. It's not an either/or for me.

same here. biggest annoyance i have with M2P is the, in my opinion, broken panorama creation code in it - as it does not produce automatically JPG files of the expected hi resolution image after stitching 3x3, for an example, 20mp images. M2Z does it correctly, more or less, but with M2P i always have to do it in the external program to get a properly sized panorama. i did not try it with new 510 firmware, but it is probably still same as it was.
 
same here. biggest annoyance i have with M2P is the, in my opinion, broken panorama creation code in it - as it does not produce automatically JPG files of the expected hi resolution image after stitching 3x3, for an example, 20mp images. M2Z does it correctly, more or less, but with M2P i always have to do it in the external program to get a properly sized panorama. i did not try it with new 510 firmware, but it is probably still same as it was.
Have you tried the setting to keep original pano images as DNG instead? Might only be a bug in the keep original pano images as JPEG on the 3x3 pano. It works correctly for the 26 photo Spherical Pano when set to save originals as JPEG's. I'm still on the 100 FW.
 
Have you tried the setting to keep original pano images as DNG instead? Might only be a bug in the keep original pano images as JPEG on the 3x3 pano. It works correctly for the 26 photo Spherical Pano when set to save originals as JPEG's. I'm still on the 100 FW.
that is what i do - i always save original DNG, then process them in photoshop.
but, it would be nice to be able to get from M2P automatically created JPGs in the same way how M2Z makes them. it does 12mp->48mp, so, one would expect to see a 20mp->80mp JPG from M2P - it is not doing it. go figure why. cpu and ram should not have been a factor there, but, alas.
 
that is what i do - i always save original DNG, then process them in photoshop.
but, it would be nice to be able to get from M2P automatically created JPGs in the same way how M2Z makes them. it does 12mp->48mp, so, one would expect to see a 20mp->80mp JPG from M2P - it is not doing it. go figure why. cpu and ram should not have been a factor there, but, alas.
I'll have to check the 3x3 panorama I created a few weeks ago to see what the save originals as JPEG setting did on my M2P. I didn't use it, so I didn't pay attention. Sounds like a bug, because it does work correctly on the 26 image Spherical Panorama, saving them as 10MP JPEG's each, as expected from the 20MP sensor.
 
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Because the zoom is actual optimal zoom with no reduction in resolution. Digital zoom isn't zoom - it's merely cropping in this instance.
Only 2x optical. The additional 2x zoom is digital. Sure you're cropping, but you're cropping 4k down to 1080p so effectively it's lossless. Zoom only does digital zoom when recording in 1080p.
So in theory Pro could do 2x lossless digital zoom.
 
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Forget digital, its not zoom. Its ugly post-processing that if you really really need is far better done IN post.
4k to 1080p is also just a crop. It doesnt get any more detail that isnt already there. It just supplies you a lower resolution crop.
The only true zoom is the optical on the M2Z (and obviously it suffers from a significantly worse sensor).

I cant see any benefit to the above that you cant do better, in post.
 
I would think getting 1080p out of a 4K sensor would skip pixels so as to use the full sensor. You're still using a full 1920 horizontal pixels in 1080p, the question is which pixels in the sensor. Therefore, no loss. OK, there's some loss when the division is not an even integer.
 
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