Air 3S photo quality analysis with comps M2Pro and iPhone 15Pro

[wco81]

Which is the other RAW engine on the market?

 

[Split-Infinitive]

Which is the other RAW engine on the market?

Quite a few.
DxO and Capture 1 are 2 common ones, both significantly better.

 

[wco81]

Quite a few.
DxO and Capture 1 are 2 common ones, both significantly better.

I'm familiar with those, though I'd never tried them.

But DJI is using DNG, which I thought was Adobe's format so it's using Adobe Camera Raw processor?

 

[BingBong]

So that's the one good thing about the Air 3S, with the free pano, it gives you way more flexibility than the pano modes on the M2P, which limited you to either 180 or 360 panos in automated modes.

My Air 2S is the same, but at least has the 3:2 sensor like yours, plus the 22mm lens. If I want a wide pano, I just manually overlap about half a frame for 3 or 4 frames and merge Raws in Lightroom Classic. That gives you more flexibility about the merge geometry, and gives great results with no stitching errors. Spinning the drone keeps the vertical alignment the same. Obviously if you want to stitch more than one row, the free pano mode on the Air 3S comes into its own.

 

[wco81]

My Air 2S is the same, but at least has the 3:2 sensor like yours, plus the 22mm lens. If I want a wide pano, I just manually overlap about half a frame for 3 or 4 frames and merge Raws in Lightroom Classic. That gives you more flexibility about the merge geometry, and gives great results with no stitching errors. Spinning the drone keeps the vertical alignment the same. Obviously if you want to stitch more than one row, the free pano mode on the Air 3S comes into its own.

Yeah I've tried manual panos too but I like how the automated panos are put into their own folders.

The main issue now is whether panos shot in 12 Mp mode on the Air3S -- assuming the Free Pano mode allows it -- are good enough in image quality compared to shooting panos with the 20 Mp camera on the M2P.

 

[Split-Infinitive]

I'm familiar with those, though I'd never tried them.

But DJI is using DNG, which I thought was Adobe's format so it's using Adobe Camera Raw processor?

DNG is basically just an envelope with standard "handles" where you dump the raw file. Its not processed by Adobe - its merely a container (and an open source standard at that).

The actual maths is still performed by whoever made the camera.