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Confusion on Mavic Air 2 12 vs 48 Megapixel count for low light video

TheCEO

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Hello guys im new to the forum and recently picked up a Mavic Air 2 and im confused about something. I use it a lot in low light video. With the Mavic Air Its marketed as 12 & 48 megapixels. The Mavic 2 pro of course has the bigger one inch sensor (which is better in low light) is 20 megapixels. Does A 48 megapixel count on such a small sensor as the MA2 make it even worse in low light then the phantom 3 despite having a slightly larger sensor? I guess my question is when it comes to video is the Mavic Air 2 a 12 or 48 megapixel camera as the specs say both and id like to find out before I pass my return period to the store. Thank you
 
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Hello guys im new to the forum and recently picked up a Mavic Air 2 and im confused about something. I use it a lot in low light video. With the Mavic Air Its marketed as 12 & 48 megapixels. The Mavic 2 pro of course has the bigger one inch sensor (which is better in low light) is 20 megapixels. Does A 48 megapixel count on such a small sensor as the MA2 make it even worse in low light then the phantom 3 despite having a slightly larger sensor? I guess my question is when it comes to video is the Mavic Air 2 a 12 or 48 megapixel camera as the specs say both and id like to find out before I pass my return period to the store. Thank you
So the Mavic 2 is always going to have the edge in low light , there is no way around that .
The Mega Pictures takes a series of shots and puts them together on the drone to make 1 Beautiful Picture.

If your fixed on taking low light Pictures you are better off with the Mavic 2 You can check out some of are cropped 48 Mega Pictures on my website.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly our Air 2 in the Rain /Snow
 
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So the Mavic 2 is always going to have the edge in low light , there is no way around that .
The Mega Pictures takes a series of shots and puts them together on the drone to make 1 Beautiful Picture.

If your fixed on taking low light Pictures you are better off with the Mavic 2 You can check out some of are cropped 48 Mega Pictures on my website.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly our Air 2 in the Rain /Snow
Thank you for the reply. I know the mavic pro 2 is best for low light but I’m trying to see between the 12vs48 option in the mavic air 2 itself. My question is more pertaining to video quality as Id use the Mavic air 2 for video. I want to know if the video on the MA2 captured at 12mp or 48mp. Or if the sensor itself even having the option for 48mp means that even if I use it at 12mp will result in less low light performance.
 
The Mega Pictures takes a series of shots and puts them together on the drone to make 1 Beautiful Picture.
What you're saying is unclear bit if you are suggesting that the 48 MP images from the air 2 are stitched composites, that's not how it works.
 
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Thank
I’m no expert but I have read this which gives a little insight into the sensor

thank you so much! this helps a lot I just read it. i wasn’t too clear on the video aspect of it (as pictures use the mp a bit different then video resolution) but I did learn a lot about the sensor itself, thank you so much
 
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For video, unless you’ve zoomed, you’re using the nearly full sensor at the resolution you’re recording and the drone “bins” the pixels appropriately to create the single images per frame.

Likewise for photos, both 12MP and 48MP modes use the full sensor and all of the light collecting nodes, but they use them differently. 12MP will generally reduce noise and improve color output compared with 48MP, while 48MP might (in bright light and the right scenario) give a bit more detail.

That’s about it. This kind of sensor also enables much better HDR-type shooting when the camera or subjects aren’t perfect fixed, since it can take multiple exposures simultaneously. That’s what the HDR video mode and Smart Photo modes do.
 
For video, unless you’ve zoomed, you’re using the nearly full sensor at the resolution you’re recording and the drone “bins” the pixels appropriately to create the single images per frame.

Likewise for photos, both 12MP and 48MP modes use the full sensor and all of the light collecting nodes, but they use them differently. 12MP will generally reduce noise and improve color output compared with 48MP, while 48MP might (in bright light and the right scenario) give a bit more detail.

That’s about it. This kind of sensor also enables much better HDR-type shooting when the camera or subjects aren’t perfect fixed, since it can take multiple exposures simultaneously. That’s what the HDR video mode and Smart Photo modes do.
Thank you for the reply this helps a lot! So your saying for video it uses the full sensor 12mp? Or does the 12 vs 48mp not apply to video. I’m just trying to make sure that that 48mp filter isn’t a cause to make the low light video more noisy because of it compared to where if it was a full sensor read out. Thank you
 
12 & 48 MP's is for camera pics - not video. Video settings completely different. In video, you'd choosing 1080p at a certain frame rate (24 and up), 2.4k with a frame rate, and 4k at a frame rate.

Video's I've done in 1080 & 4k almost automatically go darker than same in camera mode (in low light conditions). You can run manual if you want or auto exposure and then adjust up or down on the exposure scale to get more or less light. Sometimes it's as much a +1 or more on the scale to get light conditions up on screen. You can also add exposure in post processing, but that gets tricky.
 
12 & 48 MP's is for camera pics - not video. Video settings completely different. In video, you'd choosing 1080p at a certain frame rate (24 and up), 2.4k with a frame rate, and 4k at a frame rate.

Video's I've done in 1080 & 4k almost automatically go darker than same in camera mode (in low light conditions). You can run manual if you want or auto exposure and then adjust up or down on the exposure scale to get more or less light. Sometimes it's as much a +1 or more on the scale to get light conditions up on screen. You can also add exposure in post processing, but that gets tricky.
Thank you! Yes that’s what I usually do in post but I guess I was trying to find out if that quadbayer filter that made the video worse in low light because it had all those added pixels on the same sensor even though video
Mode isn’t using the megapixels the sensor itself still has that filter on it. Or am I wrong on how that works?
 
Hello guys im new to the forum and recently picked up a Mavic Air 2 and im confused about something. I use it a lot in low light video. With the Mavic Air Its marketed as 12 & 48 megapixels. The Mavic 2 pro of course has the bigger one inch sensor (which is better in low light) is 20 megapixels. Does A 48 megapixel count on such a small sensor as the MA2 make it even worse in low light then the phantom 3 despite having a slightly larger sensor? I guess my question is when it comes to video is the Mavic Air 2 a 12 or 48 megapixel camera as the specs say both and id like to find out before I pass my return period to the store. Thank you
The MA2 can act like a 48 MP sensor when it’s advantageous to do so, like a 12 MP sensor when it’s advantageous to do so, and like two separate sensors when it’s advantageous to do so.

Since 4k is less than 12 MP, in normal video mode we can assume it records in 12 MP mode.

In HDR Video mode it’s actually acting like two separate sensors so half the pixels are recording under exposed and half the pixels are recording over exposed and the two exposures are combined in camera to make one frame.

Normally a 12MP camera would have some advantage over a 20MP camera for video use since 4k is only ~8MP. The lower resolution sensor is using a much higher percentage of the total area of the sensor to record 4k than the 20MP sensor. However, when comparing the MA2 to the M2Pro the sensor is just so much larger on the M2Pro that even though it’s using only a fraction of the sensor to record 4k that area is still larger than the entire area of the the MA2’s sensor.

What most people don’t understand is the term “1 Inch” sensor and “1/2 Inch” are proper names not measurements, at least in the way you would assume. Most people think, “well hey a 1/2” sensor is half the size of a 1 inch sensor” but a “1 inch sensor” is actually 3.78 times larger than a “1/2 inch” sensor.

These are practically proper names for sensor sizes. A “1 Inch” sensor is ~13.8x8.8mm while a “1/2 inch sensor is 6.4 x 4.8 mm. 1 actual inch of measurement is 24.4mm so nothing about a “1 inch sensor” is anywhere near 1” of measurement. It’s almost false advertising.

Having said all this when we switch to photo mode and we are comparing a 20MP 1” sensor to a 48MP 1/2 inch sensor it gets more interesting to compare the two.
 
One more question in relation to the 1/2.3” sensor of the phantom 3 pro and the half inch sensor of the MA2 would it be better in low light since the sensor is a bit bigger then that of the phantom 3 pro?
 
One more question in relation to the 1/2.3” sensor of the phantom 3 pro and the half inch sensor of the MA2 would it be better in low light since the sensor is a bit bigger then that of the phantom 3 pro?
Yes but more due to the MA2 being 2-3 full generations of camera sensors newer
 
Thank you. So that bit in sensor size being bigger isn’t a big difference, considering how small the bigger size is?
The Phantom 3’s 1/2.3” sensor is ~6.17x4.55mm so the surface area is 28.0735mm2 and the MA2 sensor is ~6.4x4.8mm so the surface area is 30.72mm2. This is a negligible difference in size. However, the MA2 is 2-3 generations of sensors technology newer which is a significant upgrade. MA2 sensor is negligibly larger but significantly newer and much better.
 
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The Phantom 3’s 1/2.3” sensor is ~6.17x4.55mm so the surface area is 28.0735mm2 and the MA2 sensor is ~6.4x4.8mm so the surface area is 30.72mm2. This is a negligible difference in size. However, the MA2 is 2-3 generations of sensors technology newer which is a significant upgrade. MA2 sensor is negligibly larger but significantly newer and much better.
Thank you so much for that, it’s very informative,Last question. Does that go for better low light performance on the new sensor as well?
 
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