Digital Zoom vs Post Processing

[akdrone]

I have long eschewed digital zoom because I do post processing in Photoshop/Lightroom for photos and Final Cut Pro for video. I can "zoom" in with either and have alway assumed I can do a better job than digital zoom. I read someplace long forgotten that DJI uses some internal processing that might make their digital zoom superior to shooting at the native resolutions (1x for the wide angle and 7x for the tele) and then enlarging in post. I would not bother doing more than 2x for the wide and 14x for the tele if I thought it was going to actually be used in a video but regardless of that, what are your thoughts on "zooming" in post via from within the camera.

 

[slup]

I have long eschewed digital zoom because I do post processing in Photoshop/Lightroom for photos and Final Cut Pro for video. I can "zoom" in with either and have alway assumed I can do a better job than digital zoom. I read someplace long forgotten that DJI uses some internal processing that might make their digital zoom superior to shooting at the native resolutions (1x for the wide angle and 7x for the tele) and then enlarging in post. I would not bother doing more than 2x for the wide and 14x for the tele if I thought it was going to actually be used in a video but regardless of that, what are your thoughts on "zooming" in post via from within the camera.

It depend on if it's actually a "digital" zoom or a "sensor cropping ... the difference is quite large.

Don't have a clip for a Mavic 3 ... but if it's done like in the Mavic Air 2s it can actually be rather good.

Check this out ... jump directly to 3:34 for side to side comparisons

 

[sar104]

I must be missing something. Digital zoom is sensor cropping, generally with upsampling. It should not matter whether it is done onboard or in post processing unless the upsampling algorithms are significantly different.

 

[slup]

I must be missing something. Digital zoom is sensor cropping, generally with upsampling. It should not matter whether it is done onboard or in post processing unless the upsampling algorithms are significantly different.

Maybe the clip creator got something backwards regarding the expressions he used ... but it's a clear difference between what he made in post compared to the in camera version.

 

[sar104]

Maybe the clip creator got something backwards regarding the expressions he used ... but it's a clear difference between what he made in post compared to the in camera version.

It wasn't obvious, but my guess is that he never upsampled and sharpened the crop, which would obviously make it look much less detailed. If that's the case then he simply doesn't understand the process at all.

 

[slup]

It wasn't obvious, but my guess is that he never upsampled and sharpened the crop, which would obviously make it look much less detailed. If that's the case then he simply doesn't understand the process at all.

Could be ... doesn't have anything flying that zooms myself, so can't challenge his post processing.

 

[ianwood]

Effects that you apply in camera which can be done in edit are typically best done in edit. There are two reasons for this:

1. You have more options. You may decide you don't want to apply the effect or want to do it differently.

2. Your computer has a lot more processing power and a lot more time to process your image. There are some pretty sophisticated upscaling tools in a lot of platforms e.g. Photoshop Super Resolution.

 

[Lambda]

so, with the above in mind, what's the use of the zoom then?
I wanted to use this because I thought that it would be far safer (both for drone and for powerlines) to photograph the underside of a powerline cross-arm from a distance
Or am I missing something?

 

[sar104]

so, with the above in mind, what's the use of the zoom then?
I wanted to use this because I thought that it would be far safer (both for drone and for powerlines) to photograph the underside of a powerline cross-arm from a distance
Or am I missing something?

Two common purposes:

1. To give you a magnified image on the controller screen;
2. To be able to create movies and images with zoom effects straight out of the camera without having to do any post-processing.

 

[Dave Maine]

To add a little bit to these discussions.

1. Digital cropping, either in camera or post, greatly reduces image quality as far fewer pixels are being used to create the end image.

2. There is some AI experimentation being used in post processing now that shows a little promise. Lightroom, Photoshop, and Resolve all have a form of it. Topaz makes a dedicated program as well. They are all very compute intensive, and give only a slight improvement. In my experiments, they are only useful as salvage techniques where the original cannot be reshot, and must be used.

 

[Lambda]

I use Topaz denoise and sharpen quite a lot
They do an ok job, but not if trying to enlarge an image

 

[akdrone]

so, with the above in mind, what's the use of the zoom then?
I wanted to use this because I thought that it would be far safer (both for drone and for powerlines) to photograph the underside of a powerline cross-arm from a distance
Or am I missing something?

If you are able to use a program like Photoshop or other high end editing tool then it may be of no advantage whatsoever. Simply shooting at 1x or7x and then editing in PS may get a better result. Probably will. For those that DON'T do any further editing, being able to zoom in can be a great thing. I shoot 4K and almost always upload 1080p so I can crop in a good deal with video and the still images. I almost never zoom in digitally.

 

[Lambda]

I have long eschewed digital zoom because I do post processing in Photoshop/Lightroom for photos and Final Cut Pro for video. I can "zoom" in with either and have alway assumed I can do a better job than digital zoom. I read someplace long forgotten that DJI uses some internal processing that might make their digital zoom superior to shooting at the native resolutions (1x for the wide angle and 7x for the tele) and then enlarging in post. I would not bother doing more than 2x for the wide and 14x for the tele if I thought it was going to actually be used in a video but regardless of that, what are your thoughts on "zooming" in post via from within the camera.

Thanks for this
I am not a real fan of digitalk zoom, and have already done as suggested