Dissapointed with image quality

[heath80]

Hey guys
First post here and i wish it could be positive but ive had my mavic pro 2 for a few weeks now and so far i must say im terribly dissapointed with the image quality from the mavic.
I had intentions of doing some landscape photography and printing. Ive gone through all the troubleshooting steps (calibrated IMU and gimbal etc). Ive also made sure that im shooting at an appropriate aperture and shutter speed.
I actually thought there was something wrong with it, so i had send it back to DJI and it was returned to me with no issues found.
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice ?
i come from a wedding photography background and i understand that the image quality wont match the output from a DSLR but its very dissapointing.
Ive also shot in Raw+JPEG, i understand RAW may need some tweaking but you cant fix a blurry image. And ive touched focus for anyone who asks
Ill attach a few examples from today
cheers in advance

 

[Meta4]

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice ?

Perhaps trying a new monitor or some new glasses would help

I actually thought there was something wrong with it, so i had send it back to DJI and it was returned to me with no issues found.

That's not surprising

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

The photos you have posted are not the full-res images being captured by the Mavic.

 

[Meta4]

The photos you have posted are not the full-res images being captured by the Mavic.

They are ... just check the pixel dimensions (5464 x 3070)
And their quality looks OK

 

[heath80]

thanks for your responses........if the image quality looks good to you guys then ill persist with the drone.

 

[Olav van Gerven]

Could you give some more information about the time of the day you took the pics? To me it looks that there was relativly "hard" light, bright sun and therefore the fotos might look a little over-exposed. Something I normally like, since you have better content in the shadowing parts of the pictures. Post-production can correct that.

The pictures are sharp (I enlarged them to 200% and no unusual thing showed up),

Don't forget, there only is a small camera under your drone, not a canon DSLR or something like that.

Since I don't have the EXIF-Data to the files, I do have to gues, but check this with the camera settings: ISO to 100, that will reduce "noise" in the pictures, use an ND-Filter, I would start with an ND4 and see what happens, and then play a little with the exposure time. The ND-Filter will take some of the bright light, which is helpfull with a fixed apperture (which is the standard on the MP2 if I'm right).

If in post production, before you change anything, just duplicate the original photo, it will make it easier to return to it if you completly kill it PP. I personally would reduce the over exposure a little and see if balancing the red/green/blue mixture would bringe me the effect I want, but that is personally.

 

[Paul2660]

I would drop use of a ND filter unless you are after certain video settings. For stills use base ISO, keep aperture no higher than f4.5. Bracket your exposures and work up final image in post. Use your shutter speeds to control exposure. It’s a ES only camera but I have yet to see any issues of rolling shutter on stills.

Process is no different than a DSLR work flow for me besides the fact the the sensor on the M2 Pro is pretty worthless for DR past ISO 200. I stay at 100 all the time.

5 shot brackets.

Raw or jpg. If jpg check your camera setting for amount of sharpening you have.

This camera has a Lot of retrolinear distortion and field curvature. With camera level field curvature is minimal but pointing up or down will have quite a bit. Horizon will curve up towards edges. Note this is corrected in camera for jpgs. Raw DNG is not but LR will read the in camera exif info and correct it but with a bit corner softness. To see this just look a DNG in Capture One and turn off the lens correction data or a tool like raw digger.

Paul C

 

[brettbrandon]

Hey guys
First post here and i wish it could be positive but ive had my mavic pro 2 for a few weeks now and so far i must say im terribly dissapointed with the image quality from the mavic.
I had intentions of doing some landscape photography and printing. Ive gone through all the troubleshooting steps (calibrated IMU and gimbal etc). Ive also made sure that im shooting at an appropriate aperture and shutter speed.
I actually thought there was something wrong with it, so i had send it back to DJI and it was returned to me with no issues found.
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice ?
i come from a wedding photography background and i understand that the image quality wont match the output from a DSLR but its very dissapointing.
Ive also shot in Raw+JPEG, i understand RAW may need some tweaking but you cant fix a blurry image. And ive touched focus for anyone who asks
Ill attach a few examples from today
cheers in advance

There have been a bunch of bad cameras, just search the forums.
I took a look at your pics and overall they look typical of what you get from this camera. There are alot of areas in the pics where it is harder to know what is supposed to be sharp. Try taking a shot looking straight down on some sharp edged gravel or a brick wall. Something that has sharp detail everywhere. The bad cameras have had blurry areas.

I have a service ticket in right now because the "replacement" M2P they sent me has one of those bad cameras. In the service email they sent me they said they were replacing the "core board" but when I got it, it was a whole new bird. Thats what I was afraid of as I new about the bad cameras and my original M2P had a great camera on it.

Here is a pic from the M2P and the same pic with my iPhone. I placed some arrows in the general vicinity of some of the problems. Its a sad day when an iPhone takes a sharper pic than a Hassleblad...

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Paul2660 has it well summarised.
I do understand, that coming from DSLR (I've been into it since 25 years) it is indeed a difference but there's nothing exceptional bad I can find on your pictures.

Sharpness drops with distance to centre, higher aperture will result in early diffraction softness, so best to stay between 2.8 - 4 ... mine is actually the same for 2.8 as in 4 on ISO 100.
Sometimes the depth of field seems to be shallow even though the object I focus is in far distance. On the other hand, you have to think, that catching pictures with the Mavic from the air also incorporates haze and other different effects on optics.

From a 1" sensor, the image quality is quite good, yet you probably need some "training" to get used to some of the behaviours.
In fact all the other rules of photography still apply: light, light, light, idea and composition.

If you still feel, like I had with my 1st Mavic 2 Pro, that you face technical difficulties, please post the DNG in full resolution (3:2 ratio).

 

[brettbrandon]

I would also suggest shooting full mode (4:3) (5472 x 3648) as those pics are in the cropped mode (16:9). You can always crop it to what you want later. Definately shoot full mode to check for sharpness.

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

They are ... just check the pixel dimensions (5464 x 3070)
And their quality looks OK

966kb to 1mb file size would indicate that they are not original photos and have been heavily compressed, if not resized.

 

[Kilrah]

And it's very visible, there's absolutely terrible compression blocking.
Nothing the drone did though, it's whatever the OP's done to the poor files that did it.

 

[Meta4]

I would start with an ND4 and see what happens, and then play a little with the exposure time. The ND-Filter will take some of the bright light, which is helpfull with a fixed apperture (which is the standard on the MP2 if I'm right).

No .. the MP2 has a proper controllable aperture and there is no need to use an ND filter at all for stills (unless there is a particular reason to want to force the use of a slower shutter speed).

 

[heath80]

There have been a bunch of bad cameras, just search the forums.
I took a look at your pics and overall they look typical of what you get from this camera. There are alot of areas in the pics where it is harder to know what is supposed to be sharp. Try taking a shot looking straight down on some sharp edged gravel or a brick wall. Something that has sharp detail everywhere. The bad cameras have had blurry areas.

I have a service ticket in right now because the "replacement" M2P they sent me has one of those bad cameras. In the service email they sent me they said they were replacing the "core board" but when I got it, it was a whole new bird. Thats what I was afraid of as I new about the bad cameras and my original M2P had a great camera on it.

Here is a pic from the M2P and the same pic with my iPhone. I placed some arrows in the general vicinity of some of the problems. Its a sad day when an iPhone takes a sharper pic than a Hassleblad...

View attachment 75366

View attachment 75367

thankyou for taking the time to post the photos. Thats an interesting comparason considering the sensor sizes.

 

[heath80]

thankyou for everyone that contributed, its an awesome piece of kit but just underwhelmed with the image thats all.
ill definately try the suggestions mentioned

 

[Olav van Gerven]

No .. the MP2 has a proper controllable aperture and there is no need to use an ND filter at all for stills (unless there is a particular reason to want to force the use of a slower shutter speed).

Thanks for the correction on the apperture.

If and when how why to use ND-Filters even for stills can be a personal decision based on what I want to achieve. The smaller apperture gives less depth-focus in pictures, so you could use it to achieve a certain effect. But before you do that with the drone, you should experiment with a normal camera (after 45 years of photography with almost evrything between the cheap cardboard onetime-use cameras and the Hasselblatt 6x6 I am beyond the experimenting). But still that s a personal decision, no "need" for a beginner, you are correct on that.

 

[AMann]

It would help to see a RAW file of a test photo you took, not a jpg. It should also have the EXIF data as well. Do you have a dropbox folder you can share a link to? PM is ok also.

 

[Meta4]

Thanks for the correction on the apperture.

If and when how why to use ND-Filters even for stills can be a personal decision based on what I want to achieve. The smaller apperture gives less depth-focus in pictures, so you could use it to achieve a certain effect. But before you do that with the drone, you should experiment with a normal camera (after 45 years of photography with almost evrything between the cheap cardboard onetime-use cameras and the Hasselblatt 6x6 I am beyond the experimenting). But still that s a personal decision, no "need" for a beginner, you are correct on that.

Before you give advice on drone photography it would be a good idea to get some experience.
What you are saying might be applicable using a fast portrait lens on your Hasselblad but DoF is not an issue shooting aerial photography from a drone with a very wide angle lens and small sensor.
Your drone camera has more depth of field than you'll ever need .. at any aperture.

If you want to get into details, DoF might be an issue if your subject is closer than 2 metres and you still want good background details.
That would apply to <1% of drone photography.

Unless you have a particular reason to want to force a slower shutter speed, there is no need to use ND filters on your drone camera.

 

[m0j0]

, use an ND-Filter, I would start with an ND4 and see what happens, and then play a little with the exposure time. The ND-Filter will take some of the bright light, which is helpfull with a fixed apperture (which is the standard on the MP2 if I'm right).

I would not use an ND filter for normal photos with the M2P. It has a controllable aperture. If you are shooting video the filters are necessary.

 

[paulatkin73]

so, of ND filters - some cheapest ones that are available can and will do harm to your sharpness as their glass is not that great. good quality nd filter, nd8 or nd16 does not deteriorate nothing.
as of working aperture - on the mavic 2 pro, any aperture smaller than 5.6 results in a sharpness reduction. i personally prefer to keep it one stop from full open, if possible, and keep ND8 filter on at all times, from the tiffen filters set.
both gimbals i have - pro and zoom have properly mounted lens, so there is no side effects - all corners are equally sharp, and, yes, they are less sharp than a center, and it is expected. overall the sharpness of the pro 1" sensor is excellent, if and when focused properly.
if you compare it to other similar units - it works fine. if you compare it to a full frame 35 format DSLR - then, well, of course it is not going to be like it. store shots in RAW format, convert it properly, and everything will look good.