Do you use 12 or "48" megapixle setting for stills on the Air3?

[Occams Razor]

Except that DJI themselves say they are different:

Air 3 Mini 4 and Mini 3 Camera CMOS...

At the moment there are several versions of this going around... Perhaps DJI should tell their consumer what the difference in the CMOS are in this 3 different drones... These are all from the DJI website: Air 3: air 3.jpg (55.72 KB, Down times: 35) Download attach 2023-9-27...

forum.dji.com

The Air 3 sensor has different native ISO values from the Minis, which means the sensors, in some way, are physically different (native ISO is a characteristic of hardware, not software).

Thanks for the link. The M3P, M4P and Air 3 all have sensors with dual native ISO's which means they have two conversion gain modes. I believe the high gain amplifier (which controls the high base ISO) can be adjusted within a range so that manufacturers can optimize the sensor for different applications. In other words, it is possible that the sensor is physically the same across all of those drones but DJI adjusted the second native ISO down from 800 to 400 for the Air 3. Please note that in some digital cameras, when you change the ISO, you are actually changing the amplifier gain for the signal from the photosites so this is something that can be controlled externally to the sensor although the amplifier is part of the sensor. Also notice that the DJI administrator did not state they were physically different sensors but the high base ISO was different for the Air 3 - although I doubt the administrator understands what they are stating. In any case, if anyone who understands sensor design and control believes what I stated is incorrect, please let me know.

 

[davidarmenb]

Thanks for the link. The M3P, M4P and Air 3 all have sensors with dual native ISO's which means they have two conversion gain modes. I believe the high gain amplifier (which controls the high base ISO) can be adjusted within a range so that manufacturers can optimize the sensor for different applications. In other words, it is possible that the sensor is physically the same across all of those drones but DJI adjusted the second native ISO down from 800 to 400 for the Air 3. Please note that in some digital cameras, when you change the ISO, you are actually changing the amplifier gain for the signal from the photosites so this is something that can be controlled externally to the sensor although the amplifier is part of the sensor. Also notice that the DJI administrator did not state they were physically different sensors but the high base ISO was different for the Air 3 - although I doubt the administrator understands what they are stating. In any case, if anyone who understands sensor design and control believes what I stated is incorrect, please let me know.

The Mini 3 Pro has a different sensor than the sensor in the Mini 4 Pro and the two sensors on the Air 3.

The Mini 3 Pro sensor is a standard FSI (front-side illuminated) sensor, whereas both the Mini 4 Pro and the Air 3 (both the wide and Tele sensors) use a stacked, BSI (back-side illuminated) sensor. Those are physical, hardware differences and so they cannot be the same physical sensor.

The stacked BSI sensor in the Mini 4 Pro, however, is physically identical to the two stacked BSI sensors in the Air 3, as far as I know.

More detailed information can be found in this post.

 

[PanoVolo]

all these differences in HW do not change anything for the initial question - which mode - 12 or 48 to use, and is sensor a 12 MPx or 48 MPx one.

 

[Droning on and on...]

all these differences in HW do not change anything for the initial question - which mode - 12 or 48 to use, and is sensor a 12 MPx or 48 MPx one.

Well, they are certainly directly pertinent to the question if they affect the quality and fidelity of the resulting image, don't you think?

In addition to actual design differences between sensors, another manufacturing process, binning, will yield different performance characteristics for different copies of exactly the same chip from even the same wafer.

The higher performing copies are given a "variation" part number designation (often -A, -01, etc. appended to the part number), and are sold at a higher price tag.

While I don't know, it is certainly possible that the sensors used in the A3 are binned and have less noise, have a higher dynamic range, better low light performance, and better achievable resolution in 48MP mode because the output is cleaner, so the image processing pipeline has more to work with.

Like I said, I don't know this, but it's an obvious place to be thinking when the engineers were designing the Air 3 and deciding how to make the camera better than the M4P.

Unless they're the crappiest engineers on the planet.

 

[CraigVMN]

I only shoot RAW. Is that 12 or 48? (BTW a 4K display only works out to be 8.3 megapixels )

 

[PanoVolo]

It will depend on the mode. DNG is not really "raw" and neither are any of the modern raw file formats for the matter - the binning (48 to 12) will happen in hardware before DNG is generated.

 

[Occams Razor]

The Mini 3 Pro has a different sensor than the sensor in the Mini 4 Pro and the two sensors on the Air 3.

The Mini 3 Pro sensor is a standard FSI (front-side illuminated) sensor, whereas both the Mini 4 Pro and the Air 3 (both the wide and Tele sensors) use a stacked, BSI (back-side illuminated) sensor. Those are physical, hardware differences and so they cannot be the same physical sensor.

The stacked BSI sensor in the Mini 4 Pro, however, is physically identical to the two stacked BSI sensors in the Air 3, as far as I know.

More detailed information can be found in this post.

Sorry but unless you have documented information other than some paid YouTubers, what you are stating is incorrect. The core image sensor for all 3 drones are the same - all of the specs, descriptions and published information from DJI do not indicate any difference between the Mini 3 Pro, Mini 4 Pro and Air 3. There is no difference between the RAW output for the 3 drones. Please note I am not stating what technology is used in these sensors as it is possible they are all 3 BSI Stacked Sensors. The only difference is the Mini 4 and Air 3 have an enhanced image processors which allows for H.265 coding (HLG/D-Log M) which the Mini 3 Pro cannot do. The ISP may be part of the sensor stack so you can technically state that may be a physical difference. Again all of my conclusions comes from the DJI published information - not from some super secret script that only a couple of sponsored reviewers allegedly have.