Is my camera sensor flawed?

[floridabeachbum]

I just shot this, and this isn't the first time I've seen this problem.

At maximum zoom (the second clip in this video), the image gets squiggly in the details. It's really noticeable in full-screen on a large device (TV - which is what I edit on).

Look for the parakeet on the reflector in the middle. Does it look like a Van Gogh painting to you?

Is this normal, or do I need to have a chat with DJI?

 

[slup]

As the MA2 haven't a optical zoom this just a digital crop made in the camera ... wouldn't expect much of that.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I just shot this, and this isn't the first time I've seen this problem.

At maximum zoom (the second clip in this video), the image gets squiggly in the details. It's really noticeable in full-screen on a large device (TV - which is what I edit on).

Look for the parakeet on the reflector in the middle. Does it look like a Van Gogh painting to you?

Is this normal, or do I need to have a chat with DJI?

If you want an optical zoom, you'll need to upgrade to the Mavic 2 Zoom with a true 2x optical zoom. Digital zoom is just a crop, as stated above. The quality deteriorates as the image gets larger in the frame.

 

[Dave Maine]

2x digital zoom crop looses 75% of the image information. Laws of Physics are hard to defeat. Digital zoom has always been a marketing gimmick.

 

[tlswift58]

If you think that is bad, try some 1080p at 4x. Go in low light conditions. Like viewing a security cam from about 2000 - you see faint images, but can't make out what they truly are. 2x in 1080p does pretty well and I've gotten decent video's of waterfalls using it and not getting dangerously close to obstacles. Too bad that DJI did not include a slider bar in 4k with the zoom mode, so you could go from 1x up to say 1.5x for better clarity. At least I have not seen that option in 4k, since I don't do a lot of it any longer.

 

[GadgetGuy]

If you think that is bad, try some 1080p at 4x. Go in low light conditions. Like viewing a security cam from about 2000 - you see faint images, but can't make out what they truly are. 2x in 1080p does pretty well and I've gotten decent video's of waterfalls using it and not getting dangerously close to obstacles. Too bad that DJI did not include a slider bar in 4k with the zoom mode, so you could go from 1x up to say 1.5x for better clarity. At least I have not seen that option in 4k, since I don't do a lot of it any longer.

1080p at 4x in good lighting on the M2Z is excellent, but that is the same as 2x in 1080p on the MA2. It's a dynamic zoom, cropping a portion of the 4K frame so it is lossless, but still not the same as a 2x optical zoom shot in 4K like the M2Z which is at 4x the resolution!