Is there a definitive source for DJI drone camera specifications?

[DJ Wes]

Is there a definitive source for DJI drone camera specifications such as sensor size (in pixels) or true focal length (not the 35mm equivalent)? I know that DJI specifies the camera's sensor size using notation such as 1/1.3 but I am looking for the actual sensor size in mm for all DJI drones. While I have found some sources for this information, too often, the sources appear to be conflicting. For example, this site lists the sensor size for many DJI drones:

DJI Drone Sensor Size Comparison Page — Aerial, Landscape, Real Estate & Architectural Photographer near Grand Rapids Michigan - DJZ Photography

A graphical view of the various sensor sizes in DJI camera drones, along with photo and video specs available in different models.

www.djzphoto.com

On that page, the Mavic 2 Pro is shown to have a 13.2x8.8mm sensor. However, the Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) calculator on this page shows the Mavic 2 Pro sensor to be 12.8x9.6mm:

GSD Calculator

Yet, this GSD calculator agrees with the Mavic 2 Pro sensor size found on the DJZphoto page:

GSD Calculator

www.pilotbyte.com

I could provide more examples for other drones, but I hope you get the idea that there appears to be plenty of inconsistent information available.

So far, my web searching has failed to turn up a definitive source for this type of information. Does anyone know if a reliable source is available?

 

[GABEatDigitalTech]

I have a spreadsheet of most of the DJI drones that I maintain where I try to put together a lot of that info. Don't think I have the width/height of sensors but I have the area and model number for most I think.
bit.ly/dji-drone-guide

 

[waynorth]

On that page, the Mavic 2 Pro is shown to have a 13.2x8.8mm sensor. However, the Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) calculator on this page shows the Mavic 2 Pro sensor to be 12.8x9.6mm:

According to DJI the sensor in the Mavic 2 Pro is 13.2x8.8mm.

 

[DJ Wes]

I have a spreadsheet of most of the DJI drones that I maintain where I try to put together a lot of that info. Don't think I have the width/height of sensors but I have the area and model number for most I think.
bit.ly/dji-drone-guide

Thanks. Your list has helped. While you don't list the sensor width and height, you do list the sensor area. From the sensor area and knowing the aspect ratio, one can calculate the sensor dimensions.

As I suspected, the sensor sizes that we often see quoted are nominal sizes. For example, the sensor size that is often quoted for the Mavic 2 Pro is 1 inch or 13.2x8.8mm. However, you list the area of that sensor as 116 mm2. The calculated sensor size for the Mavic 2 Pro using that area is 13.19x8.79mm. The Mavic 2 Pro is only one example. Based on your camera data, I have calculated the actual sensor sizes for all of the drones in your list. The calculated sensor sizes corresponds to some of the values I have seen.

I am by no means an expert in cameras and sensors. If anyone wishes to confirm or add to this information, I welcome it.

 

[Theta]

Hi @DJ Wes,
We maintain a list of most DJI camera parameters (including sensor size) for our OpenAthena software. This data allows for angle calculation from any pixel for our software's terrain-raycast:


The full list is below. We try to keep it updated as new models come out, but definitely could use help from the community:

DroneModels/droneModels.json at main · Theta-Limited/DroneModels

Contribute to Theta-Limited/DroneModels development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Multiply `ccdWidthMMPerPixel` with `widthPixels` to get width of the CMOS sensor for a drone, and do the same for height.

We use multiple data sources, including technical documents for the CMOS sensor (where available), approximations based on the published visual format, and values calculated by a calibration process:

DJI Drone Sensor Size Comparison Page — Aerial, Landscape, Real Estate & Architectural Photographer near Grand Rapids Michigan - DJZ Photography

A graphical view of the various sensor sizes in DJI camera drones, along with photo and video specs available in different models.

www.djzphoto.com

Digital Camera Sensor Sizes

There is a lot of misunderstanding about digital camera sensor sizes. Learn how big they really are.

www.digicamdb.com

CMOS Sensor Size Comparison Guide and Lens Calculator

Wondering about digital camera (CMOS) sensor sizes? This article provides information about camera sensor format sizes, general tradeoffs, and lens equivalency.

commonlands.com

GitHub - Theta-Limited/camera-calibration: Python script for manual camera calibration using OpenCV with images of a B/W Chessboard pattern

Python script for manual camera calibration using OpenCV with images of a B/W Chessboard pattern - Theta-Limited/camera-calibration

github.com

As far as true focal length, this is usually obtainable from the EXIF metadata for a drone's image. Highly recommend Phil's EXIF tool for reading this metadata:

ExifTool by Phil Harvey

A command-line application and Perl library for reading and writing EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, makernotes and other meta information in image, audio and video files. For Windows, MacOS, and Unix systems.

exiftool.org

 

[DJ Wes]

We maintain a list of most DJI camera parameters (including sensor size) for our OpenAthena software. This data allows for angle calculation from any pixel for our software's terrain-raycast:

Thank you for this. You have collected a lot of good information.

However, just when I thought I had this figured out, I find that your sensor dimensions differ from the values I have seen. Again, using only the Mavic 2 Pro sensor as an example:

Nominal dimensions: 13.2x8.8mm
Calculated dimensions: 13.19x8.79mm (from 3x2 aspect and 116mm2 area provided by GABEatDigitalTech)
Your dimensions: 12.825x8.55mm

Can you help me to understand why there appears to be a difference?

 

[Theta]

Notation for sensor size is a whole big can of worms. Basically, the published numbers are usually just a marketing gimmick based on decades old notation called 'optical format' owing back to when camera sensors were based on vacuum tubes:

Optical format - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Additionally, many sensors have unused space, extra pixels around the edges that don't appear within images, etc.

I forget what our exact source for the Mavic 2 Pro sensor size was (probably Wikipedia I think), but in testing these values seem to have produced more accurate angle measurements than Gabe's.

A few of the items in the list are just our best estimation based on the available data. We're definitely open to feedback or improvements to improve accuracy for all drone models

-Matthew

 

[mrfish]

Thank you for this, it answers a lot of my questions. I was comparing the sharpness/resolution of my mini 3 pro compared to what I am used to with fuji x sensors/lenses. I will do some comparison shots over the next week to try and get my head around things.

 

[GABEatDigitalTech]

Hi @DJ Wes,
We maintain a list of most DJI camera parameters (including sensor size) for our OpenAthena software. This data allows for angle calculation from any pixel for our software's terrain-raycast:
View attachment 173869

The full list is below. We try to keep it updated as new models come out, but definitely could use help from the community:

DroneModels/droneModels.json at main · Theta-Limited/DroneModels

Contribute to Theta-Limited/DroneModels development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Multiply `ccdWidthMMPerPixel` with `widthPixels` to get width of the CMOS sensor for a drone, and do the same for height.

We use multiple data sources, including technical documents for the CMOS sensor (where available), approximations based on the published visual format, and values calculated by a calibration process:

DJI Drone Sensor Size Comparison Page — Aerial, Landscape, Real Estate & Architectural Photographer near Grand Rapids Michigan - DJZ Photography

A graphical view of the various sensor sizes in DJI camera drones, along with photo and video specs available in different models.

www.djzphoto.com

Digital Camera Sensor Sizes

There is a lot of misunderstanding about digital camera sensor sizes. Learn how big they really are.

www.digicamdb.com

CMOS Sensor Size Comparison Guide and Lens Calculator

Wondering about digital camera (CMOS) sensor sizes? This article provides information about camera sensor format sizes, general tradeoffs, and lens equivalency.

commonlands.com

GitHub - Theta-Limited/camera-calibration: Python script for manual camera calibration using OpenCV with images of a B/W Chessboard pattern

Python script for manual camera calibration using OpenCV with images of a B/W Chessboard pattern - Theta-Limited/camera-calibration

github.com

As far as true focal length, this is usually obtainable from the EXIF metadata for a drone's image. Highly recommend Phil's EXIF tool for reading this metadata:

ExifTool by Phil Harvey

A command-line application and Perl library for reading and writing EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, makernotes and other meta information in image, audio and video files. For Windows, MacOS, and Unix systems.

exiftool.org

Super interesting data you've gathered for your software — appreciate you sharing it!

I find most of my info just searching around on various corners of the internet including Chinese forums cause I often find people who make the sensors dropping tidbits of info there. Nice to see someone else paying attention to this info, albeit for a different reason.

It's interesting in your data that the Mini 3 and Mini 3 Pro are marked as different cameras when I had previously thought they were physically the same (but DJI just software limited the Mini 3). Is this differentiation just for internal purposes or based on something you discovered?

 

[Theta]

The Mini 3 Pro were able to calibrate manually with our own drone using this script we made:

GitHub - Theta-Limited/camera-calibration: Python script for manual camera calibration using OpenCV with images of a B/W Chessboard pattern

Python script for manual camera calibration using OpenCV with images of a B/W Chessboard pattern - Theta-Limited/camera-calibration

github.com

...and the Mini 3 Pro works well with OpenAthena.

For the Mini 3, we only had the published specs to go off of (which is slightly less accurate). The Mini 3 isn't compatible with OpenAthena though since it doesn't store camera angle in its metadata.

We're happy to take suggested modifications to the list to improve accuracy. Process for doing so is in the link above.