Let's talk best still image settings

[Brockrock]

I am pretty much a still image enthusiast. I certainly do record video, but mainly if there is a reason because it takes so much work after. I often do take photo after photo if I see something interesting, and like they say, there is always that one in a hundred that is really good.

So far, I have found that the MA2 needs plenty of light, and starts losing detail without it, and so far, I have found that shooting JPG & RAW is important, and I find shooting manual in 48mp one SS setting overexposed seems to give the best RAW image for post processing. I have only flown a few times however, so I'm interested in other's thoughts.

 

[dsd317]

I am pretty much a still image enthusiast. I certainly do record video, but mainly if there is a reason because it takes so much work after. I often do take photo after photo if I see something interesting, and like they say, there is always that one in a hundred that is really good.

So far, I have found that the MA2 needs plenty of light, and starts losing detail without it, and so far, I have found that shooting JPG & RAW is important, and I find shooting manual in 48mp one SS setting overexposed seems to give the best RAW image for post processing. I have only flown a few times however, so I'm interested in other's thoughts.

In regards to shooting manual, are you talking about ETTR?

 

[GadgetGuy]

I am pretty much a still image enthusiast. I certainly do record video, but mainly if there is a reason because it takes so much work after. I often do take photo after photo if I see something interesting, and like they say, there is always that one in a hundred that is really good.

So far, I have found that the MA2 needs plenty of light, and starts losing detail without it, and so far, I have found that shooting JPG & RAW is important, and I find shooting manual in 48mp one SS setting overexposed seems to give the best RAW image for post processing. I have only flown a few times however, so I'm interested in other's thoughts.

I agree that the 48MP still is noticeably sharper and has better dynamic range and color, even in low light, than the standard 12MP still. Looking at the metadata, the autoexposure 12MP still was shot at 1600 ISO while the identical 48MP autoexposure was shot at 100 ISO, a 4 stop difference. The shutter speed of the 12MP was 1/4 sec, while the 48MP was 4 seconds. I'm going to experiment using the 48MP for manually shot 360° Panos, which should theoretically be the equivalent of the using the 2x optical zoom on the M2Z for manual 360° panos with its 12MP still camera. I doubt they will rival the 20MP automated panos from the M2P, made with a 1” sensor and true 20MP stills, but we shall see!

 

[Hiflyer808]

I agree that the 48MP still is noticeably sharper and has better dynamic range and color, even in low light, than the standard 12MP still. Looking at the metadata, the autoexposure 12MP still was shot at 1600 ISO while the identical 48MP autoexposure was shot at 100 ISO, a 4 stop difference. The shutter speed of the 12MP was 1/4 sec, while the 48MP was 4 seconds. I'm going to experiment using the 48MP for manually shot 360° Panos, which should theoretically be the equivalent of the using the 2x optical zoom on the M2Z for manual 360° panos with its 12MP still camera. I doubt they will rival the 20MP automated panos from the M2P, made with a 1” sensor and true 20MP stills, but we shall see!

Everything else being equal, the 48mp should have LESS dynamic range and more noise in low light than a 12mp. 48mp should be used sparingly, for when you want some extra detail fo a brightly and evenly lit scene.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Everything else being equal, the 48mp should have LESS dynamic range and more noise in low light than a 12mp. 48mp should be used sparingly, for when you want some extra detail fo a brightly and evenly lit scene.

I compared the images side by side, at the same level of enlargement of a portion of the scene, and there was a significant difference. However, you missed the point of my post above detailing the different ISO and shutter speeds chosen by 48MP and 12MP using the automatic exposure. The 48MP used 100 ISO at a 4 sec shutter speed, while the 12MP used 1600 ISO at 1/4 second. The autoexposure algorithm of the 48MP image clearly is better written than the 12MP normal one! That alone is a reason to use 48MP over the 12MP in low light!

 

[Brockrock]

In regards to shooting manual, are you talking about ETTR?

I had to Google ETTR. I was not familiar with what that meant - in the parlance of our times... I guess, yeah. Just one click overexposed. This is only useful for the RAW image though. I wish we could only shoot in RAW actually. I toss all the JPG's. I use the Affinity Photo app on my iPad to post edit select RAW images, and it seems to work fairly well.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I had to Google ETTR. I was not familiar with what that meant - in the parlance of our times... I guess, yeah. Just one click overexposed. This is only useful for the RAW image though. I wish we could only shoot in RAW actually. I toss all the JPG's. I use the Affinity Photo app on my iPad to post edit select RAW images, and it seems to work fairly well.

The Pano options available to select from during flight for the Camera settings allow you to save the 26 originals as DNG only. For those reading along at home without google, ETTR is short for Expose To The Right on the histogram. You can often successfully recover highlights, but recovering shadows leads to too much noise on a digital sensor.

 

[boblui]

.....The 48MP used ....4 sec shutter speed .....

With a shutter speed that slow, you will have much higher chance of getting blur images if the drone is in the air. It will be pointless to shoot in high resolution.

 

[Hiflyer808]

I compared the images side by side, at the same level of enlargement of a portion of the scene, and there was a significant difference. However, you missed the point of my post above detailing the different ISO and shutter speeds chosen by 48MP and 12MP using the automatic exposure. The 48MP used 100 ISO at a 4 sec shutter speed, while the 12MP used 1600 ISO at 1/4 second. The autoexposure algorithm of the 48MP image clearly is better written than the 12MP normal one! That alone is a reason to use 48MP over the 12MP in low light!

Well of course the 48mp is going to look better than the 12mp at 100 ISO vs 1600. That's why I said everything else being equal. But 4 second shutter speed is extremely slow, in any wind at all your image will be blurred by the drone moving.