Mavic 3 - main camera - low light image quality analysis

[SkywalkerFeng]

You could replicate Supernight by shooting a burst, stacking the image in Photoshop, and setting that stack as a smart object with Median blend mode.

Looking at Autel's user manual, I doubt their "Super night mode" is that sophisticated. Especially given the fact it needs to work for both still image and video. It is more likely a post-processing preset, by increasing ISO, adjusting shadow and highlight, and applying some noise reduction.

It is interesting that I could not find any sample images for Autel's super night mode on the Internet. There are quite a few YT videos, all of them demonstrate significant amount of blowout in highlight, which is another indication of the so-called "moonlight algorithm" being just a post-processing preset.

 

[adcimagery]

By burst, I asume you mean a bracketed burst?

Bracketing is for HDR. In this case, you want the exposures to be the same. The same exposure, but multiple shots, effectively "averages" out shot-to-shot noise, reducing visible noise while preserving detail.

 

[GadgetGuy]

No, not bracketed, "Burst".

The M2P has a Burst mode for 5 identical shots, which you can stack to remove noise. The idea is that after the frames are aligned, anything that does not occur in the same place for all frames must be noise (because noise moves around, is placed randomly in each frame), so it can be removed.

A Look at Reducing Noise in Photographs Using Median Blending

Between a recent post here on PetaPixel about the Beauty of Space Photography, and my own experiments on blending series of images using averaging

petapixel.com

Chris

Thanks for the clarification. I was assuming it was for wider exposure latitude rather than noise reduction.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Bracketing is for HDR. In this case, you want the exposures to be the same. The same exposure, but multiple shots, effectively "averages" out shot-to-shot noise, reducing visible noise while preserving detail.

Thanks for the clarification! Now the references to it being similar to making people disappear in timelapses makes sense!

 

[adcimagery]

Thanks for the clarification! Now the references to it being similar to making people disappear in timelapses makes sense!

Happy to help. I forgot to mention in the original that you'll need to align the images before combining to a smart object - edit>auto-align layers should do it if your originals are all close enough.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Happy to help. I forgot to mention in the original that you'll need to align the images before combining to a smart object - edit>auto-align layers should do it if your originals are all close enough.

Thanks! I also discovered a way to get small, accurate azimuth changes with the Mavic 3 gimbal to use the 7x telephoto for image stitching for panos. The camera can be dragged left and right by up to 5° on the screen with a finger, and it accurately displays the degrees of change. Using the 9 box grid overlay over the 7x field of view frame, 5° is about 1/3 of the frame for a 30% overlap. The gimbal elevation degrees are also prominently displayed on the screen while elevating the gimbal. This makes it easy to do a 9 image (3x3) 7x pano, in 5° increments, and stitch into one image. For tall vertical subjects like high rise buildings, the rows of 3 across can be extended from 35° up to 90° down in 5° increments without ever moving the drone itself. 3x8 is the max without yawing. I compared the results to a crop of the 4/3 sensor image, and it is definitely sharper, but probably not enough to justify the effort, when the 4/3 can do a more than adequate complete Spherical Pano in under 75 seconds. However, for specific subjects, it's a great tool, where flying closer isn't an option, or where lens compression is desired.