Mavic3 Pro 3x lens - 12MP or 48MP?

[ddublu]

So what is the verdict on which setting produces the best results for stills and video?

 

[Filmarik]

So what is the verdict on which setting produces the best results for stills and video?

The jury is still out.
In the samples posted by Meta4 I saw slightly more detail and slightly less noise in 48MP stills.

 

[mobilehomer]

So what is the verdict on which setting produces the best results for stills and video?

Not trying to be a jerk, but the truth is - whatever looks best to your eye. I have seen many side-by-side examples, either can look best.

 

[GadgetGuy]

So what is the verdict on which setting produces the best results for stills and video?

Depends upon the subject and the lighting. Advice was to shoot one at each setting. There is no 48MP for video. Stills only.

 

[MS Coast]

It's interesting that the difference in perceived image quality doesn't seem to be great enough to create a consensus opinion among this group of serious users as to whether the 48mp setting gives superior results compared to the 12mp setting.

So, it seems to me that for nearly all my (and most users'?) photo purposes, 12mp is the way to go. No readily obvious sacrifice of quality to most folks, but a 75% reduction in storage requirements.

 

[BobaFut]

It's interesting that the difference in perceived image quality doesn't seem to be great enough to create a consensus opinion among this group of serious users as to whether the 48mp setting gives superior results compared to the 12mp setting.

So, it seems to me that for nearly all my (and most users'?) photo purposes, 12mp is the way to go. No readily obvious sacrifice of quality to most folks, but a 75% reduction in storage requirements.

I guess I haven't tried shooting in 12mp mode to see what the file sizes look like, but are the DNG files really 75% smaller? If they were, that would mean that either a) the files are compressed differently (why though?) or b) there is 75% less data. If the latter, then 12mp would seem vastly inferior, no? Even if that extra data isn't presenting as straight-up image quality, I would imagine that the larger files would hold up better to editing.

All that said, I'm not an expert and am largely indifferent about it, so I'm happy to be wrong.

 

[rhberg]

By combining four pixels to make a 20 mp image the sensor has a 4x increase in light sensitivity and 4x decrease in resolution--the better look of 20 mp images likely is due to a higher S:N. On the other hand, the 48 mp setting gives the highest resolution, with a tradeoff of more noise (less photons per pixel). I go for the resolution and use Topaz Denoise to clean up the noise.

 

[mic.kue]

Is AEB possible with the 3x lens on 48mp?

 

[Meta4]

Is AEB possible with the 3x lens on 48mp?

Yes

 

[Filmarik]

Old topic revisited. True 48MP or not the 48MP setting on 3x camera results in more detailed photos. It is an appreciable difference and the photos definitely show more fine detail. If intended for large prints or whenever the most details are required or desired, the 48MP settings is the way to go. Let's not forget that the 48MP setting outputs natively images 67cm (26") wide at 300dpi which is quite incredible !! Upsizing the 12MP images to the same size results in lot less detailed final prints.
That's my conclusion after extensive testing and comparison.
If however the 48MP images are to be downsized to 12MP or less for any online applications i.e. Instagram, the perceived difference in IQ between 48MP and 12MP images is basically zero.