Mini photo quality

[thomashall1993]

It’s seems that every shot does have noise/grain. So as a little test I’ve even experimenting with shooting in very low light. Higher iso gets pretty bad. The first one here is an iso 1600 1/3” shutter. That 2nd one is iso 100 with a 4” shutter.

I did this with a Mavic pro.

 

[Bussty]

It’s seems that every shot does have noise/grain. So as a little test I’ve even experimenting with shooting in very low light. Higher iso gets pretty bad. The first one here is an iso 1600 1/3” shutter. That 2nd one is iso 100 with a 4” shutter.

For shots like this I would take about 5 or 10 images one after another then stack them in Affinity Photo or Photoshop and use the Mean(Average) option. Most of that noise would go and then you have some really good noise reduction software to finish remaining noise (Nik Define, Topaz Denoise AI or Topaz Gigapixel) these can really transform Mini images.

Some of my Mini Drone shots are on this page. LATEST IMAGES | New Zealand | Andrew Busst | Landscape Photography

I'm really into this conversation about the Mini camera quality compared to the Air 2. Nobody has showed me that the image quality for stills is that much different, panoramas and HDR you can do manually with the Mini and using something like Topaz Gigapixel gives you similar results as the 48MP option IMHO.

I would really like to see a drone by drone comparison of the same scene to look at image quality. Of course MP2 is in a different league.

Cheers

 

[Bussty]

My feeling is that there are far far more opportunities than limitations with these drones/cameras. ...these drones provides endless enjoyment.

Totally agree

 

[Sideburn]

Good examples. In near complete darkness, how much can you expect? It's actually quite amazing you can get a decent photo with a 4 sec. shutter on a flying object. Can't do that handheld.

My feeling is that there are far far more opportunities than limitations with these drones/cameras. Even if they didn't do video, it would still be awesome. I shoot almost entirely video and learning/practicing cinematic moves on these drones provides endless enjoyment.

Agreed. Crazy impressive just on their reliability alone

 

[Mike Canaris]

I think its not bad the mini for what it is.. I took the sunset last week..

 

[EyesWideShut]

I think its not bad the mini for what it is.. I took the sunset last week..

Good shot! I see it was shot at 1/4 sec, ISO 800. What post processing did you do for noise?

 

[Ralle]

Picture at a height of 41 meters. Not processed.Mode auto.

I think the value for money is very good .

 

[Mike Canaris]

Good shot! I see it was shot at 1/4 sec, ISO 800. What post processing did you do for noise?

I just played around with the contrast and brightness on my iphone .

 

[gremlin16]

No complaints here

 

[Jack43]

It’s seems that every shot does have noise/grain. So as a little test I’ve even experimenting with shooting in very low light. Higher iso gets pretty bad. The first one here is an iso 1600 1/3” shutter. That 2nd one is iso 100 with a 4” shutter.

Hi Sideburn,

I played around a little bit with one of the photos. I used a denoiser called NeatVideo. The result is quite good, what do you think? The other photo has way too much grain!

cheers Paul

 

[Jack43]

I think its not bad the mini for what it is.. I took the sunset last week..

Hi Mike,

look at the sky. I denoised it with NeatVideo

 

[Bussty]

The Mini can take super high quality files too, just stitch a matrix panorama (as long as your subject isn't moving too much) then stitch in Microsoft ICE (free) or PTGUI (something like that) the resolution you can achieve can be amazing. Good noise reduction software is a safe bet too. Really enjoying Topaz AI Denoise at the minute. Good luck!

 

[BokiFly]

then stitch in Microsoft ICE (free)

Thank you for this, i tried it now, it works great.

 

[bcfd29]

It is but ONE tool in your toolbox, and has it's specific limitations that as we all learn to better use, can be worked around or just understood. For the cost, it is an excellent entry point platform to gain a photo/video perspective that otherwise would not be accessible. Recognize it's purpose and limits and master its potential (and have fun).

 

[roosta]

You have pretty high expectations id a 249g plastic drone isn't taking good enough photos for a 2K sensor. Maybe try under different lighting conditions, against the sun, parallel to the sun, or even grab a filter set (unless you prefer to play around in post in Lr or Ps)...but from some images I've seen above, I'm pretty pleased with the results.

RoOSTA

 

[techguy]

I kinda agree, but I'm also no photographer despite wanting to be. I took my first photo with the mavic mini this week and when I was viewing things in Lightroom I noticed it wasn't nearly the quality I was hoping for. But I also don't know enough to say how or why it was so poor looking when I zoomed in. Viewing things at normal resolution wasn't horrible but the second I zoomed in even a little things started looking rough. Wasn't sure if it was me, the camera, the lighting or lack of filters. Maybe all the above. But regardless I still somewhat enjoy the photos and views I can get with the drone and since I don't really do anything with photos but share them on facebook I figured it's good enough for me.

My first photo, I tried to do some HDR with it which probably didn't help much.

 

[ff22]

I kinda agree, but I'm also no photographer despite wanting to be. I took my first photo with the mavic mini this week and when I was viewing things in Lightroom I noticed it wasn't nearly the quality I was hoping for. But I also don't know enough to say how or why it was so poor looking when I zoomed in. Viewing things at normal resolution wasn't horrible but the second I zoomed in even a little things started looking rough. Wasn't sure if it was me, the camera, the lighting or lack of filters. Maybe all the above. But regardless I still somewhat enjoy the photos and views I can get with the drone and since I don't really do anything with photos but share them on facebook I figured it's good enough for me.

My first photo, I tried to do some HDR with it which probably didn't help much.

View attachment 103746

I don't know how good it really is, but I really like the image. Well done.

 

[Bussty]

I kinda agree, but I'm also no photographer despite wanting to be. I took my first photo with the mavic mini this week and when I was viewing things in Lightroom I noticed it wasn't nearly the quality I was hoping for. But I also don't know enough to say how or why it was so poor looking when I zoomed in. Viewing things at normal resolution wasn't horrible but the second I zoomed in even a little things started looking rough. Wasn't sure if it was me, the camera, the lighting or lack of filters. Maybe all the above. But regardless I still somewhat enjoy the photos and views I can get with the drone and since I don't really do anything with photos but share them on facebook I figured it's good enough for me.

My first photo, I tried to do some HDR with it which probably didn't help much.

View attachment 103746

I think this is a really great shot you would be amazed the improvement you could make running it through something like Topaz AI Denoise or AI Gigapixel. They have trial version if you want to check them out. Cheers

 

[RogerDH]

I kinda agree, but I'm also no photographer despite wanting to be. I took my first photo with the mavic mini this week and when I was viewing things in Lightroom I noticed it wasn't nearly the quality I was hoping for. But I also don't know enough to say how or why it was so poor looking when I zoomed in.
...

Well, can you say what you're comparing it to?

 

[Athiril]

For shots like this I would take about 5 or 10 images one after another then stack them in Affinity Photo or Photoshop and use the Mean(Average) option. Most of that noise would go and then you have some really good noise reduction software to finish remaining noise (Nik Define, Topaz Denoise AI or Topaz Gigapixel) these can really transform Mini images.

Some of my Mini Drone shots are on this page. LATEST IMAGES | New Zealand | Andrew Busst | Landscape Photography

I'm really into this conversation about the Mini camera quality compared to the Air 2. Nobody has showed me that the image quality for stills is that much different, panoramas and HDR you can do manually with the Mini and using something like Topaz Gigapixel gives you similar results as the 48MP option IMHO.

I would really like to see a drone by drone comparison of the same scene to look at image quality. Of course MP2 is in a different league.

Cheers

You get raw iirc, which would help a lot and give nice stacked images. The 48mp is slightly sharper than 12mp because it’s quad Bayer and isn’t giving an advantage in detail (has other uses and advantages), though because it’s actually 48mp divided up like that, stacking a bunch of images may bring back much more detail since there’ll be some movement

The Mini can take super high quality files too, just stitch a matrix panorama (as long as your subject isn't moving too much) then stitch in Microsoft ICE (free) or PTGUI (something like that) the resolution you can achieve can be amazing. Good noise reduction software is a safe bet too. Really enjoying Topaz AI Denoise at the minute. Good luck!

There’s another technique that may be useful here, when you’re stacking a bunch of images to reduce noise you can increase detail by enlarging 2x the image using nearest neighbour method (edit: I did testing in photoshop and preserve details 2.0 may give the best results when doing this), you need to do this step before auto-aligning the layers as it does not give any apparent increase in detail when doing it after alignment (but before stacking/median or mean filtering etc) for some reason.

since we cant zoom in on a subject and may not always want a wider view