Pictures seem noisy to me, can I have a second opinion?

[Distortionist]

I would appreciate it if someone would take a moment and look at these 2 sets of pictures. I have my camera set to save Jpeg and RAW and I took 2 pictures as an example. The ISO is 100 in both these. I find they look hazy and noisy. Is this normal for a Mavic Air's sensor? I have seen some really nice photos online and I feel like I may have a QA issue. Everything else is set to 0 or none. WB is set to Sunny. The JPEG version is less noisy, I guess it smooths it out or something.

Here is a link.

 

[zwt100]

I’m in the same boat and haven’t been able to get a solid answer as to whether I got a bad unit or if all MA’s are that noisy. I feel my photo are not as sharp as they should be either.

 

[Distortionist]

I’m in the same boat and haven’t been able to get a solid answer as to whether I got a bad unit or if all MA’s are that noisy. I feel my photo are not as sharp as they should be either.

Well hopefully someone will click my link and shed some light on this issue...

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

A DNG is never going to look good until you manually process it with appropriate software. That's the purpose of saving the DNG format. You need to process images manually to get the best results.

 

[zwt100]

A DNG is never going to look good until you manually process it with appropriate software. That's the purpose of saving the DNG format. You need to process images manually to get the best results.

But what about the jpegs? I can produce fairly decent looking photos in post but if I shoot jpegs they look like garbage. My Spark takes better jpegs than the Air and I don’t think that should be the case.

 

[Distortionist]

A DNG is never going to look good until you manually process it with appropriate software. That's the purpose of saving the DNG format. You need to process images manually to get the best results.

I do process it, but it seems I have to do a lot of noise reduction, it seems VERY noisy and I feel like it shouldn't be. Did you actually look at the pictures? Canceling the noise reduces detail. This is ISO 100, it shouldn't look like that I don't think. I never owned something that shoots RAW before but I have looked up pictures online and they are not noisy.

 

[genesimmons]

I would appreciate it if someone would take a moment and look at these 2 sets of pictures. I have my camera set to save Jpeg and RAW and I took 2 pictures as an example. The ISO is 100 in both these. I find they look hazy and noisy. Is this normal for a Mavic Air's sensor? I have seen some really nice photos online and I feel like I may have a QA issue. Everything else is set to 0 or none. WB is set to Sunny. The JPEG version is less noisy, I guess it smooths it out or something.

Here is a link.

those actually look pretty good, i shoot raw only and i do a lot of editig to my pics, even at iso 100 and super fast shutter i find i need to run noisware removal, if i pixel peep to 100% or more which i do,,,,,, haha i run noiseware on all images, i find an app from "macphun" called noiseware is the best i have used to date, stunninng results, i also add a lot of micro contrast as that brings out detail but with some noise so i run that app and she smooths right out. as prob mentioned do u have your sharpness and such set to recomended onhere? theres a few vids showing the difference by just changing the sharpeness by 1.

 

[zwt100]

I do process it, but it seems I have to do a lot of noise reduction, it seems VERY noisy and I feel like it shouldn't be. Did you actually look at the pictures? Canceling the noise reduces detail. This is ISO 100, it shouldn't look like that I don't think. I never owned something that shoots RAW before but I have looked up pictures online and they are not noisy.

I do process it, but it seems I have to do a lot of noise reduction, it seems VERY noisy and I feel like it shouldn't be. Did you actually look at the pictures? Canceling the noise reduces detail. This is ISO 100, it shouldn't look like that I don't think. I never owned something that shoots RAW before but I have looked up pictures online and they are not noisy.

Try posting them to the official dji website. One of the moderators will look into it. They might not get back to you after they do but they’ll at least take a look.

 

[Distortionist]

those actually look pretty good, i shoot raw only and i do a lot of editig to my pics, even at iso 100 and super fast shutter i find i need to run noisware removal, if i pixel peep to 100% or more which i do,,,,,, haha i run noiseware on all images, i find an app from "macphun" called noiseware is the best i have used to date, stunninng results, i also add a lot of micro contrast as that brings out detail but with some noise so i run that app and she smooths right out. as prob mentioned do u have your sharpness and such set to recomended onhere? theres a few vids showing the difference by just changing the sharpeness by 1.

I think that only makes a difference in the JPG but not RAW.

 

[genesimmons]

that may be so but i follow it anyways and have good results, post processing is the best and maybe only way to get wicked sharp crisp shots from the little sensor, bracketing helps too, i bracket the shots i really want to pop, i even bracket some panos if the scene suites it, micro contrast and noiseware are your best freind with these little sensors haha

 

[zwt100]

that may be so but i follow it anyways and have good results, post processing is the best and maybe only way to get wicked sharp crisp shots from the little sensor, bracketing helps too, i bracket the shots i really want to pop, i even bracket some panos if the scene suites it, micro contrast and noiseware are your best freind with these little sensors haha

How do you add micro contrast? Is there a specific program you use? Also regarding bracketing, isn’t that the same as shooting in AEB?

 

[genesimmons]

How do you add micro contrast? Is there a specific program you use? Also regarding bracketing, isn’t that the same as shooting in AEB?

yes braacketing is aeb, it merges 3 or 5 images into one, i use lightroom to do it, the result is ahigher detailed image than if i shot one shot, i dont apply any hdr presets, i only merge them, then i use "luminar to edit and bring out the fine details, i take the time in editing my images most people dont have that kinda time haha, the microcontrast detail enhanceent features in "luminar are amazing,im sure theres other out there i just prefer that program, i dont use lightroom to edit only to merge, all of this eiditing is of course using raw files, u cant do much with jpegs, ill try to post a out of mavic and then editied image, the difference is night and day but again it takes time,,,,,,,i have it down pretty fast with custom presets and i know whenn i have my mav set on certain settings i can use certain presets to speed things up but panoramas still take a long time regardless of presets as some times they are huge 13000x6000px images if i use litchi and bracket every image.

 

[bluskies99]

I downloaded the DNG's and looked at them in Lightroom. Compared to a full frame DSLR they have some noise, but not objectionable. I think they are fine. Noise reduction is a personal preference. The two images did seem just a bit softer in the right lower corner, but otherwise they are what I would expect from this size sensor.

 

[Distortionist]

Thanks for your input guys. So I guess it is normal and the images that look great are just that way from post. At least now I know it's not defective. I'll stop shooting JPG all together and try to get better at clearing up and sharpening RAW. Also thanks for the software tips.

Cheers.

 

[zwt100]

yes braacketing is aeb, it merges 3 or 5 images into one, i use lightroom to do it, the result is ahigher detailed image than if i shot one shot, i dont apply any hdr presets, i only merge them, then i use "luminar to edit and bring out the fine details, i take the time in editing my images most people dont have that kinda time haha, the microcontrast detail enhanceent features in "luminar are amazing,im sure theres other out there i just prefer that program, i dont use lightroom to edit only to merge, all of this eiditing is of course using raw files, u cant do much with jpegs, ill try to post a out of mavic and then editied image, the difference is night and day but again it takes time,,,,,,,i have it down pretty fast with custom presets and i know whenn i have my mav set on certain settings i can use certain presets to speed things up but panoramas still take a long time regardless of presets as some times they are huge 13000x6000px images if i use litchi and bracket every image.

Thanks a lot I definitely appreciate that. I’ve been using Lightroom to merge my images into HDR format and then to edit as well. I’ll check out luminar tonight. I’m so excited about this, can’t wait to test it out.