Poor quality raw 48MP Mavic Air 2

[ilSimo95]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here, really excited to be part of this great photographic community!

I'd like to know if there's someone who can help me with a problem I think it's not solvable unless selling my Dji Mavic Air 2. Shooting at 48MP, I noted that images were a bit disturbed, quality wasn't as great as I expected. So I started editing in LR + PS as always, but no difference at all. In order to discover the problem, I started zooming the images and I found the problem: after a good level of zooming, you can note that colors are something similar to "impressionism", the open-air art of ex. Monet *O* I never found something similar, so I asked a friend to help me: he's got a mavic mini 2, and he admitted his pics'quality was better than mine. According to him, the only possibility is to sell the drone, but I'm hoping it's not so, I hope to discover the origin of this problem!

Some details that may help you:
- videos are great, no problem with them, only for pics;
- I shoot in total absence of wind;
- I save my pics in an SD card perfect for Air 2, a Sandisk UHS-I;
- The problem is visible in both jpg image and dng image, before and after post-editing.

You can directly see some examples of images at the following link (Google Drive):

Mavic Air 2 - Google Drive

drive.google.com

Hoping in your disinterested kindness, have a great day and a great light my friends!

 

[adcimagery]

I've done a lot of testing, and 48MP doesn't really offer more effective resolution than the 12MP mode. It's basically interpolated just to get to 48MP (even though it technically isn't).

If you want the resolution, you're better shooting 12MP raws, then using the super resolution feature in Lightroom/Photoshop to upscale the raw file. It's a cleaner result, with fewer artifacts.

 

[ilSimo95]

@adcimagery thank you so much for the quickness!
I supposed so for the 48MP (it's the essence of the Quad Bayer).
But I sincerely find strange to be obliged to use super resolution feature to reach the quality of ex. a Mini 2, that may have a worst sensor than Air 2.
I post you here two shots in 12MP (quality here is bad but for something different: there is a kind of disturb at the pixel level, as you can see).

Mavic Air 2 - Google Drive

drive.google.com

Thank you again my dear!

 

[Meta4]

I started zooming the images and I found the problem: after a good level of zooming, you can note that colors are something similar to "impressionism

I viewed your images at 100% and can't see what you are complaining about.
Perhaps you are expectations are unrealistic?
The camera has a tiny 1/2" sensor so it's not going to give results like a 35mm full frame SLR.
It's more like a typical phone camera.

 

[ilSimo95]

Hi @Meta4 , thank you for answering!
I'm okay with your opinion about expectations from a so small sensor, but I say this only after having compared my pics with other pics shot with drones like Mini or Mini 2, that have an even smaller sensor!
They don't have any of this disturb at pixel level, and other two professional photographers noted this kind of disturb!

 

[dap455]

I have the mini and the air 2 and just compared photos. I do not see the differences in quality you mentioned. Post a few side by side of the air 2 and one of the mini's.

 

[spsphotos]

Word of advice. Do not shot 48mb images with your Air 2. As someone stated, it's NOT true 48mb, but a 4x upscale of 12mb image. Why DJI would even include this is beyond me other than it makes for good marketing.

 

[sar104]

Word of advice. Do not shot 48mb images with your Air 2. As someone stated, it's NOT true 48mb, but a 4x upscale of 12mb image. Why DJI would even include this is beyond me other than it makes for good marketing.

But that's incorrect - it's not an upsampled image. The sensor does have 48 x 10⁶ photosites which provides the expected level of detail - but in a Quad Bayer rather than standard Bayer arrangement.

 

[spsphotos]

But that's incorrect - it's not an upsampled image. The sensor does have 48 x 10⁶ photosites which provides the expected level of detail - but in a Quad Bayer rather than standard Bayer arrangement.

From DroneXL.co: The DJI Mavic Air 2 uses the Sony IMX586 sensor that comes with a Quad Bayer design that allows you to shoot 48MP photos with a 12MP sensor by using four smaller light-measuring buckets (pixels) underneath each Bayer color filter. As a result, the photo that you take ends up being four times larger (higher resolution) than a normal photo would be. In this case, your 12MP photo does indeed become a 48MP photo. Watch the video below to get a more detailed explanation of how this works.

As a professional photographer, I can tell you that this is NOT the same as having a 48mp sensor, not by a long shot.. While it may take a passible 48mp image, it is NOT the same thing.

 

[sar104]

From DroneXL.co: The DJI Mavic Air 2 uses the Sony IMX586 sensor that comes with a Quad Bayer design that allows you to shoot 48MP photos with a 12MP sensor by using four smaller light-measuring buckets (pixels) underneath each Bayer color filter. As a result, the photo that you take ends up being four times larger (higher resolution) than a normal photo would be. In this case, your 12MP photo does indeed become a 48MP photo. Watch the video below to get a more detailed explanation of how this works.

As a professional photographer, I can tell you that this is NOT the same as having a 48mp sensor, not by a long shot.. While it may take a passible 48mp image, it is NOT the same thing.

That's not upsampling. As a professional photographer I would have expected you to know that rather than relying on a confusingly worded statement from a random website.

 

[brett8883]

From DroneXL.co: The DJI Mavic Air 2 uses the Sony IMX586 sensor that comes with a Quad Bayer design that allows you to shoot 48MP photos with a 12MP sensor by using four smaller light-measuring buckets (pixels) underneath each Bayer color filter. As a result, the photo that you take ends up being four times larger (higher resolution) than a normal photo would be. In this case, your 12MP photo does indeed become a 48MP photo. Watch the video below to get a more detailed explanation of how this works.

The words that are messing you up is “that allows you to shoot 48MP photos with a 12MP sensor.” It should be “that allows you to shoot 48MP photos with a 12MP filter array.”

It’s not saying it is a 12 MP sensor it’s saying there is are 12 million color filters. It really has 48 million pixels and can pick up on that level of detail. It’s the color accuracy that may not be as good as if it has a traditional bayer filter not the detail.

The reason most people perceive the 12 MP photos as looking better than the 48 MP is because it effectively has reduced noise by combining 4 photosite locations into one pixel. Also very likely the lens can’t render 48 MP on such a small sensor so the 48 MP image is bottlenecked by the optics.

So you have a sensor that takes 12 MP images that are much better than would be achieved with a traditional bayer filter 12 MP sensor and takes 48 MP images that doesn’t have as good color accuracy as a traditional bayer filter but is also hindered by optics that are unable to render such detail and it’s easy to see why people come to this conclusion that the 12 MP images are better than the 48 MP images.

If you were to put a 48 MP traditional bayer filter on that camera I bet you’d have the same 48 MP results but no longer could achieve the superior 12MP results.

 

[spsphotos]

The words that are messing you up is “that allows you to shoot 48MP photos with a 12MP sensor.” It should be “that allows you to shoot 48MP photos with a 12MP filter array.”

It’s not saying it is a 12 MP sensor it’s saying there is are 12 million color filters. It really has 48 million pixels and can pick up on that level of detail. It’s the color accuracy that may not be as good as if it has a traditional bayer filter not the detail.

The reason most people perceive the 12 MP photos as looking better than the 48 MP is because it effectively has reduced noise by combining 4 photosite locations into one pixel. Also very likely the lens can’t render 48 MP on such a small sensor so the 48 MP image is bottlenecked by the optics.

So you have a sensor that takes 12 MP images that are much better than would be achieved with a traditional bayer filter 12 MP sensor and takes 48 MP images that doesn’t have as good color accuracy as a traditional bayer filter but is also hindered by optics that are unable to render such detail and it’s easy to see why people come to this conclusion that the 12 MP images are better than the 48 MP images.

If you were to put a 48 MP traditional bayer filter on that camera I bet you’d have the same 48 MP results but no longer could achieve the superior 12MP results.

Nothing is messing me up. You cannot get a 48mp image from a 12mp sensor without some sort of trickery. Filter array or not, is is NOT the same as a REAL 48mp sensor.

 

[brett8883]

Nothing is messing me up. You cannot get a 48mp image from a 12mp sensor without some sort of trickery. Filter array or not, is is NOT the same as a REAL 48mp sensor.

But it really has 48 million pixels. The only difference is how the filter array is distributed. If it was a monochrome sensor we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

 

[spsphotos]

Nothing is messing me up. You cannot get a 48mp image from a 12mp sensor without some sort of trickery. Filter array or not, is is NOT the same as a REAL 48mp sensor.

Let's just agree to disagree and be done with this.

 

[ilSimo95]

Ok ragazzi, scusatemi per queste "incompatibilità" tra di voi, vi capisco entrambi; ma leggendo che siete entrambi dei professionisti, potreste darmi un sincero feedback sulle mie foto da 12MP che ho caricato al link che ho citato prima?

Thank you so much, I trust you! Have a great evening!

 

[ilSimo95]

In order to help you, I find the biggest problems when I crop the img in order to make it vertical ("portrait"), more instagram-friendly. When my friend (with mini 2) posts a pic in portrait after the crop, it is far more sharp then mine...

 

[sar104]

Ok ragazzi, scusatemi per queste "incompatibilità" tra di voi, vi capisco entrambi; ma leggendo che siete entrambi dei professionisti, potreste darmi un sincero feedback sulle mie foto da 12MP che ho caricato al link che ho citato prima?

Thank you so much, I trust you! Have a great evening!

I'm not sure what kind of feedback you are looking for. The 12 MP images look like I would expect from that camera. I thought it was the 48 MP images that you were concerned about.

The problem is that you don't seem to have provided a comparison between the Mini 2 and Air 2 images that you were referring to.

Prego!

 

[brett8883]

In order to help you, I find the biggest problems when I crop the img in order to make it vertical ("portrait"), more instagram-friendly. When my friend (with mini 2) posts a pic in portrait after the crop, it is far more sharp then mine...

Maybe your friend is shooting jpeg not raw? With raw you have to do the sharpening yourself in Photoshop. jpeg has sharpening built in and is often pretty aggressive.

Your 48 MP shots look better than the 12 MP images by a mile.

 

[ilSimo95]

@brett8883 thank you for your question, but not, my friend shoots in raw, than he edits in PS/LR, as me. I'm happy to hear that my 48MP are perfect for you, I'll post here some details in order to make you see the disturb I noted.







@sar104 thank you for your opinion, I answered my friend to send me a pair of DNG by his Mini 2, in order to make the comparison, I'm waiting for him; once I received em, I'll post here!

 

[pinballwiz86]

Word of advice. Do not shot 48mb images with your Air 2. As someone stated, it's NOT true 48mb, but a 4x upscale of 12mb image. Why DJI would even include this is beyond me other than it makes for good marketing.

Because you ARE getting more detail. Not everyone takes pictures for their artistic qualities. Some people take pictures for surveys, etc. 48 MP is a big PLUS even if it is not "true" 48 MP.