RAW vs JPG - dynamic range difference?

[Bussty]

So I can confirm that in Photo Mode and using JPEG's there is no upside to using any of the auto modes in terms of Dynamic Range performance.

First image fully manual exposure



Second image ISO switched to Auto



Third image ISO and Shutter Speed to Auto


Fourth image ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture all Auto



Doesn't seem to be an increase in HDR improvement on any of these so assuming this HDR benefit that you are seeing in d-log M is limited just to Video Mode.

 

[nickcaptures]

Just an update. I updated the firmware of Mavic 4 Pro. Then I did another flight, took some more shots of direct sun during sunset - RAW manual ISO, JPG manual ISO, JPG auto ISO.

On this shoot, the gradient of the light/colour of the RAW shots of the sun looked a lot more natural. I don't know if it was the firmware update, a different position/angle of the camera to the sun, different light intensity or polarisation... but the RAW this time looks far more like I'm used to seeing in other cameras.

As for the JPGs, the dynamic range of the JPGs (using both auto ISO and manual ISO) look the same to me - as what @Bussty found.

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

 

[Meta4]

I don't know if it was the firmware update ...

It's most unlikely that the firmware update made any changes to the camera's properties.
If it did, DJI would have trumpeted that.
It's very rare that firmware updates make any differences to anything that users would notice.

 

[Tolga20]

Your camera applies Local Tone Mapping (LTM) and other image processing algorithms to enhance the live view and JPEG previews (e.g., boosting shadows, balancing highlights, and optimizing overall brightness). However, when you import RAW files into Lightroom or Photoshop, these in-camera enhancements are intentionally not applied, as RAW files are designed to preserve all the original sensor data for maximum editing flexibility.

This is why the shadows may appear darker and highlights more pronounced in Lightroom—you're seeing the unprocessed "raw" data. While this might require some extra editing, it gives you far more control over the final result. Use Auto ISO to gain little bit more dynamic range.

 

[Filmarik]

Your camera applies Local Tone Mapping (LTM) and other image processing algorithms to enhance the live view and JPEG previews (e.g., boosting shadows, balancing highlights, and optimizing overall brightness). However, when you import RAW files into Lightroom or Photoshop, these in-camera enhancements are intentionally not applied, as RAW files are designed to preserve all the original sensor data for maximum editing flexibility.

This is why the shadows may appear darker and highlights more pronounced in Lightroom—you're seeing the unprocessed "raw" data. While this might require some extra editing, it gives you far more control over the final result. Use Auto ISO to gain little bit more dynamic range.

On top of that JPEG has 8bit color depth while DNG has 12 bit color depth. That is a massive difference. That is why DNG allow for much greater flexibility when editing. Auto ISO has nothing to do with dynamic range when shooting DNG.