The Telephoto....

Ben_McPhee · Nov 10, 2021

Just how bad is it? Does it shoot H.265 (Or ProRes on Cine? Will it stick out in an edit as a cutaway shot next to footage from the main sensor?

I heard it's jPG only for stills? (Could firmware fix this?)

I haven't seen much, but what I have seen isn't as bad as people make out. (Maybe I'm wrong?). I'm ok that it's not really a "28x Hybrid zoom". 7x is handy, and looks sharp and pretty clean. (And Hybrid, for "exploring"... that's fine).

The other thing is... it's constant F4. So with the ND filters, are they the same strength for both cameras? Because that would make an ND16 (My most used) REALLY dark for the Tele..., and the ISO would need to be cranked. Is that maybe why people are saying it's trash?

zeusfl · Nov 10, 2021

Well,
The Telephoto is basically a cheap cellphone camera sensor. 12M pixels. Well. I don't think the raw will produce too much information. Probably will but will be almost useless since the bad sensor quality for a photographer. Now, on the other hand, surveillance is priceless. As long you can identify a person even if it's a bad quality from the distance is really nice.

Dave Maine · Nov 11, 2021

It all depends on your standards and viewing conditions. Digital zooms can only work with the existing sensor pixels. Spreading fewer pixels across the same image area means less resolution. Various techniques to fool your eye can make the situation appear better, but it is still fewer pixels for the same image area. Only viewers with less critical eyes will find it acceptable.

globetrotterdrone · Nov 11, 2021

Certainly nice to have but rather a gimmick compared to the main sensor ...

BobIBV · Nov 17, 2021

12MP is really bad in 2021. Even my selfie cam has got a more. It's not all MP, but 12MP is way behind my expectations. I understand that DJI still wants to sell some M300 so they keep them apart, but the Inspire that filled the gap is also outdated. Can somebody explain why DJI went really that low on the Telephoto cam? For inspections I expect at least 20 these days...

CanadaDrone · Nov 17, 2021

Ben_McPhee said:
Just how bad is it? Does it shoot H.265 (Or ProRes on Cine? Will it stick out in an edit as a cutaway shot next to footage from the main sensor?

I heard it's jPG only for stills? (Could firmware fix this?)

I haven't seen much, but what I have seen isn't as bad as people make out. (Maybe I'm wrong?). I'm ok that it's not really a "28x Hybrid zoom". 7x is handy, and looks sharp and pretty clean. (And Hybrid, for "exploring"... that's fine).

The other thing is... it's constant F4. So with the ND filters, are they the same strength for both cameras? Because that would make an ND16 (My most used) REALLY dark for the Tele..., and the ISO would need to be cranked. Is that maybe why people are saying it's trash?

First of all, thank you for not calling it the "zoom" lens which is an incredibly common misconception.

To answer your question, at the moment anyway, it's pretty bad. You are limited to 4K30P, auto exposure only, and no Log footage. No RAW still photos either to my knowledge.

DJI claims this camera is for scouting new shooting locations rather than actually taking keeper footage. This is further evidenced by the binoculars logo as you have to enter "explore" mode to use it.

The sensor itself is probably the same one used in the Air2, so I suspect that much is perfectly fine, but the implementation is pretty terrible, at least in it's current state.

Also it is not F4, it's F4.4, and given that it is a prime lens it will never have a variable aperture. Anyway, to your point, that is another issue with the telephoto camera - the ND filters are the same strength, so if you switch between the cameras you get different exposures. If it had manual exposure capability, the workaround would be to simply set the main camera as close to F4.4 as it will allow and adjust shutter speed or ISO slightly as needed to match. But, because the telephoto camera is auto exposure only, the drone is going to move the exposure all over the place regardless.

Mharz · Nov 17, 2021

The question that keeps coming up in my mind is ... If they had the space to put in a M 4/3 sensor and a crap 12MP hybrid camera, why not just go to APS-C or full frame? I would have enjoyed a single higher quality single sensor in comparison to what we're getting today.

That said, I have a few ideas on how to make the 12 MP a little more useable.

CanadaDrone · Nov 17, 2021

Mharz said:
The question that keeps coming up in my mind is ... If they had the space to put in a M 4/3 sensor and a crap 12MP hybrid camera, why not just go to APS-C or full frame? I would have enjoyed a single higher quality single sensor in comparison to what we're getting today.

That said, I have a few ideas on how to make the 12 MP a little more useable.

I don't think anyone can answer that question for sure, but form a marketing perspective, it would be silly for them to skip the 4/3 sensor (a natural progression from the 1" M2P sensor) and go straight to something bigger - they would miss out on years of sales in between. Also, an APS-C sensor is ~65% larger than a 4/3 sensor as well, which would be the same as adding almost 5 additional 1/2" sensors to the existing 4/3 sensor, so the size increase needed for the lens/gimbal would be quite substantial. Large image sensors are also extremely expensive, so the cost of the drone would be much higher as well.

Hopefully they improve the capability of the telephoto camera later in firmware, because it's pretty useless in it's current state. Speaking only for myself, I have never felt a need to "scout" new locations to fly with a longer focal length camera. That being said, if it was only ever intended for "scouting" purposes and designed that way, we may not see any improvement there.