What is going on with the Air 3 sensor?

[MavicKhan]

I mean, they state it is 48mp sensor, with a 12mp mode but it really feels like it is the other way around, through some wizardry.

...Why do I say this?

Try running a "48mp "DNG file through Adobe's Denoise AI, either in LR or PS and see the mess that is created.

This is not the case with all other, different brands, high-mp RAW files I've worked with.

(It's not a problem of my particular unit, because I've ran DNG's downloaded from DPReview site and the result is exactly the same, even at 15 or 2p denoise amount levels...Artifacts, color shifts galore...).

What gives...?

MK

 

[wco81]

Well you figure it's not going to be good with low light and noise.

But that noise reduction AI feature probably depends on the quality of the source, so if it's garbage in, you're going to get garbage out.

 

[MavicKhan]

Well, the 12mp samples come up nicely, as they're supposed to look, when put through the AI denoise.

Slightly less definition but no artifacts nor color shifts, so I definitely think there's something fishy going on with that "48mp" resolution.

I guess that, contrary to the Air 2S, I'll have to stick to the "regular" noise reduction in LR, when working with the DNGs from the Air 3, unless I stick to 12mp samples.

MK

 

[BigAl07]

ADMIN Notice:
@MavicKhan I edited the name of this thread to "clean it up". We're better than that.

Allen

 

[johnnyb57]

It isnt really 48 the cut up 1 into 4 so u do the math ?

 

[Capt KO]

Misleading?? apparently

 

[DJAluzion]

I just figured this out yesterday and I was like wait what is going on! Let me explain..

I went to take some shots yesterday and thought I was in 48mp mode and when I got home and put in Lightroom, I noticed I was in 12MP mode.
And then I clicked to zoom in to start sharpening and developing and I noticed that the picture didn’t fall apart like it was doing the previous day, Even when pushed to 300%. And on top of that there was less noise and retained details. The only difference was I shot them in 12MP.

Then I remember Pilot Institute’s test where he showed that for higher than 400ISO you want to use the 12MP mode because it was less noise and had more details.

But I had never tested this until yesterday and now when compared to the Mavic 3 Classic, if you use the 12MP mode, it’s very close in quality. (Not including the color science)This also blew my mind because how could a 12MP camera be close to a 20MP camera?

There’s def some wizardry going on but from here going forward, unless it’s bright and sunny, I will be using the 12MP mode instead of the 48.

 

[Yazu]

The wizardry behind the 48MP photos is quad bayer sensor, same as the Mini 3 Pro had. Yes they don't have the exact same sensor but quad bayering is the way they've managed to squeeze 48MP photo mode into the tiny sensor.

That's what I believe it is.

Quad Bayer sensors: what they are and what they are not

Marketing departments are trying to sell you on the wrong thing - resolution isn't why these sensors are good, it's the better image processing.

www.gsmarena.com

 

[Droning on and on...]

No, that's not what Quad-Bayer does.

Rather, it facilitates using a 48MP sensor in 12MP mode, grouping 4 pixels together and essentially averaging them. This reduces noise and increases dynamic range.

In fact the exact same sensor but with a typical Bayer filter would produce more accurate 48MP images than the Quad-Bayer filter does.

 

[MavicKhan]

I just figured this out yesterday and I was like wait what is going on! Let me explain..

I went to take some shots yesterday and thought I was in 48mp mode and when I got home and put in Lightroom, I noticed I was in 12MP mode.
And then I clicked to zoom in to start sharpening and developing and I noticed that the picture didn’t fall apart like it was doing the previous day, Even when pushed to 300%. And on top of that there was less noise and retained details. The only difference was I shot them in 12MP.

Then I remember Pilot Institute’s test where he showed that for higher than 400ISO you want to use the 12MP mode because it was less noise and had more details.

But I had never tested this until yesterday and now when compared to the Mavic 3 Classic, if you use the 12MP mode, it’s very close in quality. (Not including the color science)This also blew my mind because how could a 12MP camera be close to a 20MP camera?

There’s def some wizardry going on but from here going forward, unless it’s bright and sunny, I will be using the 12MP mode instead of the 48.

This is an excelent, excellent input.

Will test it throughly.

MK

 

[EpicEric]

I'm having similar result with 48MP photos on Air 3 and Mini 3 Pro. Did anyone try Topaz AI or other solutions and how is the result?

 

[wco81]

Really a strange choice to go with 48 Mp on a smaller sensor than the M3, which only outputs 20 Mp photos.

So the 48 Mp is not too usable unless shot at the lowest ISO.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Really a strange choice to go with 48 Mp on a smaller sensor than the M3, which only outputs 20 Mp photos.

So the 48 Mp is not too usable unless shot at the lowest ISO.

Stipulating the claim for the sake of argument, that's very useful.