Why do photos and videos of the same thing look different?

[Leo_S]

Hi Guys,

I have a question.

When flying my Mavic Pro, I find that the still camera is capable of producing high quality photos that look amazing. A video of the same thing will basically produce a bag of hot steamy garbage.

I've attached some photos to illustrate my point. I shoot at 2.7k 25fps. For some reason, video seems to suck all the dynamic range out of my media. Is it something I'm doing wrong?

These are unedited.

 

[Doecliff]

The shutter speed was probably different between the video and the still. Plus the difference in compression types could also be a factor.

 

[melmartin]

And the grabbed video frame has less resolution than an individual photo...

 

[Leo_S]

Do you guys reckon they will fix this in the Mavic Pro 2?

 

[melmartin]

Nothing to fix. Shoot video if you want.. or shoot stills... or both. They will never be the same. Do the math. If you want sharp stills, shoot sharp stills.

 

[Leo_S]

It's like the images are grainier and completely lack any dynamic range in the shadows. Things look more gritty.

 

[melmartin]

Still frames have about 25% less resolution than still images. To get video and photos at their best will require post processing. Camera settings won't be enough. Invest the time and learn the ropes and you'll be rewarded with much better images.

 

[AgPhotoWings]

It's like the images are grainier and completely lack any dynamic range in the shadows. Things look more gritty.

ISO too high?

 

[Miller_Drone]

Im new to the forum and to drones, but I know video. Everyone is correct on the quality ratios between stills and video. A way you can get closer is in your video settings... turn everything up to 4K resolution and minimum 30fps (mine is at 60fps). It will never match, but it will be closer. Just make sure you have a large microSD capacity - video files get big.

 

[Leo_S]

Thanks for the information guys. I did some of my own research and believe the issue is due to the lack of bitrate. The mavic pro simply doesn't have the throughput to capture video at a high enough bitrate and a lot of the details are traded for frame count or resolution.

More on this thread:
Mavic Pro Video Bitrate Upgrade Path?

Leo S.

 

[daisy-girl]

I have a question.

I shoot my MP videos at 1080p/30 and my stills at 4:3, i.e., I switch back and forth between the two. Both are shot with whatever ND-PL filter keeps my EV at about -0.3 at a shutter speed of 1/60.

It's only for night shots that I switch to Auto without a filter for both video and stills.

Played back on our 1080p HDTV, all the results are fabulous.

 

[Kilrah]

Stills are one-offs, the camera can take one second to process them. Video has to be processed in less than 1/framerate. Obviously shooting video means the camera can do much less good of a job treating the material.
...and it's not a problem since we also cannot typically process as much detail on a moving video anyway, video codecs are made to discard stuff we aren't able to see on video (but would on a still). Video isn't made for grabbing stills in the first place.