DJI Spark takes better quality photos than phantom 3 advanced

Joined
Mar 27, 2021
Messages
4
Reaction score
1
Age
23
The specs say that the cameras are both 12mp and 1/2.3 inch sensors but for whatever reason my spark takes higher quality photos than my phantom advanced... does the type of SD card have anything to do with it? Or is it just that the spark is a newer model?
 
The specs say that the cameras are both 12mp and 1/2.3 inch sensors but for whatever reason my spark takes higher quality photos than my phantom advanced... does the type of SD card have anything to do with it? Or is it just that the spark is a newer model?
The sensors are the same or very similar and neither lens would be different enough to make a significant difference.
The SD card won't have any effect on image quality.
Post a couple of examples (full-size original files) and perhaps someone can work out what's making the difference.
 
The specs say that the cameras are both 12mp and 1/2.3 inch sensors but for whatever reason my spark takes higher quality photos than my phantom advanced... does the type of SD card have anything to do with it? Or is it just that the spark is a newer model?
Check the camera settings. When I went from a P2V2 to my P4, (12MP vs 20), I didn't realize that I had so many more camera controls available. But they might not be set right for your shot.
 
The specs say that the cameras are both 12mp and 1/2.3 inch sensors but for whatever reason my spark takes higher quality photos than my phantom advanced... does the type of SD card have anything to do with it? Or is it just that the spark is a newer model?
The first image was taken with my phantom 3 advanced, you can see the color is a little bit edited.
The second is from my spark. in my opinion the sparks photo is a lot less blurry.
DJI_0073 (2).jpg
LDST1508.JPG
 
Check the camera settings. When I went from a P2V2 to my P4, (12MP vs 20), I didn't realize that I had so many more camera controls available. But they might not be set right for your shot.
Yeah I was looking around in the settings but couldn't find anything on the quality...
 
The first image was taken with my phantom 3 advanced, you can see the color is a little bit edited.
The second is from my spark. in my opinion the sparks photo is a lot less blurry.
Are you sure those images are from different cameras?
According to the metadata, both are from an FC300S camera.
And it's hard to compare because one is a full-size image at 4000 x 3000 but the other is a cached image at 960 × 720.

But even if they were from different cameras, the images are too different to use for a proper comparison.
You are comparing apples and oranges.
But apart from the subject and lighting differences (overcast vs blue sky), I think they look approximately the same quality.
 
I think you have to think of it in terms of cell phone cameras - often newer cell phone cameras with the same megapixels will take better looking pictures than older models because of the newer processing algorithms. I think the same thing is going on with the Spark. It is a newer model and has newer more advanced algorithms for processing images (only speculating here as I am not a camera/computer engineer). For example my current iPhone XR takes noticeably better pictures than my old iPhone 7 and both have the same 12MP

I have both a Spark and a P3S and I do find that if I take images in JPEG format on both drones, I like the ones that the Spark produces better for the same scene in similar lighting, but if I use DNG format on my P3S I get overall better shots after I edit them in post because I have more digital information to work with.

@EmbryFlory I can understand how you feel that the Spark takes higher quality photos than your P3A, as in most cases I find the images from the Spark in good lighting to be sharp and of excellent quality. It is one of the reasons I haven't yet upgraded to a better drone like the M2P.

Chris
 
  • Like
Reactions: EmbryFlory
I think you have to think of it in terms of cell phone cameras - often newer cell phone cameras with the same megapixels will take better looking pictures than older models because of the newer processing algorithms. I think the same thing is going on with the Spark. It is a newer model and has newer more advanced algorithms for processing images (only speculating here as I am not a camera/computer engineer). For example my current iPhone XR takes noticeably better pictures than my old iPhone 7 and both have the same 12MP

I have both a Spark and a P3S and I do find that if I take images in JPEG format on both drones, I like the ones that the Spark produces better for the same scene in similar lighting, but if I use DNG format on my P3S I get overall better shots after I edit them in post because I have more digital information to work with.

@EmbryFlory I can understand how you feel that the Spark takes higher quality photos than your P3A, as in most cases I find the images from the Spark in good lighting to be sharp and of excellent quality. It is one of the reasons I haven't yet upgraded to a better drone like the M2P.

Chris
Thank you Chris, this was very helpful!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chrislaf
I think you have to think of it in terms of cell phone cameras - often newer cell phone cameras with the same megapixels will take better looking pictures than older models because of the newer processing algorithms. I think the same thing is going on with the Spark. It is a newer model and has newer more advanced algorithms for processing images (only speculating here as I am not a camera/computer engineer). For example my current iPhone XR takes noticeably better pictures than my old iPhone 7 and both have the same 12MP

I have both a Spark and a P3S and I do find that if I take images in JPEG format on both drones, I like the ones that the Spark produces better for the same scene in similar lighting, but if I use DNG format on my P3S I get overall better shots after I edit them in post because I have more digital information to work with.

@EmbryFlory I can understand how you feel that the Spark takes higher quality photos than your P3A, as in most cases I find the images from the Spark in good lighting to be sharp and of excellent quality. It is one of the reasons I haven't yet upgraded to a better drone like the M2P.

Chris
I agree the images are too different to make a serious comparison. A couple thoughts. Set up a target and shoot it with both birds -- same distance, same lighting, same settings, shoot both RAW and JPEG. Shoot with the birds resting on a solid surface (i.e. not flying). Take the RAW images into Lr or what ever RAW converter you have. Compare the RAW images side by side. Zoom in to check the detail. One thing could be the JPEG algorithm in the drones, so you want to take that out of the equation. Good luck.
 
I think that almost no difference in quality can be seen here despite all what's been said. But I agree that the conditions in weather and light were so different that it's impssible to make the relevant opinon.
 

Recent Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,352
Members
104,933
Latest member
mactechnic