Poor Resolution?

r62ewa · Jun 27, 2017

I am questioning the resulting pictures from my Phantom 4 camera as they seem to be very poor resolution. I have watched videos online of others zooming in on their pictures and they are much clearer than mine. When I zoom in on a picture it has very low resolution, or at least I find.

I'd appreciate it if you guys can look at the DNG file I have uploaded to my Google Drive account and let me know if indeed my resolution appears low, could it be a camera issue? Thanks.

Here is the Google Drive link: DJI_0211.DNG

GMack · Jun 27, 2017

Could be your post processing too which may need some sharpening applied.

I returned a camera due to one side being visibly less sharp than the other side which was tack sharp. Yours seems even so I'd say it's software or post-processing related.

Numone · Jun 27, 2017

r62ewa said:
I am questioning the resulting pictures from my Phantom 4 camera as they seem to be very poor resolution. I have watched videos online of others zooming in on their pictures and they are much clearer than mine. When I zoom in on a picture it has very low resolution, or at least I find.

I'd appreciate it if you guys can look at the DNG file I have uploaded to my Google Drive account and let me know if indeed my resolution appears low, could it be a camera issue? Thanks.

Here is the Google Drive link: DJI_0211.DNG

Can you upload the original DNG file here and, if you have one, the JPEG version too?

EDIT - sorry, I should have added; a 54kb web version can't be used for examination!

flyboy73 · Jun 27, 2017

r62ewa said:
I am questioning the resulting pictures from my Phantom 4 camera as they seem to be very poor resolution. I have watched videos online of others zooming in on their pictures and they are much clearer than mine. When I zoom in on a picture it has very low resolution, or at least I find.

I'd appreciate it if you guys can look at the DNG file I have uploaded to my Google Drive account and let me know if indeed my resolution appears low, could it be a camera issue? Thanks.

Here is the Google Drive link: DJI_0211.DNG

It is a little hard to tell as your subject is so far away. Do you have photos that were taken much closer? There won't be a lot of pixels to work with if your subject is in the distance. But based on the photo you provided it did not look bad to me.

r62ewa · Jun 27, 2017

Numone said:
Can you upload the original DNG file here and, if you have one, the JPEG version too?

EDIT - sorry, I should have added; a 54kb web version can't be used for examination!

The version in Google drive that I uploaded in my first post is the original unedited DNG file. I couldn't upload it here as it was too large so I uploaded it to Google Drive.

I find once I open a DNG to view it on the SD card I can see the poor resolution, especially in the buildings.

r62ewa · Jun 27, 2017

I'll try a closer picture and see how that looks. I watched a video of an individual doing editing and the picture he was working with he zoomed in on and it looked great, it was buildings at a distance sort of similar to mine but he's was much clearer.

Numone · Jun 27, 2017

r62ewa said:
The version in Google drive that I uploaded in my first post is the original unedited DNG file. I couldn't upload it here as it was too large so I uploaded it to Google Drive.

I find once I open a DNG to view it on the SD card I can see the poor resolution, especially in the buildings.

Right, well its impossible to examine a hugely compressed file and give an educated opinion. And what do you mean by "resolution"? I ask as it sounds like you're equating "resolution" with "sharpness" which is incorrect. A DNG is a RAW file and as such, it has zero post-processing. This is the reason I asked if you had the setting to create a JPEG copy of the pic as this will be "sharper", I guarantee it. The whole purpose of a RAW file is that you can make as little or as much post-processing you want.

r62ewa · Jun 27, 2017

Numone said:
Right, well its impossible to examine a hugely compressed file and give an educated opinion. And what do you mean by "resolution"? I ask as it sounds like you're equating "resolution" with "sharpness" which is incorrect. A DNG is a RAW file and as such, it has zero post-processing. This is the reason I asked if you had the setting to create a JPEG copy of the pic as this will be "sharper", I guarantee it. The whole purpose of a RAW file is that you can make as little or as much post-processing you want.

Thank you very much. Sounds like my next test is to set it to capture simultaneous DNG and JPEG and do some comparisons.

sar104 · Jun 27, 2017

The original DNG that you posted looks very soft when displayed in Google Drive, but downloaded it looks as expected, in my opinion. After some post-processing sharpening the image seems perfectly fine.

sar104 · Jun 27, 2017

Numone said:
Right, well its impossible to examine a hugely compressed file and give an educated opinion. And what do you mean by "resolution"? I ask as it sounds like you're equating "resolution" with "sharpness" which is incorrect. A DNG is a RAW file and as such, it has zero post-processing. This is the reason I asked if you had the setting to create a JPEG copy of the pic as this will be "sharper", I guarantee it. The whole purpose of a RAW file is that you can make as little or as much post-processing you want.

Actually the OP is using the term "resolution" correctly - it refers to the resolved detail in an image, usually measured by resolvable line pair separation. The more recent adoption of "resolution" to refer to the pixel dimensions of an image is technically incorrect and deprecated under ANSI standards.

r62ewa · Jun 27, 2017

Great, thanks guys. Just what I wanted was more experienced eyes looking at it so I know if it was a camera issue or user inexperience and I'll go with the latter.

Numone · Jun 27, 2017

sar104 said:
Actually the OP is using the term "resolution" correctly - it refers to the resolved detail in an image, usually measured by resolvable line pair separation. The more recent adoption of "resolution" to refer to the pixel dimensions of an image is technically incorrect and deprecated under ANSI standards.

Yep, I agree, if indeed that's what the OP actually meant, given he didn't put me straight in his reply to me. As you pointed-out, there is a huge amount of confusion surrounding the term "resolution" with many thinking that more pixels = sharper results. Certainly, these cameras are quite amazing given the limitations of their cheap optics and tiny physical sensors.

r62ewa · Jun 27, 2017

Here is a copy of one of my edited DNG images from the same flight.

Numone · Jun 27, 2017

r62ewa said:
Here is a copy of one of my edited DNG images from the same flight.

Absolutely fine.. beautiful shot too.

Erised · Jun 29, 2017

When I take pictures in DNG or JPG the images are not as sharp as a snapshot from the 4K video. I can bring them out in post but I am a bit disappointed at the quality of the image in camera mode, that said I still have to experiment more with manual mode, this takes time and there are so many variables.

Meta4 · Jun 29, 2017

r62ewa said:
Here is a copy of one of my edited DNG images from the same flight.

The photo looks fine.
The biggest "problem" is that all the detail is very distant.
Objects off in the background are always going to be a bit indistinct because they are made up of only a few pixels..
Shoot with the subject more prominent and see how that looks.

r62ewa · Jun 29, 2017

Thanks everyone. I believe my issue stemmed from not having enough experience with DNG files and having to edit them in post to bring them to life so to speak.

I am happy to know it is not a camera issue and something that can be fixed by me gaining more experience and getting some more practice.