A bold title, in order to differentiate this thread from an earlier one, recently closed by the Administrator (quite rightly so). That thread set out to try to discuss whether the advertised spec of the P4P camera was misleading, and unfortunately became rather bogged down by acrimony (though not by the originator)!
This thread is an attempt to discuss the facts about the spec. and performance of the camera, and to mention the possible implications for various users of the P4P, and nothing else! I do not own a P4P (just a lowly P4), but probably will do soon. I am simply interested
So, here are a few things to look over and maybe add some more. Please pick as many holes as you like.
1. The camera incorporates a 1” sensor, make unknown. It’s a legacy description going back to the use of vacuum tube pick-up devices, and they were (perhaps still are?) circular. The actual sensor size is 13.2mm x 8.8mm. It contains 20Mega Pixels (MP), arranged in a 3:2 format.
2. The lens is a sophisticated design, incorporating aspherical components. Is it custom designed or a modified standard design for that sensor size? Perhaps a specialised design has been used, because of the specific needs with the Phantom for a lightweight, high performance lens with minimum field curvature, high resolution and good flare performance .
3. It seems that the lens vignettes at the extreme corners. This means that, in this case, the corners of the image appear black, or darkened. I suppose it could have been heart shaped!
Vignetting can be caused by various things –
a. mechanical, in which a physical object like a lens shade obstructs, this effect softens as the working aperture is widened.
b. optical, when the optics cause an obstruction in the light path. This gets less as you stop the lens down, and
c. sensor, when the pixels at the edge of the sensor receive less light because of the increased incidence angle of the rays.
From the previous thread it maybe that the P4P may exhibits mechanical vignetting. Or maybe a mixture of all three?
4. The vignetting is NOT noticeable in the P4P RAW images because DJI use a preset which crops the 20MP image to around 15MP, which removes the darkening (and the edges of the frame). It is then resized (by the preset) to 20MP. This is a bone of contention, because you then have an upscaled and cropped image. It is possible to view and work on the actual vignetted image using specialist software.
5. The effect described is thought by some to be irrelevant, and by others to be important. Critical stills photographers will expect every portion of their image to be perfect, whereas others may not care about the extreme corners. For those using aspect ratios wider than the native 3:2 it will be unimportant. Video users, for example, will normally work with 16:9 aspect and see crisp, clean images, I expect.
oooooooOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo
It would be good, if you do want to add to this information, to quote the numbers above, or add your own for points I’ve missed.
In any event, I hope this gives a little light reading and maybe helps to clarify things slightly.
This thread is an attempt to discuss the facts about the spec. and performance of the camera, and to mention the possible implications for various users of the P4P, and nothing else! I do not own a P4P (just a lowly P4), but probably will do soon. I am simply interested
So, here are a few things to look over and maybe add some more. Please pick as many holes as you like.
1. The camera incorporates a 1” sensor, make unknown. It’s a legacy description going back to the use of vacuum tube pick-up devices, and they were (perhaps still are?) circular. The actual sensor size is 13.2mm x 8.8mm. It contains 20Mega Pixels (MP), arranged in a 3:2 format.
2. The lens is a sophisticated design, incorporating aspherical components. Is it custom designed or a modified standard design for that sensor size? Perhaps a specialised design has been used, because of the specific needs with the Phantom for a lightweight, high performance lens with minimum field curvature, high resolution and good flare performance .
3. It seems that the lens vignettes at the extreme corners. This means that, in this case, the corners of the image appear black, or darkened. I suppose it could have been heart shaped!
Vignetting can be caused by various things –
a. mechanical, in which a physical object like a lens shade obstructs, this effect softens as the working aperture is widened.
b. optical, when the optics cause an obstruction in the light path. This gets less as you stop the lens down, and
c. sensor, when the pixels at the edge of the sensor receive less light because of the increased incidence angle of the rays.
From the previous thread it maybe that the P4P may exhibits mechanical vignetting. Or maybe a mixture of all three?
4. The vignetting is NOT noticeable in the P4P RAW images because DJI use a preset which crops the 20MP image to around 15MP, which removes the darkening (and the edges of the frame). It is then resized (by the preset) to 20MP. This is a bone of contention, because you then have an upscaled and cropped image. It is possible to view and work on the actual vignetted image using specialist software.
5. The effect described is thought by some to be irrelevant, and by others to be important. Critical stills photographers will expect every portion of their image to be perfect, whereas others may not care about the extreme corners. For those using aspect ratios wider than the native 3:2 it will be unimportant. Video users, for example, will normally work with 16:9 aspect and see crisp, clean images, I expect.
oooooooOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo
It would be good, if you do want to add to this information, to quote the numbers above, or add your own for points I’ve missed.
In any event, I hope this gives a little light reading and maybe helps to clarify things slightly.