Video is great but photos are blurry

[BrettW]

I seem to be having an issue when taking photos with the P4. They come out terrible. They look blurry. It's as if the camera setting was set to super low resolution. But there are no settings like that for the camera. I find myself having to take a screenshot from a frame of HD footage as the HD footage is way way clearer than the photo of the same thing.
I save as jpg.
Anyone else having the same issue?
Can anyone suggest something constructive. Am I missing something?
I know jpg is a lossy format, but the results I'm getting is ridiculous. It's like taking a photo with a 2MP camera. Seriously.

 

[mercdave]

Just a few things to consider,
When taking photos are your settings in auto or manual mode? and secondly are you checking the photos you have taken through the DJI GO app or transferring from SD to PC/Mac?

A possible solution is maybe setting your camera settings to "default" could be as simple as something accidentally getting toggled on/off.

 

[PhantomRay]

I have the same issue where the images off of the SD card are not as sharp as the video. I have even manually focused the lens but could not get it any sharper. I can even see on the tablet view when switching from video to photo mode the sharpness drops. This tells me it's not a focus issue but a software issue.

 

[With The Birds]

I have the same issue where the images off of the SD card are not as sharp as the video. I have even manually focused the lens but could not get it any sharper. I can even see on the tablet view when switching from video to photo mode the sharpness drops. This tells me it's not a focus issue but a software issue.

How did you manually focus the lens, did you move the sensor board or rotate the lens assay in the barrel?

 

[PhantomRay]

Yeah I removed the lens cover and the black dji frame. Then I marked tiny increments around the fixed part of the lens. I put one mark on the actual lens. I used needle nose pliers wrapped in tape to protect lens and rotated the lens to each increment and took a photo. Then I compared the photos on my laptop by zooming in. The video is really sharp but the photos aren't as sharp.

 

[jwt873]

My still shots are just as sharp as my video. I often do frame grabs to capture interesting things from my videos and they're just as good as the still camera shots . Except for the pixel dimensions, I can't tell them apart.

One wild guess.... Are you shooting stills with an ND filter in place? If so, you'll wind up with longer exposure times and the slightest movement will cause blur. ND filters are great for video, but not still shots.

 

[PhantomRay]

My still shots are just as sharp as my video. I often do frame grabs to capture interesting things from my videos and they're just as good as the still camera shots . Except for the pixel dimensions, I can't tell them apart.

One wild guess.... Are you shooting stills with an ND filter in place? If so, you'll wind up with longer exposure times and the slightest movement will cause blur. ND filters are great for video, but not still shots.

No I do not use an ND filter.

 

[BrettW]

@mercdave,
I've tried taking photos in both auto & manual mode. Yes, I'm transferring from SD to PC. Looking at the photos on the PC especially at 1:1 scale, they look extremely soft & poor quality.

@PhantomRay,
Interesting to hear you have the same issue. I just went through every possible setting in the DJI GO app, hoping to find a setting I may have overlooked, but there are very few settings for photo mode. I also see the instant softening of the image (on the iPad Mini4) when swithing from video to photo mode.
I just took some photos, with the drone on a table with the rotors off and the images are no better. So I'm assuming there's a glitch with the AI focusing in the firmware/software, on some, but not all, P4's.

 

[With The Birds]

@mercdave,
I've tried taking photos in both auto & manual mode. Yes, I'm transferring from SD to PC. Looking at the photos on the PC especially at 1:1 scale, they look extremely soft & poor quality.

@PhantomRay,
Interesting to hear you have the same issue. I just went through every possible setting in the DJI GO app, hoping to find a setting I may have overlooked, but there are very few settings for photo mode. I also see the instant softening of the image (on the iPad Mini4) when swithing from video to photo mode.
I just took some photos, with the drone on a table with the rotors off and the images are no better. So I'm assuming there's a glitch with the AI focusing in the firmware/software, on some, but not all, P4's.

The lens is fixed focus.

When you say the images are poor quality what are you comparing them to?

Perhaps posting some samples will allow people to have a better idea what the issues might be. At lest to the extent that it is typical or out if spec.

 

[GMack]

If your videos are sharp and your stills aren't, I'd suspect something is going on with your post processing in the stills (No sharpening applied.), or you are over-sharpening your videos with whatever software you are using.

One P4 I had had the "tilted lens issue" where one side was sharper than the other, but I first noticed it on video and later proved true on stills too. That was a bad camera.

 

[BrettW]

The lens is fixed focus.

When you say the images are poor quality what are you comparing them to?

Perhaps posting some samples will allow people to have a better idea what the issues might be. At lest to the extent that it is typical or out if spec.

As I mentioned in my 1st post, I'm comparing them to screenshots of HD video (not to mention 4K video).

Keep in mind that 4K is 4096 x 2160 (which is equivalent to 8.8 MP) and the P4 can capture stills at 12.4MP, so stills should be comparable to 4K quality, loosely speaking.

Sure thing. I will post some samples, but I'm unable to do so before next weekend.

@GMack,
That would be great if that was the answer (re: post processing), but no, that's not the case. I'm simply comparing non post processed stills to non post processed video frames.

Strange I know & I understand it's hard to believe the stills could look worse than HD, under virtually identical conditions, but it's true.

 

[PLPhoto]

What software do you use to view the stills the stills in? I have noticed some viewing programs are not as nice as editing programs.

 

[BrettW]

What software do you use to view the stills the stills in? I have noticed some viewing programs are not as nice as editing programs.

Sure, some viewing programs can be worse than others, but that is not the case here, as I'm viewing both images (photo & video frame screenshot) from the same program. There's a definite discrepancy between both images.
The issue is unquestionably coming from the drone. It just doesn't make sense why.

 

[Glen_S]

I noticed the same thing, my stills are not near as sharp as my screen grabs, and I'm only shooting in 1080-60p.

I don't know if it has any bearing on it, but I changed from the default DJI color mode to Dlog, then back again. After that my stills seemed very blurry. I have since changed mode back to Dlog, and the stills seem a little better when they are in the Dlog mode, but still not as sharp as they should be.

 

[PhantomRay]

The lens is fixed focus.

When you say the images are poor quality what are you comparing them to?

Perhaps posting some samples will allow people to have a better idea what the issues might be. At lest to the extent that it is typical or out if spec.

Both of these are screen shots using the same viewer (PrtScr key). One is the video and the other is a photo. They were taken within seconds of each other. You can clearly see the photo is blurry compared to the video screen shot.

 

[PLPhoto]

Can you tell what your still settings were? Was the quad moving when you made the exposure? Are you using a ND filter or polarizer? The more info you provide the easier it is to help.

 

[With The Birds]

What viewing application are you using? PrtScr key? Does that mean you captured a screen grab from another programme and opened it in another app?

If you were shooting RAW it might be that what you are previewing is a low quality jpg embedded in the RAW file.

Are you able to upload the original image file from the SD card please?

Agreed the image you have posted is pox but it's not clear why.

 

[PhantomRay]

Can you tell what your still settings were? Was the quad moving when you made the exposure? Are you using a ND filter or polarizer? The more info you provide the easier it is to help.

No filter or polarizer. Can't remember settings but was in auto for both photo and video. The point is, not matter what settings I used, and I've tried every combination, the image is always slightly blurry compared to the video. Also when I took the video and photo the quad was stationary. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was even desperate enough to fix this issue that I manually adjusted the lens. But as you can see the video is sharp so the lens is not the issue. It must be some software problem with my phantom. I thought about sending it back (before adjusting the lens) but didn't want to deal with all the hassle especially since the quad flies perfect. I didn't want them sending me another unit that may have more problems.

 

[PhantomRay]

What viewing application are you using? PrtScr key? Does that mean you captured a screen grab from another programme and opened it in another app?

If you were shooting RAW it might be that what you are previewing is a low quality jpg embedded in the RAW file.

Are you able to upload the original image file from the SD card please?

Agreed the image you have posted is pox but it's not clear why.

I simply open the image in the windows photo viewer and then hit the PrtScr key and then paste the image into MS Paint. And no this does not diminish the quality of the image as it looks the same. I simply do this so that I can show everyone that the photo and video are opened in the same Windows viewer. I've tried the RAW images in the past with the same results. I haven't tried editing the DNG files as I don't have a means to but I doubt it would make a difference. I have attached the unedited jpg file from the sdcard.

 

[GMack]

You are using Windows 10 I see. Fwiw, I have issues with their photo viewer where I had to disable it as MS decided to "automatically enhance files as it sees fit" by default. Their old Windows 7 and 8 worked a lot better as it did not enhance.

Try and locate exiftool by Phil Harvey (freeware), leave the exiftool icon on the desktop, and drag just the files from the camera onto it once its on your desktop. It will show you a lot more data and get around whatever screen capture or viewer you are using which I suspect is your problem since you are not using a DNG which you should be for a RAW file, else you are looking at the crummy JPG extracted form the DNG. You can try using it both with the RAW/DNG file as well as the JPG, and your video MOV or MPG too.

Lacking a RAW converter, you can use RawTherapee 4.2.1 (also freeware) as it will read the DJI DNG file. It's pretty complex at first looks (Try Auto for most all settings first time through to get used to it.), but it can do a heck of a lot too and probably pull better overall looks and sharpness out of your image too. There is a Lens profile correction within it too for the Phantom P3 RAW which is much the same as the P4. It's graduated density does a nice job on skies too.