Raw – Kevin Davis Photography

Mavic 3 Photo Quality vs. Mavic 2 Pro

November 29, 2021November 30, 2021Kevin

Although the Mavic 3 includes some groundbreaking new features, many reviewers will render their opinions about such things and I will not do so here. I am only analyzing the photo quality from Mavic 3 with comparison to the predecessor Mavic 2 Pro.

Mavic 3 includes two cameras. I am comparing the main camera to the camera of Mavic 2 Pro. The Mavic 3 main camera has a fixed-focal-length lens, 4/3 image sensor, and variable aperture.

The Mavic 3 supports capturing photos in either JPEG format or JPEG & RAW. While I almost always capture photos in RAW format and I do not need a JPEG, the initial release of MAVIC 3 will always save a JPEG. That could possibly change in a future firmware update.

See the end of this post for a link to my 2018 comparison of Mavic 2 Pro image quality, compared to original Mavic Pro.

Testing the Mavic 3 at sunset … f\3.2, ISO 100

The main camera of Mavic 3 uses a 4/3 image sensor; this has implications.

The image rectangle has an aspect ratio of 4:3, which is same as Mavic 2 Zoom but is different than Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic Air. For me personally, this implies that I must crop each image and discard some pixels to obtain a final image of 3:2 aspect ratio.
Four-thirds and Micro Four Thirds (MFT) are established standards. The diagonal measure of a 4/3 sensor can vary but is typically around 22mm. Compare this to Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic Air 2S, which each have image sensors with diagonal measure around 16 mm.
A larger sensor can allow for either more pixels or larger pixels. The Mavic 3 pixel resolution is not significantly different than Mavic 2 Pro. Likely the individual dot elements (pixels) are larger. Potentially that might translate to better ability to gather light, potentially reducing the signal-to-noise ratio. But that is theoretical. As the old saying goes, the proof is in the pudding.

Some online articles suggest that the larger image sensor “gives Mavic 3 higher resolution and dynamic range” but …. higher resolution is a dubious claim and higher dynamic range is theoretical.

DJI drones have historically employed Sony Exmore image sensors; DJI/Hasselblad cameras are no exception. I must guess that the Mavic 3 is using the Sony IMX472-AAJK, but I have not confirmed this. That sensor can capture all 20 megapixels at 120 frames-per-second. Notably, this sensor uses “stacked CMOS” technology and is the first ever stacked CMOS sensor in the 4/3 size. This sensor diagonally measures 21.77 mm.

The Mavic 3 user guide (available online) includes this disturbing note: “Before shooting important photos or videos, shoot a few images to test the camera is operating correctly.” I shudder to imagine what might have happened during initial product testing to warrant such a warning.

Pixel Resolution

If you want a final image to have3:2 aspect ratio, then any 3:4 image must be cropped and that includes Mavic 3. Technically, you end up with fewer pixels than Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic Air 2S.

Mavic Air 2S @ 3:2 aspect ……………… 5472×3648 = 19.9 million pixels
Mavic 2 @ 3:2 aspect ……………………… 5464×3640 = 19.88 million pixels
Mavic 2 @ 4:3 aspect (crop from 3:2)… 4852×3640
Mavic 2 @ 16:9 aspect (crop)…………… 5464×3070
Mavic 3 @ 4:3 aspect …………………….. 5280×3956 = 20.88 million pixels
Mavic 3 @ 3:2 aspect (crop from 4:3)… 5280×3520 = 18.58 million pixels
Mavic 3 @ 16:9 aspect (crop)…………….. 5280×2970

Color

Opening RAW images in Adobe lightroom, the color is a bit green. That’s correctable but really annoying; I’m guessing this problem is because Lightroom/Photoshop/CameraRAW do not yet include a camera profile for Mavic 3 (Hasselblad L2D-20c).

Looking at the JPEGs, the color looks good – not vibrant, but good.

Sharpness

Comparing images from Mavic 3 and Mavic 2 Pro, at aperture f\3.5 and f\4.0, the two are equally sharp at center of the lens. However, away from center, toward the edges of the image, Mavic 3 exhibits improved sharpness over Mavic 2 Pro.

High-magnification crop from the original RAW image

Image noise

Considering all ISO 100 through 3200, Mavic 3 shows less luminance noise than Mavic 2 Pro. However, at any ISO, low light situations can result in considerable chroma noise in both shadows and midtones. It is worst at IS0 800, 1600, 3200. While it can usually be mitigated using noise-reduction in post-processing, the 4/3 image sensor should not exhibit this problem.

As the camera saves both RAW and JPEG, I looked at the JPEGs. Luminance noise is reasonably mitigated through ISO 1600; mitigation can be dicey at 3200. Chroma noise is essentially eliminated. However, not surprising, this noise reduction comes at a price – loss of sharpness.

Luminance noise in shadows … ISO 400, daylight with ND4 filter … N0te: ambient light and altitude are not identical

Mavic 3 … chroma noise in low light … ISO 1600

Chromatic aberration

In some situations with high-contrast fine detail, Mavic 3 can suffer from chromatic aberration similar to the first-generation Mavic Pro. Although Mavic 2 Pro significantly reduced chromatic aberration, Mavic 3 is a step backward. This is observed with the clear DJI lens cover; I haven’t tried it yet with the naked lens.

Shadow detail

Considering detail in the darkest shadow areas, Mavic 3 has a slight advantage to reveal details that Mavic 2 Pro cannot. The difference is quite small.

DJI has stated that the Mavic 3 main camera has 12.8 stops of dynamic range, which is not significantly greater than Mavic Air 2S or Mavic 2 Pro.

Highlight detail

Both the original Mavic Pro and the successor Mavic 2 Pro often failed to resolve subtle detail in highlights. This commonly manifests in architectural details that are white,such as clapboard siding and trim mouldings. Mavic 3 does shows a slight improvement.

Images captured with Mavic 2 Pro – particularly images that include architecture – have commonly required a great deal of effort to safeguard highlight details. At the time of capture, exposure bracketing saves an additional exposure wherein the highlights are rendered with reduced brightness. In post-processing, that exposure is developed carefully and specifically for hightlight details. Then those highlights are manually blended into the other exposure. Only time will tell if Mavic 3 eliminates the need for that extra work.

Remote control

Apart from the camera itself, I must mention the remote control. With the Mavic 2 Pro, I have very commonly used the camera control dial under the right index finger. With Mavic 3, the RC-N1 remote controller has no such control dial; exposure settings can only be controlled via touch-screen. The expensive RC Pro controller includes a dial for right index finger, which I vaguely believe controls camera zoom and I do not know if it can be used for exposure purposes. I did not spend the extra $1000 to get an RC Pro.

Mavic 3 … , daylight with ND4 filter, f\4.0, ISO 400

Here is my investigation of the Mavic 2 Pro, back when that was released in 2018:

Image Quality : Mavic 2 Pro vs. (original) Mavic Pro

Tall Ships photography Post-Processing

June 19, 2017June 19, 2017Kevin

SailBoston 2017 - USCG Eagle — SailBoston 2017 – USCG Eagle

I first began photographing tall ships during SailBoston 2000. Since then, I have photographed tall ships many times from Philadelphia PA to Camden ME. SailBoston 2017 was not to be missed, being the largest gathering of tall ships in the northeast since 1976.

As the weather for the grand parade of sail was a big foggy, the resulting images were low contrast. If your camera is capturing JPEG images, then you might change the camera settings to increase the contrast. But for those of us who are sticklers for image quality and therefore capture RAW images, the camera setting for contrast doesn’t actually do anything. Here’s how I post-processed RAW images using Adobe Lightroom.

(click on the image to see the full-resolution image.)

When lighting is low contrast, you have a choice of keeping that or compensating for it. If you choose to compensate, the most important step is usually to lower the black point. Essentially, low contrast implies that the darkest parts of the image render as a lighter tone and the brightest parts of the image render as less bright. Dark isn’t particularly dark and bright isn’t particularly bright.

With the original settings shown on the left, notice that the histogram at the top shows none of the image information extends to the far left. None of the image falls into the leftmost one third, the region of darkest possible tones. To pull the dark tones to the left, use the black clipping slider control. The settings on the right show the modified histogram.

Lightroom divides tonality into five regions, black, shadow, midtone, hightlight, and white. If you hover your computer cursor over any of the five relevant slider controls, the corresponding region will be highlighted in the histogram.

Dragging the black point to -60 is relatively heavy-handed and tends to drag the shadow areas down. Although I have raised the shadow brightness here, that is primarily to hold the shadows closer to the original brightness, compensating for the drag of the -60 black point.

Further increasing the overall contrast, I have raised the overall exposure brightness and the highlights. And I have made minor adjustments in color, to compensate for a slight green cast and slight yellow cast.

In addition to the overall image adjustments, I have made a few local adjustments. The hull of the Eagle was bit dark, due to the angle of the sun; so I brightened the hull slightly. The sails of schooner Adventure picked up a slight blue cast from the environment; so I moved that color slightly toward yellow. The white stripes of the American flag also picked up a bluish cast; so I moved that color slightly toward yellow, reduced the color saturation, and added a touch of brightness.

Finally, the foreground water appeared to be less bright, perhaps due to shallow depth. I applied a gradient filter to the foreground and bumped up the brightness to match the rest of the image.

Maybe these adjustments seem like a lot of work. But the overall image adjustments can be quickly and easily copied to other images. If the natural light of the day hasn’t changed, these adjustments are appropriate for many images, not just the one. Wherever the light did change, I have to make small adjustments and then apply that set of adjustments to a group of images.

With more than fifty ships in the parade of sail, I shot 250 images. I don’t give detailed attention to every single image. Duplicating adjustments to a group of images is a necessary time saver. And, of course, I will give the most attention to my favorite images, those that might be submitted to publishers or printed for wall decoration.

If you are in the Boston area during August 2017, stop by Boston City Hall and check out my exhibit of tall ship photography at the Mayor’s Neighborhood Gallery (2^nd floor).

Smoky Mountain Sunset

April 12, 2012October 25, 2012Kevin

In Tennesee, anybody can enjoy Great Smoky Mountain National Park at no cost. There are no entrance fees and no parking fees. Apparrently this was part of the deal when the land was acquired (from native American Indians). And you can simply drive to the top of Clingman’s Dome.

Any evening on Clingman’s Dome, there can be a bevy of photographers lined up to photograph sunset. (Probably sunrise too, but I have not witnessed that.)
But as most photographers point their cameras toward the sun, they may miss out on some of the best scenes … which do not directly include the sun.

This image was shot with a micro-four-thirds camera (Panasonic Lumix G3) and captured as RAW. While JPEG images have already been processed (by the camera), RAW images receive no processing. In my experience, RAW images tend to look flat and require some post-processing (by me). While this scene appeared well to my human eyes, the camera capture was very low contrast. So the significant post-processing was to increase the contrast.

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