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Not happy with X5 quality of pics. Advise pls.

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Not really happy with quality of the X5. Pics lack sharpness and detail. Blurry in the edges. ISO 100, F5.6. Standard settings. Any ideas/advice for better quality pls ?
DJI_0083 copy.JPG DJI_0076 copy.JPG DJI_0067 copy.JPG
 
The stock lens does seem rather soft below f/8. Is there a manufacturing issue or is it just not very good? It's a Panny lens isn't it?
 
Not really happy with quality of the X5. Pics lack sharpness and detail. Blurry in the edges. ISO 100, F5.6. Standard settings. Any ideas/advice for better quality pls ?
View attachment 5537 View attachment 5538 View attachment 5539
Mine was like that when i first got it. I went through everything but it come good after the firmware update. Now, Im happy with it. I admit its not as sharp as my P3 but it doesn't flicker and looks much better footage. As they say, you can always sharpen in post but I do think you need to calibrate more.
 
A lot of the softness in these photos has to do with atmospheric haze. Being really far away from stuff on a hazy day is going to cut down on your resolution. No two ways about it. I Find the stock 15mm lens to be very sharp. As sharp as the 45mm and sharper than the 14-45 zoom.
 
The stock DJI lens has very good reviews as it just a re-badged panasonic.
Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 ASPH Review | PhotographyBLOG

I would wait until the next update, it should be one of the better one's, I would estimate its here within 2 weeks.
Until then any settings you work on will be out dated when the new version comes along.
The DJI lens is a great lens and I have great luck with it. I have recently started trying other lenses and found the Olympus 12mm to be super sharp right out of the box. Have you had any experience with the 12mm. If so , thoughts?
 
The DJI lens is a great lens and I have great luck with it. I have recently started trying other lenses and found the Olympus 12mm to be super sharp right out of the box. Have you had any experience with the 12mm. If so , thoughts?

Yeah I got the oly 12mm, its much easier to fly with, but I am trying to maximize the video quality from this thing and I read on RCGROUPS that in theory the 15mm should make it EASIER to see the benefits of increased video quality. because its channeling the power it has on a smaller area.

make sure its (15mm) is setup right.
put switch on the lens to automatic.
I put the aperture dial to the far left next to the red arrow
calibrate in automatic mode and focus on something clear about 100 meters away.
THEN its done, then only shoot in manual mode (make sure to change it top right from AF/MF.
UHD@30 FPS
Shutter Speed =60 (for video)
Colour profile none or cineD.

I think though the next camera update will be a decent one, so you might aswell wait.

For now, try and get the best result for the photo straight out the camera, what sharpness up to 3 etc.
Forget post processing, see if you can straight out get an image you're happy with. Don't obsess too much about post processing, quite often its a result of simply not getting the right shot to begin with.
 
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Atmosphere looks pretty clear in these. Assuming you've set up the lens/camera correctly, for a proper test shoot something uniform like a brick wall to check for sharpness across the frame. You'll find that with a lens this wide the edges are always going to be softer. Some kit is worse than others. My Canon 20mm on a 1dX, flagship body suffers the same issue to some extent. Sharpening helps a little but won't make it as sharp/detailed as closer towards the centre. For stills, don't shoot at F8-plus unless you absolutely need more depth of field over sharpness - and for a lens this wide you should get all the DOF you need at 5.6 anyway. The sweet spot for these lenses is going to be between 4 and 5.6. Wider will likely be softer as will be any more stopped down than 5.6. I shoot high-end, commercial Stock images. The X3 is right on the cusp of what's acceptable. I'm hoping the X5R at 16mp will be considerably better (R because I want to optimise 4k as well as get better stills.) For us, the raw still image is only the start; we do all our post in Photoshop and it's vital in order to optimise the quality of the final image. In short, you seem to be doing everything right. All you can do now - assuming you're shooting over 1/250 to eliminate camera shake - is to get the most out of the image in Photoshop and accept the limitations of the camera.
 
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Calibrate your lens on a static surface on auto f2.8 focus on a high contrast subject 50-75 metres away. Believe me this is a high class lens which is basically Panasonic. It can take a while to get it right but once calibrated it produces pin sharpe images at infinite range. Your images are not that soft they are quite a distance from your RPAS.
 
Stock lens is indeed the Pana, Works very well, actually i use it on my Olympus OM-D E-M1. No complains
 
Could it ever be that taking large scenic images with the x5 poor results can be attributed to a low pixel count (x5 16meg)....I am just speculating and could be wrong...I have a I1 x5 and the quality looks the same as the images posted...
 
I think the pixel count is fine. What happens a lot, especially at wider f/stops, is the level of chromatic aberration is increased. Lightroom handles this quite well, but in general, I've found that wider angle lenses suffer from this a bit more, creating a "softer" edge. Definitely try stopping down and slowing down your shutter speed. I also agree that larger scenes tend to accentuate any environmental "haze" present in the atmosphere. I'm also a huge fan of the recently added manual focus tool.

I've been pretty happy with the results of my recent X5 upgrade. I just think it takes some more calibrating and experimenting. Good luck.
 
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Looking at your included images a second time, I'd say you need to re-calibrate the lens. I'm noticing what could be perceived as a slightly out-of-focus edge on all of them, but it's consistent, so keep trying the calibration routine. Getting my 25mm to calibrate accurately to infinity took several tries...
 
Looking at your included images a second time, I'd say you need to re-calibrate the lens. I'm noticing what could be perceived as a slightly out-of-focus edge on all of them, but it's consistent, so keep trying the calibration routine. Getting my 25mm to calibrate accurately to infinity took several tries...

Also, if you're shooting RAW and you've never shot in this mode, know that pictures look really lifeless straight from the camera. RAW mode only comes to life with post-processing.
 
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I think the pixel count is fine. What happens a lot, especially at wider f/stops, is the level of chromatic aberration is increased. Lightroom handles this quite well, but in general, I've found that wider angle lenses suffer from this a bit more, creating a "softer" edge. Definitely try stopping down and slowing down your shutter speed. I also agree that larger scenes tend to accentuate any environmental "haze" present in the atmosphere. I'm also a huge fan of the recently added manual focus tool.

I've been pretty happy with the results of my recent X5 upgrade. I just think it takes some more calibrating and experimenting. Good luck.

I Like this. We have been away from our rig for over a month, holidays, weather and just a needed break, and I just did all the upgrades yesterday. Cant wait to get in the air..
 
Hi,
I have been having the same trouble getting sharp images but Im a camera man first and I realised I have to calibrate the camera in manual mode at infinity. Most here say to do it in AF but that doesn't make sense. Im happy now. Heres a couple of images I took yesterday where I live..

DJI_0014Ormsby Tce.jpg DJI_0018Ormsby Tce.jpg .
 
Hi,
I have been having the same trouble getting sharp images but Im a camera man first and I realised I have to calibrate the camera in manual mode at infinity. Most here say to do it in AF but that doesn't make sense. Im happy now. Heres a couple of images I took yesterday where I live..

View attachment 5693 View attachment 5694 .
Great job! looks really sharp.
 
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