X5R 1080p RAW issues

Richard Hurst · May 1, 2016

Although in the Go App you have options to record 4K, 2.7K and 1080p RAW to the SSD I'm finding that the 1080p footage is really really bad. My 4K footage is fine and my Lenses are calibrated correctly so I just can't get my head round this. I've been running my 5 batteries down everyday over the past 4 days trying to get my head round it but now I think it's a firmware issues and not something I'm doing. The 1080p footage is mushy, bit pixelated and suffers from bad purple/green fringing.

Can someone else please tell me if they are finding the same as its getting to me now.

InterMurph · May 1, 2016

I haven't tested 1080p footage on the X5R SSD, but I can speculate.

The 4K raw video works this way: the camera reads the pixels from the sensor, and writes the frame to a DNG file on the SSD. No pixel-binning, no scaling, no video compression; just frame-per-frame. So each frame of video contains every bit of information that was available on the sensor.

But if it's writing 1080p raw video, it has to take the original 4K signal and process it. It has to combine pixels, scale it, etc. And in this process, it is almost certainly doing video compression.

Frankly, I wouldn't trust the DJI camera to do this processing. It provides raw 4K video. If you want 1080p video, you are much better off shooting 4K raw, downloading it, then converting it yourself with a professional tool like Premiere Pro.

But if you only want 1080p video, I am thinking that the X5R is not the right tool.

The Editor · May 1, 2016

InterMurph said:
I haven't tested 1080p footage on the X5R SSD, but I can speculate.

The 4K raw video works this way: the camera reads the pixels from the sensor, and writes the frame to a DNG file on the SSD. No pixel-binning, no scaling, no video compression; just frame-per-frame. So each frame of video contains every bit of information that was available on the sensor.

But if it's writing 1080p raw video, it has to take the original 4K signal and process it. It has to combine pixels, scale it, etc. And in this process, it is almost certainly doing video compression.

Frankly, I wouldn't trust the DJI camera to do this processing. It provides raw 4K video. If you want 1080p video, you are much better off shooting 4K raw, downloading it, then converting it yourself with a professional tool like Premiere Pro.

But if you only want 1080p video, I am thinking that the X5R is not the right tool.

In theory it should just crop the sensor and read out the 1920x1080 centre part of the chip.
This would give you true raw 1080 out of the camera without the need for any processing - however since DJI are very limited in their understanding of anything with the word camera in the name I wouldn't mind betting they have made a pigs ear of things.

Richard Hurst · May 1, 2016

InterMurph said:
I haven't tested 1080p footage on the X5R SSD, but I can speculate.

The 4K raw video works this way: the camera reads the pixels from the sensor, and writes the frame to a DNG file on the SSD. No pixel-binning, no scaling, no video compression; just frame-per-frame. So each frame of video contains every bit of information that was available on the sensor.

But if it's writing 1080p raw video, it has to take the original 4K signal and process it. It has to combine pixels, scale it, etc. And in this process, it is almost certainly doing video compression.

Frankly, I wouldn't trust the DJI camera to do this processing. It provides raw 4K video. If you want 1080p video, you are much better off shooting 4K raw, downloading it, then converting it yourself with a professional tool like Premiere Pro.

But if you only want 1080p video, I am thinking that the X5R is not the right tool.

I'm happy to have 4K I am just worried that I have a issue/fault with mine which is making me concerned. I'm going to upload a dropbox link shortly to the 1080p .dng sequence so people can see

Richard Hurst · May 1, 2016

Here is a drop box link to a Premiere compatible sequence - Dropbox - 1080p RAW SSD - Premiere Compatible

Brendan · May 1, 2016

What frame rate/shutter speed? I had a quick look and noticed the file sizes are 1.6Mb compared to my 2.6Mb for 1080? I can try dropboxing some of my 1080 stills to compare? I shot mine at 60fps.

Bit depth at 1080 is 10bit as opposed to 12bit for 4K, the SlimRaw devs picked this up in a sample frame I sent them

Brendan · May 1, 2016

This is a single image from mine Dropbox - raw

1080/60fps Premiere Compatible

Brendan · May 1, 2016

Richard Hurst said:
Here is a drop box link to a Premiere compatible sequence - Dropbox - 1080p RAW SSD - Premiere Compatible

I noticed your shutter speed was at 1/1250, f7.1, iso200? for comparison, mine was at f10, 1/120 (60fps), iso100. My file size is approx 2.47Mb to your 1.5Mb. I was running the stock 15mm lens

Richard Hurst · May 2, 2016

Yes just for this test I put everything in auto so that's why shutter speed was high. The reason for the difference in file size maybe due to those being converted by SlimRaw

My dealer has spoken with his DJI rep and they are aware there seems to be an issue in anything apart from 4 K RAW and a new firmware is imminent so that should resolve it.

Brendan · May 2, 2016

Richard Hurst said:
Yes just for this test I put everything in auto so that's why shutter speed was high. The reason for the difference in file size maybe due to those being converted by SlimRaw

My dealer has spoken with his DJI rep and they are aware there seems to be an issue in anything apart from 4 K RAW and a new firmware is imminent so that should resolve it.

That's great there is another firmware update coming. That's interesting about SlimRaw, I'm getting no compression on 1080p, and after speaking with the developers, they haven't got it slimming down 1080p yet, they will be sending out an update soon. They were interested in the 1080p frame I sent them as they hadn't received one. They are the ones who told me 1080 was at 10bit depth as opposed to 4K at 12bit. They were surprised

Richard Hurst · May 2, 2016

The weather is a bit dull and overcast here today but I will go out again and record some 1080p at the correct frame rate to shutter ratio and check the file size on my return.

Brendan · May 2, 2016

Might be worth a shot, sounds like DJI have already admitted an issue with it

InterMurph · May 2, 2016

The Editor said:
In theory it should just crop the sensor and read out the 1920x1080 centre part of the chip.
This would give you true raw 1080 out of the camera without the need for any processing - however since DJI are very limited in their understanding of anything with the word camera in the name I wouldn't mind betting they have made a pigs ear of things.

That would be such a severe crop of the sensor that it would be mostly useless.

Joe Lawry · May 4, 2016

I shot my first 1080 test yesterday, (having only had the camera a week) and did get some average results. I wasnt expecting it to be amazing though, Native res off the sensor will always be better. It was useable however, just have to play around with auto enhance in cinelight. (although this obviously doesnt effect DNGs elsewhere) I hope DJI are able to get a bit more out of the camera, 1080 50/60p is very useful on certain jobs.

Richard Hurst · May 4, 2016

I do think I have a faulty camera body unfortunately as even my 4K video is not looking good,in fact the SD footage is much better than the SSD footage. Have tried 3 lenses to see if my 12mm had an issue but its the same on all of them. All calibrated correctly and in manual focus to ensure its at it's best. ran the same clip through premiere using the same settings and you can see the results below:

4K SSD Clip -
4K SD Clip -

AllanM · May 4, 2016

The Editor said:
In theory it should just crop the sensor and read out the 1920x1080 centre part of the chip.
This would give you true raw 1080 out of the camera without the need for any processing - however since DJI are very limited in their understanding of anything with the word camera in the name I wouldn't mind betting they have made a pigs ear of things.

No, that's not correct, that's not how downscaling works in camera.

I think I would rather have 1280P @ 60Mb/s pixelbinned than 4K @ 60Mb/s straight. Unfortunately 1280 on X5 OOC, I've found is pretty average to dire and downscaling in PP is currently the way to go.

Fixupilot · May 4, 2016

Richard Hurst said:
I do think I have a faulty camera body unfortunately as even my 4K video is not looking good,in fact the SD footage is much better than the SSD footage. Have tried 3 lenses to see if my 12mm had an issue but its the same on all of them. All calibrated correctly and in manual focus to ensure its at it's best. ran the same clip through premiere using the same settings and you can see the results below:

4K SD Clip -

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Is this native file from the SD card or have you used sharpening or color correction to this? What settings in camera, None,0,0,0 ?

Richard Hurst · May 4, 2016

Fixupilot said:
Is this native file from the SD card or have you used sharpening or color correction to this? What settings in camera, None,0,0,0 ?

Both the SSD clip and the SD clip were edited exactly the same in Premiere, saturation, contrast, highlights etc all set to the same values. Sharpening set to 30. recorded in None 0,0,0

phoenixaerial · May 7, 2016

Richard Hurst said:
Although in the Go App you have options to record 4K, 2.7K and 1080p RAW to the SSD I'm finding that the 1080p footage is really really bad. My 4K footage is fine and my Lenses are calibrated correctly so I just can't get my head round this. I've been running my 5 batteries down everyday over the past 4 days trying to get my head round it but now I think it's a firmware issues and not something I'm doing. The 1080p footage is mushy, bit pixelated and suffers from bad purple/green fringing.

Can someone else please tell me if they are finding the same as its getting to me now.

I have the same issue with the above.. Not sure how to work it out or just deal with it..

Brendan · May 8, 2016

Bit of an update, SlimRaw have now released the update to handle the 1080p feed. They also said they got more information on the 1080p bit depth, it is still 12bit at the lower frame rates (23.97), but drops to 10bit at the higher frame rates (60fps). I'm trying to see what is the minimum frame rate where the bit depth drops.

The SlimRaw devs have been extremely helpful, and I know fully use it in my workflow