20 MP Photographs with X5S

Moaf · Mar 5, 2018

Hi guys. Simple question....I hope.
How can I take 20 mp photographs with my X5S on my Inspire 2. Which settings are to be used.
A connected question also if I my. I have a project about to begin. I have been asked to take an individual photo that is to be blown up to 3m square. Is this possible with the X5S.
Thank you

Jaime · Mar 5, 2018

Just take a lot of photographs with a longer lens like the Olympus 45/1,8 ant stich them together, you will have a very big photo

Moaf · Mar 5, 2018

Jaime said:
Just take a lot of photographs with a longer lens like the Olympus 45/1,8 ant stich them together, you will have a very big photo

Thank you for the reply, I appreciate it. But my main and most important question was how to take 20mp with the X5S. To be honest the large photo is secondary.

Jaime · Mar 5, 2018

What do you mean? the camera settings? just choose raw or raw+jpg, a f number around 4-5,6 and a shutter speed of 1/500 or higher to be sure there is no motion blur, with good light you will not need to raise iso, use 100iso but if you work in low light you will need to open f number, lower shutter speed and use 200 to 400iso, and dont forget to focus the lens

PortCanaveralFlorida · Mar 5, 2018

Moaf said:
Hi guys. Simple question....I hope.
How can I take 20 mp photographs with my X5S on my Inspire 2. Which settings are to be used.
A connected question also if I my. I have a project about to begin. I have been asked to take an individual photo that is to be blown up to 3m square. Is this possible with the X5S.
Thank you

Granted there are some that think a larger MP size equals a larger print, not so. It's finding a printer that can reproduce the image @ 300ppi OR even 72ppi perfectly! We can print a 4'x8' and the file is only 2-3MP, not 20 MP or even 100MP. We can render at, let's say, 4'x8'@72ppi save it out as a HQ.jpeg and print it on ether Ebson10,000 or HPZ6200 and prints perfect, printed at 100%. Shoot a HQ image, let's say it's 10MPx15x15@240ppi, make a comp in photoshop say 3'x3' @100ppi, (not 300ppi) and place your image, the placed image will need to be shrunk to fit the 3'x3'. Send this to ether one of these printers and that puppy will print perfect @100ppi or even if your 100% comp is 72ppi which we print 50% of our items at those settings, ray-traced @ 72ppi-100ppi look amassing!
Find yourself a good printer, no need to choke a horse with large file sizes anymore.

Moaf · Mar 5, 2018

Jaime said:
What do you mean? the camera settings? just choose raw or raw+jpg, a f number around 4-5,6 and a shutter speed of 1/500 or higher to be sure there is no motion blur, with good light you will not need to raise iso, use 100iso but if you work in low light you will need to open f number, lower shutter speed and use 200 to 400iso, and dont forget to focus the lens

Focus the lens by tapping on the screen?

Jaime · Mar 5, 2018

Moaf said:
Focus the lens by tapping on the screen?

Yes, is that easy.

Moaf · Mar 5, 2018

PortCanaveralFlorida said:
Granted there are some that think a larger MP size equals a larger print, not so. It's finding a printer that can reproduce the image @ 300ppi OR even 72ppi perfectly! We can print a 4'x8' and the file is only 2-3MP, not 20 MP or even 100MP. We can render at, let's say, 4'x8'@72ppi save it out as a HQ.jpeg and print it on ether Ebson10,000 or HPZ6200 and prints perfect, printed at 100%. Shoot a HQ image, let's say it's 10MPx15x15@240ppi, make a comp in photoshop say 3'x3' @100ppi, (not 300ppi) and place your image, the placed image will need to be shrunk to fit the 3'x3'. Send this to ether one of these printers and that puppy will print perfect @100ppi or even if your 100% comp is 72ppi which we print 50% of our items at those settings, ray-traced @ 72ppi-100ppi look amassing!
Find yourself a good printer, no need to choke a horse with large file sizes anymore.

Thank you very much for the detailed info. I am not so worried about the large poster, I wont have to print it! Ill just be giving the client the best possible digital photo I can and I am just not sure of the buttons, clicks or settings I need to input to get the best possible photo. If , by thinking that a 20mp photo is not what I need please feel free to correct me and set me on the right road. Thnaks

mmarian · Mar 5, 2018

Moaf said:
Thank you very much for the detailed info. I am not so worried about the large poster, I wont have to print it! Ill just be giving the client the best possible digital photo I can and I am just not sure of the buttons, clicks or settings I need to input to get the best possible photo. If , by thinking that a 20mp photo is not what I need please feel free to correct me and set me on the right road. Thnaks

You also need to set the aspect ratio in Camera Settings to 4:3, as that is the shape of sensor in X5S. Unlike P4P and X4S which is 3:2. But if the final print is going to be of a different proportion you will end up cropping your 4:3 photo anyway.

NickU · Mar 6, 2018

Go into your camera settings, pick the photo (i.e. Not video!) options and set it to take jpeg+raw in 4:3 format (not 16:9). For simplicity, set colour style to something like d-cinelike, and your white balance to suite (say sunny or cloudy). Set to take a single image (or a 3 or 5 multi exposure).

Raw+jpeg means you will get two files for each still photo you take... one jpeg which is pretty much a ready to use good rendition of the scene, but for which the file size will be less than 20Mb. That doesn't mean it's not a 20Mpix image. The raw file (DNG) will be closer to 20Mb in size, and will have e same pixel dimensions as the jpeg. but, you will need something capable of processing the DNG. The DNG file can be tweaked using software to give a much higher quality final image, and you can change the exposure etc in post processing without degrading the image as much as you would if you did the same to the jpeg.

Set 4:3 for photos... that way you use the full sensor size (aka 20Mpix) for the photo. 16:9 simply crops the top and bottom and gives you less than20Mpix... cropping is a post processing choice, so always better to give yourself the crop choice and shoot everything in 4:3.

Colour as d-cinelike, simply because it gives a reasonably pleasing color in the jpeg, it's not important for the DNG raw as you can tweak that in post processing easily.

White balance, set to the appropriate light condition simply so all your photos from the session have a similar colour balance and don't vary from shot to shot as they might if you used auto white balance. Maters for jpeg, but not for raw as again it can easily be tweaked in raw processing.

Single image, as it says on tin

. Or...
3 or 5 multiple images... if you set this, then every time you take a photo the camera will take additional photos for you... it automatically under exposes and over exposes the additional photos... it's kind of a hedge against you getting the exposure wrong. The extra images can also be used in post processing to blend the different exposures together to give a greater dynamic range - e.g. At sunset to balance the sky and shadow exposures.

Hope that helps.

Moaf · Mar 6, 2018

Thank you that is very helpful

NickU said:
Go into your camera settings, pick the photo (i.e. Not video!) options and set it to take jpeg+raw in 4:3 format (not 16:9). For simplicity, set colour style to something like d-cinelike, and your white balance to suite (say sunny or cloudy). Set to take a single image (or a 3 or 5 multi exposure).

Raw+jpeg means you will get two files for each still photo you take... one jpeg which is pretty much a ready to use good rendition of the scene, but for which the file size will be less than 20Mb. That doesn't mean it's not a 20Mpix image. The raw file (DNG) will be closer to 20Mb in size, and will have e same pixel dimensions as the jpeg. but, you will need something capable of processing the DNG. The DNG file can be tweaked using software to give a much higher quality final image, and you can change the exposure etc in post processing without degrading the image as much as you would if you did the same to the jpeg.

Set 4:3 for photos... that way you use the full sensor size (aka 20Mpix) for the photo. 16:9 simply crops the top and bottom and gives you less than20Mpix... cropping is a post processing choice, so always better to give yourself the crop choice and shoot everything in 4:3.

Colour as d-cinelike, simply because it gives a reasonably pleasing color in the jpeg, it's not important for the DNG raw as you can tweak that in post processing easily.

White balance, set to the appropriate light condition simply so all your photos from the session have a similar colour balance and don't vary from shot to shot as they might if you used auto white balance. Maters for jpeg, but not for raw as again it can easily be tweaked in raw processing.

Single image, as it says on tin . Or...
3 or 5 multiple images... if you set this, then every time you take a photo the camera will take additional photos for you... it automatically under exposes and over exposes the additional photos... it's kind of a hedge against you getting the exposure wrong. The extra images can also be used in post processing to blend the different exposures together to give a greater dynamic range - e.g. At sunset to balance the sky and shadow exposures.

Hope that helps.

Drone Pilot PEI · Mar 10, 2018

I have an Inspire 1 V2 and the X5 camera. Should I be setting mine in 4:3 for best use of the sensor as well? How about for video production? It only makes sense to me to set it up the same way for both, but while I can easily crop stills for 16:9 frame size, I am not sure I can do this for video. How valuable is maximizing the use of the sensor or is this a really subtle tweak?

NickU · Mar 10, 2018

DJI Go should retain different settings for Video and Stills, goes for the I1 and X5 too.

For photos, you should always go for the maximum you can record - so set the 4:3 aspect ratio and you'll get max resolution, i.e. the full frame of the sensor. You can crop that in photoshop (or whatever you use) in post production if you need - it's a trivial step to do that.

For video, set it to the frame size (and frame rate) and aspect ratio that you want to use - for most video these days that's one of the 16:9 or 17:9 ratios, generally not the 4:3 ones. So if you record a 1080p or 4K format (either as 2.7k or 3k or 4k) it'll most usually be a 16:9 or 17:9 format. Changing the format/frame rate/aspect ratio in video footage at a later point is not generally a trivial thing to do - i.e. unless you've an up to date computer it takes time for most computers to do the work for you.

One thing I would say though... I'd generally record in one of the 4k formats even if you're only going to view it in 1080p format. Doing it that way leaves you with a few options for zooming in, straightening horizons, or re-framing later. if your computer setup can't cope with full 4K size yet, then at least try and use 2.7k instead of 1080p.

Drone Pilot PEI · Mar 10, 2018

Thanks for the help, Nick - I am still filming in 1080p because my version of Premiere Pro doesn't have the capability to edit 4K. I will look into this further. All the best.