I have tested the Q500 4K camera for an in depth review of the still photographs. The video is awesome for 4K video. Most likely nothing better in its class. But the stills are not acceptable. Even on a clear blue sky day have so much noise that just shouldn't be there. Use of an ND filter on a sunny day does help remove some of the noise. Overcast days or shade the noise is worse. I've noticed still exposures seem to be 1.5 to 2 stops over exposed out of the camera in Adobe Lightroom. The lower left edge is blurry. I have also noticed on my camera and two others (on Facebook posts by persons I've never met) there appears a white spot or flare in the top right corner of all video and photos against a blue sky or light color. It does not appear against dark subjects. I talked to Yuneec. They said try different white balance settings. Also there appears to be a U shaped banding in the center of the sky images. If only on one camera, I'd say the camera is defective, but the same is on three, with two other 4K quad's owned by the same person. This appears to be a manufacturing defect. True, when shooting at 4K video you can crop to remove the spot and the slight blur. My still image tests of DNG files vs JPEG, and even stills pulled from video show the JPEGS are cleaner than the DNG files. DNG is cropped to 4:3 ratio (12 MP) where JPEGS are 16:9 ratio (8 MP). The DNG doesn't show the white spot but the left lower blur is there. All reviews I read prior to purchase were how awesome the camera was. Of course, I didn't know they were only talking about video. I did see prior to purchase the left side blurry issue. At the time, I emailed Tim Terrones with Yuneec and talked to him. He advised the issue had been corrected. The Quad flies awesome, and there is no issue in that regard. As for the CGO3 4K camera, my recommendation if you are wanting quality still images, go with the Typhoon G and a Go Pro. Yes, there is a trade off in being required to turn on the camera prior to flight, but best quality is this is about. I've seen several pro photographers on Yuneec Facebook pages that have stunning still images created with the G. The 4K is just not remotely in the same league as the GoPro. As for 4K video, the video is stunning and top notch quality. Yuneec is great to get on the telephone and they promptly sent a replacement camera right after purchase due to the first focus being really bad, and also they replaced a defective battery. Yuneec appears to be a good company. But, there are significant quality control issues with the CGO3 on the still camera side. I do not expect it to be in the same league with my Pro DSLR cameras. But equate the CGO3 still camera images of poorer quality than my first ever 2.1 mp Sony digital camera from 1998. Also there is no metadata, at all embedded in the image files, so you don't have any way to know what the exposures were set for the end result.
If you are looking for the best still camera settings.
Shoot 4K video res and create JPEG images at 16:9 ratio at 8mp or
set the camera setting at jpeg which are 4:3 ratio at 12 mp.
For still images don't shoot in automatic mode as it will select a high than needed iso. This could be resulting in the high noise on a sunny day.
Set the exposure manually including 100 iso.
Choose natural or raw settings in still mode and lock down the white balance. If other questions ask.
If you are looking for the best still camera settings.
Shoot 4K video res and create JPEG images at 16:9 ratio at 8mp or
set the camera setting at jpeg which are 4:3 ratio at 12 mp.
For still images don't shoot in automatic mode as it will select a high than needed iso. This could be resulting in the high noise on a sunny day.
Set the exposure manually including 100 iso.
Choose natural or raw settings in still mode and lock down the white balance. If other questions ask.
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