Why do my 5MP images look better than my 34MP ones?

[Crasstoe]

Retina Display is not even an HD standard. The iPhone 5/5s have a retina display but it is not an HD display by any standards

But it is a higher resolution display than those found on most typical smartphones. It is also found on iMacs and Macbooks with resolutions substantially higher than 1080p (your HD standard). You are clutching at straws, it was simply an example and in no way a statement to suggest that an iPhone has a HD standard screen. It's like saying Hoover instead of Vacuum, it is a word synonymous with high resolution (read, not HD) displays which would do better to show off the 1020's photos than a "regular" display.

Yes a 1080p display on a phone will do a better job than a retina display ON A PHONE but is it really worth calling somebody ignorant? I didn't even say to view the photo on a phone! You could view on a iMac or MacBook and have more pixels on show than a 1080p display on any device.

 

[sabri bouteba]

Hi, I just read your post, for what it's worth, the 34 mp shots WILL NEVER EVER be of the same quality as those of 5 mp, at least as far as sharpness and noise reduction are concerned, for the simple reason that the latters are oversampled... the 5 mp pictures will always be sharper with less noise because each pixel of the shot comes from the combination of 6 or 7 pixels of the sensor. You may be interested in reading more about the topic : search for Lumia1020-whitepaper.pdf

 

[rkarolak]

The 5mp versions are oversampled and more processed than the 34/38mp ones. Part of that over sampling is removing noise, adjusting contrast and details, etc. When you use the bigger versions or resize to zoom (crop) in you loose a bit of that processing and refinement that's provided by oversampling.

If you're shooting RAW, you'll also only get a lower-quality preview to view in the photos app. The RAW image and its preview are also completely unprocessed, leaving a more bland looking image out-of-camera, but much more flexibility in post-processing.

The best of both worlds is probably 5 MP JPEG + RAW, but that is generally slower to process, resulting in slower shot-to-shot speeds.

 

[John Christopoulos]

So i am asking this!
What if i shoot the same picture at both formats. One as a 38 mpx / 5 mpx image and one at raw DNG 38 mpx / 5 mpx mode. Which of the two 5 mpx images will be better? The one from the already compressed JPG or the one from the RAW? Are the same algorithms involved to the supersampling denoising cpmpression of the 5 mpx image? Who can answer that?

 

[John Christopoulos]

I think a 5 mp image out of RAW 38 mp that will occur will be way better compared to the 5 mp image out of the already processed JPG 38 mpx right? And i dont think the RAW file's preview is unprocessed. It goes theough thw Pureview algorithms too, just like the one from the Hires JPG 38 mp. Am i wrong?

 

[JaniM]

Oversampled 5mpx images are always made before jpeg compression so there's no difference.

 

[Christus Hirschus]

The 5mp pictures will always look better due to oversampling. Also it doesn't matter if you shout in 5mp +highres or 5mp +raw; the 5mp picture will always be the same.

Off topic: Have you managed to catch a few Aurora pics? If so, I'd love to have a look at them.

 

[John Christopoulos]

So, if i get it right, the camera shoots in raw format, and depending on the settings it oversamples and saves the 5mpx first and then saves either the RAW DNG or the JPG Hires image. depending on the settings i chose?

 

[JaniM]

So, if i get it right, the camera shoots in raw format, and depending on the settings it oversamples and saves the 5mpx first and then saves either the RAW DNG or the JPG Hires image. depending on the settings i chose?

Raw is the raw camera sensor data. It is then saved as highres jpg or dng and pureview oversample. Highres and pureview oversamples are saved from the same raw sensor data. Highres images doesn't need that much processing so they are propably saved during processing that 5mp pureview oversampled image.

So what I'm saying is the order they are saved doesn't make a difference because each file is made from the raw sensor data anyway.

 

[arugula-375]

It's really easy. 5 MP pictures are sharpened when scaling down from 38MP. This is a very common practice to sharpen the image while scaling down. And also goes vice-versa: to soften the image when scaling up (but this is advanced stuff).

I produce 15MP pictures on my own from DNGs and I apply some sharpening (standard option withing the Lightroom).

 

[rkarolak]

The 5 MP images does oversampling as part of the post-processing using the full resolution data it captures when rendering. The full resolution jpeg images don't have this. RAW files will have no post processing done by the phone at all, it's just a dump of the raw data the camera captures, so they'll look the most plain out of the camera (with the idea being that you can do the post-processing yourself with software).

 

[kellyscraft]

I don't know for sure, but I would have thought that the 5mp down-sampled jpeg, and the 38mp jpeg, were both produced from the 38mp raw image independently of each other.