Hubsan Zino Camera Firmware v0.3.3 Analysis Compared to v0.2.1

501Pete
Posts: 130
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 1:06 pm

Re: Hubsan Zino Camera Firmware v0.3.3 Analysis Compared to v0.2.1

Post by 501Pete » Sat Jan 12, 2019 5:47 pm

These are just a few clips using the latest camera firmware (v0.3.3), released 12 January 2019.
Video bitrate now averages 55MB/S with peak rate of up to 70MB/s.
These shots were all taken in low light between 30 minutes before sunset and 30 minutes after.
There is a huge improvement in the moire effect around foliage, still there but with greater definition.
Edges are sharper, for instance buildings have cleaner edges and less blur.
This is really pushing the camera in these light conditions, and with the high ISO and long exposure, motion blur and skew is obviously present.
When light conditions allow, I'll shot side by side with an earlier camera firmware as a direct comparison.




Fritzz
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2018 12:46 pm

Re: Hubsan Zino Camera Firmware v0.3.3 Analysis Compared to v0.2.1

Post by Fritzz » Sat Jan 12, 2019 6:13 pm

me_d3873xYJjO wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:12 am
First of all... Thank you so much, Hubsan for the new firmware (0.3.3).
This made huge improvements compared to the last one (0.2.1).
ack!

Scolding is always fast, praise is rare - thanks Ailsa! :)

me_075d7ydEYr
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:32 am

Re: Hubsan Zino Camera Firmware v0.3.3 Analysis Compared to v0.2.1

Post by me_075d7ydEYr » Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:38 am

Thanks for the detailed analysis! Could you also share some still photos? Any insight into how the camera takes stills, are these merely frame grabs from the video stream? Would be nice to have some EXIF data for the images also, does the new FW improve this?

I need to test something myself also today, I'm not sure the camera has any focusing capability but is instead fixed focus (infinity).

Gorillaman
Posts: 81
Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2018 9:47 pm

Re: Hubsan Zino Camera Firmware v0.3.3 Analysis Compared to v0.2.1

Post by Gorillaman » Sun Jan 13, 2019 7:55 am

I agree... much better than before... BUT... some have said it is easier to be negative than positive... Just the facts please.

It seems many individual enthusiasts are spending countless hours diving into the workings of the Hubsan products. As a hobbyist I also do the same.

It would have been nice for Hubsan to simply add a detailed change list with the update. The change log just says - better video. All this new information would have been nice straight from the horses mouth. No mention at all about image sizes, photos, exposure rates, ? ? ?

Please Hubsan... take note... in future updates, please include exactly what you changed and what the expected outcome should be. You must do your own R&D work! .. or do you?

me_075d7ydEYr
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:32 am

Re: Hubsan Zino Camera Firmware v0.3.3 Analysis Compared to v0.2.1

Post by me_075d7ydEYr » Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:10 am

I took some test shots today, unfortunately it wasn't too bright out there (Finnish winter..)

Some observations:
* File size is indeed much bigger, almost triple, which is good..not bad compression artefacts anymore either
* There's still no EXIF data in the images, would be nice to see the GPS coordinates, aperture, shutter speed etc.
* 0.3.3 FW seemed to introduce strong vignetting (light falloff in the corners) that wasn't there before. This could be correctable by SW, the picture below is adjusted in Photoshop to emphasize the light falloff (compare the centre of the images to the corners)
test1.jpg
Vignetting
test1.jpg (165.46 KiB) Viewed 7645 times
* There still aren't too many details but I suppose this is just what the sensor is able to deliver:
test2.jpg
100% crop from top centre
test2.jpg (230.87 KiB) Viewed 7645 times
* Finally a full size test image, I ran it through Photoshop and adjusted levels, reduced noise and resized it (the full image was too large to attach here):
test3.jpg
Full photo, edited and resized
test3.jpg (320.43 KiB) Viewed 7645 times

me_075d7ydEYr
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:32 am

Re: Hubsan Zino Camera Firmware v0.3.3 Analysis Compared to v0.2.1

Post by me_075d7ydEYr » Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:17 am

One more thing, the video files don't seem to suffer from vignetting, this is a frame grab from a 4k video clip, showing the same area:
test4.JPG
test4.JPG (360.63 KiB) Viewed 7643 times
There's no noticeable vignetting here, snow looks as white and bright evenly across the frame.

501Pete
Posts: 130
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 1:06 pm

Re: Hubsan Zino Camera Firmware v0.3.3 Analysis Compared to v0.2.1

Post by 501Pete » Sun Jan 13, 2019 1:29 pm

I hadn't noticed the vignetting until you mentioned it.
I don't really have any good enough photos to notice the affect ;)
There is some limited EXIF/Metadata
exif.png
exif.png (11.11 KiB) Viewed 7626 times

me_d3873xYJjO
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:00 am

Re: Hubsan Zino Camera Firmware v0.3.3 Analysis Compared to v0.2.1

Post by me_d3873xYJjO » Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:54 pm

me_075d7ydEYr wrote:
Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:38 am
Thanks for the detailed analysis! Could you also share some still photos? Any insight into how the camera takes stills, are these merely frame grabs from the video stream? Would be nice to have some EXIF data for the images also, does the new FW improve this?

I need to test something myself also today, I'm not sure the camera has any focusing capability but is instead fixed focus (infinity).
There was absolutely no difference in sharpness (pixel-peeped for 20 minutes) on video/photo, nor in color depth. So, probably a frame grab, but I can't say for sure. I did not test the same things I did in the first post. Photos seems somewhat pointless at this stage since I saw no difference, but if they update the firmware in the future that allows for RAW photos or at least high quality JPEG's og PNG's, I will take a deep dive into all the pixel greatness and post an analysis on it :)

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