Sony Pixel Shift: Why Sony 16-shot pixel shift is a Can’t-Lose Proposition
Related: digital sensor, exposure, fairy dust aka hot/stuck pixels, Jason W, pixel shift, shot discipline, Sony, Sony A7R, Sony A7R II, Sony A7R III, Sony A7R IV, Sony A7R V, Sony mirrorless, Sony Pixel Shift, true-color sensor or image
re: Sony pixel shift
Readers following my recent coverage have seen proven how Sony 4-shot pixel shift not only matches but outperforms the 100-megapixel Fujjifilm GFX100S in every comparison I’ve presented, and with different lenses and focal lengths, even with moving water and foliage*. The potential is truly awesome.
In the past I have dismissed Sony 16-shot pixel shift as not being worthwhile. At least for still photography and static images, I now revoke that assessment for the Sony A7R V, based on yesterday’s demonstration—16-shot has merit, provided that it is properly sharpened during raw conversion and flawless shot discipline is achieved including focusing and aperture choices.
* The issue with wind is primarily its disturbance of the camera eg wind vibrating the tripod which wiggles the camera even a few microns—with 3.76 micron pixels, moving 2 microns (2 millionths of a meter) is unacceptable.
Why Sony 16-shot pixel shift is a can’t-lose proposition
Here I of course speak of images/subjects worthy of the effort. And of course a tripod.
And ruling out any disturbance to the camera such as wind. So long as the camera is not disturbed (totally still), Sony motion correction takes care of the subject motion and what little it misses can be painted-in from any of the single frames.
4 in 1 deal
What I had not realized is that Sony 16-shot pixel shift can be processed as either a 240-megapixel high-res image, or four 4-shot 60MP pixel shift images.
With a single press of the shutter, not just one but four 4-shot pixel shift images are captured. If there are any issues with wind, it is very likely that one of those four may prove viable, even if the other three have issues. Furthermore, it becomes possible to use frame averaging of those four images, albeit at the cost of some sharpness losses**.
Your worst case? Use any of the single-shot frames, possibly with Enhance Details. If it’s windy, one of them is likely to have less subject motion than others.
You cannot lose.
Well, other than space usage on card and computer: until and unless Sony gets their act together by making lossless compressed captures for pixel shift, a 16-shot pixel shift capture is a massive storage bloat. It can be partially addressed via Adobe DNG Converter.
All that sounds good, but will I actually use 16-shot in the field, is it worth the trouble, etc? I don’t yet know, but I will be finding out. I expect to do so sparingly, in the appropriate cases when for example I want every little detail on a granite cliff or tall peak. And maybe Sony motion correction will fail miserably with 16-shot, again, I do not yet know.
* Use at least a 2-second self timer and gently press and/or wireless remote, wireless remote is best as no physical contact is made and a magnified Live View can be monitored on the rear LCD for any vibration up to the moment of capture.
** With a half-pixel differential between frames, upsample each frame by 2x linearly before alignment, since it is not possible to align to the half-pixel otherwise.
Reader Jason W writes:
On your comments on 4-shot vs 16-shot pixel shift, the primary issue is doing long exposures at twilight or with rapidly changing conditions.
16 shots pins you to one shot for an extended period of time, while 4 shots or one shot gets you get an image and then time to reposition for another perspective.
DIGLLOYD: agreed that any exposure with variable light and/or too-long exposure is an issue for pixel shift. There, the higher resolution sensors are much more practical.
But under variable conditions, 4-shot might be as marginal as 16-shot (which is after all four 4-shot captures), given that light that can be fading by the second at dusk and thus causing checkerboarding. And the whole idea is that you have nailed the composition and now want the best possible execution. Perhaps if multiple compositions are desired, then even 4-shot is best not done either.
Field experience needs to chime in here, and I do expect to see practical limits on viability.
