Hi all,

I can't find the answer to this.

My Action 2 notifies that there will be a drop in image quality when this mode is used but I want to know what I'm losing compared to normal 1080P because I like the extra battery life!

I only watch on my phone or small laptop screen so 1080P 50 Rocksteady Power Reserve seems fine.

But maybe it's not really 1080, or 50, or normal Rocksteady?!

Thanks :-)

Hi MarkMyWords.
Compared with 1080p and 1080p powerreserve, the steady algorithm is same.
The key difference is the image quality out of sensor: oversampling

a quick explain is
For 1080p,  sensor outputs 4K video (4.6k to be exact for Action2) , then camera generate 1080p from 4k by oversampling.
For 1080p power reserve, sensor outputs 1080p video (2.3k to be exact for Action2) , then camera generate 1080p video.
It is different way how sensor generates image, and the 1080p power reserve sensor quality is not good as the oversampling 1080p.

You reference to "4.6K" is interesting - presumably this sensor output is necessary in order to provide for cropping for stabilisation, and I would guess that the sensor output for all modes is 4.6K followed by processing as necessary, except for the power reserve mode?

DJI-ytao Posted at 2-10 01:40
Hi MarkMyWords.
Compared with 1080p and 1080p powerreserve, the steady algorithm is same.
The key difference is the image quality out of sensor: oversampling

Thanks for the info!  Now I understand.

I only watch my videos on my phone screen so something in-between 720 & 1080 resolution is fine.

Today I used the Action 2 as a helmet cam to record a bike ride in 1080P/50 Power Reserve HorizonBalancing.

It recorded 43 minutes of footage before the battery ran out.  There was a small amount of memory remaining and it did not get hot.  This was the camera unit alone.

I'm so glad I bought this thing!  Great upgrade from the GoPro Session I had.

MarkMyWords Posted at 2-10 02:56
Thanks for the info!  Now I understand.

I only watch my videos on my phone screen so something in-between 720 & 1080 resolution is fine.

I recorded another bike ride in Power Reserve mode but with HorizonSteady (smallest frame size).

It recorded for 48 minutes until the battery ran out, using almost all the internal memory.

Then I attached the battery module to export the video files and recharge.

Export took 13 minutes (SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB).

Recharge took a further 10 minutes.

So after 20-25 minutes the tiny camera was ready to shoot another 48 minutes of stable and level footage.

Hello there MarkMyWords. Good day and thank you for reaching out. Kindly please refer to the post above on post #2 to know more about the Power Reserve Mode of the DJI Action 2. Thank you.