I'm learning more about photography, and I have a question about how the Mini 4 Pro's dual native camera functions. As I understand it, a dual native ISO camera basically has two signal paths where the first signal path covers the lower ISO settings and at some point it switchs over to another higher gain signal path for the higher ISO settings.

The lowest ISO of both of the signal paths are the native ISO points with the least noise produced in the image. I'm assuming the base point of the lower setting path is an ISO of 100. My question is at what point does the Mini 4 Pro camera switch to the higher signal path and what is that ISO setting?

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out. The DJI Mini 4 Pro dual native ISO values are 100 and 800. Dual Native ISO means that one camera has two native ISO, and the camera has the best performance at two ISO value levels.

[Native ISO] With this value set, the camera produces the cleanest images while there is no need to change the voltage of its sensor. Precisely because of this, it obtains the best signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). After setting the camera to native ISO, you can capture the cleanest images with the widest dynamic range.

[Dual Native ISO] Literally, it means a camera has two native ISO settings. With these two values set, the camera has the optimal shooting performance.

Thanks for the quick reply! I did a few short flights this evening as the light was fading, each with a different ISO setting, it was interesting to see that as soon as I went above 800, the videos started to get noisier, and at 6400 it was very grainy looking!
After I had posted the question, I had watched a you tube video where the dual native ISO of the Mini 4 Pro camera was mentioned and the creator of the video, who I would consider to be an expert photographer, stated the Mini 4's Dual native ISO was 100 and 640, but because of the increments in the software, the closest settings were 100 and 800 as you mentioned. Is this actually the case, or did he have it incorrect in the video?

DJI Paladin Posted at 2023-11-22 18:45
Hi there. Thank you for reaching out. The DJI Mini 4 Pro dual native ISO values are 100 and 800. Dual Native ISO means that one camera has two native ISO, and the camera has the best performance at two ISO value levels.

[Native ISO] With this value set, the camera produces the cleanest images while there is no need to change the voltage of its sensor. Precisely because of this, it obtains the best signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). After setting the camera to native ISO, you can capture the cleanest images with the widest dynamic range.

Hello & thanks your reply!
my question is still…  so we have to manually select ISO 100 or 800 on the fly as the scene lighting changes if we want to use only a native ISO.  I think it’d be nice to have a setting like “Nat-A” which selects only ISO 100 or 800 for us depending on the overall scene.  
Possible DJI ?

djiuser_pKO5WulgvuYa Posted at 2-6 16:27
Hello & thanks your reply!
my question is still…  so we have to manually select ISO 100 or 800 on the fly as the scene lighting changes if we want to use only a native ISO.  I think it’d be nice to have a setting like “Nat-A” which selects only ISO 100 or 800 for us depending on the overall scene.  
Possible DJI ?

Hi there. We appreciate your feedback. We would love to record this suggestion of yours and forward it to our relevant team for attention as DJI is always open to any product improvement suggestions. Have a good one.

Manitobahunter Posted at 2023-11-22 19:02
Thanks for the quick reply! I did a few short flights this evening as the light was fading, each with a different ISO setting, it was interesting to see that as soon as I went above 800, the videos started to get noisier, and at 6400 it was very grainy looking!
After I had posted the question, I had watched a you tube video where the dual native ISO of the Mini 4 Pro camera was mentioned and the creator of the video, who I would consider to be an expert photographer, stated the Mini 4's Dual native ISO was 100 and 640, but because of the increments in the software, the closest settings were 100 and 800 as you mentioned. Is this actually the case, or did he have it incorrect in the video?

ISO 100 and 800 are two values that are implemented on the sensor due to hardware signal amplification. All other ISO values from 100 to <800 and from 800 to 6400 are obtained from these 100 or 800 signal values by software gain, this is similar to increasing the exposure in the editor.
There is no point in trying to manually limit ISO; automation does it much better. All the same, if you set the ISO lower, you will still have to increase the exposure in the editor, which is similar to increasing the ISO in the camera.

Thnaks for the info!