After crash Mini 2 got nearsighted

[PeterB2]

Hi, crashed the Mini 2 into a tree and it fell pretty badly but after a little rest it could fly again. It lost the front glass covering the lens. Now its a very blurry image. The lens has no visible marks so I wonder if it is fixable? Is the square front glass part of the drone/lens sharpness or is the lens probably somehow damaged?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

If the actual lens in the camera is damaged, I assume there is a focus mechanism that moves lenses, then it is not a DIY repair. If for no other reason than the actual lens assembly is probably VERY accurately positioned with shims* between the lens assembly and the sensor assembly.
I would be surprised if the front 'glass' is anything other than a parallel sheet of 'glass'. They were around £4 to £5 on ebay last time I looked and from memory that includes postage from China.

*This is based on my stripping a completely dead mavic 2 pro camera and finding a lot of shims between the lens assembly and the sensor assembly. The same thing is found in SLR an DSLR lenses, shims are used to set the lens to film/sensor distance extremely accurately and to probably ensure that the lens is perfectly perpendicular to the plain of the film/sensor.
I assume the same thing applies to the Mini 2.

 

[PeterB2]

If the actual lens in the camera is damaged, I assume there is a focus mechanism that moves lenses, then it is not a DIY repair. If for no other reason than the actual lens assembly is probably VERY accurately positioned with shims* between the lens assembly and the sensor assembly.
I would be surprised if the front 'glass' is anything other than a parallel sheet of 'glass'. They were around £4 to £5 on ebay last time I looked and from memory that includes postage from China.

*This is based on my stripping a completely dead mavic 2 pro camera and finding a lot of shims between the lens assembly and the sensor assembly. The same thing is found in SLR an DSLR lenses, shims are used to set the lens to film/sensor distance extremely accurately and to probably ensure that the lens is perfectly perpendicular to the plain of the film/sensor.
I assume the same thing applies to the Mini 2.

Thanks for the detailed answer. My guess is also that the front glass is just for protection and no optical adjustment. As far as I know the Mini 2 does not focus, isn't it a fixed focus lens? But the error is probably due to some damage done to the glass or electronics related to the lens and focus.

 

[Mavic Merrick]

You can buy the glass piece off Amazon

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I should have also said that swapping the camera and or the gimbal/camera assembly is not a straight forward matter. Unfortunately they are electronically paired to something in the drone, probably the mainboard and changing one mean the drone has to be 'recalibrated'. The DIY? version of the recalibration requires the use of some software tools and the python programming language and leave a residual error message that can be ignored but which is intially annoying.

Ahh regarding whether or not a mini 2 focuses, whoops sorry my mistake, I have never tried to get it focus on a specific target so just presumed it was an option.

 

[scro]

The Mavic Mini (aka mini1) and Mini 2 both have fixed focus cameras. The actual camera and lens is identical except for the thin glass piece on the front having 4k written on it for the mini 2. As others have said, the glass is just for protection and does nothing, optically, to focus the image - it is flat, front and back so not a lens.

If the image is blurry it sounds very much like something in the lens/sensor assembly has moved slightly, knocking the focus out. Can it focus on something very close to it? If so then this confirms the suspicion, however it may have been knocked such that the focus point is now beyond infinity...and you're stuck with only being able to see Buzz Lightyear (apologies for the lame humour )