Auto focus hunting

saudio · Jan 28, 2017

I just did a long shoot and several times in the footage I could see the auto focus hunting even though I was hundreds of feet from the subject. As I understand it, now there is no way to revert to the original system of tap to focus, you either have to select auto focus or manual, and in manual you have to use a slider to focus.

My question is: If I use manual, and set the focus to infinity, how close to a subject would I have to be before the camera is noticeably out of focus? This camera has a pretty huge depth of field, doesn't it?

I'm thinking that for the best quality footage with no hunting, the ideal situation would be to just leave it in manual/infinity and only turn on auto focus if I know I'm going to be closely approaching a subject.

I wonder why DJI does not allow the pilot to choose tap to focus any more?

Thanks all.

sonof40 · Jan 28, 2017

Good question and a somewhat unacceptable problem. This is supposed to be a camera first and drone second.

Daskid · Jan 28, 2017

If you really want numbers, use an online depth of field calculator. The mavic's camera is 28mm at f-stop 2.2. Sensor size is 1/2.3".

Egika · Jan 28, 2017

Be careful. It's only 28mm referencing to full frame 35mm standard.

JLane · Jan 29, 2017

In my experience, setting the focus to infinity does not yield a good result. I think it simply racks the focus to the furthest extreme, without actually trying to test if anything is in focus. If you have experience with older manual SLR lenses, you'll know that simply setting the lens to infinity on the dial often doesn't actually give you proper focus. Most lenses would focus past infinity, and that seems to be the cases with my Mavic's lens. I've also found that using the MF slider is extremely difficult. Almost impossible for me to actually nail focus. (At least in Android) I've read about the focus peaking feature, which should make things easier, but I keep forgetting to try that out.

The better option might be to start in AF, get the focus set to what you want, then flick to MF. It should stay at the same focal length when you switch over.