Auto-focus?

[tomnjfl]

Sorry for the clickbait thread title...lol

I never flew my Mavic on the latest software/firmware until this past weekend (showing it off to my family), but I noticed something. I kept hearing a "beep" as I was flying and then I noticed that every few seconds, or when I changed directions, or re-framed the camera....it would automatically auto-focus to the center of the screen.

Is that something new? Can it be turned off? A couple times I tapped to focus, but then a few seconds later it would re-center and autofocus on the center of the screen.

 

[Stig N]

I haven't tried the new app (or firmware) yet myself, but yes it's new. And unfortunately it cannot be turned off :-(
It was introduced with app version 4.0.1 on iOS a week or two ago, and came to Android with the equivalent app update a few days ago.

Me and several other people has already told DJI employees in the DJI forum that would like to get the old option back where autofocus only is initiated when we tell it to focus. So lets hope that happens in a future update...

A lot of people have had problems with having to initiate the autofocus themselves, so I think it is fine DJI has added an automatic re-focus option. But it should have been an additional option, not replacing the normal tap-to-focus (only) option. I don't want re-focusing to happen in the middle of a video recording :-/ ...

 

[tomnjfl]

Agreed. I can see how this option would be convenient, but it would be even nicer to have the option to disable/enable it if you choose to.

 

[Kilrah]

It's a misebehavior... When it works as intended it only focuses when pressing the record button IF it hasn't been focused for a while, not during a recording.

 

[tomnjfl]

It's a misebehavior... When it works as intended it only focuses when pressing the record button IF it hasn't been focused for a while, not during a recording.

I was flying this weekend without doing any recording at all, and I still noticed the "beep" and autofocus every few minutes. I would look down at the screen and see the green square. There didn't seem to be any method to the madness either. The only thing I could figure was that it was automatically auto-focusing again when the subject in the center of the screen changed distance dramatically.

 

[Kilrah]

If not recording then there's no problem. If it did while recording it would. be a pain for sure.

 

[F6Rider]

There is a way to turn it off and revert, at least temporary to manual touch to focus. I find that if I am at a constant height where I don't need to refocus selecting A/E lock will lock the focus and stop the constant beeping. Once you change altitude and need to refocus you can touch to focus to go back to auto-focus.