Blurry corner?

[bmoore1118]

I love the mavic air 2S but sometimes I run into a problem with the corners of my photos.

I always shoot in raw and usually shoot panoramas and stitch in lightroom. When I take single shots I tend to notice that as you get to the edges it seems to get distorted more and especially not as sharp. I am guessing this is the limit of the camera being only F2.8. If anyone has any insights or ways of getting around this besides just cropping down the image I would love to hear.

I have attached a photo I recently took and the bottom left and top left seem much worse than the middle. (I did crop to the right side looks perfect)

Thank you for any help!

 

[Dave Maine]

Most wide angle lenses suffer from this on any camera. If available, stopping down will help a little. There usually is some distortion as well at the edges, which unfortunately isn’t improved by stopping down.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

Is your camera raw updated in Lightroom? I saw a thread earlier about the Mavic 3 that didn't have a lens profile on some editing programs. Perhaps that might be part of the issue. That's the most common Adobe update I get is the camera raw updates.

 

[bmoore1118]

Is your camera raw updated in Lightroom? I saw a thread earlier about the Mavic 3 that didn't have a lens profile on some editing programs. Perhaps that might be part of the issue. That's the most common Adobe update I get is the camera raw updates.

The air 2S has the profile built in to the raw file

 

[bmoore1118]

Most wide angle lenses suffer from this on any camera. If available, stopping down will help a little. There usually is some distortion as well at the edges, which unfortunately isn’t improved by stopping down.

Ya the one problem with air 2s is the fixed 2.8. I might try and do a small panorama and crop, because it starts sharpening up not far from the edges

 

[BingBong]

If you think yours looks unsharp, you should see mine! I'm not sure how you've cropped yours, but it looks acceptable to me. I've looked at a few Air 2S samples, and the corners can be a bit soft with the 22mm equivalent focal length. I think that's more of a factor than f2.8, as on a 1" sensor, that's probably about the sweet spot, I'm guessing around f8 full frame equivalent for depth of field.

If you look at the top right and middle right of my shot below, you'll see it's a blurry mess if you enlarge it. I presume it's a de-centred lens, as the rest is sharp. This was my first flight with it. It's on it's way back tomorrow, and I already have a replacement. Great service from Wex in the UK. I've not had a chance to try the new one yet.

 

[bmoore1118]

If you think yours looks unsharp, you should see mine! I'm not sure how you've cropped yours, but it looks acceptable to me. I've looked at a few Air 2S samples, and the corners can be a bit soft with the 22mm equivalent focal length. I think that's more of a factor than f2.8, as on a 1" sensor, that's probably about the sweet spot, I'm guessing around f8 full frame equivalent for depth of field.

If you look at the top right and middle right of my shot below, you'll see it's a blurry mess if you enlarge it. I presume it's a de-centred lens, as the rest is sharp. This was my first flight with it. It's on it's way back tomorrow, and I already have a replacement. Great service from Wex in the UK. I've not had a chance to try the new one yet.

View attachment 140016

Being a non drone photographer before this I think I need to start realizing some limitations. Fixed f stop and the distance. On my photo I was at 1400 feet. Be hard to get everything perfect from that distance. I might try and do a few photos and stitch them together so the edges will never be used

 

[pommy]

If you think yours looks unsharp, you should see mine! I'm not sure how you've cropped yours, but it looks acceptable to me. I've looked at a few Air 2S samples, and the corners can be a bit soft with the 22mm equivalent focal length. I think that's more of a factor than f2.8, as on a 1" sensor, that's probably about the sweet spot, I'm guessing around f8 full frame equivalent for depth of field.

If you look at the top right and middle right of my shot below, you'll see it's a blurry mess if you enlarge it. I presume it's a de-centred lens, as the rest is sharp. This was my first flight with it. It's on it's way back tomorrow, and I already have a replacement. Great service from Wex in the UK. I've not had a chance to try the new one yet.

View attachment 140016

They're just blur trees? Very common in those parts...

 

[Wilson Photography]

I am also having this issue. Here are samples of uncropped photos from different days flying and my top and bottom left of the images seem to be the worst. It's especially obvious in the train tracks at top left of the first image. The branches in the bottom right of the second image are sharp, but again top and bottom left are very blurry, this makes no sense. Any thoughts on whether this Air 2s needs to go back? Who else is seeing this issue. I would love to see examples of uncropped images in comparison to know whether to send mine back. Like OP "Bmoore1118", who started this thread, as a non-drone photographer before this, I find this very disappointing. Thanks for any help on this!.

 

[bmoore1118]

I am also having this issue. Here are samples of uncropped photos from different days flying and my top and bottom left of the images seem to be the worst. It's especially obvious in the train tracks at top left of the first image. The branches in the bottom right of the second image are sharp, but again top and bottom left are very blurry, this makes no sense. Any thoughts on whether this Air 2s needs to go back? Who else is seeing this issue. I would love to see examples of uncropped images in comparison to know whether to send mine back. Like OP "Bmoore1118", who started this thread, as a non-drone photographer before this, I find this very disappointing. Thanks for any help on this!View attachment 141930.View attachment 141933

I have found that the wide angle (22mm) of the lens and the fact that it is a 2.8 fixed makes a difference. I have been doing more small panoramas and it seems to help

 

[Dave Maine]

That is distortion, very common in wide angle lenses. f2.8 makes the problem worse, as the shallow depth of field magnifies the softness of the lens at the edges. Stopping down to f8 or f11 can help.

Good DLSRs have the same kinds of problems with wide angle lenses, although to much less a degree. A good wide angle lens with minimized distortion. They cost much more around $1K or more for good ones.

 

[Wilson Photography]

That is distortion, very common in wide angle lenses. f2.8 makes the problem worse, as the shallow depth of field magnifies the softness of the lens at the edges. Stopping down to f8 or f11 can help.

Good DLSRs have the same kinds of problems with wide angle lenses, although to much less a degree. A good wide angle lens with minimized distortion. They cost much more around $1K or more for good ones.

Thanks for the reply. I realize some limitations with wide lenses, but even at 2.8, with the distance the shot is taken, it is very hard for a DSLR wide lens to be out of focus in the corners if the middle is in focus. That's why I question if there is a problem with my drone camera and wonder how many others have the same issue or if it is just a few of the Air 2S drones...?

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

They're just blur trees? Very common in those parts...

Along with the Drop Bears.

 

[BingBong]

I am also having this issue. Here are samples of uncropped photos from different days flying and my top and bottom left of the images seem to be the worst. It's especially obvious in the train tracks at top left of the first image. The branches in the bottom right of the second image are sharp, but again top and bottom left are very blurry, this makes no sense. Any thoughts on whether this Air 2s needs to go back? Who else is seeing this issue. I would love to see examples of uncropped images in comparison to know whether to send mine back. Like OP "Bmoore1118", who started this thread, as a non-drone photographer before this, I find this very disappointing. Thanks for any help on this!View attachment 141930.View attachment 141933

I'd say you've got a good one from those photos! The lenses on this thing will be fairly crude compared to DSLR lenses. The design will have a lot of reliance on software correction of distortion, vignetting, contrast and chromatic aberration to keep the camera the size it is. The corners and edges will need more of this correction than the centre, so will always be softer. The lens is f2.8, but on the 1" sensor is probably the equivalent of around f8 on full frame, so no problem with depth of field.