Default: Focus on Infinity?

[Hauptmann]

Can default focus be set on infinity? Or, how can the Mavic be set to focus on infinity?

On a recent evening I tried to video some city lights. There was not enough ambient light for autofocus to work. Took a short vertical flight, but all footage was out of focus. Is there a way around this?


Maybe it's DJI's way of stopping us from flying at night.

 

[Bunny Too]

Can default focus be set on infinity? Or, how can the Mavic be set to focus on infinity?

On a recent evening I tried to video some city lights. There was not enough ambient light for autofocus to work. Took a short vertical flight, but all footage was out of focus. Is there a way around this?


Maybe it's DJI's way of stopping us from flying at night.

Here are some threads that focus on your question. Good Luck!
Search Results for Query: infinity focus | DJI Mavic Drone Forum

 

[lannes]

Just set manual focus on screen using AFC/MF button in the on screen camera settings, the on screen focusing slider will appear and then move it to infinity ∞

 

[Plawa]

Just set manual focus on screen using AFC/MF button in the on screen camera settings, and move the on screen focusing slider to infinity ∞

Do that and let us know how it went... I bet you the image will be completely blurry.

 

[SouthernComfort]

Do that and let us know how it went... I bet you the image will be completely blurry.

It actually works pretty well.

 

[Plawa]

It actually works pretty well.

Hard to tell if that's because of focus or long shutter but that's pretty blurry...

 

[lannes]

Do that and let us know how it went... I bet you the image will be completely blurry.

yes it might be, the sensor sensitivity on the Mavic is pretty poor so to compensate the camera has a large fixed aperture and a large aperture has a shallow depth of field.

Moving the focusing point to infinity might have sharp focus at that point , but all of the foreground and middle ground will be out of focus due to the shallow depth of field from the Mavic fixed aperture lens (f2.2)

The OP will need to find the hyperfocal distance which maximises the f2.2 shallow depth of field limitation

Google Image Result for https://www.naturettl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Hyperfocal-Distance.jpg

 

[lannes]

It actually works pretty well.

The image is focused 1/3rd into the image which is the best the poster can do, with the shallow depth of field caused by the Mavic lens limitations, there will always be a trade off in foreground, middle ground and infinity focus when using the fixed aperture lens

 

[Plawa]

Then you would have to see the same effect during the day (since the aperture doesn't change).. and I have plenty of shots that are sharp near to far. The image above seems uniformly OOF to me, compare it to this - there's a much more significant difference between subject and background distance and yet both the tower (maybe 15ft away) and the ridgeline several miles away are both equally sharp...

I'm not trying to be a douche here, just trying to accurately describe the capabilities of the lens.. the combination of wide focal distance and tiny sensor give you a VERY large DOF when focused to "somewhere in the middle" but not necessarily to manual infinity.. some 35mm lenses do the same thing where you can actually focus "past infinity"

 

[rfc]

Then you would have to see the same effect during the day (since the aperture doesn't change).. and I have plenty of shots that are sharp near to far. The image above seems uniformly OOF to me, compare it to this - there's a much more significant difference between subject and background distance and yet both the tower (maybe 15ft away) and the ridgeline several miles away are both equally sharp...

I'm not trying to be a douche here, just trying to accurately describe the capabilities of the lens.. the combination of wide focal distance and tiny sensor give you a VERY large DOF when focused to "somewhere in the middle"...

Not to hijack the thread, but....
How the heck do you fly 50' from all that microwave energy?

 

[Plawa]

Without a single transmission glitch or bad connection warning... I was keeping an eye on that but it handled it like a champ..

 

[SouthernComfort]

Hard to tell if that's because of focus or long shutter but that's pretty blurry...

A one minute exposure, 200 feet up, in a bit of a wind, yeah it’s gonna be a tad blurry...... ffs it’s a drone! Either way it’s a capable camera platform unless you’re a pixel peeper....

 

[Plawa]

A one minute exposure, 200 feet up, in a bit of a wind, yeah it’s gonna be a tad blurry...... ffs it’s a drone! Either way it’s a capable camera platform unless you’re a pixel peeper....

1 minute exposure time? I'm guessing it's a typo and you wanted to say 1s looking at the moving cars..

And I agree with you that it's very capable for its size and purpose, even more so when you use the correct settings (i.e. not focus to max infinity)

Check out this thread - 1s exposure, reasonably sharp. correctly focused
Long exposure over Savannah, Ga.

 

[SouthernComfort]

1 minute exposure time? I'm guessing it's a typo and you wanted to say 1s looking at the moving cars..

And I agree with you that it's very capable for its size and purpose, even more so when you use the correct settings (i.e. not focus to max infinity)

Check out this thread - 1s exposure, reasonably sharp. correctly focused
Long exposure over Savannah, Ga.

I was being facetious.....

 

[lannes]

Then you would have to see the same effect during the day (since the aperture doesn't change).. and I have plenty of shots that are sharp near to far. The image above seems uniformly OOF to me, compare it to this - there's a much more significant difference between subject and background distance and yet both the tower (maybe 15ft away) and the ridgeline several miles away are both equally sharp...

I'm not trying to be a douche here, just trying to accurately describe the capabilities of the lens.. the combination of wide focal distance and tiny sensor give you a VERY large DOF when focused to "somewhere in the middle" but not necessarily to manual infinity.. some 35mm lenses do the same thing where you can actually focus "past infinity"

You forget there is less sensor noise at iso 100 in bright sunlight, the night photo has more noise due to the higher iso , which softens the image as well

 

[Plawa]

You forget there is less sensor noise at iso 100 in bright sunlight, the night photo has more noise due to the higher iso , which softens the image as well

It doesn't.. maybe if there was heavy noise reduction applied because it was shot at high ISO then you would see more of a watercolor effect but high ISO alone doesn't make a photo blurry/soft.

Look, I've shot 50k+ plus photos on various digital cameras over the last decade, I think I have a pretty decent idea about technical aspects of photography regardless of the platform used and that image is simply out of focus.. nothing wrong with that, I delete/reject ~ 80% of photos I take because they simply don't meet my standards for what I consider a technically correct shot. The Mavic can do better than the photo posted so let's focus on how to improve rather than getting hung up on one shot that simply didn't come out 100% right through no fault of its author.

 

[lannes]

It doesn't.. maybe if there was heavy noise reduction applied because it was shot at high ISO then you would see more of a watercolor effect but high ISO alone doesn't make a photo blurry/soft.

Look, I've shot 50k+ plus photos on various digital cameras over the last decade, I think I have a pretty decent idea about technical aspects of photography regardless of the platform used and that image is simply out of focus.. nothing wrong with that, I delete/reject ~ 80% of photos I take because they simply don't meet my standards for what I consider a technically correct shot. The Mavic can do better than the photo posted so let's focus on how to improve rather than getting hung up on one shot that simply didn't come out 100% right through no fault of its author.

I'll let you continue on with the thread, you are the expert and the rest of us are just novices and newbies, so don't let us disturb you. This was never meant to be the pissing match you make it out to be, just an attempt to help the original poster

 

[Plawa]

I'll let you continue on with the thread, you are the expert and the rest of us are just novices and newbies, so don't let us disturb you. This was never meant to be the pissing match you make it out to be, just an attempt to help the original poster

Nothing personal about my comments, I'm doing my best to stick to facts. If you see anything incorrect in any of my posts and you can explain why that is I will be more than happy to admit I'm wrong and learn something new (and I mean it).