DJI AIR 3 Auto or manual focus

[Bsnyder]

I just got a air 3, have been flying a air 2s for several years. I want some information about the best way to get accurate focus on the air 3. On my air 2s the way I would focus, was by flying away from a subject, usually myself, about 30 feet and with auto focus on I would focus on myself, and then set the focus to manual, and leave it that way, for the rest of my flight taking videos and photos that always seemed to be in focus. So I would like your advice knowing the air 3 now has 2 lenses on how to always get videos and photos in focus.
Thanks for your advice.

 

[Meta4]

......, and then set the focus to manual, and leave it that way, for the rest of my flight taking videos and photos that always seemed to be in focus.

Your photos seemed to be in focus because the wideangle lens has so much depth of field, you wouldn't be able to tell if the focus wasn't precise.

Why not do some testing to see what gives you good results?
Most users use auto focus without any problem.

 

[Bsnyder]

Thanks for the information, will do some testing.

 

[davidarmenb]

The 24mm equivalent sensor on the Air 3 is smaller than the sensor in the air 2s, so it will have a larger depth of field at any given f-stop.
However, the fixed f2.8 aperture in the Air 2S is smaller than the fixed f1.7 aperture of the Air 3 wide angle lens (by a little over 1 and 1/3 stops) and that could give a breather depth of field to the Air 2S, despite the fact that it has a sensor which is 0.25” larger. Can’t be sure without actual calculations.

 

[DARKSeifer]

Just use autofocus, manual focus is only for those occasions where a subject can't be properly focused, like for example, at night, where drones, specially those with little sensors, can have a hard time focusing something.

DOF at 60m altitude and a wide angle can be dozens of meters, usually on drone photography everything is in focus. You could technically avoid autofocus at all by focusing at the hyperfocal distance and leave it like that forever, but you'll get more consistent results with autofocus.