Focus Lock?

[TheObscureDrone]

Whilst I'm loving the camera on my M2P - I'm not liking it's focusing. I've seen previous comments re clicking on the infinity symbol when in Manual Focus and this delivering the desired results - and a video too that mentions this; but when I try this if anything I get the reverse effect and almost Macro range focus - when I click the Flower I get something closer to infinity, but it's still not pin sharp.

Is there a way to effect a focus lock in auto settings - I've tried to keep the focus on auto, set it - and then switch to Manual to fix the focus - but this isn't always working and I'm finding a lot of slightly blurry images where on my MP I wouldn't have had a problem.
Any suggestions - And any idea why the 'Infinity' tip no longer seems to work?
Thanks.

 

[djiboi]

Click the flower not the infinity icon. DJI reversed it for some reason

 

[TheObscureDrone]

Click the flower not the infinity icon. DJI reversed it for some reason

Thanks for that - I have tried it - but I'm finding I'm still not getting what I would consider to be 'perfect' focus- It's all very strange. My MP seemed to be better in this regard...

 

[Kilrah]

Check what your aperture's set at. If too closed it will visibly soften the image and make it seem out of focus even when it's not.

 

[TheObscureDrone]

Check what your aperture's set at. If too closed it will visibly soften the image and make it seem out of focus even when it's not.

Thanks for your input - and yep good observation as I know on this lens/configuration really anything above f.8 is going to be blurry - But I was shooting at f.4 so it's sadly not that; it's just out of focus - and as i mentioned - clicking on the 'flower' now [taking into account they've flipped this for god knows what reason] does almost give you infinity - but it's just off, and annoyingly just off enough to be hard to see on my screen - but certainly clear in the full size image...

 

[CanadaDrone]

Thanks for your input - and yep good observation as I know on this lens/configuration really anything above f.8 is going to be blurry - But I was shooting at f.4 so it's sadly not that; it's just out of focus - and as i mentioned - clicking on the 'flower' now [taking into account they've flipped this for god knows what reason] does almost give you infinity - but it's just off, and annoyingly just off enough to be hard to see on my screen - but certainly clear in the full size image...

Actually anything above F4 starts to degrade quite quickly - F8 is going to be pretty awful. If you were at F4 though, it wasn't diffraction causing you problems.

Make sure you don't have continuous autofocus enabled anywhere either.

 

[TheObscureDrone]

Actually anything above F4 starts to degrade quite quickly - F8 is going to be pretty awful. If you were at F4 though, it wasn't diffraction causing you problems.

Make sure you don't have continuous autofocus enabled anywhere either.

Yep aware of that - I've done a LOT of photography, so fully aware of settings - and what are limitations with this lens/sensor combo. But thanks for mentioning. As to the AFC - that's most definitely turned off in settings - I learned early on with my MP that the focus breathing was guaranteed to mess up a shoot; hence setting and leaving well alone once it's focused - If only I can get it to accurately focus ;-)

 

[Jackcutrone]

Actually anything above F4 starts to degrade quite quickly - F8 is going to be pretty awful. If you were at F4 though, it wasn't diffraction causing you problems.

Make sure you don't have continuous autofocus enabled anywhere either.

That sounds odd to me. The higher the f stop the greater the depth of field and therefore a larger range of things should be in focus.

 

[Cymruflyer]

That sounds odd to me. The higher the f stop the greater the depth of field and therefore a larger range of things should be in focus.

You would think that, however, that is not the case in real life. Same thing goes for all DSLR cameras. Certain lenses have certain sweet spots and although standard cameras usually all go to f22 or more, you would never be up there if you wanted a quality image. You would be much better off at anywhere from f4 to f6 but for many lenses around the f5.6 seems to be the best.

The Mavic cameras are no different, they too have an f-stop sweet spot and the Hassy is best at f4 or lower.

 

[Kilrah]

That sounds odd to me. The higher the f stop the greater the depth of field and therefore a larger range of things should be in focus.

Depth of field is irrelevant for an aerial scene unless badly focussed... but diffraction sure causes a loss of sharpness proportional to how much aperture is closed and that's very noticeable.

 

[TheObscureDrone]

Depth of field is irrelevant for an aerial scene unless badly focussed... but diffraction sure causes a loss of sharpness proportional to how much aperture is closed and that's very noticeable.

That's spot on - and this is my key frustration, I'm mindful of the sweet spot - but this needs the focus to be spot on too - And this is back to my original frustration, that focusing isn't as accurate as my MP...

One suggestion I have had - which I'm going to try - Is to use Focus Peaking to confirm focus - and then switch to MF and leave well alone...

 

[CanadaDrone]

That sounds odd to me. The higher the f stop the greater the depth of field and therefore a larger range of things should be in focus.

A sensor as small as the M2P (1") has enormous DOF already, and at the distances most drone footage is shot at, DOF is virtually infinite. Even at F2.8, the DOF is equivalent to F8 on a full frame camera, but again when you are 200 feet in the air, pretty well everything can be in focus.

You are taking one small principle (which is correct at it's core) and extrapolating it without taking into account sensor size, pixel size, distance, etc. which are all very important considerations.

The reason the image starts to soften after F4 is because diffraction sets in really early. 20MP on a 1" sensor means the pixels are so small that beyond F4, the scene information intended for a single pixel begins to spill over onto neighboring pixels very quickly due to how the light passes through the entrance pupil.

 

[Ralph thompson]

I have a similar question re. focus lock. On my Inspire I can focus manually but touch the screen to select the manual focus point. AFC is on but it doesn’t search for focus until u press on the screen. It doesn’t focus when u press the shutter release. I like this especially for Panos or maintaining a near subject in focus. I cannot find the same setting on the M2P, in AFC it focuses when u press the shutter release. Annoying. I don’t want it to focus on the shutter release but I do want to select the focus point in camera view. Any thoughts pls?

 

[CanadaDrone]

I have a similar question re. focus lock. On my Inspire I can focus manually but touch the screen to select the manual focus point. AFC is on but it doesn’t search for focus until u press on the screen. It doesn’t focus when u press the shutter release. I like this especially for Panos or maintaining a near subject in focus. I cannot find the same setting on the M2P, in AFC it focuses when u press the shutter release. Annoying. I don’t want it to focus on the shutter release but I do want to select the focus point in camera view. Any thoughts pls?

Just lock focus manually and confirm with focus peaking - if you do it right, everything will be in focus and you don't have to worry about a single thing. This point is 2 or 3 clicks below infinity. Only time you would have to change it is if you were flying extremely close to something. Generally you would never want to use AFC for video, that is a recipe for disaster assuming you don't want any focus hunting mid-shot. Same deal for stills, and don't worry about where the focus point is unless you are extremely close to the subject.

 

[Ralph thompson]

Generally true but the benefit of the 2P is that u have control over aperture so u may want to use aperture f2.8, focus on the main features of a near subject and get great bokeh for the background. As a photographer I'm used to takingfocus off the shutter release then focusing very precisely on the subject or even a part of a subject. Yes I appreciate the very wide lens means that the hyper-focal distance is quite close but photographs develop habits that help them quickly nail a shot. My I1P has allpows you to choose the precise focus point with a long press, I wonder why its not available on the M2P.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Generally true but the benefit of the 2P is that u have control over aperture so u may want to use aperture f2.8, focus on the main features of a near subject and get great bokeh for the background. As a photographer I'm used to takingfocus off the shutter release then focusing very precisely on the subject or even a part of a subject. Yes I appreciate the very wide lens means that the hyper-focal distance is quite close but photographs develop habits that help them quickly nail a shot. My I1P has allpows you to choose the precise focus point with a long press, I wonder why its not available on the M2P.

28mm (equivalent) isn't very wide, by far the biggest factor here is actually the sensor size - even on the M2P the sensor is still so small that F2.8 is the DOF equivalent of F8 on a full frame camera, a typical landscape aperture or when you want pretty much everything in focus. The adjustable aperture is there for ND filter flexibility and exposure flexibility, not for bokeh/shallow DOF.

Choosing a precise focus point is a moot 'point' once you're more than a short distance from your subject on the M2P and much more so on the MP1 with it's incredibly tiny 1/2.3" sensor (F2.8 on the MP1 is the DOF equivalent of F16 on a FF camera). Getting any significant subject isolation with a M2P is next to impossible unless you are very close to the subject, which is not a typical flying scenario. It's just not really designed with that in mind and trying to always pick the focus point is going to give you more headaches than anything else. If you're just flying around in a typical usage scenario, or taking any footage that you care about, you will want to be locked in MF.

Imagine F8 on a full frame camera - that is the starting point on a M2P @ F2.8 with regards to a DOF equivalent.

 

[Ralph thompson]

Good points, thanks

 

[parkgt]

Generally true but the benefit of the 2P is that u have control over aperture so u may want to use aperture f2.8, focus on the main features of a near subject and get great bokeh for the background.

Would love to see a shot from the M2P with "great bokeh"; sadly don't think it is going to happen.

 

[kilomikebravo]

sadly don't think it is going to happen.

Not unless he puts the aircraft on a table and takes photos of his pup three feet away.