Focus with Mavic Pro

[Cam Pilot]

I've just retired my Inspire 1 and bough a Mavic Pro. I have a problem getting video footage with consistent sharp focus. I'm no photographer but always managed decent quality videos with Inspire setting to Auto. I've viewed dozens of YouTube posts and tried all sorts of combinations in the camera settings to no avail. Can anyone who regularly uses the Mavic Pro give me some practical advice please?

 

[Starz]

History on aircraft?

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

I've just retired my Inspire 1 and bough a Mavic Pro. I have a problem getting video footage with consistent sharp focus. I'm no photographer but always managed decent quality videos with Inspire setting to Auto. I've viewed dozens of YouTube posts and tried all sorts of combinations in the camera settings to no avail. Can anyone who regularly uses the Mavic Pro give me some practical advice please?

Yes, let us know the history...

Is it new, or used? Did it ever focus good? Could there be a problem with internal condensation (you might see a foggy area in the center)?

Also, is the focus poor for the entire image, or just certain areas. I've had a lot of experience with the MP and MPP lenses. I've found that not all are the same, and they can have areas of bad focus, mostly on the right side of the image. I've gone through 5 lenses to finally find one that is good throughout the entire image.

Additionally, I've had an entire lens lose it's ability to focus altogether. It worked fine, I landed, switched batteries, rebooted, then absolutely no ability to focus. That event got me started on acquiring lenses and finding that some are good, some are bad, and some can just plain fail.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Most M1P pilots set sharpness to +1 in camera settings.
These steps x 1 etc are quite heavy, so +1 is quite a difference.

If more of a focus issue on specific parts of the shot, have you ever used peak focus threshold ?

Did You Know About This? | Peak Focus Threshold

Did You Know About This? | Peak Focus Threshold

This is a feature that many DSLR cameras have to assist the user with ensuring proper focus. The DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Zoom have a similar feature and it works great.

mavicpilots.com

 

[Starz]

All that is good information, but for all we know, it’s a used aircraft with a problem. Will be better to know the history first.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

All that is good information, but for all we know, it’s a used aircraft with a problem. Will be better to know the history first.

Yes try things that are easily ‘checkable’ to see if it helps, eliminate what you can then it might be time to focus on potential hardware issue.

 

[stevenws]

Does anyone just simply think that putting a 2.2 fixed apeture in any camera drone is just not good for overall focus ability - like the Mavic Pro 1 ? I think my Mavic Mini quality is actually better than the Mavic Pro. The snapshotsare decent, but I'm sooo dissapointed with the focus (or lack of) with the Mavic pro videos.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Does anyone just simply think that putting a 2.2 fixed apeture in any camera drone is just not good for overall focus ability - like the Mavic Pro 1 ? I think my Mavic Mini quality is actually better than the Mavic Pro. The snapshotsare decent, but I'm sooo dissapointed with the focus (or lack of) with the Mavic pro videos.

Yup, It's been my experience with the M1 that the camera lens has a high variance in manufactured quality. I've had five lens barrels and all except one has had areas out of focus, or lost the ability to focus at all. It's a real crap shoot.