How to focus manually in Litchi?

[ivanatora]

Hi guys,

I was flying at dark yesterday and I noticed Litchi has some issues focusing on anything. I have light windows, car beams, street lights - lots of light sources that I think can be used to autofocus. At least focusing on a light source is working on my DSLR and I think it should be something similar here.

Okay, let's forget autofocus. As a last resort I want to be able to manual focus and eyeball the light sources. I see there is this menu: Camera Settings -> Focus Mode, and there is Auto, Manual and A-CF (? continuous, maybe?). I select Manual, but nothing happens. I still can trigger autofocus when tapping on an object on the screen. And it is still not autofocusing properly.

I have no issues to focus by tapping during the day.

Am I missing something about how to use the Manual Focus?

 

[MadValley]

I'm running into the same issue which stems from a problem in what Litchi calls "focus" and what everybody else with a camera does. In Litchi focus seems to be more a what-is-the-element-of-interest term. Sort of like "focus on your homework". Litchi's website defines focus as: "Focus allows you to easily keep a subject (Point of Interest or Mobile Device) in the video frame while flying the aircraft manually. "

What everybody else thinks is that focus means being clearly able to see your subject. I asked Litchi this question and got back : "Litchi does not automatically manage the optical focus. You can choose between 2 modes, Auto focus or Auto focus continuous. For Auto focus, tap on the video preview to trigger focus. For Auto focus continuous (AFC), the DJI camera firmware will automatically trigger focus when required." Which is completely clear...

 

[ivanatora]

This is nonsense.
Focus is optical focus - having converging the light rays emanating from an origin point. Having a sharp image of an object standing on a specific distance, if you say so.

I've seen other apps that have controls on what distance MF is set to. It is a very important feature that I can't believe Litchi is missing. I'm more likely to believe I'm doing something wrong

 

[MadValley]

That's what I thought too. (Not that you were doing something wrong, but that I was...) But those quotes are straight from Litchi.

 

[MadValley]

I just found this tidbit on Litchi's webpage at: Help - Litchi "For the Mavic Pro, you can also do a long press on the video preview to set the focus to Infinity (everything in focus). iOS only." (Subtext: All you Android users are SOL.)

 

[Qoncussion]

I just got back from flying a Litchi mission... I might be wrong, but while shooting video, a slider appeared immediately left of the record button on the screen. On thinking about it - that might be the gimbal pitch...

 

[ivanatora]

It is most likely the gimbal pitch.

 

[skadee]

Yeah, thats gimbal pitch. I’d also like to know if there’s means of manually focusing in Litchi (primarily for night shots). I might have to revert back to DJI Go, which I haven’t used for months!

 

[Norm62]

I use the 2 focus options offered in settings on the Litchi App. It's not manual focus, but I can usually manage with these. At night I use the infinity focus. Short press C2 for center AF and long press C2 for infinity focus.