Images / videos VERY blury

[Stasic]

Hello,

I need some help since I am a bit desperate.
I just bought a second hand Mavic pro, to film some footage in my next vacation (which is in a few days), and the movies / images I get are extremely bad quality.
This is my first drone and I dont have any experience, so I started looking at different youtube videos / tutorials and tried different settings from there.
I also did the steps to recalibrate the gimbal and the IMU. Currently I have the custom settings (+1 -1 -1) and this is what I get:

DJI_0009.JPG
DJI_0013.JPG
DJI_0001.MOV

The images are really really poor .. and I dont know what else to try

Does anybody have any suggestions ?

Thank you!

 

[Thomas B]

See what you mean, especially in the video. Are you controlling focus?
Try setting focus to infinity.

 

[FoxhallGH]

Welcome to the forum ... First question ... Do you know how to set the resolution for your photographs? and second - do you know about taping the screen on your device to get it to focus??
If you can get a screen shot, or list some settings you have on the camera and video, it should make it easier to suggest alternatives.
Meanwhile, there are a load of very good YouTube vid's about camera settings for the Mavic - so search for them, and don't be afraid to include the word 'beginner' in the search!

 

[Stasic]

Hey, thanks for your replies.
I am using 4:3 as image size, JPG as image format, white balance set to AUTO, style +1 -1 -1 and color I've been switching between D-Cinelike and D-log
I have ISO set to 100 manually, and Shutter try to keep it at twice the fps I am filming (and try to get the M.M as close to 0). For the video I think the shutter was a bit too low, because I was using a ND32/PL filter and it was a bit too much (but I just ordered 4/8/16 filters so I'll use them as well)

I am filming 4k - 4096 x 2160 at 24fps (I see thats the only option), in MOV format, NTSC, Auto white balance, and again in D-Cinelike or D-log with +1 -1 -1

I am also looking at different youtube videos, and try to change the settings in order to get better images, although everybody that was complaining about 'bad quality' on youtube, and showed how to fix the issue, actually had pretty decent images/videos - wish I had that 'bad quality'
As you can see in my movie/pictures everything is extremely blury

 

[Thomas B]

Hey, thanks for your replies.
I am using 4:3 as image size, JPG as image format, white balance set to AUTO, style +1 -1 -1 and color I've been switching between D-Cinelike and D-log
I have ISO set to 100 manually, and Shutter try to keep it at twice the fps I am filming (and try to get the M.M as close to 0). For the video I think the shutter was a bit too low, because I was using a ND32/PL filter and it was a bit too much (but I just ordered 4/8/16 filters so I'll use them as well)

I am filming 4k - 4096 x 2160 at 24fps (I see thats the only option), in MOV format, NTSC, Auto white balance, and again in D-Cinelike or D-log with +1 -1 -1

I am also looking at different youtube videos, and try to change the settings in order to get better images, although everybody that was complaining about 'bad quality' on youtube, and showed how to fix the issue, actually had pretty decent images/videos - wish I had that 'bad quality'
As you can see in my movie/pictures everything is extremely blury

Of course your issue is not related th exposure issue (BTW, you analysis and methods for exposure are good). Your problem as I understand it, especially in the video is focus.

Again, go the those settings and try it at infinity. The video is either a bad focal distance, or... and I doubt this... a dirty lense.

 

[Stasic]

Of course your issue is not related th exposure issue (BTW, you analysis and methods for exposure are good). Your problem as I understand it, especially in the video is focus.

Again, go the those settings and try it at infinity. The video is either a bad focal distance, or... and I doubt this... a dirty lense.

I will try switching to MF instead of AF and use infinity, and post another video tomorrow (it's night here now, so I can't really do any testing)

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Yep, def something out of whack.

I didn't even see it trying to auto focus, so maybe it is already on manual focus and you aren't focusing it.

If you cant change focus on manual, you might have a stuck/defective focusing mechanism.

But let's not get too far ahead yet. Check your focus mode.

 

[Cymruflyer]

When you take off and climb and hover, can you tap the middle of your phone screen and see that the camera is focusing? Point forward and down slightly, toward the ground, don't try and just focus off into the horizon. Just several hundred yards in front of you will be fine for all your flying needs.

That distance will give you the infinity range you need, but you need to point to something tangible, so use the ground, as in some houses several hundred meters away You should see your phone screen go sharp, if nothing is happening, then maybe you have a faulty camera. But I was confused too when I first got my Mavic Pro and did not realize it needed to be focused. Always remember to get up there and point the camera off into the distance before commencing each fly off, to focus the camera.

 

[Thomas B]

I will try switching to MF instead of AF and use infinity, and post another video tomorrow (it's night here now, so I can't really do any testing)

Anxious to see your results.

 

[ROMEY]

Of course your issue is not related th exposure issue (BTW, you analysis and methods for exposure are good). Your problem as I understand it, especially in the video is focus.

Again, go the those settings and try it at infinity. The video is either a bad focal distance, or... and I doubt this... a dirty lense.

I'm thinking a finger print smudge on the lens.

 

[ROMEY]

It's not hard to do

 

[Nosebump]

Coould be a fingerprint smudge, but usually those produce halos. I didn't see any, so I'm thinking something's out of whack.

 

[Cymruflyer]

By the way, I shot in 2.7K not 4K and that gave me a great image and I bet you won't be able to see the difference, so try both and see for yourself, plus that saves a ton of space when it comes to Hard Drives, for all that video footage. It is far less memory intensive and that is also good for when it comes to editing and rendering your footage. So do a test once you have the focus sorted out and see if the 2.7K setting will work for you.

 

[Stasic]

Hello, thank you for all your answers
So this is what I have shot today: Drone test google drive

The images look pretty good to me, but the video is still a bit off. Better than yesterday but still off. To be honest, the ND32/PL was a bad filter to use since it was late in the day (I was only able to test after work) .. and since the other filters haven't arrived yet this is what I had. Without the filter, I had to have a very big shutter so that was also bad.

I tried with MF but the resulted images/video were really bad - these ones are done with AF

Settings:
- ND32/PL filter
- AF
- D-Cinelike
- Custom: +1 -1 -1
- ISO 100
- Shutter was at 30 I think to have M.M 0 (without the filter shutter was waay to high, so I chose this option)
- 4k - 24fps video
- white balance set to Auto

I'll test tomorrow at 12-1PM if it doesn't rain maybe I can get a better video.

 

[Cymruflyer]

Even in auto focus you should tap your screen to be sure the camera is focusing on an object. Try shooting in 2.4 or 2.7K with no filter on the lens and just keep it all in auto and tap the lens for focusing and see what the video looks like. Just as a test to see if there is a lens problem or a settings problem. So climb up to about 100ft then tilt the camera down slightly to get a small area of sky only, in the frame. Hover, then tap to focus and you should see the screen go sharp, then start to video and then come home and see what the card files look like on your computer.

 

[Stasic]

Ups - it seems the URL I gave did not have public view permissions - I changed that now.

ok @Cymruflyer, I'll test with 2.4/2.7 as well and see. I'll try to do 4k, 2.4, 2.7 in auto / manual settings and see the differences between them and come back with some videos

 

[Harro]

In your Custom settings you have +1 -1 -1. If I'm not mistaken one of those (can't remember which) is to increase/decrease sharpness. If it is one of the -1's then that would soften the image, try videoing with all settings set to 0 and compare the results.

 

[kingair_87]

Hey everyone, I took some photos this evening and noticed that there is a halo or rainbow or something in the bottom left corner. Any idea what cause it or how to remedy it?

 

[Thomas B]

Clean the external lens and try again at a different angle to the sun to se if this resolves the problem.

 

[Nosebump]

What you're experiencing is called lens refraction. It's a common problem when photographing into the sun not only with drones, but with any camera. If you're on the ground, you can sometimes step into the shade of a building to mitigate the problem, but even then, it may persist. Wide-angle lenses (-like what most drones use) are more prone to refraction. the only answer is to photograph from a different angle.

I've tried polarization filters, but with the inability to rotate, I've had little success. I also purchased a drone lens shade, but it vignetted my pictures, and I still had the refraction issue. The shade now rides in the bottom of my camera case.