Infinity setting

[Ziba]

I've posted before on various topics as I learn the ins and outs of the Mavic.

I'm a landscape and nature photographer and my Mavic is mainly for stills. My current question is about the infinity setting in manual. While it's a 35mm lens it would more than likely not be the same as my DSLR full-frame 35mm lens. Therefore, what distance from the drone does the lens consider it to be infinity?

There is going to be a learning curve as I get use to depth of field issues with this lens and software.

 

[Meta4]

While it's a 35mm lens it would more than likely not be the same as my DSLR full-frame 35mm lens. Therefore, what distance from the drone does the lens consider it to be infinity?

Your mavic 2 pro lens actually has a focal length of 10.26mm.
It has a field of view of: about 77° and its 35 mm Format Equivalent would be a 28 mm lens.

There is going to be a learning curve as I get use to depth of field issues with this lens and software.

There are no depth of field issues to worry about as the lens has so much depth of field that you'll never have to worry about it unless you are dealing with subjects less than three metres from the camera.
And that's not something that very happens much with drone photography.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Also, getting a narrow depth of field with any lens would require a smaller aperture, which is not recommended with this lens. The lens is generally considered to give the best image sharpness at f5.6 or wider.

 

[Meta4]

Also, getting a narrow depth of field with any lens would require a smaller aperture, which is not recommended with this lens. The lens is generally considered to give the best image sharpness at f5.6 or wider.

But the drone camera has more DOF than anyone would want at any aperture.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

And yet, an experienced land-based photographer might be tempted to try, if they had not yet heard about the small-aperture softness of this lens, so it's probably worth a mention.

Chris

 

[Checki]

Turn on focus peaking and you see what's in focus.
Infinity is completely unsharp.
I found out, pressing the infinity icon, sets the focus to a point where stuff is mostly in focus, but you can of course always adjust yourself. I don't trust the autofocus anymore, gave me bad results sometimes.
Now I use focus peaking and manual focus.

 

[Ziba]

Thanks for all the info.

I've attached two test shots, for those of you who are photographers. I would appreciate feedback on the one that shows a river and trees. If you look at the very upper left the trees are either out of focus - but why would they be out of focus at a greater distance than the trees in the center or to the right of center- or they show motion blur, but again, there does not appear to be motion blur anywhere else. Also, I corrected for lens distortion. I sent that image to a couple of my photography buddies to see if they could figure it out. The ISO was 100, 5.6 at 1/80th. No wind. Sent the drone way out over and down into a deep valley in the Cascades. A little nervous about that but feel better now that I have property insurance through Professional Photographers of America.

I've discovered with these to two tests that it takes a lot more concentration than normal to shoot images AND control the drone. Focus is something I need to practice.

 

[Meta4]

And yet, an experienced land-based photographer might be tempted to try, if they had not yet heard about the small-aperture softness of this lens, so it's probably worth a mention.

By all means do try.
See for yourself that there are no practical DoF implications at any aperture (unless your main subject is closer than 3 metres).

Also, getting a narrow depth of field with any lens would require a smaller aperture, which is not recommended with this lens. The lens is generally considered to give the best image sharpness at f5.6 or wider.

Just noticed that you had that backwards.
DoF would be narrower with a larger aperture (if it was noticeable at all using this lens for aerial photography).

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Just noticed that you had that backwards.
DoF would be narrower with a larger aperture (if it was noticeable at all using this lens for aerial photography).

Yes, I meant greater, thanks — I was still only on my 3rd pot of coffee. A greater (deeper) DOF would require a smaller aperture.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Thanks for all the info.

I've attached two test shots, for those of you who are photographers. I would appreciate feedback on the one that shows a river and trees. If you look at the very upper left the trees are either out of focus - but why would they be out of focus at a greater distance than the trees in the center or to the right of center- or they show motion blur, but again, there does not appear to be motion blur anywhere else. Also, I corrected for lens distortion. I sent that image to a couple of my photography buddies to see if they could figure it out. The ISO was 100, 5.6 at 1/80th. No wind. Sent the drone way out over and down into a deep valley in the Cascades. A little nervous about that but feel better now that I have property insurance through Professional Photographers of America.

I see the softness in the upper-left corner. Ordinarily, this would be a time when some people might point out that this lens is just not going to compare to a good DSLR (or other full-sized formats) lenses. Even with a DSLR lens, you can get an off-brand / cheaper lens that is soft in the corners, or a wide that has a lot of chromatic aberration.

But this is just in the one corner. You aren't the first person to have that complaint with this lens. You might search the forum to see if you can find one or two of the threads and ask the OPs of them to see if they got any resolution. I seem to recall that at least one was going start a return or warranty repair going with DJI. You might also check the DJI forums for such threads.

But this lens is just going to compare, build quality wise, with your better DSLR lenses. Even a single corner of unsharpness could be par for this level of lens.

Chris