Infuriated over the focus settings

TheFunnyMan · Mar 19, 2017

Before I got any DJI products I had 4 drones that were either toy level or wannabe phantom type products. Over the past 12 months I've had a P3 Advanced (flawless) a P3 Pro (had issues) and a P4 that was pretty nice except for some tilted horizon issues. I'm not an expert but not a novice either.

Yesterday I got my Mavic. I unboxed, charged everything up. Did IMU calibration and gimbal calibration. I also updated to latest firmware and made sure I have the latest update for DJI GO 4 on IOS. Today I gave it a try. Video isn't even close to usable because of the out of box focus settings. I'm sitting here wondering how, in my many hours of reading on this forum and looking at youtube videos, i never saw anything that says "Mavic video totally useless out of the box"

It was shockingly out of focus. I had it around 8 feet off the ground and 10 feet away from myself and could not make out any details at all - not even the giant "CAVS" logo on my sweatshirt. After playing with a bunch of settings I sort of got it so I could tell there was a human shaped object in front of the camera. Once I got the video on my computer in the house the part where I thought I had it 'working' was actually a 1 minute video of the camera going in and out of focus every 1-2 seconds.

I didn't mean for this post to become just a rant like this so I guess I'll ask an actual question. Is there any way to make this like the P4, P3P, P3A, P3S, etc, etc where you turn the device on, fly it around and record usable video or do you ALWAYS have to keep changing focus settings as you fly?

Spanishcop · Mar 19, 2017

Well... I have to disagree. Though it's not perfect once in a while I've had to center focus using shortcut button under remote. But for the most part I don't have to.

I'll share a video I took... Given this is my 5th flight with my Mavic Pro and recording videos from the air. So keep that in mind when watching. None the less I'm still learning but I have not experienced these issues you speak of.

The out of focus of trees on the right at beginning is the only part I had issues. I assume because focused on tree in front as I was climbing.

Also the sun was setting and even with losing light it still did a great job.

I'm amazed at this drone and the portability it has. I'm sure there are better... But I've been happy do far.

I hope you can figure out the problem your having and best of luck.

Mike

TheFunnyMan · Mar 19, 2017

Mike - thanks for the super quick response. My experience was much much worse. The shot at 2:10 in your video with the woman in the car - when she waves her hand, on mine, you would not even be able to see if she was waving a hand or shaking a fist... or you would have thought her entire head was the color of her hat and phone.

I just boxed it up to send back to amazon. Now I have to see if DJI will refund my DJI Refresh that I purchased for it yesterday.

I've got a P4P on the way.

Glen e · Mar 19, 2017

It's a non issue for me as well. I center focus on the ground once at 135 feet. Then it's fine for the duration of the flight.

Spanishcop · Mar 19, 2017

TheFunnyMan said:
Mike - thanks for the super quick response. My experience was much much worse. The shot at 2:10 in your video with the woman in the car - when she waves her hand, on mine, you would not even be able to see if she was waving a hand or shaking a fist... or you would have thought her entire head was the color of her hat and phone.

I just boxed it up to send back to amazon. Now I have to see if DJI will refund my DJI Refresh that I purchased for it yesterday.

I've got a P4P on the way.

Sorry you had a bad experience with it. I think you would have liked it once the problem was resolved. Especially the portability to take it on vacations or while traveling.

I hope what ever you decide to go with that you have the best of luck. You may reconsider down the road.

Best regards,
Mike

TheFunnyMan · Mar 19, 2017

I think I got a bad camera or something. I've been going back and watching every unboxing video i can find and none of them have that problem. Do they have something SLIGHTLY out of focus? Sure. But mine was a total blur across the entire FOV.

CyberNate · Mar 19, 2017

If your focus is off, flip over to manual focus and manually focus it. After focused, switch back to auto focus. That fixes it for me. It seems that's once focus is off the auto focus stays off by a fixed margin. It seems like a bug to me because once you do the manual focus it works fine after that.

triumphrider · Mar 19, 2017

Did you hit the focus button? That was one of the issues early reviewers had, they didn't know they had to manually focus the camera. Once up in the air it will go to infinite focus automatically.
Did you take the clear shipping sticker off the camera lens?
I think you gave up too quickly. It's really a good camera once you give it a chance and get used to its quirks.

Spanishcop · Mar 19, 2017

Oh wow good point!!!! Yeah I didn't realize when I first started it that there was a clear sticker on lens. That could have been the issue.

Strafe1 · Mar 19, 2017

Well, P4P is a much more complicated camera system. Hope you have good luck with that!

TheFunnyMan · Mar 19, 2017

It certainly is more complicated. I'm starting to think that I gave up a little early also. I'm thinking about opening it up and seeing if I can get it to focus at all.

What concerned me was that it was so massively out of focus it was like it was broken.

To the person who asked if I removed the film covering the lens yes I did. There was another film above the camera with yellow tape on it but I did not remove that as I did not see any reason to.

At one point where I got it to focus for a few seconds the video did look amazing except it would immediately go out of focus.

It also clearly had the watercolor issue when it actually did focus for a few seconds.

The bottom line is that I just don't trust this particular Mavic. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with the products in general or with DJI. I'm sending this one back to Amazon and I am going to call DJI tomorrow and see if they can move my refresh from my magic serial number to my phantom 4 serial number.

TheFunnyMan · Mar 19, 2017

Ok - you guys got me

I've taken it out of the box and - as patiently as I can - I'm going through all possible options, following along with youtube videos and following some of the ideas in this thread.... I'll come back when I have some good info, HOPEFULLY!

Owen Manderfield · Mar 19, 2017

I'd give the PAL/NTSC switch a go before your next flight. This is swapping over the video systems which appears to give the camera a good reset. This not only overcomes the watercolour issue but I've also seen reports of it correcting focus issues too.

Let's hope it works and you haven't got a duff Magic. Fingers crossed

TheFunnyMan · Mar 19, 2017

I've been playing with it for quite a while now. I have hit every button you can hit that is even semi-related to focus, I've reset everything, etc. I cannot get it to change focus, ever. No matter what I do.

I want to be very clear about this - i'm not complaining about not LIKING the focus. I'm saying that I cannot get it to even change it's focus at all at this point. The "sun" is now down here so i'm in the house in a VERY well lit room just tying to focus on things anywhere from 20 feet away to 1 foot away. Notta. Zip. Zilch. Nothing.

My only question now is do I have Amazon do a replacement? Do I call DJI and spend hours on the phone with them getting nowhere?

TheFunnyMan · Mar 19, 2017

Owen Manderfield said:
I'd give the PAL/NTSC switch a go before your next flight.

Tried this - It really did seem to reset the camera in a good way but it never 'changed focus' before, during or after the change.

AlanTheBeast · Mar 19, 2017

TheFunnyMan said:
Before I got any DJI products I had 4 drones that were either toy level or wannabe phantom type products. Over the past 12 months I've had a P3 Advanced (flawless) a P3 Pro (had issues) and a P4 that was pretty nice except for some tilted horizon issues. I'm not an expert but not a novice either.

Yesterday I got my Mavic. I unboxed, charged everything up. Did IMU calibration and gimbal calibration. I also updated to latest firmware and made sure I have the latest update for DJI GO 4 on IOS. Today I gave it a try. Video isn't even close to usable because of the out of box focus settings. I'm sitting here wondering how, in my many hours of reading on this forum and looking at youtube videos, i never saw anything that says "Mavic video totally useless out of the box"

It was shockingly out of focus. I had it around 8 feet off the ground and 10 feet away from myself and could not make out any details at all - not even the giant "CAVS" logo on my sweatshirt. After playing with a bunch of settings I sort of got it so I could tell there was a human shaped object in front of the camera. Once I got the video on my computer in the house the part where I thought I had it 'working' was actually a 1 minute video of the camera going in and out of focus every 1-2 seconds.

I didn't mean for this post to become just a rant like this so I guess I'll ask an actual question. Is there any way to make this like the P4, P3P, P3A, P3S, etc, etc where you turn the device on, fly it around and record usable video or do you ALWAYS have to keep changing focus settings as you fly?

Different isn't bad. Just different. There are three focus modes. Get to know them. AF, AFC, MF.

Me? AF at 10m after takeoff then switch to MF and usually that's it. Done. Maybe need to be higher for MF switch. There's also a focus threshold you can turn on so you see outlines of what is in focus (in red) on your screen.

Different. Not bad.

Alex_S · Mar 19, 2017

It looks like you have a faulty camera. Send it back to Amazon for a refund. Once refunded which is fast after they receive your faulty Mavic , order a new one or keep the P4. If you ever plan to travel you can not beat the Mavic. 3 Batteries, the Mavic, the RC and other accessories fit in my wife's handbag if I wanted to do that. We flew a P3A and a Mavic in fairly strong winds on a beach yesterday.
The Mavic displayed strong wind warnings but despite that stayed like a rock in the air, more stable than the P3A. If travelling is not on your list the P4 is a great bird as well.

TheFunnyMan · Mar 19, 2017

Alex_S said:
It looks like you have a faulty camera. Send it back to Amazon for a refund.

I'm boxing it back up now and I'm going to send it back tomorrow. This really sucks because the whole reason I ordred it in the first place was it was quite the paradigm shift from the Phantoms.

When the P4 Pro gets here tomorrow I'm going to open it up and the FIRST thing i'm gonna do is try the focus out. Then it'll be a call to DJI to see if they can exchange my Mavic version 'DJI Refresh' for the P4P one + $50. Hopefully they don't give me too much of a hassle on that.

AlanTheBeast · Mar 20, 2017

TheFunnyMan said:
I'm boxing it back up now and I'm going to send it back tomorrow. This really sucks because the whole reason I ordred it in the first place was it was quite the paradigm shift from the Phantoms.

When the P4 Pro gets here tomorrow I'm going to open it up and the FIRST thing i'm gonna do is try the focus out. Then it'll be a call to DJI to see if they can exchange my Mavic version 'DJI Refresh' for the P4P one + $50. Hopefully they don't give me too much of a hassle on that.

Good luck with that - the CR is assigned to the serial number of the drone - I doubt they're able to cancel one and assign a new one.

Waiting on a P4P too.

TheFunnyMan · Mar 20, 2017

AlanTheBeast said:
Good luck with that - the CR is assigned to the serial number of the drone - I doubt they're able to cancel one and assign a new one.

Waiting on a P4P too.

If I get a bad answer from DJI on the refresh stuff I may make a call to Amazon and see if they can find a way to get me a replacement Mavic ASAP. We spend tons of money with them every month as we now get a lot of our groceries and stuff from them too. I might even ask them if they can refund me $100 for the DJ I care refresh too if DJI won't help.