did you just say it could take up to 5 seconds to focus after beep? Thats a long time when your moving around. Guess you wouldn't want to start a new focus on an object thats moving in or out of view.
Litchi Waypoint has focus bug
- Thread starter Robert
- Start date
did you just say it could take up to 5 seconds to focus after beep? Thats a long time when your moving around. Guess you wouldn't want to start a new focus on an object thats moving in or out of view.
With Litchi (Android) when I tap to focus it can take several seconds for the camera to lock on and achieve focus and Litchi gives a timeout error message about the camera failing to respond. The majority of the time it does focus correctly - but not always.
I keep forgetting to focus prior to starting!! I wish auto or hyperfocal focus was set by default and manual focus by request!
Sent from my SM-G935F using MavicPilots mobile app
I keep forgetting to focus prior to starting!! I wish auto or hyperfocal focus was set by default and manual focus by request!
Sent from my SM-G935F using MavicPilots mobile app
I don't have Litchi yet. But I have a question on this...
If I understand correctly, a Litchi waypoint path doesn't 'remember' focal distance. So... it will remember where to point the camera, but won't know or remember to re-focus.
My primary use for Litchi waypoints would be for the drone starting far away from a subject and then flying closer & closer to it and finally ending up very close to it.
Does this mean that while it's flying its waypoint path, that I would need to keep manually refocusing (by tapping) as the mavic progresses toward he subject?
If I understand correctly, a Litchi waypoint path doesn't 'remember' focal distance. So... it will remember where to point the camera, but won't know or remember to re-focus.
My primary use for Litchi waypoints would be for the drone starting far away from a subject and then flying closer & closer to it and finally ending up very close to it.
Does this mean that while it's flying its waypoint path, that I would need to keep manually refocusing (by tapping) as the mavic progresses toward he subject?
Correct
Not really. Someone will correct me on the figures. Once focused on something afar, anything from infinity down to about 20m away will be in sharp. So yes, if your range to POI drops inside this distance you would need to refocus. OTOH if you keep your POIs passing outside of this range ( approx 20m) then all good.Manfrenjensen said:
This is just how the Mavic camera works regardless of Litchi.
WolfgangStiller
Well-Known Member
If you are flying a waypoint mission focusing the mavic on any distant (i.e., more than 10 meters out) object should produce fine results. I can't see a situation where a waypoint mission would need manual refocusing while it's in progress (Litchi never does anything itself to refocus during a mission). The exception to that would be if your waypoint mission brings you really close in to something you want to photograph but that would be really risky since you can not depend on GPS positions to be that accurate and reliable.
Re-focusing during a mission will not work well with the App at this current version. When you tap to focus during a mission, one of two things will happen: 1) it will just not be able to focus at as I described in my original post, 2) it will cause a vibration in the footage. This is something Litchi has to fix. Here would be my suggestion:
- Whenever the recording/shuttle button is pressed, a focus action should be performed automatically before the recording;
- Re-focusing can be performed any time during the record by tapping. Make sure that vibration.
Where can I find Litchi support? I cannot even find here email that I can report issues with their app in their website.
Robert it works fine for me, as I demonstrated yesterday. You see an issue however that does not necessarily mean it will effect anybody else, nor does it mean Litchi is the cause.
I certainly do not see it and there is no evidence of it in my previous video, nor the one I have posted here. This new clip is from the same flight I did yesterday & I reckon it shows no vibration in footage during focus in a Litchi WPT mission. You can see that I takeoff with the camera way out of focus, simply because I had left the focus right in close when I was doing the tests for the first video. I arrive near first WPT, realise I am out of focus so initiate a focus in Litchi and it works perfectly & smoothly. I see no issue. As you will see, the rest of the video is sharp. I did re focus several times unnecessarily as the purpose of the flight was to see if there is focus issue. Having watched the entire 7 min clip several times I cannot see any footage vibration or even tell when my 1/6 dozen or so manual focus events actually occurred. Perhaps you should post yours.
When you do speak to Litchi it is fairly like they will tell you they use the DJIs SDK to create their app. Their app then makes API calls tell the Mavics firmware to do a focus. I find it hard to envisage how whatever it is you are seeing with the focus procedure could actually be attributable to Litchi. S'Pose it is possible though.
I kept the landing in at the end as it demonstrates how the camera has held focus through the end of cruise where lens is pointed at several hundred feet away right up until a couple of feet away at LDG.
In my opinion Litchi focus works just fine in both Android and IOS version. Not surprisingly as the focus action is being accomplished by the Mavic firmware.
Last edited:
WolfgangStiller
Well-Known Member
If you go to the Litchi website (flylitichi.com) there are links to FB and G+ support groups.
I recall someone a week or two back reporting an issue were Litchi reported "Feature not Supported" when they tapped the screen to focus. Anyhow I just had it occur.
So I stopped the mission. Checked focus was indeed not working. Landed, everything off and back on, switched to DJIGo and focus was seemingly back to normal. Started WPT route again in Litchi, having checked tap to focus was working again. Set out on WPT mission with camera in focus and as it approached each WPT the image blurred. Tapped to focus and recover sharp image only for it to blur and next WPT. Aborted a second time. Landed, reset camera and good as gold since.
So if anyone else gets this issue - simply restart the camera (or toggle NTSC/PAL to do same) and you will be back in business.
So I stopped the mission. Checked focus was indeed not working. Landed, everything off and back on, switched to DJIGo and focus was seemingly back to normal. Started WPT route again in Litchi, having checked tap to focus was working again. Set out on WPT mission with camera in focus and as it approached each WPT the image blurred. Tapped to focus and recover sharp image only for it to blur and next WPT. Aborted a second time. Landed, reset camera and good as gold since.
So if anyone else gets this issue - simply restart the camera (or toggle NTSC/PAL to do same) and you will be back in business.
Judging by the issue I had it seems to initiate a background focus (with no user feedback) as it passes each WPT. This might explain why people see varying focus throughout a mission. Anyhow if in doubt reset the camera. It certainly fixed things for me with the APP.
WolfgangStiller
Well-Known Member
I haven't had any issues like that yet with Litchi but that sounds like a good tip. Thanks!
My experience: Tap to focus does not work during a Litchi Waypoint mission!
I've done many waypoint missions, up to 9.5 km round trip, using my iPad mini and this procedure has always worked well for me:
I start the mission, with the MP on the ground.
The MP takes off and ascends to the altitude of waypoint 1 and then flies to waypoint 1.
Up to this point the image is blurred.
I wait for the mission to start and then hit the pause button, just after it departs from waypoint 1.
The MP stops - image still blurred.
I "tap to focus" and wait for image to sharpen and then hit the "pause" button again, to resume the mission.
The mission completes with good sharp footage!
After completion it makes a perfect precision landing at the home point.
Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots
I've done many waypoint missions, up to 9.5 km round trip, using my iPad mini and this procedure has always worked well for me:
I start the mission, with the MP on the ground.
The MP takes off and ascends to the altitude of waypoint 1 and then flies to waypoint 1.
Up to this point the image is blurred.
I wait for the mission to start and then hit the pause button, just after it departs from waypoint 1.
The MP stops - image still blurred.
I "tap to focus" and wait for image to sharpen and then hit the "pause" button again, to resume the mission.
The mission completes with good sharp footage!
After completion it makes a perfect precision landing at the home point.
Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots
WolfgangStiller
Well-Known Member
I like that technique of pausing, focusing and un-pausing (resuming the mission). I had noticed that tapping to focus doesn't work once a waypoint mission starts so that's a good way to handle that. (I have lost some potentially good video due to that problem).
What I have been doing that also works pretty well is to take off and set focus prior to starting the mission. If I forget, it's good to know that I can pause and not have to restart the entire mission.
Thanks!
I see that many people have been experiencing the same focus issue when using Litchi for waypoint missions, but I wanted to share a couple other points. My experience was that virtually 100% of my recordings from Litchi WP missions came back very blurry, but I think I found the root cause.
If I have Litchi set to "Auto Record", and also have the camera pointing down at all when I initiate take-off, then it seems to lock the camera into a close-in focus for the entire mission. If that happens, then it will stay out of focus no matter how many times I click the screen to auto-focus. However, once I turned off "Auto Record" and made sure the camera was focused on something far away at the moment I initiate take-off, everything has recorded beautifully every time. I haven't done any specific testing to determine whether the issue is related only to Auto Record, so it may be totally unnecessary to do anything with the camera focus prior to take-off.
So I'm curious ... how many of the people that did have problems with blurry WP missions were using Auto Record, and how many of the people that did NOT have problems were using Auto Record?
If I have Litchi set to "Auto Record", and also have the camera pointing down at all when I initiate take-off, then it seems to lock the camera into a close-in focus for the entire mission. If that happens, then it will stay out of focus no matter how many times I click the screen to auto-focus. However, once I turned off "Auto Record" and made sure the camera was focused on something far away at the moment I initiate take-off, everything has recorded beautifully every time. I haven't done any specific testing to determine whether the issue is related only to Auto Record, so it may be totally unnecessary to do anything with the camera focus prior to take-off.
So I'm curious ... how many of the people that did have problems with blurry WP missions were using Auto Record, and how many of the people that did NOT have problems were using Auto Record?
WolfgangStiller
Well-Known Member
I had this issue and I did have Autorecord set. The only time this was an issue was one time when I was rushed and didn't focus after taking off. I think you are spot on about the Mavic focusing on a near point while it is still on the ground.
Wacker2611
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All everyone needs to do is focus first in fpv mode then initiate your mission. Simples!
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