Mavic Air image out of focus/soft?

[JeeHaa]

I finally received my MA yesterday and tested it today in CE mode at 2.4GHz: I got to 1km just fine at 85m height just outside our village! It felt almost as solid as with Mavic so that's good!

Unfortunately I did notice a problem: the JPG image and 2.7k video quality seems to be pretty bad on my AC: very out-of-focus in the distance, soft/blurry and with blown out whites, even compared with Spark footage taken a few months back at the same location (Auto settings)! I noticed the same issue in several different conditions today (with/without sun). I also looked through images from my previous Mavic Pro and Spark and never saw the same blurryness in any of those. Are there any knows issues with the camera or is this a bad unit?

Mavic Air (for example just look at the electricity pole):
https://tweakers.net/ext/f/20DEOs8V93yDrsRRE4qxFG24/full.jpg

Compare with the details on the Spark (more or less same ISO/exposure):
https://tweakers.net/ext/f/X4EPirGMqjPcDD9UmUZsVioO/full.jpg

 

[Kilrah]

The Mavic air picture actually has more detail, it's jsut got less sharpening applied by default. You can increase sharpness in the camera settings or sharpen in post. You then get sharp edges but without the blotching of the Spark picture.

Very quick go at it... https://www.dropbox.com/s/oth2vpdwgwykr76/574233_sharpened.jpg?dl=1

 

[JeeHaa]

Thanks, but IMO there is detail missing that the sharpening does not bring back, the Spark images just look a lot cleaner.
I noticed that in close up images around the house (brick walls/windows/fences/house), the sharpness looks fine.
It seems to be more of a problem in the distance, as if the the fixed focus is too close.

BTW: I will try with sharpness turned up a bit in camera settings but I noticed the same thing in (2.7K/30) videos as well.

 

[ebrandon]

My Mavic Air is the exact same way. I believe the fixed focus has to be set to some distance, and if they set it to infinity then things close in would be blurry. So they set the fixed focus to some middle distance.
Everything in the middle distance is very sharp, and things in the far distance are little blurry.

 

[JeeHaa]

Now more MA's have arrived I am wondering if I am the only one who notices this... most image samples I see look rather soft.
A bit out-of-focus, missing detail for distant objects and blown highlights in white objects.

I was planning on exchanging my unit because of that, but now I am not sure if that will help. Even in Landscape mode (Sharpness/Contrast +1) distant objects were still too soft to my taste, and I also kept seeing blown highlights. As mentioned before, Spark and Mavic Pro images looked much sharper/pleasing to me from the start, and I typically do not do pixel peeping (nor any post processing for that matter)!

 

[ebrandon]

I dropped my original drone which had the issue discussed in this thread. The replacement Mavic Air they sent doesn't have this issue. So there is some sample variation.

 

[zwt100]

I dropped my original drone which had the issue discussed in this thread. The replacement Mavic Air they sent doesn't have this issue. So there is some sample variation.

Do you have any comparison shots you can post? It would be interesting to see the difference. My initial impression was that the image was out of focus and had a reddish tint but I was able to fix that up using Lightroom so I assumed it was normal out of the box.

 

[EchoGin]

We have an ongoing thread about this problem with Mavic Air...

Air not sharp across the lens

 

[jhamel]

Hello! I just bought the Mavic Air from someone on Ebay and have the same problem! I calibrated the EMU and camera but still have soft video even on landscape mode. I tried sharpening in PowerDriector 16 but that just makes artifact more noticeable. I did notice that the screwed on filter that comes with the drone there is no glass in it. Is that normal or is it missing a filter?

 

[zwt100]

Hello! I just bought the Mavic Air from someone on Ebay and have the same problem! I calibrated the EMU and camera but still have soft video even on landscape mode. I tried sharpening in PowerDriector 16 but that just makes artifact more noticeable. I did notice that the screwed on filter that comes with the drone there is no glass in it. Is that normal or is it missing a filter?

Thats normal, it’s basically a protective cover. That is where you would put a lens filter on.

 

[jhamel]

Thats normal, it’s basically a protective cover. That is where you would put a lens filter on.

Yeah but there was no glass on the cover and I thought it would have.

 

[jhamel]

Do you know if there was a fix for the out of focus issue?