Out Of Focus Shots on Mini 3 Pro

[Dark Boomer]

I just had a photo shoot with 125 photos (25 brackets of five photos) and EVERY SINGLE PHOTO was blurry. Not a single photo was acceptably sharp.

The major concern is that I thought I was doing everything right. I was in AF and was using tap to focus. I was pretty far away (about 100 to 200 feet) focusing on a house, and at that distance, I think there should be enough depth of field to have everything in focus. But everything was blurry.

The other thing about this was two days before I was on another shoot and took a couple hundred photos (again, I usually use AEB in five shot brackets) and the focus was fine.

The main difference is on the day that I ended up with blurry shots, it was very hot (about 100-degrees fairenheit). It was a BIT gusty, too. But the shutter speeds were very high as well.

The only other time I have had focus issues that were similar to this was one occasion a few months back when the weather was much more mild (around 65 to 70 degrees).

I haven't had a chance to test again since then.

I checked the camera lens and there isn't any dust / dirt / bugs on the lens. I am not using a filter on the camera lens either.

The SD card is a Samsung Evo U3 V30 128GB

I shot in RAW + JPG. Both the RAW files and the JPG's are blurry. The RAW file for the sample shot below is 23.5MB in size.

I just don't understand how EVERY shot can be blurry as I was touch focusing before each set of bracketed shots.

The example shot has a 1/2000 shutter speed, so it is unlikely to be motion blur.



Dropbox link to full size image:

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[GFields]

Hint, always tap the screen to adust focus.

 

[Dark Boomer]

Hint, always tap the screen to adust focus.

Hi there, and thanks for the reply.

The baffiling this is that I DID always tap the screen to adjust focus.

Also, I made sure that the palm of my left hand was NOT accidentally touching the screen.

The problem also is that the sun was glaring down on the screen, and I had a lot of sweat in my eyes and on my glasses, so it is really difficult to look at the screen and tell if the shots are blurry or not.

And another thing... sometimes when I touch the screen to focus (or set exposure), occasionally nothing happens and I have to touch it two or three times, or touch it in a slightly different spot. Is that because the camera is already focused at that spot?

Thanks in advance for any other help.

 

[Felix le Chat]

Hi there, and thanks for the reply.

The baffiling this is that I DID always tap the screen to adjust focus.

Also, I made sure that the palm of my left hand was NOT accidentally touching the screen.

The problem also is that the sun was glaring down on the screen, and I had a lot of sweat in my eyes and on my glasses, so it is really difficult to look at the screen and tell if the shots are blurry or not.

And another thing... sometimes when I touch the screen to focus (or set exposure), occasionally nothing happens and I have to touch it two or three times, or touch it in a slightly different spot. Is that because the camera is already focused at that spot?

Thanks in advance for any other help.

One thought because you mentioned 'temperature'. The mini 3 pro is prone to lens fogging (mines a bugger for it) and the results when it's a mild case of fogging are that the shots look out of focus. Bad cases and the output looks like you've been flying through smoke.

This drove me nuts for the first Autumn and winter. Tried all the suggested fixes uploaded to YouTube and it was still happening.

What sorted this out for me was replacing that daft, useless bit of plastic that's supposed to act as a lens hood with a quality optical glass UV filter, which acts as a thermal baffle between the air and the outer glass of the camera housing.

Related posts from other users in hotter, more humid countries show that you don't have to live in an overcast ice-box (that'll be Britain then...) for this to occur.

 

[Meta4]

The baffiling this is that I DID always tap the screen to adjust focus.

And another thing... sometimes when I touch the screen to focus (or set exposure), occasionally nothing happens and I have to touch it two or three times, or touch it in a slightly different spot. Is that because the camera is already focused at that spot?

You shouldn't need to tap the screen at all unless you have elements of the scene that are at very different distances.
Then you tap the element that you want to be in focus.
For scenes like the example you posted, autofocus should be able to handle it without any input from you.
Try shooting without touching the screen and see if that works out better for you.

 

[Dark Boomer]

Hi again, I am still trying to work out some kind of a solution to this out of focus issue.

I've had three or four photo shoots where everything was in perfect focus.

Then I just had another photo shoot yesterday and HALF the shots were out of focus, even though I was doing the same thing as I have been doing in the past (tapping the screen to focus and get exposure). The other half of the photos were in focus.

When I am looking at the display (before and during taking the photos), everything looks to be in focus.

I touch the screen on the place I want to focus. It beeps once. I take the photo.

And half of them are out of focus.

I am sorry but I am really desperate.

Is it possible the battery or the SD card I am using is causing this???

 

[Meta4]

Is it possible the battery or the SD card I am using is causing this???

No .. those won't affect camera focus

 

[Dark Boomer]

I just don't understand what is going on. It is as if the camera just decides to focus at the minimum focusing distance so that everything is blurry more than a foot away from the camera. I am shooting at 1/2000 shutter speed so I am pretty sure it isn't motion blur. I'll try shooting without touching the screen, but often if I don't touch the screen, I see the autofocus kind of rack back and forth and then finally stop when it is completely out of focus.

 

[tstr14]

If you are using AF, why are you tapping the screen? AF should focus on it's own with each shot, shouldn't it? Try stopping the drone when shooting. You mentioned 1/2000 shutter speed, what ISO are you using?

 

[Meta4]

If you are using AF, why are you tapping the screen? AF should focus on it's own with each shot, shouldn't it? Try stopping the drone when shooting. You mentioned 1/2000 shutter speed, what ISO are you using?

I agree with the comment on touching the screen.
I shoot several hundred images each week and have never needed to tap the screen to get perfect focus.

But there's no need to stop the drone to shoot clear images.
The gimbal does a great job of stabilising the camera.
I shoot moving subjects and usually have to fly fast to keep up with them.
There's never a problem with blurring or focus, even in strong winds.

 

[Dark Boomer]

If you are using AF, why are you tapping the screen? AF should focus on it's own with each shot, shouldn't it? Try stopping the drone when shooting. You mentioned 1/2000 shutter speed, what ISO are you using?

Thanks for the reply.

I am just using ISO 100 on a sunny day.

The aperture on the Mini 3 Pro is ALWAYS wide open at f/1.7, right??? Am I missing something?

I always stop and hover before taking photos. So the drone is stationary when I take the shots.

I usually tap the screeen before taking each photo to confirm the spot that I want to be sure it focuses on, but also to tell the auto exposure where to meter for the exposure for.

Also, sometimes when using AF, if I don't tap the screen, the focus will visibly hunt back and forth, and often just not focus on anything UNLESS I tap it.

I am not using any filters over the camera lens.

 

[Dark Boomer]

I agree with the comment on touching the screen.
I shoot several hundred images each week and have never needed to tap the screen to get perfect focus.

But there's no need to stop the drone to shoot clear images.
The gimbal does a great job of stabilising the camera.
I shoot moving subjects and usually have to fly fast to keep up with them.
There's never a problem with blurring or focus, even in strong winds.

I will try NOT tapping the screen, but I have noticed that SOMETIMES if I don't tap the screen, the autofocus will just keep hunting back and forth before it just stops and looks totally out of focus.

The weird thing is that when I DO tap on the screen to aquire focus, on the screen it LOOKS like it is in perfect focus before I take the photo.

 

[Dark Boomer]

The strange thing again is that every shot LOOKS like it is in foucs at the time I take the photos.

As I am taking brackets of five photos, once I start shooting, the image is "frozen" on the controller screen while all five photos are taken. That frozen image LOOKS like it is in focus.

Two other thoughts:

1) because the pro controller has the touch sensitive screen, I wonder if I am just holding the controller TOO TIGHT and the pressure on the plastic on the sides of the controller is causing the screen to "flex", which is causing the screen to think that I am tapping on it in the corner somewhere?

2) Because I usually use the large red dot / button on the screen to take the photos, I wonder if that is somehow causing focus to re-adjust.

Maybe i should use the actual physical button located at the "front" of the controller (where it rests basically under my index finger) to take the photos instead of using the on-screen red button?

I know I am grasping at straws, but that is all I have...

And just to reiterate: the method that I normally use (tap on the screen, wait for the beep) results in perfectly focused photos and videos 85% of the time. The out of focus shots have only happened on three jobs (I do about five or so drone jobs per month) and on two of the three jobs that had problems, only ONE job ALL the photos were out of focus, while on the other two jobs that had focus problems, it was only HALF the photos that were out of focus.

On this latest job, it was the first half of the photos and videos shot that were out of focus, the second half that were in focus. I did a battery change and - conicidentally - it SEEMS like the photos that were in focus were those taken on the second battery.