Unreliable focus

[davedrone 178]

Can't trust my Mini 3 Pro when it comes to focus. Using AF, drone is heading to the city and 3 minutes in, she decides to focus. First 3 minutes ruined. EVERY of my 6 DJI drones NEVER had a focus issue. This should be an afterthought. And not matter what, images are never that sharp. My regular Mini 3 never gives me a problem and I think it has a better and sharper picture easy to use. The Pro has already been replaced twice. Anyone have focus unreliability issues?

 

[guzewski]

My Mini 3 Pro focusses extremely well. Video and photos all look really good. My old Mavic 2 Pro would sometimes fail to autofocus, unless I tapped the screen to force it. Then it was all good. I got into the habit of forcing focus on that drone before recording. Have you tried that with the Mini 3 Pro?

 

[davedrone 178]

My Mini 3 Pro focusses extremely well. Video and photos all look really good. My old Mavic 2 Pro would sometimes fail to autofocus, unless I tapped the screen to force it. Then it was all good. I got into the habit of forcing focus on that drone before recording. Have you tried that with the Mini 3 Pro?

Tapping does work most of the time. But I shouldn't have to remember to "tap" to get in-focus shots. I usually forget. NEVER have to tap with Air 2, Air 2s, Mini 3, Mavic 3.

 

[Joe Horn]

Can't trust my Mini 3 Pro when it comes to focus. Using AF, drone is heading to the city and 3 minutes in, she decides to focus. First 3 minutes ruined. EVERY of my 6 DJI drones NEVER had a focus issue. This should be an afterthought. And not matter what, images are never that sharp. My regular Mini 3 never gives me a problem and I think it has a better and sharper picture easy to use. The Pro has already been replaced twice. Anyone have focus unreliability issues?

My Mini 3 Pro made blurry videos until I replaced its SD card with a much FASTER one. It never complained that the original SD card was too slow, but in fact it was throttling down the resolution to compensate for a bandwidth bottleneck. Ever since I replaced the SD card, all videos and photos are crystal clear. Give it a try. Fast cards are well worth the extra expense.

 

[Felix le Chat]

Can't trust my Mini 3 Pro when it comes to focus. Using AF, drone is heading to the city and 3 minutes in, she decides to focus. First 3 minutes ruined. EVERY of my 6 DJI drones NEVER had a focus issue. This should be an afterthought. And not matter what, images are never that sharp. My regular Mini 3 never gives me a problem and I think it has a better and sharper picture easy to use. The Pro has already been replaced twice. Anyone have focus unreliability issues?

I think that's down to it using PDAF instead of CDAF. My mavic 2's are CDAF (green "tap to autofocus" screen box) and I rarely had focus issues. First noticed this after I defected to Autel for a while. Their Nano + displays an inability to capture focus accurately and consistently (Phase Detection Auto Focus). Defected back to DJI for the Mini 3pro and discovered it used the same autofocus... a bit more reliable than the Autel: but still squirrelly. Quickly racking manual focus with peaking set to medium or high solves this problem.

 

[davedrone 178]

Thanx for the replies. I do use the best cards Sandisk with the proper speed and rating, recommended on the DJI website.

 

[davedrone 178]

I think that's down to it using PDAF instead of CDAF. My mavic 2's are CDAF (green "tap to autofocus" screen box) and I rarely had focus issues. First noticed this after I defected to Autel for a while. Their Nano + displays an inability to capture focus accurately and consistently (Phase Detection Auto Focus). Defected back to DJI for the Mini 3pro and discovered it used the same autofocus... a bit more reliable than the Autel: but still squirrelly. Quickly racking manual focus with peaking set to medium or high solves this problem.

Any chance you can elaborate the last sentence. Want to try it but don't quite understand. Thanx

 

[Felix le Chat]

Any chance you can elaborate the last sentence. Want to try it but don't quite understand. Thanx

For stills: In the camera settings tab, there is a 'peaking level' option with three boxes to the right: low, medium and high. With peaking on and the camera set to MF (manual focus) the screen will show you everything in frame that the camera has sharp focus on by overlaying red dots and lines on those features. If you tap the AF 'button' on the right of the flight screen it will change to MF. Tap MF and hold your finger on it for about one second and a vertical graduated 'slider' will appear. This has a graphic at the top that looks like 2 mountains - that's 'infinity'. Slide the bar downwards to focus more towards infinity and you will see that more red dots and lines show up. The point at which the red overlay cannot increase any more will be the subject of the shot in sharp focus. The reason to have peaking set to HIGH is to make sure you can see it clearly while looking at your flight screen in bright daylight.
It sounds like a right fiddly process, but with a few tries, you become quicker. Using this technique all depends on whether you REALLY want that shot to be a great one.
For video: set manual focus close to infinity, or at the infinity mark. This will mean that everything in frame from about 20 feet in front of the camera to the horizon is acceptably sharp.

P.S. Sorry about the late reply.