Video mode focussing query

[Mossie]

Firstly I absolutely love this drone.

The photo quality is outstanding but I have a query about video mode focussing and my problem is I'm sure finger trouble on my part.

With my Phantom4 pro when taking video I never really had to focus the camera. When in the hover and you panned around 360 deg the video was always pretty much in focus.
With the Pro2 and I pan 360 or shoot video whist moving the shot is never really focused until I stop and touch the screen at an object. Surely I shouldn't have to fly and keep touching the screen when moving and videoing ???

And its set to AFC not MF

 

[WithTheBirds]

Try turning AFC off. You will probably have better luck setting the focus at the start of the flight and forgetting it than letting the drone continually focus automatically. I have never had AFC turned on- I don’t even understand why you might need it given the focal length and lens to subject distances typically encountered in flight.

 

[Mossie]

OK thanks for the reply. As I said the focus when taking photos is incredibly sharp in AFC do you reckon I should use MF in photos as well.
The first video I took with this drone (in AFC) was the worse video I ever seen in 5 years of drone flying with 5 Drones

 

[Kilrah]

He didn't say you should use MF, but just AF instead of AFC and tap to AF once at the beginning.

I have never had AFC turned on- I don’t even understand why you might need it

AFC was introduced because of people complaining after they forgot to focus at the beginning of the flight, getting their whole flight blurry. With AFC at least some of it should be OK when this happens. Obviously it has drawbacks and having it off but remembering to focus is still the best.

 

[MaxHam]

OK thanks for the reply. As I said the focus when taking photos is incredibly sharp in AFC do you reckon I should use MF in photos as well.
The first video I took with this drone (in AFC) was the worse video I ever seen in 5 years of drone flying with 5 Drones

I suggest this workflow:
- Have AFC off
- With drone up in the air and AF on, tap somewhere on the screen at further distance/infinity to set focus (or tap the photo shutter button which does AF focussing in the middle of the screen)
- Now switch to MF and don't touch the slider. Your focus setting will be kept through your entire flight.

If you are shooting at distances like 7-8m to infinity and not very close up, there is no need to re-focus again and again.

 

[WithTheBirds]

I suggest this workflow:
- Have AFC off
- With drone up in the air and AF on, tap somewhere on the screen at further distance/infinity to set focus (or tap the photo shutter button which does AF focussing in the middle of the screen)
- Now switch to MF and don't touch the slider. Your focus setting will be kept through your entire flight.

If you are shooting at distances like 7-8m to infinity and not very close up, there is no need to re-focus again and again.

Why the need to switch to MF? An unnecessary step. Better to leave the AF active. Focus peaking is a nice luxury that gives some comfort also.

 

[MaxHam]

Why the need to switch to MF? An unnecessary step. Better to leave the AF active. Focus peaking is a nice luxury that gives some comfort also.

I'll do it because otherwise each time upon taking a photo the camera is re-focussing.
And if it's a low contrast area it might go back and forth before it locks it.
Worst case, I have to tap the screen in some other area with more contrast. That's a waste of time.

I take quite some pictures of boats/ships.
With objects moving, focus delays can ruin the framing.

 

[Kilrah]

OK for stills indeed, but this thread was about video.

 

[Mossie]

Thanks for the replies and tested it yesterday with AFC off, used AF and sometimes MF. The result was nice sharp video again, cheers.
Won't be using AFC again.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Never use AF-C for video, the drone is not smart enough to know what you want in focus 100% of the time, and when it decides to hunt, your video is ruined. This is the same reason professional videographers do not use AF.

Even worse, if AF-C is done by contrast detect AF instead of phase detect AF (as is the case with the M2P), that is a disaster and I would suggest never touching that feature. Contrast detect AF is essentially a glorified guess & check algorithm, which is the worst possible way to AF if anything is moving (either the camera or the subject).

At the typical distances we film and take photos with drones, manually setting infinity focus will be fine. Only if you are flying very close to something should you have to override that.