Videos are soft focus and highlights are blown out

[dixiefla]

I have a new M2P with all the updates. I recently took several videos on my river. They are out of focus, both in distance shots and in close shots coming to landing.

Because it is just practice I ran 2.7k 30 fps instead of 4k. Shooting wide angle, using a Polar Pro 4PL ND filter on a sunny day. Everything is set to auto, and I realize you experts recommend shooting in Dlog-M or other than auto mode, but I don't have that capability yet and the videos in auto ought to be fine for a beginner. The videos I've seen online taken by lots of people are perfectly in focus and razor sharp, one of the reasons I chose the M2P with the Hasselblad lens. I thought auto mode included auto focus, but maybe not?? The lens and ND filter are squeaky clean.

Also, my boat is parked on the river and altho the exposure of background, trees, sky was basically ok, the white boat was completely blown out--overexposed, as was my dock, which is painted light gray. I realize the camera is trying to average things and set the exposure for most objects and background, but I would have expected the boat to come out ok. It didn't.

 

[Thomas B]

I have a new M2P with all the updates. I recently took several videos on my river. They are out of focus, both in distance shots and in close shots coming to landing.

Because it is just practice I ran 2.7k 30 fps instead of 4k. Shooting wide angle, using a Polar Pro 4PL ND filter on a sunny day. Everything is set to auto, and I realize you experts recommend shooting in Dlog-M or other than auto mode, but I don't have that capability yet and the videos in auto ought to be fine for a beginner. The videos I've seen online taken by lots of people are perfectly in focus and razor sharp, one of the reasons I chose the M2P with the Hasselblad lens. I thought auto mode included auto focus, but maybe not?? The lens and ND filter are squeaky clean.

Also, my boat is parked on the river and altho the exposure of background, trees, sky was basically ok, the white boat was completely blown out--overexposed, as was my dock, which is painted light gray. I realize the camera is trying to average things and set the exposure for most objects and background, but I would have expected the boat to come out ok. It didn't.

If you don’t want to do manual settings, try tap and hold on your screen to get focus. Use the brightest part of the screen. Check your lenses and filters for any oil, fingerprints, dirt, etc.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

You can stay in full auto exposure mode, but also use the exposure compensation (EC). Use the feature that shows the over-exposure zebra stripes (on your screen), then dial down the EC until the stripes go away.

But it's still going to be compensating in full auto, and when you turn the craft around to a darker spot, will still be shooting with that negative EC setting (until you turn it back up).

Chris

 

[Camino Ken]

I had a similar problem when I first got my M2P. To put this in the proper perspective, I am a photography kindergartener so take this all with a photon of light ( AKA, a grain of salt). Check to make sure your focus is set for AFC (auto focus continuous) and also you can play with the exposure control. Try dialing it down 0.5 to 1.5 depending on how bright the scene is. This worked for me until I slowly got more comfortable with more of the camera settings. In my opinion, the M2P autoexposure is too much in bright sun.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Personally, I recommend against AFC unless you know what you're doing. Auto focus, but with AFC off (what's called AF single in the hand-held camera world). AFC will cause it to hunt as objects cross near-by in front of the field of view.

 

[Camino Ken]

Personally, I recommend against AFC unless you know what you're doing. Auto focus, but with AFC off (what's called AF single in the hand-held camera world). AFC will cause it to hunt as objects cross near-by in front of the field of view.

I agree. In my case it made sense when I was I was a newbie since I was trying to learn how to fly and didn’t want to worry about focus and other camera settings. I was trying to figure out which was forward, sideways, and up and down.

Actually, IMHO it doesn’t do much focus hunting and when it did I did not notice it in the recorded video. I think this is because once you are at a certain height, everything is at infinite focus.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Yes, infinity focus AND this lens is very wide angle (meaning almost everything should be on focus, even at f2.8).

So to the OP: if you're still getting blurry images at height and focusing on the object (though your finger to it on the screen, or half-press the shutter button when the focus point on the screen is over the object), you might have a problem.

Another nice tool: focus peaking (I think DJI calls it 'peak threshhold'), which will highlight objects in focus with a color (default color is red, I believe). I forget, but this might only be available during manual focus.

Chris

 

[Fruxen]

You may have gotten a camera with a defective lens. Plenty of those floating around. My first two M2P had poor focus and uneven sharpness, the third M2P was ok.

 

[jmbsmt63]

Take a look at this guide. Probably some useful info to look through.

DJI Guides - DJI Store (United States)

Online shopping for a great selection of at the official DJI Online Store.

store.dji.com

 

[jmbsmt63]

I have a new M2P with all the updates. I recently took several videos on my river. They are out of focus, both in distance shots and in close shots coming to landing.

Because it is just practice I ran 2.7k 30 fps instead of 4k. Shooting wide angle, using a Polar Pro 4PL ND filter on a sunny day. Everything is set to auto, and I realize you experts recommend shooting in Dlog-M or other than auto mode, but I don't have that capability yet and the videos in auto ought to be fine for a beginner. The videos I've seen online taken by lots of people are perfectly in focus and razor sharp, one of the reasons I chose the M2P with the Hasselblad lens. I thought auto mode included auto focus, but maybe not?? The lens and ND filter are squeaky clean.

Also, my boat is parked on the river and altho the exposure of background, trees, sky was basically ok, the white boat was completely blown out--overexposed, as was my dock, which is painted light gray. I realize the camera is trying to average things and set the exposure for most objects and background, but I would have expected the boat to come out ok. It didn't.

The camera does not focus automatically as default. AFC will focus when it moves/stops but everyone would recommend tapping on the screen ( normal AF) when setting up the shot especially when learning. There are a lot of tips about helping with the over-exposure in the guide I referenced but until you get comfortable with the basics of how the camera adjusts/sets exposure, you will be having fun experimenting.

 

[Checki]

I find my m2p unsharp as well. Especially in cloudy conditions. Doesn't look good at all, no matter if I manual or auto focus, 264 or 265, over or underexposed...

I will talk to dji and hope they are able to test it and I also hope, they say "yes it's a faulty lense/camera" instead of "it's all OK"....