Me, My phone, or my Osmo

Rosey · Apr 13, 2017

Hey All,

I am pretty new to the Osmo Mobile (and videography world for that matter) and I am having a constant issue that I am hoping someone can help me figure out.

I know it's not a great shot, but it shows my issue really well. It seems as though almost all my videos have this issue where it almost looks like the camera is constantly trying to refocus. So I tried playing around with my phone in manual mode and it was still doing it...leading me to believe it is not the phone trying to focus. The more I look at the different footage I am taking, the more I am wondering if it is actually the Osmo Mobile Jittering versus my phone.

Below is a link to a youtube video I uploaded to show everyone what I mean. Thanks for any help you can provide. I love DJI overall and really want to be satisfied with this gimbal but I am certainly not going to keep a few hundred dollar item that does not work properly.

ecolumbia999 · Apr 16, 2017

I'm thinking that I have dealt with the same issue - having the OSMO+ constantly refocusing as you move through a scene. At least I think it is the same issue you yours but I use the x3 camera and not mobile.
With the DJI GO app there are two options: using a spot focus (where the box shows up) or using what is called infinity focus. I think infinity focus is a misnomer and means that the entire scene is used to come up with a focus point which leads to the refocusing issue. Also the spot focus, if the box moves off of an object - also results in refocusing as the DJI GO app tells the camera to focus wherever the box happens to be. In addition moving the lens from wide angle to telephoto also causes the lens to frequently refocus.
All the above combines to make it difficult to create shots with the x3, at least getting the lens to not refocus all the time. I'm wondering if a more expensive lens, that can better maintain continuous focus and is more responsive will work better.
In my case I ended up creating a custom android app. The method is to do a spot focus once, then keep the focus point there regardless of whether or not the focus point is pointing to a close or a far away object. This method seems to work well. However this does not solve the problem with then changing to wide angle or telephoto setting of the lens.
I'm also interested in how other folks have solved this refocusing issue.