Yeah, on a website dedicated to flying man-toys, you'd think we would be discussing where our next meal might come from or where to find safe drinking water.
Tap to Focus Example
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Yeah, on a website dedicated to flying man-toys, you'd think we would be discussing where our next meal might come from or where to find safe drinking water.
Looks like the "FlightTest" guys had the same issue with not knowing about the tap to focus function. They're saying they will have another review in a couple of days that focuses on camera quality and the focus feature.
How can anyone take a shot up close and get the drone fly out like in the opening scene of the sample below if the drone has manual focus?
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If that is really the case, then it sounds to me like a terrible design choice by DJI. Implementing AF on such a small camera on a flying platform is a really poor idea.
Most AF systems need to have a very clear and well-defined contrasting edge to lock on to, something that is seldom present in landscapes, where I suppose most Mavics will be used. If there is nothing to lock on to in the image, the AF-system will start to hunt for focus - just try it on your DSLR with a wide-angle lens, and you will see. You definitly don't want the Mavic's imaging system to keep hunting back and forth for a focus lock while flying. 99% of the time you will just want to set the camera to infinity and leave it that way.
Also I don't quite understand the reasoning behind it. The whole lens system is so minuscule, that there is virtually no DOF (depth of field) anyway. It's not like you will be use the Mavic to take a nice closeup portrait with a creamy, blurred background. A missed focus will not be very obvious: it will just make the image appear greasy and kind of unpleasant. Just like some of the footage from YT.
/// Tom
Most AF systems need to have a very clear and well-defined contrasting edge to lock on to, something that is seldom present in landscapes, where I suppose most Mavics will be used. If there is nothing to lock on to in the image, the AF-system will start to hunt for focus - just try it on your DSLR with a wide-angle lens, and you will see. You definitly don't want the Mavic's imaging system to keep hunting back and forth for a focus lock while flying. 99% of the time you will just want to set the camera to infinity and leave it that way.
Also I don't quite understand the reasoning behind it. The whole lens system is so minuscule, that there is virtually no DOF (depth of field) anyway. It's not like you will be use the Mavic to take a nice closeup portrait with a creamy, blurred background. A missed focus will not be very obvious: it will just make the image appear greasy and kind of unpleasant. Just like some of the footage from YT.
/// Tom
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Exactly what I just wrote - before setting the focus point, the image looks really soft and ill-defined. Afterwards it became quite nice, maybe not quite as tack-sharp as the P4, but no longer like a cheap Parrot drone.
What I still don't understand is, once you have acquired a good focus, can you lock it there, or will the camera constantly keep trying to adjust the focus as you fly? Because if it will, you will not be able to direct the camera where there is nothing to clearly focus on, like foliage or a misty landscape, without losing focus. A lot of my aerial videos are exactly like that, with a lot of fog, mist, clouds and hazy landscapes, that is why I would really need to know this.
/// Tom
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With such a small screen to fly with, this focus issue is likely going to be the Mavic's worst feature. You'll get home, see the raw footage on a big screen and discover everything is slightly out of focus, because you forgot to tap and focus. You'll be pissed because you'll never return to Italy again to get that shot, your video of the colosseum is ruined.
Just looking at the optics compared to P4 you should expect better clarity from P4 camera. This was a compromise in the Mavic to reduce size, I would assume. Time will tell if Mavic's size and convenience outweighs the camera downside.
Just looking at the optics compared to P4 you should expect better clarity from P4 camera. This was a compromise in the Mavic to reduce size, I would assume. Time will tell if Mavic's size and convenience outweighs the camera downside.
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Except there was no compromise since the quality is just as good. There is no downside. Oh, they fixed the camera too - no longer need to put sharpness at -3 to balance the bad default oversharpening.
This manual focus thing is, by the way, something you can turn off. Easily adjustable in the GO apps menu.
There is no "time will tell", review videos and raw photos are already available and they all say the same thing - the camera is equally as good, the gimbal is just as good, if not better. If you manage to remember focusing, the most basic camera knowledge there is. Also no props in video that spoils your nice video of colosseum.
The Mavic is based on newer tech, why on earth would it be worse than old tech, especially in such a critical area as the camera? For crying out loud - most comments I've seen is ridiculous. It's far newer, of course it's going to be better? Why are you even suprised? The constant Mavic bashing is laughable.
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Actually I am a bit puzzled about DJI's choice of camera for the Mavic. Why put an AF camera that can both focus at very short distances (0.5 meters) and shoot in both portrait and landscape modes - on a drone that is suposed to fly dozens or hundreds of feet up in the air? Who would want a drone, with four sharp, rotating propellers hovering one foot from your face, taking portraits? Or are you supposed to take pictures holding the Mavic in your hand like a camcorder? Or is it so that DJI is working on a detachable action camera, like the GoPro?
Also, there is something that doesn't make sense about the explanations describing the semi-automatic focus function, like the one further up in this thread. The AF system should not require "tapping the screen" to engage. I mean, the iPhone camera can also be focused on an object (like a face) close to the lens by tapping the screen, but as soon as the object is removed from the viewfinder area, it will refocus automatically to whatever now has become the most prominent object in the image.
In Casey Neistat's aerial footage, there is absolutely nothing to trick the autofocus to accidentally focus on someting close to the camera. Even if there was as he took off (like a fence or something) the camera should automatically refocus to the distant buildings as soon as the drone took off. I cannot think I have ever used a camera where you actually needed to "nudge" the autofocus to engage. I wonder whether or not there is a hidden function in the drone by which you can toggle the manual focus off and set it to full autofocus. If not, then something is fishy here...
/// Tom
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You're not one foot from the props - around 2 meters is more like it. There's narrower FOV on the Mavic.
As I said, the Manual focus can be turned off. DJI reps have already explained, two days ago, that you can just point at the sky, or something else 50 meters away, to have focus set to infinity for the rest of the shoot.
That info and much more about the goodness of the Mavic camera is readily available on both this forum and other places. But you know, it's much easier to stick your head in the sand and go "something is fishy..." . The only fishy thing here is why people bought a P4 when it was barely an upgrade from the P3P.
Edit: It's a great thing the focusing is not moving object-dependant. Imagine you've set focus at a suitable range for your landscapes. A bird then passes, closer to the camera than what you wish to focus on. By your logic you would have the camera refocus on the bird and then back again. No thank you.
Auto focus can be nice at times ...but...at times it can screw up your shot. That's why I like manual control. Lets say the camera would auto focus. You're out flying and camera is basically focused on infinitely. That's fine because once in the air most objects will be a distance away and seem to be in focus. But what if you're flying along and pass over a building, tree top, a bird flies by...do you really want your focus to shift to nearby object? I wouldn't. How many videos have you seen where a camera is focused on a person 15 feet away and all of a sudden a person walks between camera and subject and the focus goes in and back out. That really sucks. That's why even with auto everything with my many cameras, I mostly use manual.
80 meter range without the controller (as per a DJI rep). Hopefully people didn't make the mistake of ordering the cheaper version, they will NOT be happy with the measly range.
Even before he taps to focus, it looked WAY better than the Parrot drone, I should know, I have the Parrot Bebop 2.
All of the new small portable drones are referred to as selfie drones. When the Mavic is in WiFi mode connected to a phone it is for all intents and purposes a selfie drone.
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The minimal focus range is actually 0.5 meters according to the specs (Mavic – Specs, FAQ, Tutorials and Downloads).
Dronefriend, I am not sure about the reason for the slightly demeaning tone in your reply. For me, purchasing a camera drone like the Mavic is a pretty hefty investment, and finding out that the image quality would be severely lacking would be a *really* bad thing. I am not saying that it is, but we (the consumers) must be empowered to ask questions about design decisions even if they are painful to the manufacturers. If the design is good, it will surely survive all kinds of scrutiny. If the design is poor, it won't. Just to emphasise once more, I am not saying that the Mavic is poor (not even having seen one), but I need to be allowed to ask.
Again, if I use the iPhone camera as the reference, I have yet to see anybody complaining that the autofocus focuses on wrong things, like birds passing by. Also, I have never read that we should first focus on the sky or on something 50 meters away and tap the screen to lock the focus before shooting the actual video, or we might end up with blurry footage. We just pick it up and start shooting. I don't know about you, but at least that's what I do. And yes, I know that it is a different platform and for different uses, but I have been photographing on a semi-pro level for nearly 30 years and I know a few things.
My Phantom has an amazing picture and video quality. It never stops surprising me - the P4 is as far as I know a true class leader. There is no need to refocus on things before flying, just point and shoot. I really cannot see the reason for not reusing that system in the Mavic. The weight difference? The target price? I honestly don't know. I hope it is not just an attempt to fix something that isn't broken.
Yes, I know that I can keep the Phantom and be happy, but I would love the unsurpassed portability of the Mavic. I am easily willing to sacrifice some IQ for this if necessary, I just need to understand. So, are we good?
/// Tom
So far, I have only seen questionable sources for this focus feature, and I am not convinced it even exits. For a lens to auto focus, there would need to be sensors either on the drone body, or on the camera that would lock on to and object in the frame.. There would also need to be a motor or some mechanism to adjust the lens or move the whole sensor. Casey whatever his name is mentioned in a tweet that he fixed the focus, but when asked how, he never answered. There is no indication in the Mavic specs either, the camera focuses from X minimum distance to infinity. I guess I will have to wait until I see documentation of this feature, or one of us gets a Mavic to see if this "feature" exists.
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Good read. The only thing related to focus is this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Riv
So how does the camera compare to the P4?
Very similar quality. The FOV of Mavic is smaller, at 78.8 degrees. It is an Auto Focus camera that has a nearest focus range of 0.5 meter, and can rotate 90 degrees to portrait mode. All in all, good for selfie.
Says nothing about "tap to focus". And from DJIs specs:
FOV 78.8° 28 mm (35 mm format equivalent) f/2.2
Distortion < 1.5% Focus from 0.5 m to ∞
Perhaps the Auto Focus should be stated as Fixed Focus. Again, I am not saying the feature is not there, just that I am not convinced one way or the other.
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Keep reading
There are currently 117 pages of goodness there. Pay special attention to the posters with a green header. Most of them are DJI employees.
