Brand new p3p- camera focus defect-please help

Karatekid1800 · Dec 7, 2015

Hi, it has been less than a week since I received my p3p from DJI.
After taking some videos and still pictures I have noticed that my videos and photos are out of focus or not sharp, and not even close to be sharp like most of the videos I watched on Youtube. I tried using different settings but without success. It seems to me that the camera is not sharp/out of focus especially in the middle of the lens, only the edges of the lens seems to sharp . Can anybody go through my photos and videos and give me their opinion regarding my concerns? I want to be sure before contacting DJI.
Photos:
http://s4.postimg.org/4wbj2od7w/DJI_0019.jpg
http://s4.postimg.org/prxtdx9f0/DJI_0027.jpg
http://s4.postimg.org/4xlgw3f1o/DJI_0026.jpg
http://s4.postimg.org/du0udrv1o/DJI_0032.jpg
http://s4.postimg.org/6lkmaqsx8/DJI_0034.jpg
Videos:

Thanks!

ppgraham · Dec 7, 2015

Did you take the plastic film off the camera lens?

Wingfan04 · Dec 7, 2015

ppgraham said:
Did you take the plastic film off the camera lens?

Did you look at the pictures????? There is obviously no plastic film on the lens

Karatekid1800 · Dec 7, 2015

Wingfan04 said:
Did you look at the pictures????? There is obviously no plastic film on the lens

Yes I took it off.
Any opinions???

Wingfan04 · Dec 7, 2015

The pictures don't look that bad to me. But I'm not an expert. I've heard the cameras can have a defect only fixed by sending it back. It all depends on what you can live with. Just keep in mind others have ended up worse off after sending it in. The videos...It would help to see what your talking about more if you weren't flying into the sun. No much help i know Sorry

Karatekid1800 · Dec 7, 2015

Wingfan04 said:
The pictures don't look that bad to me. But I'm not an expert. I've heard the cameras can have a defect only fixed by sending it back. It all depends on what you can live with. Just keep in mind others have ended up worse off after sending it in. The videos...It would help to see what your talking about more if you weren't flying into the sun. No much help i know Sorry

I understand, the second half of both of the videos are filmed in the back of the sun, so you can take a look.
Thanks

Wingfan04 · Dec 7, 2015

Karatekid1800 said:
I understand, the second half of both of the videos are filmed in the back of the sun, so you can take a look.
Thanks

I guess its a matter of splitting hairs. I see a little blur when the camera is moving. maybe slightly out of focus. But still look pretty darn good to me. Are you using for professional filming and pics?

Karatekid1800 · Dec 7, 2015

Not professional, just having fun filming beautiful landscapes.

i would love to get more opinions.

Thanks

4wd · Dec 8, 2015

There's some softness in your examples especially the photos.
You get better results in good light.
At this time of year even when sun is out light levels are much lower than in the brighter months.
Use full manual and preferably RAW followed by some computer processing for best results in photos.

In this one for example look at the car at top of frame - it shows your shutter speed was too slow for sharpness from a moving platform..
View image: DJI 0019
The exif has been removed so can't offer much advice on settings.

It is fairly normal to note some softness in the centre of frame from this camera, again more so in lower light.
On balance I think your camera is acceptable if not among the best.

Karatekid1800 · Dec 8, 2015

Thanks for the analysis. Would you suggest to send it back to dji for replacement? After all it has been only a week since I received it.

Thanks

4wd · Dec 8, 2015

You need play with the settings some more - increase ISO slightly if you can;t get the shutter (for stills) up to near 1/500. There's no comparison between results from using a converted RAW file and jpg.
To me jpg looks little better than taking a screen grab from the video - although that can still give a reasonable image for web use.
I thought your video looked OK, it will look better still with stronger daylight in the New Year.

Karatekid1800 · Dec 8, 2015

4wd said:
You need play with the settings some more - increase ISO slightly if you can;t get the shutter (for stills) up to near 1/500. There's no comparison between results from using a converted RAW file and jpg.
To me jpg looks little better than taking a screen grab from the video - although that can still give a reasonable image for web use.
I thought your video looked OK, it will look better still with stronger daylight in the New Year.

Thanks, I will try what you said, today the sun is out here in Montreal.

mirrorimage · Dec 13, 2015

Karatekid1800 said:
Thanks, I will try what you said, today the sun is out here in Montreal.

Did you ever get your P3P replaced for the camera? It's caused by defective camera glass. It's really hard to show other people, because it's very easy to see in the original uncompressed videos, but doesn't translate well to YouTube videos or still frames. I'm on my 2nd P3P. My first one took amazing videos and pictures. This new one has such a bad blur, it's totally turned me off to using drones at all.

Debating my next move.

AsiaFlyer · Dec 13, 2015

Wingfan04 said:
Did you look at the pictures????? There is obviously no plastic film on the lens

That's exactly what it looks like actually.

Do a camera reset in the app

mirrorimage · Dec 13, 2015

AsiaFlyer said:
That's exactly what it looks like actually.

Do a camera reset in the app

It's hard to tell from compressed videos and pictures shared on the internet. In my raw DNGs and raw videos you can really tell. But when I share them on the internet it's not noticeable. It's pretty obvious to me that it's the bubble lens glass manufacturing defect. This is the same defect that was in Phantom 2 Visions for a period. It's the same defect that I've seen on knockoff Nikon lens back in the day. It's also something that seems to be popping up a whole bunch in batches. For me it is a revision b (new motors drone) the photos compared to my last P3P are Night and day different. It's such a huge difference. It makes me not want to even fly. I hope nobody got a drone like this, and didn't realize it's a flaw or defect.

AsiaFlyer · Dec 13, 2015

mirrorimage said:
It's hard to tell from compressed videos and pictures shared on the internet. In my raw DNGs and raw videos you can really tell. But when I share them on the internet it's not noticeable. It's pretty obvious to me that it's the bubble lens glass manufacturing defect. This is the same defect that was in Phantom 2 Visions for a period. It's the same defect that I've seen on knockoff Nikon lens back in the day. It's also something that seems to be popping up a whole bunch in batches. For me it is a revision b (new motors drone) the photos compared to my last P3P are Night and day different. It's such a huge difference. It makes me not want to even fly. I hope nobody got a drone like this, and didn't realize it's a flaw or defect.

Have you tested it with the UV filter taken off?

mirrorimage · Dec 13, 2015

AsiaFlyer said:
Have you tested it with the UV filter taken off?

Yes. The first thing I did on my 2nd P3P was take the UV filter off in the hopes the defect was in there. Of course it wasn't.

It's something about that curved bubble glass. It's so frustrating. I contact DJI. Maybe in 3-4 months I'll get an offer to send it in for repair on this brand new unit. I'm losing my mind with this BS.

I wonder how hard it is to just replace the bottom glass part of the camera? If I could find a destroyed camera/gimble with good glass maybe I could replace that part.

Karatekid1800 · Dec 13, 2015

mirrorimage said:
Did you ever get your P3P replaced for the camera? It's caused by defective camera glass. It's really hard to show other people, because it's very easy to see in the original uncompressed videos, but doesn't translate well to YouTube videos or still frames. I'm on my 2nd P3P. My first one took amazing videos and pictures. This new one has such a bad blur, it's totally turned me off to using drones at all.

Debating my next move.

Hi, I totally understand what you are going through. since mu drone was less than a week old, they offered me a brand new unit for exchange. What I am afraid of, that the new one will have the same defect, they really lost my trust. Do you think it has got anything to do with the holiday season? Maybe to keep up with the tons of purchases they compromising QC? What do you think are the odds that thia batch of chrsitmase will be defective as well?

mirrorimage · Dec 13, 2015

Karatekid1800 said:
Hi, I totally understand what you are going through. since mu drone was less than a week old, they offered me a brand new unit for exchange. What I am afraid of, that the new one will have the same defect, they really lost my trust. Do you think it has got anything to do with the holiday season? Maybe to keep up with the tons of purchases they compromising QC? What do you think are the odds that thia batch of chrsitmase will be defective as well?

That's my thought exactly. I really hope somebody has a destroyed Phantom 3 camera that they can't resell that I can buy the glass out of. It looks easy to replace. I'm referring to the spherical lens/bubble part.