Focus at night is giving me fits!

[KevMo Photog]

There are stipulations to adhere to. It's a means to end to do what need if all things for the flight are planned accordingly. You can't always do what you want though, lol. What I need is footage in focus. My bird just arrived! Guess I'll be working through all this myself shortly. Hope I got a good one!

I think my problem is tapping on areas that are just not bright enough or a distinct enough edge. So it thinks it's black or very dark and it front focuses the camera all the way up. So I am gonna do some very good testing asap to get this worked out. Because one of my images had a bright baseball field in the foreground and it was tack sharp!

 

[KevMo Photog]

I think my problem is tapping on areas that are just not bright enough or a distinct enough edge. So it thinks it's black or very dark and it front focuses the camera all the way up. So I am gonna do some very good testing asap to get this worked out. Because one of my images had a bright baseball field in the foreground and it was tack sharp!

First shot is with bright baseball field which is sharp. And the second is the blurry one obviously. And the 3rd one is the area just above the ball field and it is super blurry. Because it was too dark too focus on it I'm hoping!

 

[shockwave199]

This is quite a camera in low light. Perhaps bringing exposure way up to brighten things up and then focus, lock it, and then bring exposure back down. GadgetGuy has mentioned he sets infinity focus on something 6-10' away and his long range focus in the air is tac sharp.

 

[KevMo Photog]

This is quite a camera in low light. Perhaps bringing exposure way up to brighten things up and then focus, lock it, and then bring exposure back down. GadgetGuy has mentioned he sets infinity focus on something 6-10' away and his long range focus in the air is tac sharp.

Im also gonna do that as well with manual focus and infinity for sure. And your right about brightening it up more so camera can focus too. I'll get this eventually. LOL. It is pretty incredible what you can pull out of this sensor with low light though.

 

[Meta4]

Im also gonna do that as well with manual focus and infinity for sure.

Rather than focusing at infinity, it would be better to focus somewhere in the middle.
You'll still have the horizon in focus because the lens has a lot of depth of field.
Here are some numbers:
At f2.8 and focused at 50 feet - everything from 12ft - infinity is in focus
At f5.6 and focused at 50 feet - everything from 6ft - infinity is in focus
At f11 and focused at 50 feet - everything from 3ft - infinity is in focus

 

[shockwave199]

What I'd really like to see is the focus setting sticking between power ups. There's been differing reports on that. I'm looking to set manual focus the way I want and forget it from there on. I'll see soon enough.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Rather than focusing at infinity, it would be better to focus somewhere in the middle.
You'll still have the horizon in focus because the lens has a lot of depth of field.
Here are some numbers:
At f2.8 and focused at 50 feet - everything from 12ft - infinity is in focus
At f5.6 and focused at 50 feet - everything from 6ft - infinity is in focus
At f11 and focused at 50 feet - everything from 3ft - infinity is in focus

I totally agree Meta4. Most everything should be in focus with these lenses after 10ft or so. I have not shot at night much so I have not had to deal with this on my drone much. I thought I could get it done with Auto Focus Mode. But I really think that my exposure is dark enough that it is not focusing anywhere close to infinity. In fact, I'm sure it's front focused as far as it can in most of my shots. So I'm gonna do some critical testing on focusing on brighter objects etc. I'm also gonna try manual focusing on objects too. And see how accurate the manual focus scale is. Thanks so much for the help everyone btw!

 

[Capo]

I totally agree Meta4. Most everything should be in focus with these lenses after 10ft or so. I have not shot at night much so I have not had to deal with this on my drone much. I thought I could get it done with Auto Focus Mode. But I really think that my exposure is dark enough that it is not focusing anywhere close to infinity. In fact, I'm sure it's front focused as far as it can in most of my shots. So I'm gonna do some critical testing on focusing on brighter objects etc. I'm also gonna try manual focusing on objects too. And see how accurate the manual focus scale is. Thanks so much for the help everyone btw!

For what he is shooting above, infinity is perfect. As mentioned, landscape shots at a wide angle only require infinity.

 

[Capo]

By the way, the P4P camera will go very high ISO before you get any noticeable noise. That can sharpen your images even more avoiding long exposures. The P4P is an amazing night camera.

 

[driehl]

Keep mindful of the laws regarding flight at night. It is banned in many places.

Lol

 

[driehl]

Lol

Oh ya..and im in Canada too!

 

[shockwave199]

First flight today- awesome bird, man. I didn't mess with focus at all. I set it to manual focus and haven't done a thing with that either. I'm just gonna see how well infinity is set as a default. It actually looked fine on screen. I'm rendering a proxy now- WOW 4k is chunkier to deal with. I'll see how it looks soon.

 

[KevMo Photog]

First flight today- awesome bird, man. I didn't mess with focus at all. I set it to manual focus and haven't done a thing with that either. I'm just gonna see how well infinity is set as a default. It actually looked fine on screen. I'm rendering a proxy now- WOW 4k is chunkier to deal with. I'll see how it looks soon.

Glad you love your bird dude! It's a beast! Can't wait to hear how it did in Manual! I'm getting ready to go do a test with mine on our courthouse in the dark and test Manual and Auto settings again.

 

[shockwave199]

This is just a screen grab from the 4k time line in my editor. This was this afternoon when the rain let up a bit. Looks focused to me- tough to grab a screen grab without motion blur from flying. I'm not gonna touch a thing and see how it does at night this week. I'll post that as well. Btw- the ball field shot you posted is excellent. This camera is the single primary reason I upgraded. It just happens to be hanging from a bird I had to buy to go with it, lol! Although this bird flies excellent. The new go4 app works great and much to my delight, even during this windy flight the horizon is stable. It occured to me I never even did an IMU or compass calibration either. I'll do a compass but I often forego an IMU unless it starts barking at me about it. I don't think these birds get enough credit in that department, even straight of the box new. I think they're more stable than the calibration preachers give 'em credit for, lol.

 

[Meta4]

It occured to me I never even did an IMU or compass calibration either. I'll do a compass but I often forego an IMU unless it starts barking at me about it.

There's no need to calibrate anything.
Check what DJI says on p57 of the manual.

 

[KevMo Photog]

This is just a screen grab from the 4k time line in my editor. This was this afternoon when the rain let up a bit. Looks focused to me- tough to grab a screen grab without motion blur from flying. I'm not gonna touch a thing and see how it does at night this week. I'll post that as well. Btw- the ball field shot you posted is excellent. This camera is the single primary reason I upgraded. It just happens to be hanging from a bird I had to buy to go with it, lol! Although this bird flies excellent. The new go4 app works great and much to my delight, even during this windy flight the horizon is stable. It occured to me I never even did an IMU or compass calibration either. I'll do a compass but I often forego an IMU unless it starts barking at me about it. I don't think these birds get enough credit in that department, even straight of the box new. I think they're more stable than the calibration preachers give 'em credit for, lol.
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Thx for the comment man! Can't agree with you more on this camera. Especially if I can figure out how to focus it! LOL. Your shot looks tack sharp btw! I really have been blown away by two P4's last year and now this one for 8 months now. So much fun! And like Meta4 just said! I would not calibrate IMU at all unless it ask. Especially if its flying awesome out of the box.

 

[gr8pics]

I always use manual focus, set to infinity, no exceptions whatsoever, regardless of the distance, unless your aiming for flowers and bees at the ground...

 

[KevMo Photog]

I always use manual focus, set to infinity, no exceptions whatsoever, regardless of the distance, unless your aiming for flowers and bees at the ground...

I def learned this last night for good gr8pics! I had not shot much stuff at night before because I really don't have much lit up in my small town. LOL. But I went out last night and shot a bunch of stuff trying diff cam settings and Auto and Manual Focus. Everything was spot on in Manual while Auto tended to drift and front focus if it did not have a super bright object with distinct edges. So it's def Manual Focus from here on out at night. No problems with Auto in the daytime at all btw. Also nailed down that you really don't want to go much over 400 or 800ISO for stills too. Noise at 800 is starting to come in pretty decent.

 

[BadRad]

Addressing night flight rules -- for recreation, the FAA is pretty clear. LOS rule would prevent seeing the craft without pretty intense onboard lighting, right? (I'd guess 600' or less with stock LEDs?). Commercial use is another issue with waiver requirement.

 

[gr8pics]

Addressing night flight rules -- for recreation, the FAA is pretty clear. LOS rule would prevent seeing the craft without pretty intense onboard lighting, right? (I'd guess 600' or less with stock LEDs?). Commercial use is another issue with waiver requirement.

Well, now you are on totally different topic.
Navigation lights for night flights should be a rotating light, visible from every angle.
Youll have to mount a large amount of leds to cover 360 degrees and meet those requirements. Alternatively use a strobe light mounted in a dome, but a system like that will never fit any Phantom.