Hi,
I know people have had camera focus issues on the phantom 3 but my questions are these:
1. What is the minimum focus distance to get an in focus image.
2. Can you adjust the lens to change the minimum focus distance.
3. How can I reliably test for a focus issue.
The reason I ask is that I'm not 100% happy with the image quality/sharpness.
I use manual settings and shoot in jpeg and raw.
I use Lightroom to edit.
Thanks
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
The Phantom 2/3 has a very simplistic camera setup. The camera consist of a fixed sensor with fixed lens fitted in-front of the sensor. The lens has no ability to adjust focus....during manufacture the lens is fixed to the sensor board and then glued onto the camera casing. The lens unit itself are also as basic as it gets, no adjustable aperture, just a one size hole or aperture to direct the incoming image signal onto the sensor.
Lets look at the specs or FIXED settings of the camera. FOV is 94 degrees if I recall correct, its a average wide angle lens. The aperture as I said is fixed and on the P3 it is fixed at f2.8 At this aperture the focus depth are potentially small, I would have preferred a f4.0 on this lens / sensor size. In addition it seems DJI fixed the focus at approximately 5-10 meters. This vary so much from camera to camera as DJI does no quality control. What does this mean......@ f2.8 and focus set at 5 to 10 meters the chances are everything in the far distance are not clear or sharp.
Photographers keep a basic rule, from the camera to focus point is the avarage one 3rd distance. Two 3rds after the focus point will be in focus. If the focus is set at 5m then up to 10m behind the focus point things will be in-focus and sharp.......
I do NOT think DJI has great imaging experience, pitty they did not do more effort to partner with somebody like Go Pro. The Go Pro camera uses the same basics as the Phantom camera. Go Pro has great experience and know-how and one can see it from the results.......
How can you correct all this. First step is to work in RAW, Lightroom is a great choice because DJI provided the lens profiles (good job DJI) Next is to go build a macro in photoshop cc to correct the mistakes and problems you see with your P3 image.
New functions in Photoshop CC like focus masking is great to repair the poor image quality from the P3. One can get to OK results as long as you accept the basis is poor. Can you distribute your macro to others.....NO. Why, well the camera quality from P3 to P3 are so inconsistent that it is just not possible to create one macro for all.....
Wow this sounds so negative and bad.......yes it is correct.......this is not only for the P3 images......video is as bad....... Try the P3 in poor light quality and the image quality is even worse....