SOFT FOCUS AGAIN! HELP!

Andrew Allsbury · Nov 30, 2015

Soooo...I am on my 3rd P3P and 4th total exchange in about 15 days. I am about to pull my hair out. Please let me know if this is normal P3P behavior. To me it looks like there is some kind of lens defect. Notice how sharp the corners are and how out of focus I am. Settings are: Manual, 100 ISO, Log, (-1,-3,-3) About 1/1000 Shutter. Thanks guys, I really need some input.

JPEG
DJI Still.jpg

MP4
P3P Soft Focus - Test Clip.mp4

Andrew Allsbury · Nov 30, 2015

Another still, camera is not moving at all, all settings the same except the shutter is about 1/500.

JPEG 2
DJI STill 2.jpg

4wd · Nov 30, 2015

I don't think you can really tell much in those conditions.
Things do start to look a bit flat and soft in lower light which is so much more frequent this time of year.
That being said there is normally a rather softer area in the center which is sometimes more obvious than others.
You will get better results with the stills if you can work in RAW and do some processing and final sharpening to suit each image.

lotusteve · Nov 30, 2015

Put all settings back to auto take some pics and video and start altering things from there.

John Lo · Nov 30, 2015

it is normal base on your setting. log mode and -1,-3,-3 setting make the picture very flat and it is only good for video color grading. if u need the best jpg output, put the setting back to default.

Andrew Allsbury · Dec 1, 2015

Swapped out for a new one, ran a quick few tests while I still had some light. As of right now still not sure that this isn't a rampant issue with QC for the holidays. I will test again tomorrow then report back. Also, I find it strange that all 4 P3Ps have had a massive sharp spot on the left side of the sensor...design flaw?

In other news, the newest drone is a bit different than the rest. More aggressive (jagged?) Motor tops and fully painted black and silver prop screws instead of just the painted dots to designate clockwise/cclockwise. Also there appears to be a much louder servo like whine when operating. Is this like a P3P V1.1?

WetDog · Dec 1, 2015

is unlikely that you are having that many hardware problems. Either you have too high of expectations for the camera or there is something you are doing wrong.

First, to determine if it is the camera itself, take some pictures with the motors off, just sitting on box or something. Find a nice brick wall. Like lotusteve said, go back to your defaults. Show us the pics.

The still camera in the Phantom isn't all that great. It is comparable to a cell phone camera. Capable of good shots at times, needing very careful post processing to get the most out of it. It WILL NOT give you images comparable to a DSLR. This is about as good as it gets - an HDR RAW image processed in Photoshop. It looks fine at this size, not at all comparable to my Nikons in a print.

The Sisters HDR

WetDog
Dec 1, 2015
1

Indian River Valley and the Sisters after an early winter storm. RAW HDR processed through...

Andrew Allsbury · Dec 1, 2015

I am a commercial cinematographer and photographer with extensive experience working with everything from our Red Epic Dragon down to our GoPros. I understand the limitations of these cameras and their codecs, however I also know when camera optics are out of whack. I will do more tests and review the results.

WetDog · Dec 1, 2015

Then have you checked the camera with the drone at rest, motors off, no gimble activity? Seems like you are testing this in a pretty haphazard way - returning the units as soon as they don't quite meet your criteria. Hard to know since you obviously don't detail everything your are doing but blaming it on bad QC seems a bit premature. The picture you show really makes it hard to determine what the issue is, I can't get the .MP4 file to work at present (don't know why).

But there is a lot of stuff you can do to pin this down instead of just jumping to a hardware issue.

Andrew Allsbury · Dec 1, 2015

Please see other thread with examples:
P3P Focus Defect! | DJI Phantom Forum

mirrorimage · Dec 13, 2015

Andrew Allsbury said:
Swapped out for a new one, ran a quick few tests while I still had some light. As of right now still not sure that this isn't a rampant issue with QC for the holidays. I will test again tomorrow then report back. Also, I find it strange that all 4 P3Ps have had a massive sharp spot on the left side of the sensor...design flaw?

In other news, the newest drone is a bit different than the rest. More aggressive (jagged?) Motor tops and fully painted black and silver prop screws instead of just the painted dots to designate clockwise/cclockwise. Also there appears to be a much louder servo like whine when operating. Is this like a P3P V1.1?

It's a rampant issue. I got my replacement on the timeframe you mentioned. I looked all over the internet about this issue. And it seems like DJI forums, these forums, and reddit, other sites have been loaded with these posts in the last two months. There's something going on. Really upsetting because it's hard to demonstrate for people. Too many jerks comment that "did you really expect to get a good picture for $1500 drone?" Those are the worst. You can see it side by side flying with anyone else who has the same drone, and it's way terrible compared to my last drone.