DJI Mavic Pro Autofocus Issue

I would like to support Igors Post.

Is there a solution for sharp pictures with the Marvic?
So without any workaround solutions, how to start with the DJI Go app and then change the app.

It is a little sad that such an expensive device gets worse than my DIY CHDK solutions based on Pixhawk.

Hi all,

For all missions, the focus is constant during the flight and defined according the following rules by Pix4Dcapture. For most drones, the focus is automatically set to infinite before starting to shoot on Android and iOS. However, this does not apply for P4P, MP, and I2.

  • Android: The drone goes to the first way point of the mission and the camera makes an auto-focus on the current view. The resulting focus is then applied to all images during the flight.
    NOTE: This might set a wrong focus if for instance the camera focuses on a building while most of the mission is about mapping lower objects. Most images are then expected to be blurry.
  • iOS: A default predefined focus is applied so that the captured images are as if they were focused on infinity.

Blurry images not only happen because of out of focus. The exposure time can also create blur. Since the exposure is supposed to be constant over the flight (automatic DJI exposure), changing light conditions can negatively impact the quality of the images.

For P4P, MP, and I2, it is not possible to set the focus to infinity because of some DJI SDK limitations, which is why the two workarounds above were implemented since they give better results. At the moment the SDK of these drones does not allow the flexibility we would like to have, but our developers are continuously improving the way the focus is set.

Hope it helps to better understand the situation :).

1 Like

Hello all!

Do MP users currently able to produce focused images with Pix4DCapture app?

I really like MP and want to get it not for recreational, but for industrial use, however this focus issue makes it useless in this case.

Please do share your experience.

 

Regards,

VJ

i haven’t. which is a pity. i love my mavic and it would be absolutely great to use it for mapping.

however without proper focus (almost ALWAYS it’s too soft and a frontfocus as it looks to me) it renders the combination mavic + pix4d capture useless.

C1 button doesn’t work. even setting manual focus in DJI Go first and set this to infinity seems not to work? not sure whether pix4d capture is resetting this to autofocus?

 

very interested in a solution here!

 

thomas

 

Hi,

I am also experiencing this autofocus issue on a MP. I believe that Pix4D capture is a nice app but this issue does not make it usable for photogrammetric surveys.

 

@Pix4D support: any plans to solve issue in the near future?

 

Thanks 

Rest assured our developers are continuously improving the focus of the Mavic Pro.

As blurry images not only happen because of out of focus but also the exposure time, we noticed that the DJI automatic exposure was not always correctly handled by the camera. If the light conditions are constant, the exposure time can, in some cases, vary when the automatic adjustment is not good. We would then suggest to set the exposure time to minimum 1/200 sec. so that Pix4Dcapture applies this fixed value while the drone is shooting.

A new Android release should happen by the end of June where the focus will be set like in the iOS app. This would improve the stability.

thanks for the response. i would have hoped for a fix earlier than end of june, but good to know this is been worked on. will try the exposure time settings and how this will affect sharpness

thanks, thomas

Thanks for the response. 

I have been succesfully acquiring focused images by using DJI GO 4 app to fly at the desired altitude, auto-focusing (with C1 button) and setting correct camera settings. Then with the drone in the air uploaded flight path from Pix4D and everything went smooth.

 

Happy to have the data in the house, however I realized that by being restricted to flying with rectangular shapes (Android) I used my batteries in a very un-efficient manner. So my question is @Pix4D Support: will the next version of the Android app include irregular polygons like on the iOS app? I believe that would be a great improvement.

 

Thanks for the great support :) 

The polygon mission is among the top priorities but is currently on-hold on the developers’ side. It was a bit delayed because of other priorities. As a rough estimation, it will perhaps be ready by the end of July.

Thank you for the very nice feedback!

>> A new Android release should happen by the end of June where the focus will be set like in the iOS app. This would improve the stability.

i didn’t check the last couple of months because the combination mavic and pix4dcapture was unusable for me.

has this new version been released? I’ve seen there was an update but wonder if that did anything to the focus issue?

thomas

I have tested pix4dcapture and altizure with my mavic pro in serveral missions. Following is what i have observed.

With pix4dcapture, when start mission, mavic fly forward then focusing which mostly failed.

With altizure, when start mission, mavic focusing first then fly. So I usually fly to desired altitude manually then start mission.

Hi!

Any news on the Mavic and Pix4d focus issue? Solved?

If not, what is the best workaround?

 

/Jonas

 

@Thomas, in the last Android version we introduced some improvements that increase the reliability of the focusing on DJI Mavic Pro camera. 

As @Zhenbang mentioned, the focusing on the Android version is done at the first waypoint and it can happen that it fails from time to time. Since the focus remains the same for the whole mission it is important to make sure that the focus is correct, e.g. in the camera view.

On the iOS version it should be fixed but let us know if you experience some focusing issues. 

Hi, im facing the blurry image issue, as a counter measure ive tried the following tips as stated in this forum;

  1. setting my focus to manual & infinity in dji go4 app - my observation in pix4dcapture is that the mavic tried to focus then went out of focus before start taking pics. i tried this multiple time but getting out of focus image everytime.

  2. tried manually focusing on altitude with dji go4 before starting mission on pix4dcapture - still out of focus image because apparently pix4dcapture tries to refocus the went out of focus again before taking picture

  3. the C1 focus button is not working in pix4dcapture app

* from my testing i found out that this is a problem in pix4d capture app, as it tried to focus/refocus then went out of focus. im facing non of this problem in the dji go4 app.

* ive test this in multiple location.

Please advice Pix4d Support, im going for a mine survey trip am really hopping to impress my client, thank you

Regards;

Luqman

Hey Luqman,

I would suggest to proceed with basic checks listed in this article and that you read this community thread on the focus issue:
(Android, iOS) Camera focus and DJI exposure time

Julie

My exposure time was well above 1/200sec, as ive said ive tried all the tips mention in this forum.

i admit im not on the latest firmware, this is due to current firmware im using is stable.

the first time i use pix4d capture the images was ok, after that many out of focus images.

i notice this on my 2nd flight, i did load .kmz file from google earth pro for my 2nd flight, do you think it has something to do with it?

anyone experiencing out of focus images have load .kmz file before a flight?

 

“Glad” to read that I am not the only one experiencing focus and exposure issues when using Pix4DCapture.

I flew two missions yesterday.

  1. Polygon

  2. Double Grid

In specifically the Polygon mission, my exposure was up ‘n’ down, and the images are all out of focus.  I know the MP produces sharper images.

In the Double Grid mission, by exposure seemed less sporadic however, the images were still soft and lacking detail.

The only item I seem to find that I would control was the white balance!

Any progress from P4D side on exposure/focus (IOS)?

Thx

 

 

@Luqman

I do not believe it is related to loading .kml or .kmz file. However, I would suspect more the firmware that is installed and that is not the latest one.

@Jonathan
This looks more like a white balance issue. Typical focus issues result in constant lighting in images with blur. Did you try the white balance option of iOS (in the settings of the mission)? For more information: (Android, iOS) Different colors and tones in the images.

 

@Julie: Thank you for your reply.  Do you have somewhere I can upload you images/sample data?  I am pretty certain that this is not a white balance issue - I was operating in ‘sunny’ mode via the P4D Capture app. I did browse the logfiles.  You can see that I was operating in the fixed WB mode “Sunny”.

What I would like to know is what does P4D Capture use to determine focusing/sharpness success - as seen in the screenshot below.

Maybe this can help me determine if there is something I need to change on my side.

I am operating on iOS.  I really love the double-grid style of capturing for 3D - which is why I really want to figure out how to fix the exposure/blurriness issue ASAP.

Thanks in advance

Hi Jonathan,

A new iOS version was released on Monday (2.4.0).
If you can test it and let me know, that would be helpful.

However, from the screenshot you shared before, it does not seem like a blur issue but more related to lighting instead of focus/exposure.

Thank you for the nice feedback :)!