Pix4dcapture Blurry Images (Intermittent - Inspire 1)

Alek_Javier · December 11, 2017, 3:32am

Hi all,

I’m having the hardest time getting Pix4dcapture to work consistently. I am mainly running into two major issues:

Camera Set-up taking forever or not happening. (All other settings complete and the drone is detected. But camera settings are never configured)
Captured images are blurry. (But are not blurry when using DJI Go)

It’s been especially infuriating since I usually don’t find out about these issues until I check photos and have already lost 1-2 batteries. Trouble shooting is so hit or miss that I can literally waste 4-6 batteries, if not more, before I get things to work. Since I only carry 12 batteries, this usually cripples my operations for that day.

What’s strange is that the app will work fine one week and suddenly not work the next, even though I’m keeping all settings.

Context info:

DJI Inspire 1, latest firmware.
DJI Zenmuse X5, latest firmware.
Inspire 1 controller, latest firmware.
Apple Ipad Mini 4, iOS 11.1
Pix4dcapture (latest version?)

Is anyone else having a lot of trouble using the capture apps? If anyone has some workflow tips, please let me know. I am literally pulling my hair out trying to figure this out. It’s killing my ability to get any work done.

Thank you!

Rhea_Garratt · December 19, 2017, 6:49am

Hey Alek,

We are sorry that things are not going as expected with Pix4Dcapture.
For an optimal experience with our app, we first recommend to proceed with basic checks.

Regarding the two specific issues that you reported:

This is often due to another app running in the background like DJI GO. It can also be that the communication to send the mission to the drone was broken. Simply restarting the mission should help as described here.
For the Inspire 1 Pro flying with the X5 camera, the focus is automatically set to infinite before starting to shoot on Android and iOS. On rare occasions, it could happen that the focus is not set correctly. I would suggest that you try set it to Infinite and Manual in DJI GO before flying with Pix4Dcapture.
At the beginning of the flight, we recommend to always switch to the Camera view showing the video feed to verify that the drone is shooting as expected and that the images are not blurry. Therefore, if something is wrong you can interrupt the mission.

Hope it helps!

Gernot_Baier · January 11, 2018, 2:34pm

We have had the same Problem with pix4D. What we came across as a solution is this. (if it is not like this in ur case i am sorry)

When it is very cloudy or dark outside (in Fall or Winter) flying at higher Speeds (u can slow down ur drohne in pux4d) is not recommended due to the fact that the camera is longering the exposure time the darker it gets (logically u would not see much when it is very dark), but this leeds to blurry Images while flying faster - slow down the inspire and the problem will be gone

at least in my case it was.

Pavol_Kunovsky1 · February 1, 2018, 9:47am

Hi,

I had same problem with 3 drones, Mavic / Ph3 Pro, Inspire 1 X3 - we had X5 but when we used it - had still blurred images

I flew some missions. It was field - and mapping rails. There were some trees around that. I used Mavic PRO, Inspire 1 X3, and PH3 PRO. Flight level was 30m, normal grid, angle 90, speed slowly more under half. I were flying throw all day, from morning till sunset. Weather conditions were not so bad, sunny, not to mutch windy. Camera setting were set as automatic, auto white balance, - check it in DJI GO.

But we had a problem with many images, throw the mission, in one mission were blurred images - many.
We flew about 25 mission that day, probably about 10 were wrong blurred images. So some is correct. We did not change camera setting throw the day.

What do you think about that?

thanks

Grzegorz_Durlo · June 4, 2018, 1:55pm

I have got the same problem, all the time with Inspira and Zenmuse 5X.

Richard_Sparkes · June 6, 2018, 4:40pm

I have the same issue with the same hardware.

I conducted a mission back in May at 50m altitude and had no problem, sharp images and easy to select GCP’s from images.

This week I have flown the same mission 2x at 40m, the first time I had some apps open in the background and lost communication part way though the mission, the second time I had no apps other than Capture open and didn’t loose communication.

The imagery from both missions has low resolution with no pixelation when trying to select a GCP, just a badly defined blob.

The point cloud has been generated and it looks bad, poor resolution and not something I would trust to use in a surveying capacity.

Has there been a change to the settings in the Capture app in recent upgrades as that is the only thing that I can see that has changed, all my hard ware is the same and when I have achieved better results I was flying at a higher altitude!

I have been trying to resolve another issue with Blaz and have already uploaded the first of the missions with the log file for tech supports reference.

Please can someone respond to this ticket.

Blaz · June 7, 2018, 1:43pm

As Rhea mentioned in the comment above, we do not expect that every mission is affected by the focusing problems of the DJI Zenmuse X5 camera.

In case you are facing this issue, we recommend setting the focus to Infinity and Manual in DJI GO before flying with Pix4Dcapture. To verify if the focus is correct you can:

Take off with the drone and go to e.g. 40m above the ground level.
Open DJI GO app and check if the focus is correct.
Close the DJI GO app.
Open the Pix4Dcapture and start the mission.

Richard_Sparkes · June 10, 2018, 9:02am

Blaz,

The blurry images issue has been resolved following the instructions above.

I ran a lens calibration, set focus to infinite and manual in DJI Go app.

I shut DJI Go app down and opened Capture and set the speed to about half way down the slider.

The imagery was much improved and GCP’s were easily identified.

I am still having an issue with the Gimbal Yaw angle though.

Kind regards,

Ben_Ritchie · September 7, 2020, 11:18pm

Hi all,

We have an issue where our X7 is completely unusable at any ISO setting of 800 or higher. The photos are blurry and look to have a ‘smear’ like effect all over them. DJI claim this is high iso noise but I dont think thats correct, as there is no ‘noise’ present. Anyone else had this issue?

Photo below is ISO200 on left and ISO800 on right. Note the edge of the building and the antenna? Its almost like an anti-aliasing effect.