Hi Dji Forum people

I need some advice, I just got given a Osmo Action 3 as a present from a friend.
Now i have the original Osmo Action 1 (which I love) , but when I first powered on my Action 3 I thought it looked a tad out of focus/soft. Thinking it may have been a setting I hadnt selected or soemthing.
Thats when I googled to see if there was anyone else having this issue. OH boy, that when I went down a rabbit hole.
I see that there is lots of people complaing about soft focus /out of focus issues.

So I have a Action 3 which I believe, but not 100% sure, that it is out of focus or soft. THe reason I say not 100% is at times it looks sharp and others times, dependant on subject distance, its looks soft.
I have tried to compare it to my original Action 1 and I am sure the Action 1 is sharper.

What is the best thing to do in this situation, how do i get Dji to take alook at it for me?
Do I use the included care refresh?
How do I open a case?

any help appriciated.

Its not an issue: its how the camera is,  post a vid up we'll say wow or oh!. suggest not worrying over spilt milk.

That’s what you get I’m afraid. I get the same feeling with my footage. Sometimes I feel it looks good and other times, really soft. Soft footage is generally when I point it at myself. So it might well be closer  focus.

That's my biggest problem with it and has made me feel safer using my GoPro.

It could be less in-camera sharpening, but trying to sharpen it in post, I have found that I need to be careful because it breaks up and starts to look really poor if I go too far.

I'm thinking of selling both the Action 2 and 3 on, but I don't want to pass that feeling of softness on to the next person.

The GoPro can be over sharp on medium, but when set to low, it's actually softer looking than the Action, but it sharpens more nicely in post, where I find the Action footage can go a bit rough looking.

I guess I have 'Buyer's Remorse' because it isn't really the camera for me. Just not sharp enough for my liking. Once you see it, you start to see it appearing in other peoples' videos as well on closer shots especially. I also find the 'fish eye' distortion poor with it if I'm honest and that contributes to poor edge focus/distortion  too.

Indoors are the wors with this new Fisheye lens, but outdoor run stuff is mighty fine, but like said, put on the selfie vlog its nor. I am starting t say back to using the OA the the A3. I do not bother with the touchscreen and happy that it has the usb type c mic. but otherwise  its just that .


Added note

i

Take a 4K video outside in good light with leaves/trees, buildings or just something to take a look at. But don't move around like crazy that many do lol. Slow movements with ISO 100 will give you and us more to go out from.

If it is soft, then you will get help to create a ticket with dji and they need video as proof since some of them can be a bit high while judging in NL

Hi, SLiWooDy. Thank you for reaching out. For this concern, please update the Osmo Action 3 firmware to v01.01.05.40 or higher. If you feel that the issue persists after the firmware update, feel free to send it to our facility for checking. You may submit an online repair request through this link: {https://repair.dji.com/repair/index}. No need to select DJI Care Refresh yet upon creating the case since the device will undergo a diagnostic test first.  If you need assistance with creating a ticket, you may contact DJI support at (https://www.dji.com/support). Thank you for your understanding and support.

the out of focus is become a "feature" of the Action 3 camera...everyone has it and you cant do anything other than waiting the next camera

bonobox Posted at 2-6 23:13
the out of focus is become a "feature" of the Action 3 camera...everyone has it and you cant do anything other than waiting the next camera

I think that it might depend on what you’re videoing and lighting as well. So it’s not exactly ‘out of focus’ but just ‘soft’. Lens distortion doesn't help either.

It’s quite funny that I contacted Osmo when I first got this camera and asked if a beautifier was part of the in-camera software. It’s not, but I instantly felt that one was being used because it was the first thing I noticed when it was released.

I had the same issue.  I like OA3's design better than GoPro.  But after I bought 2 OA3 and they work the same.  I gave up.  I think there is a problem in OA3's Len.  It cannot allow enough light go through.  So the image sensor works in a very high ISO even in a bright situation.  So the high ISO incurs captured image blurry and making focus algorithm not working well.  And that also makes the video compression worse.  I tied to use Pocket 2 as a comparison.  Pocket 2 takes video in a relative low ISO, in most of the daytime situations. it uses 200- 400, while OA3 uses 1000 - 5000 ISO.  Videos from Pocket 2 get much much better the those from OA3!

I guess they have some heavy noise reduction in low light making the footage really soft.

It should been turned off in D-CineLike

djiuser_h827OD6aINa9 Posted at 2-7 00:24
I had the same issue.  I like OA3's design better than GoPro.  But after I bought 2 OA3 and they work the same.  I gave up.  I think there is a problem in OA3's Len.  It cannot allow enough light go through.  So the image sensor works in a very high ISO even in a bright situation.  So the high ISO incurs captured image blurry and making focus algorithm not working well.  And that also makes the video compression worse.  I tied to use Pocket 2 as a comparison.  Pocket 2 takes video in a relative low ISO, in most of the daytime situations. it uses 200- 400, while OA3 uses 1000 - 5000 ISO.  Videos from Pocket 2 get much much better the those from OA3!

I like the design/ease of use too. Also, it has great colour, but just that one thing has me returning to a Canon M200. Bulkier, but stays sharp for runaround footage.

In my opinion, Action 4 will be a perfect camera…

All good things are 4, we have to see

trademark lens.  and software the lens of hte A3 is "SMALLER" then the A1  anyone measure it

I also found the video output bitrates are relatively low.  And no option to set the bitrate.  That may be one of the reasons that make the video look blurry, not much details.

djiuser_h827OD6aINa9 Posted at 2-8 11:44
I also found the video output bitrates are relatively low.  And no option to set the bitrate.  That may be one of the reasons that make the video look blurry, not much details.

If that would be the case, then everyone's video would be blurry, but only some people say that their videos are blurry.

The1080s are maxed out at 30Mbits but some goes lower, like 25 or even lower, depending on how bright the scene is. And believe me, I'm looking at my 1080 footage today that is 25MBits and it's quite sharp on my MacBook retina screen. It does look really nice. Of course uploading it to YT will ruin it completely so I just view them offline.

djiuser_h827OD6aINa9 Posted at 2-8 11:44
I also found the video output bitrates are relatively low.  And no option to set the bitrate.  That may be one of the reasons that make the video look blurry, not much details.

My newest files have 120-130 Mbits