Hi everyone,

I recently received my Phantom 3 Professional and the skies have cleared long enough to give it a real work out.

I've watched a lot of videos and reviews on the Phantom before purchasing and became familiar with the quality I should expect from the system.  However, after acquiring several photos and videos from the camera system, I think I may have a defective camera or lens.

Attached is an image of full sized crops of multiple images acquired from the Phantom.  As labeled, each image is pointing at the same target building about 2-2.5 miles away.  Camera position was adjusted by either tilting the camera down or rotating the drone a bit.  They were taken only a minute or two apart between the five images.  The DNGs were then loaded into PhotoShop.  I made the contrast linear in the curved-based contrast settings in Camera Raw, but that is the only adjustment that was made.  256x256 pixel crops were acquired of the building and placed in a new document and saved as a PNG, so no JPEG artifacts have been introduced.  No sharpening or other manipulation was performed.

I have a feeling some part of the lens element is misground or something similar.  It appears the center is not in focus as well as the right or left of the image, but the right-center seems to be the best.  I would attach a full image, but there is a 1MB limit.  It would be difficult to image the building in the lower section of the image sensor for obvious reasons, but I could aim at a close target and repeat this in 9 locations to get a better profile of the effect if some one thinks that may help.

Video has the same problem.  I can, on request, upload a full resolution video to YouTube for review.

Has anyone else have similar issues?  Will I likely have to send the Phantom in for repair/replacement?

Crops of the same scene from different angles/images, position the building in different parts of th ...

Hi. I have the exact same problem. Here is an example photograph without any correction :

Do you plan to send it back?  Have you contacted anyone at DJI?

I WILL send it back if I don't find the culprit... Didn't contact DJI yet. Bought on Black Friday, got it mid December.

Please keep me posted.

Some say it has to do with the copter's camera lens not acclimating to the outside temperature. Just a theory tho...

Well, it WAS very cold (approximately 25 F) out when those photos were taken.  But if the lens deforms because of a temperature change, that seems to imply a more fundamental problem with the lens, such as not being as symmetrical or homogeneous as one would hope.

spl3001@cox.net Posted at 2016-1-11 18:03
Well, it WAS very cold (approximately 25 F) out when those photos were taken.  But if the lens defor ...

It's very obvious that something is wrong with the camera. You say you've it since mid December? Contact DJI immediately for repairs.

spl3001@cox.net Posted at 2016-1-11 19:03
Well, it WAS very cold (approximately 25 F) out when those photos were taken.  But if the lens defor ...

There are several threads along these lines in the last week.  I've been following them (and participating in some) because I'm having similar issues.  (Just got my camera replaced during an unrelated RMA, and got some bad image quality issues with the new one).

I did a bunch of testing today -- which I'll post somewhere when I get around to it -- and I'm starting to think that temperature is at the core of the issue.  Basically, at temperatures well above freezing I seem to get pretty good resolution.  As the temperature goes down, the left side and center get blurry.  At 15 F, the right lower corner is the only area still performing well.

What I can't figure out is (1) whether at typical summer temperatures the problem would go away altogether, and (2) whether DJI will view this as a valid warranty issue, or just say that it's not supposed to work below freezing (recommended temperatures are 0-30 C, IIRC).

I suspect that there's a new batch of cameras that are consistently out of alignment (because of the sheer volume of people posting pictures that go bad on the left side), but it doesn't become really noticeable until the camera gets cold.  At which point the aluminum barrel contracts enough to make the decentering pretty bad.

Hi guys,

I've been struggling with the Phantom 3 as well. Actually saw some awesome sharpness way out to the left in my photos but with center VERY blurred and right side of image a pure disgrace.
Today I just took the camera down to pieces and did the following. I moved the board holding the sensor slightly to the right (looking from the back of the drone). I don't know if this helped
me but it looked like it was mounted a bit too much to the left when I was eyeballing.

Now to the lens focusing:

I've mounted several custom lenses on my Gopros back in the days and know how to do this procedure. I unscrewed the plate (2 screws) holding the lens and actually warmed it up a bit so the glue wasn't too hard. After finally getting the lens to turn I hooked up my tablet 10" and started the Phantom. The focus was now really "close" and I was having incredibly sharp picture on my hand 25cm from the camera.
I started screwing the camera CW (seeing it from the front). I had to do this a lot and I saw on the screen that the focus got a LOT better.

Now I flew and checked photos probably 10 times and adjusted the lens several times after checking focus in Lightroom. After a lot of trial and error I know have very sharp focus in the center for the first time ever. I still have a little problem on the right side of the frame with bad focus but seriously my Phantom 3 camera went from NOT GOOD to pretty amazing.

Hope this helps anyone. DJI should pay attention to this as well.

So to sum it up... now I've had a fly-away with a Phantom 3 Pro that DJI offered me a pathetic discount for a new one (I refused) and now I had to tear my Phantom 3 Adv. camera down to pieces 10 times to get my focus right center of frame.

I'm sad.

Good video if you want to try:

Thank you! Super story! Can you show before/after full size images?

jonas.stenberg. Posted at 2016-1-18 20:54
Hi guys,

I've been struggling with the Phantom 3 as well. Actually saw some awesome sharpness way o ...

jonas,

Wow!  You're hardcore.  I'm still a ways short of tackling it the way you did, but it's really cool to see that improvements can be made.

I've got an RMA and am about to send mine in.  Eventually, I'll be able to report on whether DJI Service was able to make my problem better or not.  If they don't... then it's screwdriver time.

QBK Posted at 2016-1-19 02:40
jonas,

Wow!  You're hardcore.  I'm still a ways short of tackling it the way you did, but it's r ...

I also received my RMA last evening and will ship the bird to L.A.

Hi again,

Here's a photo where I can show what I had in the center earlier for some reason (red circle). Before I opened the camera and adjusted the lens and moved the sensor board a little I had GOOD sharpness like the last 500 pixels on the left side of the frame. My center was always really really bad. Now I have decent sharpness center and the blurriness is to the right of the frame. I will continue to adjust my lens and get back with some more photos when I adjust the lens and so on... when I get some sun and temp above -10C. Thinking of getting a lens from Peau now... thinking I got a bad copy in my P3. We'll see...

jonas.stenberg. Posted at 2016-1-19 20:47
Hi again,

Here's a photo where I can show what I had in the center earlier for some reason (red cir ...

Hi,

I have got the same problem.
Blurry picture at the center. Thought that it was due to cold weather. It was 10-15 celsius degrees below zero all the time I tried to fly.
Yesterday I checked p3p at home - right bottom corner is the only clear place.
I contacted service center here in Moscow, they confirmed that they are know such defect an the camera will be replaced within 45 days...

personally i do not think it is a temperature Problem

Used my Phantom 3 Proff. yesterday at -18°C and took absolutely sharp Pictures

QBK Posted at 2016-1-19 01:40
jonas,

Wow!  You're hardcore.  I'm still a ways short of tackling it the way you did, but it's r ...

When you are planning receive a p3p back from RMA? Do you have any date or estimated time?

omegas Posted at 2016-1-25 04:34
When you are planning receive a p3p back from RMA? Do you have any date or estimated time?

Hi omegas,

Sorry for the long delay -- got busy with work and didn't log into the forum for a while.

I didn't get an "escalated" repair ticket this time, so it got shipped back by ground freight.  Together with some other delays, this means it should be arriving at DJI's repair shop today (Monday, Feb. 1).  I'm expecting it will take a couple of weeks to repair (AFAICT, escalated repairs happen very quickly, but normal ones sit for a while), so I figure I'll get my P3P back sometime in late February.  I'll be back online then with the results!

QBK Posted at 2016-2-2 00:28
Hi omegas,

Sorry for the long delay -- got busy with work and didn't log into the forum for a whi ...

Hello. Any news?

omegas Posted at 2016-2-27 10:17
Hello. Any news?

Hi everybody,

I just got my P3P back last weekend.  (Actually, DJI repair was pretty quick -- a lot of the delay had to do with me being out of town.  So kudos to DJI for that).

I've only had a couple of quick flight opportunities since I got it back -- and no chance to do really thorough testing.  Unfortunately, I think it's pretty clear what the overall situation is:
1.  They installed a new camera (P78DCJ serial number, whereas my original was a P78DCE and my first replacement was a P78DCK).
2.  It has different image quality.
3.  It's not any better.  Still blurry in the center.

Things have warmed up here, so I've flown once at about 32-35 F (0-2 C), and once around 55 F (13 C).  Images are, once again, blurry in the center.  It gets worse with colder temps, but it's still bad at 12C, which is well within the operating range.

Unlike the last camera, this one is sharp on the left side.  Right side is so-so, center is blurry.  I'll post some images when I get a chance, if anybody wants to see them.

I don't really know what to do -- I'm mostly just trying to deal with my disappointment right now.  I guess I should just try very hard to be content with blurry images.  Hey, it's a camera in the sky, right?  I shouldn't be picky about image quality.  But I fell in love with the sharp 4K video that I got from my original camera, and now every time I look at my footage, I can't feel much except disappointment.

The other options that I can think of right now are:
1.  Keep sending it back.  But they've sent me two out-of-focus cameras now, so it's not just a fluke.  For whatever reason, this is considered normal.  If I send it back in again, why should I expect better?
2.  Take the camera apart and try to adjust the lens.  Thus utterly violating the warranty.  And probably making it worse in the process (I have a realistic view of my own skill with tools).
3.  Put the darn thing on a shelf, forget about drones, write off the $1400, and get on with my life.

Feeling kinda bummed right now,
QBK

1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes/No - get on with life but just take some time and hopefully you get good device.

i understand your disappointment as i'm one who got blurry cam but looks like first replaced was fine.  

imagines.and.wo Posted at 2016-2-29 16:10
1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes/No - get on with life but just take some time and hopefully you get good device. ...

Thanks for the advice!  So... you had a blurry cam, sent it in, got it replaced, and are happy with the replacement?

For anybody who's interested, I just posted samples and details on the original thread that I started to discuss my problems.  ;)  Opinions (e.g., whether I should just suck it up, or if this is a real flaw) are welcomed.

Hello. English not my native language, sorry for easy style and mistakes.
I have the same issue - blurry focus. Many of us use p3p just for hobby and the don’t worry about this. But i'm prof photographer and this issue made p3p unusable for me.
I'm contacted with Dji support and they confirmed, that my camera has problem and needs repairing in official dji service (for free). I'm monitored forums and trying find someone who have this problem and can fix it by dji repairing, but no one. Dji is replacing one faulty camera by another and send it back. Each of this iteration i loose 5-10 weeks time and $100+ for shipping it to dji.

So, i decide to fix it himself and now share my results.

I have linear focus degradation from left to right. Left side is sharp, center is so-so, right side most blurry. It’s means, that optical axis of lens not strongly perpendicular to matrix (or matrix soldered not parallel to plate). Also it can be internal lens deviation (that you can’t fix, i think), but in my case i checked it by lens rotation. Character of focus deviation not depend of lens rotation angle, so that is mean that lens optical axis position not perpendicular to matrix.



At first - i'm tuned focus with sharp center. But at the same time i've got front-focus at left side and back-focus on right. It doesn't made me happy. So i decide fix lens axis and make it perpendicular to matrix.



I'm glued pieces of adhesive tape to change matrix plate angle. I'm started from 0.4mm tape and have finished at 0.04mm (no error, really 0.04mm). See pictures of this issue and places where i glued my spacer.





When i got uniform sharpness on full frame, i'm tuned lens to perfect focus by rotation.

So see my results. Before-after.


And panorama (use close zoom) and change between before-after panorams.
http://aircam.pro/p3p/

omegas: this is really useful information. I have the same problem.
Now how did you determine where exactly the angle is not 90.0°? It's not something you can see, and I don't see how to decide if you need to put tape on the left or on the right side.
What tape did you use?
You write: "When i got uniform sharpness on full frame, i'm tuned lens to perfect focus by rotation."
How/what do you rotate? I tried rotating the lens like in the Youtube video, but I cannot rotate anything - it seems to be stuck.