I was shooting a night time motion time-lapse and had a focus problem.

My motion time-lapse setting was as below:
- Manual mode
- iso 100
- shutter speed 2"
- 5 sec interval for 10 mins
- AFS (touched screen to set the focus on the road)
- 2 way points

Result is a below picture:

As you can see, it is completely out of focus.
The issue is in motion time-lapse mode, even if I touch the phone's screen to manually focus (and screen was indeed in focus) before shooting, when the gimbal moves to first way point, it totally lost a focus. So in motion time-lapse, manual focus is meaningless.


To compare, I took a normal time-lapse as well:

As you can see, it is in focus in normal time-lapse.
It maintained a focus that is manually set because the gimbal never moved.

Just to test, I also change the focus option to AFC and tried motion time-lapse but it was still out of focus.
Also tried to move gimbal manually to the position close to way point 1 before shooting and set the focus but even in a small difference, it lost a focus with gimbal movement.

So above is my situaltion report and below is my suggestion.

1. Pocket is having a hard time to focus in night scene and manual focus is required in above situaltion
2. However motion time-lapse cannot maintain the manual focus while moving the gimbal to way point 1.
3. To solve it, I want a option button to move the gimbal to way point 1 after setting all the way points.
4. After moving gimbal to way point 1, I can set the manual focus before shooting.
5. Now pocket can beggin shooting motion time-lapse with manual focus maintained.


You can see focus difference from this video.


I hope dji engineers can solve this problem.

I was shooting for 2 hours outside in 3 different locations and all of my 10 motion time-lapses were out of focus.

Dji moderators,
Could you make sure this issue is reported to dji engineers?
I think motion time-lapse focus problem is limiting the pocket from the huge potential.

Moderators, any response?
Hope this issue have been forwared to engineers.

This is a serious issue. I have yet to try a low light motionlapse but was hoping to do one of Northern lights in Norway.
Can others who have similar problems please share their experiences.

kburn Posted at 1-12 00:46
This is a serious issue. I have yet to try a low light motionlapse but was hoping to do one of Northern lights in Norway.
Can others who have similar problems please share their experiences.

I posted my time-lapse video in other post.
You can check the motion lapse video sample with out of focus scenes.

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=177519&page=1&mobile=2#pid1717225

These types of cameras rely upon on contrast measurement focusing systems and as such will lose focus whenever the focus point comes into an area of low contrast with no sharp verticals to lock onto. Also, it has an f2 aperture so even on a wide angled lens (which given its field of view, strictly speaking, isn't so much,) the depth of focus is going to be relatively shallow.  The only way you will even get close to a result at night doing this is to go for single focus and focus at an object within your scanning area which roughly corresponds with the hyperfocal length. I think it's a problem that can't be corrected with any firmware update.

Ray-CubeAce Posted at 1-12 06:59
These types of cameras rely upon on contrast measurement focusing systems and as such will lose focus whenever the focus point comes into an area of low contrast with no sharp verticals to lock onto. Also, it has an f2 aperture so even on a wide angled lens (which given its field of view, strictly speaking, isn't so much,) the depth of focus is going to be relatively shallow.  The only way you will even get close to a result at night doing this is to go for single focus and focus at an object within your scanning area which roughly corresponds with the hyperfocal length. I think it's a problem that can't be corrected with any firmware update.

I already tried single focus and it works until the gimbal head moves to way point one.
I checked focus with a picture before hand cus it is a challenging situation for contrast focus and tries motion time-lapse when I can conform the focus come out ok on picture.

Being said that, my issue here is not about OP's focus capablity. Issue is that OP lost a manually set focus when gimbal head oriented to the first way point.

Ray-CubeAce Posted at 1-12 06:59
These types of cameras rely upon on contrast measurement focusing systems and as such will lose focus whenever the focus point comes into an area of low contrast with no sharp verticals to lock onto. Also, it has an f2 aperture so even on a wide angled lens (which given its field of view, strictly speaking, isn't so much,) the depth of focus is going to be relatively shallow.  The only way you will even get close to a result at night doing this is to go for single focus and focus at an object within your scanning area which roughly corresponds with the hyperfocal length. I think it's a problem that can't be corrected with any firmware update.

By the way thanks for the input

when doing motion-lapse @ daytime, OP move to point A, start recording but without re-focusing, always focus to infinite ( hyperfocal distance may be? ).
a bug here?

edwardyyy Posted at 1-12 21:50
when doing motion-lapse @ daytime, OP move to point A, start recording but without re-focusing, always focus to infinite ( hyperfocal distance may be? ).
a bug here?

Not sure if it's a bug but more of a problem of having a fixed wide aperture on the lens which makes for a narrower focusing depth within a frame that has a lot of depth to it. If there is a bug it would be if the Pocket refocused after each shot rather than stuck to the focus point selected for the first frame or ignored the focus point set and used it's own on the first exposure. I think it may be the latter as I see the same problem occurring on some 3x3 panoramas. If you take a selfie using the 3x3 panorama mode the background is normally sharp with the main subjects in the foreground being out of focus by some margin.

Same issue here.. trashed a lot of motion-lapses due to this matter and, what is worse, is that I had this issue even during the day, with a very bright scene..

Giammi Posted at 1-17 07:58
Same issue here.. trashed a lot of motion-lapses due to this matter and, what is worse, is that I had this issue even during the day, with a very bright scene..

Every single timelapse and motion lapse I have shot so far has been useless to me!  It is so frustrating that this is happening....my iPhone smokes this thing so far.  DJI agreed to replace it, but since under 14 days swapping out first.  Annoying

fans29b7dd1d Posted at 3-4 13:40
Every single timelapse and motion lapse I have shot so far has been useless to me!  It is so frustrating that this is happening....my iPhone smokes this thing so far.  DJI agreed to replace it, but since under 14 days swapping out first.  Annoying

Hope your replacement OP do better for you.
What we can hope is they fix it in next firmware update.

So what did you do to get that video you posted sharp and focused??!?  I cannot get a sharp motion or time-lapse for the life of me!

So what did you do to get that video you posted sharp and focused??!?  I cannot get a sharp motion or time-lapse for the life of me!

So what did you do to get that video you posted sharp and focused??!?  I cannot get a sharp motion or time-lapse for the life of me!

So what did you do to get that video you posted sharp and focused??!?  I cannot get a sharp motion or time-lapse for the life of me!

Tide Posted at 1-5 20:44
I was shooting for 2 hours outside in 3 different locations and all of my 10 motion time-lapses were out of focus.

It's the most frustrating thing ever!  I actually exchanged mine for another and identical thing happening again.  It just does not focus when doing a motion lapse at all.  DJI should be very disappointed with this and shame on them for releasing this with this unacceptable performance.

atort13@mac.com Posted at 3-8 15:59
So what did you do to get that video you posted sharp and focused??!?  I cannot get a sharp motion or time-lapse for the life of me!

I had problem in low light motion time-lapse but normal time-lapse was fine since I can manually set the focus by touch focus.
You can see all the low light motion time-lapse is out of focus but others are fine.

It was all shot on old firmware and new firmware is improved in low light motion time-lapse a little bit but still cannot retain manual focus from the beginning of low light motion time-lapse.

I hope they can improve again in next firmware update.

atort13@mac.com Posted at 3-8 16:00
It's the most frustrating thing ever!  I actually exchanged mine for another and identical thing happening again.  It just does not focus when doing a motion lapse at all.  DJI should be very disappointed with this and shame on them for releasing this with this unacceptable performance.

It is improved a little bit over the firmware update.
But I feel it can be much better if they let us set the manual focus at least.
OP has more upside for me to drop it just for the motion-lapse alone so it is worth for me to waiting for the update.

Being said that if you have out of focus problem in normal time-lapse and motion-lapse in good day light condition, that is a problem I am not having. Something worth to look into set ups.

Same issue here. After setting my path it jumps out of focus when you hit record. I’m playing with it now and it’s the middle of the afternoon. It is still doing the same thing so that illuminates it being a low light issue. I have the focus set on AFS so it should not be jumping or searching for anything. If you’re not having this issue, be very grateful cause everything that’s coming out in this mode is useless. #DJI please look into this and fix it with a firmware update. Thank you!

I'm having same issue here ..Any solution to above issue ?

Ray-CubeAce Posted at 1-12 06:59
These types of cameras rely upon on contrast measurement focusing systems and as such will lose focus whenever the focus point comes into an area of low contrast with no sharp verticals to lock onto. Also, it has an f2 aperture so even on a wide angled lens (which given its field of view, strictly speaking, isn't so much,) the depth of focus is going to be relatively shallow.  The only way you will even get close to a result at night doing this is to go for single focus and focus at an object within your scanning area which roughly corresponds with the hyperfocal length. I think it's a problem that can't be corrected with any firmware update.

Above problem has nothing to do with it .It loses focus once time-lapse starts .

Stuge234 Posted at 4-5 01:56
Above problem has nothing to do with it .It loses focus once time-lapse starts .

Well, I've only done six time-lapses so far but have not had a problem.
What's your failure rate?

Ray-CubeAce Posted at 4-5 08:24
Well, I've only done six time-lapses so far but have not had a problem.
What's your failure rate?

Every motion time lapse has issue because as soon as I press record button... Focus jumps to out of focus.Can see that in mimo app.

yes I have this issue too. Using the OP under studio lighting, so light not an issue. Subject about 18 inches away and as soon as I hit the record it goes out of focus. This is with the latest firmware
Useless !

I’m having the same focal issue, any fixes or work arounds DJI or someone in this forum willing to share?

Same thing here, we need an update to fix that!!!

Stuge234 Posted at 4-5 10:46
Every motion time lapse has issue because as soon as I press record button... Focus jumps to out of focus.Can see that in mimo app.

Update :


This issue is solved in current firmware.

I have a same issue during the day as well can’t use time lapse and hyperlapse. Didn’t have this issue with OP1.
Lot needs to fixed.
* Cant zoom in with Extension Rod
*Extension Rod Joystick Sensitivity can’t be  changed , current settings are toooooo fast.
* Focus issue with time lapse.
Returning my unit soon

Same issue here!
Everything set to manual. Autofocus in AFS and yet look at it hunting for focus. Exposure time 8sec with 10sec interval around 90min of shooting.

https://youtu.be/ZHJvDuCN-5s