OK team, so I had my first opportunity to use my Pocket for a serious application last weekend. I went to a wedding in the mountains and used the Pocket to capture aspects of that and for some caves (electrically lit). It managed the cave internals quite well, and captured some spectacular formations in the lighting - passed that test.

However, the wedding was in the entrance of a large cavern. On the walk there I was taking video of the valley around and below, but the Pocket captured ridges in the distance with an odd mix of in focus and blurred. I would have thought that for "infinity" photography, all ridges would have been in focus.

But the cavern... outside in the light was good, but when I transitioned into less lit areas the Pocket would either go out of focus and stay that way, or the focus would start pulsating (in focus, out of focus, in focus, out of focus) like it simply couldn't lock onto something. There was still reasonable light in both scenarios. I had tried setting both AFC and AFS in cases where it was pulsating, but neither mode allowed it to lock into one place and stay that way.

What have I missed? I recall a previous firmware which mentioned "pulsating" so perhaps it isn't improved after all?

The cameras focus is based on contrast focus, so issues may occur in high contrast situations, many suggestions have been made, I’m not sure what the answer will be , best suggestion I’ve seen is to add infinity focus as they had to do on orignal Mavic , I don’t know if it’s possible you will get many different opinions, but hopefully dji keep working at improving this, as you said it gives great results when working correctly.

hallmark007 Posted at 2-17 14:44
The cameras focus is based on contrast focus, so issues may occur in high contrast situations, many suggestions have been made, I’m not sure what the answer will be , best suggestion I’ve seen is to add infinity focus as they had to do on orignal Mavic , I don’t know if it’s possible you will get many different opinions, but hopefully dji keep working at improving this, as you said it gives great results when working correctly.

OK, thanks Hallmark - that makes sense.

And I agree. I don't have the issue on either the P4P or the Mavic Air (at least, not as obvious as this), so clearly the Pocket is coded with different focussing logic (as the optics should be the same). Let's hope that the behaviour of the product is brought into alignment with their drones.

I have found that if used with a phone and using AFS, that if I draw a box across as much of the screen that I can, it seems to reduce the pulsing to a point I don't notice when shooting in low contrast situations and in low light. It may be worth a try if you haven't already.

AFS mode will lock the focus by the newest FW. And I think pulsating will dissappear for next FW update.

I updated mine to latest firmware. I try it outdoor, both AFS and AFC work fine. However, when use indoor, it's like hit or miss once in a while. I notice that AF transition from one point to another is slow but smooth which I like. If I move gimbal from point A to point B too fast, then it may miss focus or take a bit longer to focus. I purchase this for family vacation mostly outdoor so I know its weakness.  I hope that Osmo will keep working on issue to improve AF in the next firmware.

zu1 Posted at 2-17 16:37
AFS mode will lock the focus by the newest FW. And I think pulsating will dissappear for next FW update.

Hope this gets fixed, this being the main reason holding me back from purchase.

suhaid Posted at 2-18 07:51
Hope this gets fixed, this being the main reason holding me back from purchase.

Af-s works well by current FW. New update will bring a new Gimbal AF.

OK, so I have now reviewed all of the video I took last weekend at the wedding with the Pocket. Only about 50% if that is usable due to incorrect focus or pumping. I sincerly hope that DJI are still putting focus (haha) on this issue...

And it's pretty disappointing that the landscape photos I took with my iPhone XS have more perfect focus and detail than the photos I took in the same place with the Pocket (which just wouldn't focus to infinity properly).

I'm sorry to say I'm also becoming very disappointed with the Osmo pocket performance when it comes to focusing when I first purchased the Osmo it seemed fine with no obvious problem and I could not understand why other people seemed to be having a problem. However, after the last firmware update, I have now started to experience the problem more and more and it's now gotten to the point where every time I use the Osmo it's out of focus making the video that I've recorded unless.
I now regret buying this product and will not be rushing out to buy more of Dji's produces. I see online that there are a lot of people experiencing a problem with regards to the focus on the pocket and Dji need to take another look at these issues.
When I first purchased the Osmo it was fine but now it's getting to the point where I can no longer use it to make a professional-looking video not a great advertisement for DJI. Please this issues needs sorting         

Lets clear something. Osmo Pocket is for VIDEO first. Not for photos. Who takes a gimbal (even a small one) to shoot photos ? noone. The AF is not the best in the world. That is true. But the AFS mode works very good. You can lock the focus in a long distance and you will have no problem. Also you can lock the focus to a short distance and you have to be carefull not to go out of focus... Don't forget that professionals never  (or almost never) use auto-focus. However I from my experience AFC need to be improved since it's a bit unstable compared with other cameras of this category. Lets hope we will see an improvement in a newer firmware update.

thaitony Posted at 8-4 22:27
I'm sorry to say I'm also becoming very disappointed with the Osmo pocket performance when it comes to focusing when I first purchased the Osmo it seemed fine with no obvious problem and I could not understand why other people seemed to be having a problem. However, after the last firmware update, I have now started to experience the problem more and more and it's now gotten to the point where every time I use the Osmo it's out of focus making the video that I've recorded unless.
I now regret buying this product and will not be rushing out to buy more of Dji's produces. I see online that there are a lot of people experiencing a problem with regards to the focus on the pocket and Dji need to take another look at these issues.
When I first purchased the Osmo it was fine but now it's getting to the point where I can no longer use it to make a professional-looking video not a great advertisement for DJI. Please this issues needs sorting

Just go back to last FW and as you said yourself you were happy, although I have to say I have not noticed any change in focus from last FW .