So Today I tried using the P1 before dawn in low light about 5:00 am I had a serious issue not being able to manually adjust the focus. It started off Out of Focus and Blurry. So I tried using the Auto focus function it adjusted the ISO and appeared to get good color, but the P1 Focused on the ground about 3 ft in front the the M 300. I tried to set it to Infinity and it still was way out of adjustment actually worse. After this I decided to switch from the manual flight mode to the mapping mode in the Pilot app to see if this was a glitch in the manual flight mode. Started a mission and no luck it still was way out of focus. I Tried manually adjusting the Focus with the scroll wheel still no luck. I also tried setting it to infinity focus with no change. After dawn around 6:05 am The camera started focusing correctly using the Auto focus settings. Anyone else have this issue before? I believe DJI hasa hidden function at play or a Bug. Anyone have an Idea as to where I am going wronge or am I looking at a bug?Example at Startup:  

On the Ground

Example in Mapping Mission Auto Focus Issue:

Mapping Auto Focus

There could be several reason why this happened. Is there anyway I could get the metadata from the picture....ISO, FSTOP, Shutter Speed??

mikes1 Posted at 9-17 18:00
There could be several reason why this happened. Is there anyway I could get the metadata from the picture....ISO, FSTOP, Shutter Speed??

So this is a short follow up of about 6-8 weeks. The camera that I was having the issue with is the DJI P1 camera the camera has a camera frame and a detachable lens. The Lens contains a set of focus servos within it and one of these was not working correctly. If anyone else has this issue an easy test is to run the calibration for the P1 camera within the settings. This failure would never pass the calibration test for the infinity focus. Long story short  the lens failed after about 40 days. DJI did a great job and replaced the part but due to supply issues it did take about 4-5 weeks to get everything resolved once I realized what was actually going on and it was not user error. The lens focus would intermittently work and eventually stopped but it took sometime to realize why I would get some out of focus pictures. As I was new to the camera it was not apparent to me at first what was happening. I hope this helps someone else if they are unlucky enough to experience this issue.

Jim MC Posted at 9-17 20:43
So this is a short follow up of about 6-8 weeks. The camera that I was having the issue with is the DJI P1 camera the camera has a camera frame and a detachable lens. The Lens contains a set of focus servos within it and one of these was not working correctly. If anyone else has this issue an easy test is to run the calibration for the P1 camera within the settings. This failure would never pass the calibration test for the infinity focus. Long story short  the lens failed after about 40 days. DJI did a great job and replaced the part but due to supply issues it did take about 4-5 weeks to get everything resolved once I realized what was actually going on and it was not user error. The lens focus would intermittently work and eventually stopped but it took sometime to realize why I would get some out of focus pictures. As I was new to the camera it was not apparent to me at first what was happening. I hope this helps someone else if they are unlucky enough to experience this issue.

Glad it turned out well for you.

Another thing about the P1 I've had problems with with Autofocus is that for a mapping mission, you only get one chance at focus for the entire mission, and that chance comes at the very first image point.

If that one attempt misses, the entire set of mission images will be blurred, most likely unusable.

The big problem is that with such a small screen you can't tell you've wasted a day until you get back and can download the images to look at them in full resolution.

For us this is a major problem because we're mapping islands, and the first image point is almost always over water since the first image point is on the periphery of the mission area.

The silly work-around for this problem is to wait until the UAV is over land, then halt the mission manually, then when it asks if you want to start from the beginning or resume, you select resume. Then the UAV lines back up, takes a new autofocus attempt, this time over land, and continues on.

Silly, but the images are phenomenal when they're in focus

Glad you found the problem. I'll have to watch for similar issues. YES, the "one-time" focus can be an issue. Water can be a stumper. I have had great success using infinity focus. Shooting most of the time from 125' to 175' I really can't tell the difference after testing. Same picture size and when zoomed in they look the same which says a lot about that mode. I shoot a lot of structure so if it uses autofocus on the ground for your first shot, items that are 100' tall can look a little fuzzy on the top of the structure although you need to look close. In autofocus, they should at least allow the camera to refocus during the turnaround. Great camera any way you look at it.

If anyone from DJI is listening, an option on one of the mapping mission definition screens to autofocus on every image or even every "X" images would nicely solve this problem.

Since the software is already in the UAV, I would think it would be a simple firmware update.

I think the reason the P1 does not autofocus on each picture during flight missions is the fact that the autofocus is slow and will greatly slowdown the mapping mission. The P1 is capable of capturing about 4-5 images a second as a result there is no time to focus the camera or you will greatly increase the length of the mission. A simple trick I learned from my inspire one that could also take out of focus images was to land and review the photos on a laptop be for I would leave the site. Another trick I have learned using this new platform with the M300 and P1 is to run the infinity focus calibration regularly. As a Surveyor this makes since to me maybe better than someone unfamiliar with optical instruments. The reason is pretty simple when you think about it. Given that the frame lens and other components expand and contract at different temperatures that also means that the adjustments do not always stay the same. IE moving from 100 Degree environment to 20 degree environment or vice verse the cameras internal dimensions change slightly and will cause the image to be slightly out of focus. Running the infinity Focus Calibration before you begin your flight will address this issue. Incidentally, if you do this and then set infinity focus to be used for you mission you will probably see a noticeable improvement in the quality of your photos. I do want to point out a detail about infinity focus. The Calibration is designed to be done at 335ft. This is done on purpose as the camera is a mapping system and is intended to be relatively far from the objects it is photographing if you find your self less than 100ft to the point of interest you will likely see some blurring and I end up using the autofocus. This usually resolves the issue down to about 5-10 ft from the camera. I have never tried this but I suspect if the calibration is done near the height you intend to measure from you will get your most dynamic range for the infinity focus.

Thank you for your input and best of luck with your mapping using the P1!

fans5b25584c Posted at 9-19 13:58
Glad it turned out well for you.

Another thing about the P1 I've had problems with with Autofocus is that for a mapping mission, you only get one chance at focus for the entire mission, and that chance comes at the very first image point.

You should try the infinity focus calibration before your flight and then select the use infinity focus in the planning software. You will probably want to run the calibration every time you fly but it will likely resolve your issue with the water.

These suggestions about infinity calibration and carrying laptops are interesting, but not very useful for us.

We're mapping nesting bird colonies on islands, usually from altitudes of less than 90 feet, flying as slow as possible as not to scare the birds. We're not having any problems with the P1 autofocusing as long as the first point is not over water, no problems with temperature. If that first focus point is not over the moving surface of the water, every picture is perfectly in focus.

Amazing focus

We did an infinity calibration on day one and have never yet taken an out of focus image that wasn't on a mission that started over water.

We also don't have any problem with the speed of the images being taken at 2 seconds. Actually, for photogrammetry, 2 seconds at 30 meters, 5 mps, is a big overkill, and I suspect an interval of 4 seconds would be fine.  Having an occasional autofocus operation would not cause any problems at those image intervals.

We plan our entire survey days around the limitations of battery capacity, with each island we hope to complete mapped out in terns of flight times, before we ever get on the boat. Some of our islands are so big that it takes all our batteries to fly it once. The concept of landing, looking at the pictures to see if they're out of focus, then re-flying the entire island if the autofocus didn't work wouldn't be practical for us.

The suggestions of calibration and landing don't address the problem of distance changes when flying a planar mission over trees, or in the other responders case, buildings. For us, thee are no trees tall enough to cause focus differences from the ground, but I can understand why buildings would be a problem.

All these problems could be easily solved with an autofocus option during a mapping mission. Another option would be allowing the user to select the P1 view on the controller, then touching the screen at a place you want to re-autofocus, like in the manual flight system.

fans5b25584c Posted at 9-21 02:56
These suggestions about infinity calibration and carrying laptops are interesting, but not very useful for us.

We're mapping nesting bird colonies on islands, usually from altitudes of less than 90 feet, flying as slow as possible as not to scare the birds. We're not having any problems with the P1 autofocusing as long as the first point is not over water, no problems with temperature. If that first focus point is not over the moving surface of the water, every picture is perfectly in focus.

Good suggestion. Hope this will be implemented. This is only for missions planned with the pi.ot app, right?

IBV Bob Posted at 10-10 12:17
Good suggestion. Hope this will be implemented. This is only for missions planned with the pi.ot app, right?

Yes

I think that's the only time autofocus is inhibited

fans5b25584c Posted at 9-20 05:04
If anyone from DJI is listening, an option on one of the mapping mission definition screens to autofocus on every image or even every "X" images would nicely solve this problem.

Since the software is already in the UAV, I would think it would be a simple firmware update.

I think the best use of autofocus would be to use the same strategy as the Mavic 2 Pro when using GSP. I agree with another comment that the camera is taking pictures in a fast sequence and would be impractical to focus before each shot. I would suggest that it should auto-focus after the "turnaround" and right before starting the next line. At least it would have multiple opportunities during a mission to reset the focus.

mikes1 Posted at 10-13 06:11
I think the best use of autofocus would be to use the same strategy as the Mavic 2 Pro when using GSP. I agree with another comment that the camera is taking pictures in a fast sequence and would be impractical to focus before each shot. I would suggest that it should auto-focus after the "turnaround" and right before starting the next line. At least it would have multiple opportunities during a mission to reset the focus.

Some sort of fix to the Autofocus problem during Mapping Missions is another of the many fixes that was not addressed in the latest firmware.

Not using a dark green font against a black background for important info on a screen designed to be used in a bright environment?

How difficult are these to correct?

It's the little things that can really aggravate you. Another mapping issue I have is that when you do a standard mapping mission "NO SMART OBLIQUE" you can not adjust the gimbal angle. The adjustment is there for all the oblique missions but not for the regular mapping mission. Sometimes I might map an area that is very tight and because the oblique missions fly outside the intended mapping box, I can't use it because of the "flyover" issues. I have tried manually moving the gimbal but as soon as it starts it's run the gimbal points down. I wish they would give us the option to adjust the gimbal angle in the standard mapping mode. I also wish they would give us a hatch pattern option. I guess DJI doesn't believe there's any value in that because it's not in any of their software.

Jim MC Posted at 9-20 07:33
You should try the infinity focus calibration before your flight and then select the use infinity focus in the planning software. You will probably want to run the calibration every time you fly but it will likely resolve your issue with the water.

Hi Mate,

I am trying to calibrate the infinity focus but it's getting every time I try. I was working fine with Zenmuse P1 mounted on Matrice M300 RTK before I upgraded to latest firmware. Do you think this happened due to firmware upgrade?

Thanks,

saeed.spatio Posted at 12-14 00:09
Hi Mate,

I am trying to calibrate the infinity focus but it's getting every time I try. I was working fine with Zenmuse P1 mounted on Matrice M300 RTK before I upgraded to latest firmware. Do you think this happened due to firmware upgrade?

If it was working correctly before your firmware upgrade and then stopped. I would be very suspicious. There is a way to roll back firmware on the m300 using the manual software install. I would advise talking with your dealer before you do this. It is also possible a firmware update did not complete or you had an issue while running the update.

When I experienced the P1 focus issue and later full failure of the focus the camera from day one took pictures out of focus from time to time. Since the repair this has basically not happened again. The point of you have noticed intermittent frames out of focus or not perfectly sharp on mapping jobs then I would be suspicious of the focus failure as well.

In either case your easiest thing to do is to consult your dealer for support and send in your camera to DJI if you can not resolve the problem at the firmware level.

Best of luck it took me several weeks to work all of this out so I hope you can find a solution faster.

saeed.spatio Posted at 12-14 00:09
Hi Mate,

I am trying to calibrate the infinity focus but it's getting every time I try. I was working fine with Zenmuse P1 mounted on Matrice M300 RTK before I upgraded to latest firmware. Do you think this happened due to firmware upgrade?

Another thought. If you have issues with the focus you might try warming the lens on the dash of your vehicle before flight. This worked for me for a short time. You want to get it to about 80 degrees. For some reason this freed mine up and allowed it to focus. Once it got cold again it locked up. Mechanical part

Temperature is an interesting concept, with merit.

I live along the gulf coast of Texas, and I don't think I've ever flown below 60 degrees F.

Other than the First-Image-Over-Water problem, I've never had any problems with P1 focus of any kind.

I'm feeling a little guilty because after the latest M300/P1 firmware update everyone is having trouble with, my images, if anything, have improved.

fans5b25584c Posted at 12-14 09:43
Temperature is an interesting concept, with merit.

I live along the gulf coast of Texas, and I don't think I've ever flown below 60 degrees F.

My First Issue where Focus completely stopped working happened when the camera was take out early in the morning for some sunrise photos of a site. It was chilly around 30-40 degrees F the previous day it was 80-90 or so when I used it with out an issue. I have heard from my dealer that there camera had an issue working when a firmware version was released.

As to the other issues people have mentioned I believe it all comes down to temperature and pressure issues and running the calibration when the Temp changes more than about 20-30 degrees F. As the parts in the lens will expand and contract a little this will effect the focus ever so slightly and leave the camera out of focus slightly. By running the calibration you effectively correct this but I think its setup to create a sweet spot by distance so if you have extreme distance changes in your photo frame I think you will still see an issue on some level.