I compared my A2 and OA3. Went through pictures, looked at focus, videos, with various FOVs. Mostly identical, just small differences in particualr of FOVs.

It confirms my copy does not suffer from the focus issue. Then, it must depend on copies and it is most likely a hardware issue, meaning probably cannot be fixed with firmware change. In fact I hope a firmware update aiming at fixing the focus isue will not deteriorate those OA3 that are already OK.

That Ulanzi tripod looks nice.  

Thanks for your tests, you're lucky, yours seems to be fine.
Unfortunately, apparently some like mine have an obvious focus problem as I have recently demonstrated.
I am sure that DJI will repair or replace the defective products, the problem will be the long waiting time for the replacement.
It is certain that with a firmware DJI will not be able to solve an obvious hardware problem.

Looks good!

Nice Video, You could do voice control and it might sync better. I got my OA3 and the Focus is bad . I just sent it in to get replaced..

Thanks for nice comments. Glad it is useful. I rarely do such videos and it was a pain to arrange everything. My PC suffered a lot.
I did not know how to easily sync the side by side video clips. The OA3 starts recording faster than A2, thus the slight out of sync.

interesting video...

Very nice comparison video.  Does appear to be a hardware issue which unfortunately can't be fixed via firmware.  

Would you mind posting whether you were using H264 or H265 (HEVC)?  I've been following this issue and one of the main things I see in footage looks like detail loss from video compression.  It seems much less prevalent in your video than what I've seen in some others.  I'm wondering if the issue is mainly present in one or the other (H264/H265).
Edit:  And to be clear, I'm not saying the focus issue is due to compression losses.  I think they may be separate issues.  I just thought your video also seemed to have much less detail loss from video compresson.

DowntownRDB Posted at 10-13 02:45
Very nice comparison video.  Does appear to be a hardware issue which unfortunately can't be fixed via firmware.

I was using the default: HEVC.

BigTB Posted at 10-13 03:30
Would you mind posting whether you were using H264 or H265 (HEVC)?  I've been following this issue and one of the main things I see in footage looks like detail loss from video compression.  It seems much less prevalent in your video than what I've seen in some others.  I'm wondering if the issue is mainly present in one or the other (H264/H265).
Edit:  And to be clear, I'm not saying the focus issue is due to compression losses.  I think they may be separate issues.  I just thought your video also seemed to have much less detail loss from video compresson.

I was using the default: HEVC.

Yaman-Python Posted at 10-13 03:37
I was using the default: HEVC.

Thanks for the reply!

Yaman-Python Posted at 10-13 03:37
I was using the default: HEVC.

  

MarcoR Posted at 10-12 23:09
Thanks for your tests, you're lucky, yours seems to be fine.
Unfortunately, apparently some like mine have an obvious focus problem as I have recently demonstrated.
I am sure that DJI will repair or replace the defective products, the problem will be the long waiting time for the replacement.

Why would you have to wait a long time for a replacement ? Dji repair or replacement is in fact excellent. They arrange collection from your home and deliver to your home.

Excellent tests, many congratulations.  I could not detect any significant (or even insignificant) difference in the resolution of the cameras - and you chose some great shots which would have shown up any problem instantly.  BUT - you didn't include any close up human faces, and that's where personally I think there could be an issue due to some kind of processing of faces within the Action 3.  But that aside, I would conclude that if there's a problem it's in a particular manufacturing run.  And given the problems besetting production in China recently, that wouldn't be a massive surprise to me.

hallmark007 Posted at 10-13 06:03
Why would you have to wait a long time for a replacement ? Dji repair or replacement is in fact excellent. They arrange collection from your home and deliver to your home.

Because I have already contacted them and they told me to wait for the new firmware to see if they solve, only to see what they will do, then if it does the same I start the procedure for the RMA.

MarcoR Posted at 10-13 08:21
Because I have already contacted them and they told me to wait for the new firmware to see if they solve, only to see what they will do, then if it does the same I start the procedure for the RMA.

Ok so its a maybe. But regarding replacement or repair dji is pretty efficient.

Still no response from DJI Support.

Please clarify your answer.  To re-phrase my question.  If your engineering team deems as a quality issue - would DJI repair or replace the defective OA3 with a “new defective free” device - or would DJI simply ship out another OA3 that may still have this “issue”?

Apparently many are concerned that a full DJI OA3 device recall may now be required - to install a new lens elements correctly calibrated - since the beta firmware did not correct the poor focus “issue”.
Thx

If you can confirm that this “issue” has been fixed with say a new correctly calibrated lens element - that would help.
Thx

10-Bit Posted at 10-13 12:56
Still no response from DJI Support.

Please clarify your answer.  To re-phrase my question.  If your engineering team deems as a quality issue - would DJI repair or replace the defective OA3 with a “new defective free” device - or would DJI simply ship out another OA3 that may still have this “issue”?

I wrote to my dealer where I bought mine from that there is issue with OA3 and they need to contact DJI about it since they can/will get a lot of people wanted to return the camera.

And I'm still waiting for the firmware that should "fix" the issue.

---DELETED---

I got the beta firmware this morning and did some testing.
They just increased the sharpness by shooting it too hard, but in the end, nothing changed with subjects close enough.

MarcoR Posted at 10-13 23:05
I got the beta firmware this morning and did some testing.
They just increased the sharpness by shooting it too hard, but in the end, nothing changed with subjects close enough.

It's not beta, they released a new firmware today

johansenfoto Posted at 10-13 23:17
It's not beta, they released a new firmware today

Ah damn, then very bad!

MarcoR Posted at 10-13 23:05
I got the beta firmware this morning and did some testing.
They just increased the sharpness by shooting it too hard, but in the end, nothing changed with subjects close enough.

Can you do me a favor, can you make these pictures in 50-60cm distance (with new firmwere)? Tnx

Obrva Posted at 10-13 23:30
Can you do me a favor, can you make these pictures in 50-60cm distance (with new firmwere)? Tnx

I can do better, here is the link to the video I recorded with the new firmware.
It will remain active for 24 hours, curious what you think.
The maximum distance where I keep the checkered paper and the mobile phone is about 50 cm.
I sent the same link to DJI support for investigation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/ ... 2_/view?usp=sharing

"Yaman-Python " reports in the comments of his video that he's now done a side-by-side comparison of the Action 2 and 3 of his face, and there's no difference.  He won't upload it as he doesn't make his face public ever, but I respect the quality of his comparisons and his judgement.  To me, in conclusion, this strongly points to a bad batch of Action 3 cameras, a physical problem.  Or, the Action 2 is as soft as the Action 3 and nobody noticed before.  But really, his samples from both cameras are just fine, and they have loads of detail in the content.

fansfe82067d Posted at 10-14 00:34
"Yaman-Python " reports in the comments of his video that he's now done a side-by-side comparison of the Action 2 and 3 of his face, and there's no difference.  He won't upload it as he doesn't make his face public ever, but I respect the quality of his comparisons and his judgement.  To me, in conclusion, this strongly points to a bad batch of Action 3 cameras, a physical problem.  Or, the Action 2 is as soft as the Action 3 and nobody noticed before.  But really, his samples from both cameras are just fine, and they have loads of detail in the content.

Maybe his has no problems.
Frame from a video taken now, the squared paper is 50 cm from the camera.
Do you see the balcony railing in focus? Only what is more than 1 meter away is in focus.

Trees in the background are in focus.  Here are the screenshots from your vid at max 50cm.  This is what DJI Support just sent me:

“ Thanks for writing back in.
Regarding this issue, this has been acknowledged and our engineers have provided a resolution for this.
This issue should be fixed by a firmware update using Beta version.”

It appears that the Beta version was the “new firmware” made available to the masses - but DJI needs to confirm to be 100% sure. Seems at this point in time DJI Support believes this is good enough.  Hmm?

Zoom on a frame: the point marked in red is about 40 cm from the cam, can you see it in focus?
My shoes are in focus and the one beyond that distance, ie over 1 meter.
So if DJI says that over 30cm the focus must be uniform, you can clearly see that it is not.
In almost all video made by the reviewers of the newly released cam you can see this blur under 1 meter.

10-Bit Posted at 10-14 01:43
Trees in the background are in focus.  Here are the screenshots from your vid at max 50cm.  This is what DJI Support just sent me:

“ Thanks for writing back in.

Please explain to me, they don't even know if there is actually a focus fix in the new firmware?
Do we have to ask GoPro?

It would be good if DJI showed some proof with images or video.  Before it looked like this ie. blurry - Now it looks like this ie. sharp.  Simple.

10-Bit Posted at 10-13 12:56
Still no response from DJI Support.

Please clarify your answer.  To re-phrase my question.  If your engineering team deems as a quality issue - would DJI repair or replace the defective OA3 with a “new defective free” device - or would DJI simply ship out another OA3 that may still have this “issue”?

They need to make a choice here at DJI. Seems to all the things I've read so far, that they try to fix one and another with a firmware update now. So probably correcting images digitally.
But the problem will still exist if you, let's say sharpen up the image a bit with digital sharpness (when it's really a physical focus distance problem).

If it's really a hardware (focal distance) issue, then this is not goig to help. And they should already know whats wrong at DJI. I've even read some responces here from DJI talking about "internal parameters".

But if they know that it will be an "hardware" problem, why trying to compensate this problem with firmware updates then? Only to avoid a massive callback and hoping that customers like the "improvements"more and keep the camera? And working on OA4 to roll this out within a year and then hoping all the people go for this and forget about the OA3?

But when doing so, they can't solve the problem fysical annymore on new batches. Because they will all recieve the same firmware updates.
So when a camera with an calibrated focus point gets the same update as the update where they will try to digitally compensate the focus, then this "compensation" will also have effect on the image quality of the "healty" camera's...

Rockel83 Posted at 10-16 07:26
They need to make a choice here at DJI. Seems to all the things I've read so far, that they try to fix one and another with a firmware update now. So probably correcting images digitally.
But the problem will still exist if you, let's say sharpen up the image a bit with digital sharpness (when it's really a physical focus distance problem).

Oh DJI knows exactly what is going on.

Excellent comparison and test. It's a pity that others, especially those complaining about the Action 3, aren't as thorough and transparent with their complaints and so called "tests". Stills alone don't mean much, proper video use is much better, as you've done with this video.

Thanks for the time you've spent doing this, I know how long these things take, it's very much appreciated

Also that was a great point you've made, "In fact I hope a firmware update aiming at fixing the focus isue will not deteriorate those OA3 that are already OK".