The lens on my Phantom 3 Standard has really uneven focus across the frame, with a soft, out of focus spot in the center and out of focus edges. The only areas in sharp focus are a ring surrounding the out of focus center. Also, there's a odd dark spot in the center of the lens which I've never seen before in another lens. The lens is perfectly clean however, so that's not the problem.

Hard to tell from those examples, but my first impression was that they are pretty normal. If you want a critical review, you need to post a link to the original file, to many compression artefacts when inserted into a post.

With regard to the dark centre, this may be the 'halo' effect that occurs when the sun is behind the drone. It is quite normal.

Here's a Google drive folder with .DNG and .JPG images direct from the camera: https://drive.google.com/folderv ... Vld5Z2c&usp=sharing

The temperature was above 50f for all those samples.

I'm familiar with the opposition effect, I'm referring to the dark spot in the middle of the actual lens itself as the last two images clearly showed.

Rotareneg Posted at 2016-2-23 10:59
Here's a Google drive folder with .DNG and .JPG images direct from the camera: https://drive.google. ...

Ah, OK. Can you tell if it is on the front surface of the lens? I can't tell from that shot, but I suspect it should not be there.

I could not get the googledrive thing to work.

Geebax Posted at 2016-2-22 18:30
Ah, OK. Can you tell if it is on the front surface of the lens? I can't tell from that shot, but I ...

After taking a good long look, it's pretty clear it's an internal imperfection in the lens. As I moved the lens around and the various internal reflections from the room lights played across the lens elements I can see they are slightly distorted when they pass across the spot. I'll email DJI and see what they think.

As for the google drive link, you just click on one of the images and then hit the download button on top (downward arrow with a line under it) and it should download. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what the problem might be.

Rotareneg Posted at 2016-2-23 12:12
After taking a good long look, it's pretty clear it's an internal imperfection in the lens. As I mo ...

OK, I will try it again.

Your best bet would be to return it for repair.

Geebax Posted at 2016-2-22 17:09
OK, I will try it again.

Your best bet would be to return it for repair.

It appears that there is a black circle in the center of the lens.  It would be nice to see a front on picture of the lens with a focused light pointing at an edge to be sure, but is really looks like a bad lens.  Never seen anything like that.

WetDog Posted at 2016-2-23 13:55
It appears that there is a black circle in the center of the lens.  It would be nice to see a fron ...

I am guessing that the OP took the photo from that angle because the spot would not show up in a front on shot.

Yes, it's not a black blob of paint or anything like that. Viewed from the front with side lighting it is transparent but reflects a glint of light (there's a little bit of handshake due to a 1/25s exposure while using a macro lens)



From the side again but with a flashlight right next to the camera taking the photo:

Got my P3S back this morning and the new camera/lens is much better:



It took 14 days total from when it was picked up by FedEx at my door to when it was delivered back to my door, 4 days with DJI and 10 with FedEx, not bad at all!