Before I ship it back...

[WetDog]

You are correct, but I was simply wanting to illustrate a focus issue and decided not to process the image for fear of introducing artifacts. Your pics look nice but I am not able to view them at 100%.

So far I've got about the same number of people saying send it back as I do people who say that's just the way it is and accept it. What to do...

Here is a jpeg (saved from the .DNG) of the second image linked in post #7 with a bit of sharpening. Shutter was 1/380 s. Notice how sharp it looks in the bottom left corner (and generally along the bottom of the frame) as compared to everywhere else.
View attachment 43359

You've now ventured into the off center lens issue which is yet another problem with P3s. I have seen a number of people whose P3s have soft / unfocused sides (as opposed to losing some sharpness at all the edges of the frame which is expected). Seems to be worse in cold weather.

You could ** possibly ** get a better tuned camera by playing DJI roulette. You might get one with worse performance. I have yet heard from anyone who has gone in and shimmed the lens but that would be the next step. One of these days I'm going to take apart a spare Advanced camera to see if it can be shimmed but that's a bit down in the Things I'm Supposed To Be Doing department so I'm hoping somebody else will beat me to it.

DJI just might say that it is within tolerances. Again, some folks have had unreasonably high expectations for these cameras. They are just three year old cell phone cameras. One thing to do is to step back and think about what your are aiming for photographically. Do you need to print a double truck spread on a glossy magazine? Or are you going to show your pictures at 1900 or so pixels on a monitor. For the former, you're probably better off getting a drone that can hold a real camera or spending some quality time tuning up the P3 imager. For the latter, a bit of pixel peeking edge softness is fine....

Horses for courses.

 

[LSZ1318]

This work?
http://cdn.ipernity.com/200/38/26/41013826.5b88114e.jpg
http://cdn.ipernity.com/200/02/96/41010296.a77e0f92.jpg

Did you have the P3 produce JPGs at the same time as the RAW? If so, how did they look? As pixelated as beelines? I gotta do a test now with my P3, LOL.

 

[Wolfiesden]

Yes, I shoot RAW+Jpeg. Though I don't use the jpeg for anything at all. I don't even think LR reads it but it might until it builds its own thumbnails. I could grab the jpeg of this image and ship it up. If yall wanted it for reference.

 

[beeline]

BTW, you know that magnolia is gonna outgrow them other lawn ornaments right

My tax dollars at work (city park). The same park where they ripped out the playground equipment in a coup to expand the cemetery. After a neighborhood uproar, the city wound up replacing the playground at significant cost. Interestingly, it's called the Dead Children's Playground.

To stay on topic, here's a clip of the above mentioned playground taken with the P3P (shot and posted in 1080p). Focus does not look soft to me but Youtube sure did a number on it.

 

[beeline]

Again, some folks have had unreasonably high expectations for these cameras.

I may fall into that category. I was somewhat happy with the results my GoPro 3 black produced. Been reading these forums for over a year now and I was lead to believe the P3P shot superior stills and video to the GoPro. Doubting those claims now, at least with my P3P.

a bit of pixel peeking edge softness is fine....

Yes, I'd rather have edge softness than center softness, though.

 

[Richard Gozinya]

You are correct, but I was simply wanting to illustrate a focus issue and decided not to process the image for fear of introducing artifacts. Your pics look nice but I am not able to view them at 100%.

So far I've got about the same number of people saying send it back as I do people who say that's just the way it is and accept it. What to do...

Here is a jpeg (saved from the .DNG) of the second image linked in post #7 with a bit of sharpening. Shutter was 1/380 s. Notice how sharp it looks in the bottom left corner (and generally along the bottom of the frame) as compared to everywhere else.
View attachment 43359

There's nothing wrong with THIS picture at all. Some elements of that picture are sharp. Anything you see lacking sharp focus can be attributed to your depth of focus field. More commonly referred to as "depth of field".
Pretty decent understanding of this follows :

3 ways to affect depth of field: free cheat sheet | Digital Camera World

 

[beeline]

There's nothing wrong with THIS picture at all. Some elements of that picture are sharp. Anything you see lacking sharp focus can be attributed to your depth of focus field. More commonly referred to as "depth of field".

Thank you Richard, I do understand DOF but appreciate your reply. Happy to hear you see no issues with the picture although I do believe infinity focus is off a bit. That being said, the quad is so flawless in every other regard I'm probably not going to send it back after all. It will definitely tide me over until better pixels come cheap.

Has anyone tried making the focus adjustment themselves? I've seen a video about replacing the lens and setting focus but can't remember seeing it done here.