Help Me Understand Why Tap to Focus

[Raptorman0909]

How often do you record drone video footage of something 5 feet away? Most people will say rarely. How often are you recording video footage greater than 50 feet away? Most people will say, most of the time. So, to me it seems like at the very least, the Mavic and P4P should default to a focus of infinity upon power up. As it is, it seems to default to a closer focus. Another nice option would be to focus on whatever is in the center of the screen automatically when you tap the record button. And, make these OPTIONS in the DJI Go app.

I do shoot close in with my Inspire 1 Pro on occasion but I'd guess the majority of the time the closest object is more like 50 feet and often more like 200 feet given the elevation and tilt angle of the camera. But, being able to shoot very close and be in focus is very important even if it's not something I do every day. If you look at the end of this video I shot from my Inspire 1 Pro at the Canyon Diablo railroad bridge you can see how well focused I am at close range to the bridge and can see the detail in the rivets that were used to build it. Helpful if you have a 4K monitor as the video is in 4K.

Brian

 

[CaptainDrone798]

I like the tap to focus, but I understand how others would prefer an infinity focus as in the past.

I'm a hobby photographer and with the Mavic and P4P you can use tap to focus to fly forward with an object on your bottom, left, right or top and only keep said object in focus while the foreground is blurred which is a nice touch. Same as tracking an object, you can tap to focus on the object your tracking and if you bring the angle of the drone down to a level that you can see far behind the person (or object) being tracked, the background will be less sharp then the subject.

I think with the addition of the aperture on the P4P that the tap to focus should work even better and give a nice depth of field in some situations.

Even with the above said, it would be nice to have an autofocus mode, or a mode where you can just lock the focus to infinity and not have to set it each time you power up the drone.

 

[hidaven]

As a pro photographer, the tap to focus is a good thing with this new sensor. Although the angle of view is a WIDE 84 degrees, we may get some bokeh effect by shooting close subjects and throwing the background SLIGHTLY out of focus. My only request is that its a VERY simple update to have this turned off via menu selection. The quad should default to fixed focus and we should have the ability to engage it like many other parameters like going into manual mode. The sensor is still too small to get any real professional results with Bokeh as a 1 inch sensor is just too small. Bokeh starts with an APS-C sized sensor and comes into its glory with a full frame one. This is the same sensor that is in the RX100 line of cameras. Definitely a big step up from the smart phone size in the previous models. Theres close to 12 stops of DR in this sensor! (Dynamic Range) You will now be able to print beautiful 8x10 inch stills from this camera and have MUCH more latitude in post processing. This can be the quad to end all quads for quite awhile......Until they pack an APS-C sized sensor in the Phantom 6 which will again be a giant leap forward.

 

[Drestin Black]

These are flying cameras and that's how I use mine. I have no interest in just flying it around for fun. I use my P4 to take photos and videos. Now, if all that changed is that when I stop and aim and need to take a still photo - I have to add a step to just "tap and focus" then NO problemo - once I learn to do it it'll be automatic.

What will bother me is taking video. Distant to subject(s) can change constantly and I do not want to have to constantly refocus. I want to fly carefully and purposefully while the camera just takes it's video as I go. I feel like there should be a middle ground here. Perhaps I'm wrong and this is going to force me to rethink how I take video and with what platform. I may end up taking video with a P4 and stills with a P4P (annoying).

I will say this - I ordered my P4P from DJI directly, if ti arrives with a tilted horizon it's going back and I'll keep sending them back until it arrives and works properly.

Thank you for your post Brian and the interesting video -- I do note, your Inspire also suffers from the tilted horizon. I just don't understand how this factory mistake just continues to persist.

 

[CaptainDrone798]

Here is a quick example of tap to focus that I used today with the Mavic Pro. The opening of my video is the Mavic filming a bridge (from the ground) and the focus moves from near, middle, than far, and then the Mavic rises for the opening shot. It looks pretty cool on video. If there had been an object, such as a sign or animal within the near frame, having the background out of focus, looks very pro.

 

[Klnyc]

i want the next Phantom 10 with 243 focus point like on my Sony A6300 lol


klnyc

 

[Carltonart]

No, not at all. As was mentioned earlier in the vast majority of flight modes DOF will be sufficient that you can simply tap-focus on infinity at take-off and then be done with it for the entire flight. I suppose that DJI could (and may yet) make an infinity focus setting the default on power-up for those who forget to check it, but beyond that it's really not a problem in operation unless one wants to make it so. The creative advantages of having an actual iris and settable focus more than make up for the trivial task of remembering to make a single focus tap on the screen at the beginning of flight.

So how do I tap on infinity?

 

[AIRSPACE]

Just tap at an object far in the distance. or turn on manual focusing and set to infinity.

 

[Carltonart]

Just tap at an object far in the distance. or turn on manual focusing and set to infinity.

Then everything will be sharp? Sorry this is new to me.

 

[ricphoto]

Then everything will be sharp? Sorry this is new to me.

Look at the depth of field comparisons at different f-stops I posted in this thread for the general idea:
Focus or not on the P4 Pro?
Here's a rough approximation at 2.8 / 5.6 / 11...This is assuming the chip is close to the one in the RX 100...with a small chip the depth of field is pretty deep at all f-stops

 

[ricphoto]

Look at the depth of field comparisons at different f-stops I posted in this thread for the general idea:
Focus or not on the P4 Pro?
Here's a rough approximation at 2.8 / 5.6 / 11...This is assuming the chip is close to the one in the RX 100...with a small chip the depth of field is pretty deep at all f-stops

the amount of depth of field (area in focus) depends on the f-stop you're using and where your point of focus is...looking at the charts above you'll see that at f-11 everything from just under 12' to infinity will be in focus if you set your focus to 15' (hyperfocal distance)...note that the depth of field falls 1/3 back from and 2/3 after your point of focus / hyperfocal point...

 

[Carltonart]

the amount of depth of field (area in focus) depends on the f-stop you're using and where your point of focus is...looking at the charts above you'll see that at f-11 everything from just under 12' to infinity will be in focus if you set your focus to 15' (hyperfocal distance)...note that the depth of field falls 1/3 back from and 2/3 after your point of focus / hyperfocal point...

Awesome, so how would I set the focus to 15'? Just tap focus on something 15 feet out? What if it's closer to 20 or 30 would that still work? Thanks

 

[Carltonart]

Or basically, If I tapped on something around 40 to 50 feet out with most F stops would that likely be set to infinity?

 

[ricphoto]

Awesome, so how would I set the focus to 15'? Just tap focus on something 15 feet out? What if it's closer to 20 or 30 would that still work? Thanks

tapping on something within that range should work or you can use manual focus...these are approximates based on the closest I could find to the publish spec for the chip...The Sony RX 100...
looks like we'll get a break in the weather here tomorrow and I'll verify these #'s while I'm running my color space tests...

 

[ricphoto]

Or basically, If I tapped on something around 40 to 50 feet out with most F stops would that likely be set to infinity?

our answers crossed there...

for the greatest depth of field you'd want to shoot at the higher end of the f-stop scale...f-11 should give you the most freedom in flying while not having to focus...of course there's trade offs...does the resultant shutter speed maintain the 2x frame rate or stop motion? is the quality difference in the lens that great from f-5.6 to f-11? do you have to pump up the iso to noisy territory be able to maintain the above? it's a balancing act...and it quickly becomes second nature once the lightbulb goes on...

 

[Carltonart]

our answers crossed there...

for the greatest depth of field you'd want to shoot at the higher end of the f-stop scale...f-11 should give you the most freedom in flying while not having to focus...of course there's trade offs...does the resultant shutter speed maintain the 2x frame rate or stop motion? is the quality difference in the lens that great from f-5.6 to f-11? do you have to pump up the iso to noisy territory be able to maintain the above? it's a balancing act...and it quickly becomes second nature once the lightbulb goes on...

Thank you so much for all of your help, I have always loved photography and I'm excited to dig into the technical side of it.

 

[AIRSPACE]

I am going to put a quick video together showing some on screen action of focusing.

 

[ricphoto]

Thank you so much for all of your help, I have always loved photography and I'm excited to dig into the technical side of it.

the tech side is what makes the artistic side work...knowing how/why your tools work helps free up your creativity...have fun ;-)

 

[AIRSPACE]

the tech side is what makes the artistic side work...knowing how/why your tools work helps free up your creativity...have fun ;-)

While its not definitive here is a guide showing some of the new focus features

 

[Carltonart]

Peak threshold seems helpful, what about the different percentages?