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autofocus x5


Thanks for the link to the manual. I'm 3 days into owning an X5 and have just signed up for the forum so I'm a pretty raw newbie. I've read the manuals, watched the tutorial videos and snuck in two flights during breaks in our Seattle rain. So far I'm not understanding quite how the autofocus works. I'm accustomed to autofocus on a DSLR where you mostly don't have to take any action for the focus to work. During my first flight I took a number of still shots most of which were out of focus. At some point I touched the screen and caused the camera to focus on the point I touched. Is it necessary to constantly be changing the focus point? Is that considered autofocus? If so it seems tough to manage the focus while also flying. I'm sure I'm missing something. I appreciate any explanation you can provide to speed up my learning curve.
 
Thanks for the link to the manual. I'm 3 days into owning an X5 and have just signed up for the forum so I'm a pretty raw newbie. I've read the manuals, watched the tutorial videos and snuck in two flights during breaks in our Seattle rain. So far I'm not understanding quite how the autofocus works. I'm accustomed to autofocus on a DSLR where you mostly don't have to take any action for the focus to work. During my first flight I took a number of still shots most of which were out of focus. At some point I touched the screen and caused the camera to focus on the point I touched. Is it necessary to constantly be changing the focus point? Is that considered autofocus? If so it seems tough to manage the focus while also flying. I'm sure I'm missing something. I appreciate any explanation you can provide to speed up my learning curve.
Calibrate the lens and set focus to infinity. At f4 and above you won't need to worry about having to auto focus or tap the screen as unless your subject is a foot away everything you want to shoot will be in focus
 
Yup.... What he said ^^^^^ :)

When you calibrate the lens make sure you do so on a high contrast subject around 50m from the x5.
 
Awesome thanks fellas. Not only is that helpful it makes me feel smart. That's what I came up with but it's nice to have confirmation from experienced users that I'm on the right track.
 
So do you calibrate - and when that's good - then you always shoot video on MF set to infinity?

Yes, never had any issues with anything being out of focus. The calibration doesn't seem to be an exact science either I did both our lenses without really measuring 50 M of distance, just in the ball park. Before the calibrations however the focus at infinity was completely out of whack.
 
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Yes, never had any issues with anything being out of focus. The calibration doesn't seem to be an exact science either I did both our lenses without really measuring 50 M of distance, just in the ball park. Before the calibrations however the focus at infinity was completely out of whack.
So if you shoot MF set to infinity, do you have any idea how close can you get before it gets out of focus with fx. f/8?
 
So if you shoot MF set to infinity, do you have any idea how close can you get before it gets out of focus with fx. f/8?
Not an exact idea no, but you'd have to be pretty **** close. 3 feet? 4? 5 maybe?
 
Thanks your input. I'll give that a try tomorrow. Getting settings for smooth yaw in place...just being a pixel peeper when it comes to focusing.
Good luck with that! When you find the magic settings please do let me know :)
 
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just to follow up on the earlier point, I completely understand about the whole "use inifinty focus", but I don't really get how DJI's autofocus actually works. It doesn't constantly refocus, and it doesn't focus just before taking a shot. So I'm not sure (other than touching the screen) how the autofocus actually works. To have to touch the screen is madness, as our hands are busy.

Ideally there'd be a 'half press' which would force focus on the centre point, but I thought that it would maybe focus quickly before taking the shot. To be in "autofocus" mode, and take a shot and find it completely out of focus is completely bizarre.
 
You just tap on the screen where you want it to focus, this is your "half press"...

My question isn't really related to the topic but I didn't feel it was necessary to make a new thread for it.

When I used to tap to focus, the portion I tapped would zoom in and autofocus then zoom back out. Since the latest update, it doesn't zoom in anymore. Is there any way to get the zoom focus feature back? I've looked through every menu.
 

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