DJI Mini 3 Pro Focus Peaking Level: Simple Tip to Avoid Blurred Focus Disasters

#dji #djimini3pro #focus #tutorial #FocusPeaking #PeakingLevel
I have a complete drone failure at Stonehenge with a load of video and photos out of focus. So I explain what went wrong and how to always get the perfect focus each time. I use Focus Peaking Level to show exactly when things are in perfect focus and also how to show when you slip out of Auto Focus. A brilliant, simple tip for perfect photos and video.
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[@TonesDroneVisuals]

I use the third option which is infinity mode. It's at the top of the manual settings which is the "mountain" symbol

[@sjm.photos]

Thats why i use the wheel for zooming not the onscreen button

[@EQAVOX]

My mini 3 is awful tbh. Everything looks like it's shot on a potato even at 4k 30fps. DJI had a look at my footage and said it was fine, but the more I film, the more I am suspicious of that. Something just doesn't seem right at all. Bitterly disappointed. when I first got it, everything I shot was beautiful but since the latest firmware update it's just looked pants no matter what I try or tweak or change.

[@maswack]

Excellent tips, thank you Ian

[@thelning]

Many tanks for your video Ian. I will certainly keep this in my mind when I finally one day get my Mini 3 Pro.

[@thewiltshirewomble]

Really great tip here Ian… Thank you for sharing 👍

[@jaystepien921]

Thank you! Great, precise advice!

[@CLLUK]

Another Excellent Video. Practical, Informative, Coherent, No Fancy Long Intro & Annoying Music.

[@karenmouselady]

Great information as ever Ian, it always helps to have these reminders so thank you for taking the time to put then up. Keep the vidoes coming 👍👍

[@IaninLondon]

Thanks Karen! Will do....

[@freeman-1776]

Thank you so much. I have the Air 3 and it is notorious for going out of focus. I have figured out lining up my manual focus to the auto line on the graph but I had no clue about the focus peaking setting. I will try this for sure. Cheers!

[@photobritain]

Great advice Ian. Thanks for sharing.

[@johnnybermudez]

LOVE THAT TIP ! Thanks brother!

[@RonaldBrown59]

I always tap to focus to make sure that focus was locked to something close by the drone when it took off. Great information Ian, I'm sure this tip will help many flyers out there. Thanks for sharing.

[@alexthai4957]

Genius workaround! Brilliant!

[@Joe.O.]

Great advice, thanks for the video.

[@youjaymair]

Great point, now I know why some of my footage was out of focus. I didn't think to check if I had gone out of AF

[@garysaerialviews]

Good info as usual Thanks Ian 👍

[@johnwrayton]

Thanks Ian, great video as ever.

[@nicky.keller]

thank you👍👍

[@bobwhitewo3b]

Thank you Ian. Great learning experience. I love learning from other’s mishaps instead of my own.

[@IaninLondon]

Ha, yep, that's the way... :)

[@shsechas]

Same here- learn from others. I always look to see if the camera is in auto mode, but will now pay attention the the AF button..

[@shawnsheppard9197]

Thank you I will be doing that great advice really enjoy your videos just got the mini 3 pro ,your helping me learn how it all works keep up the good work👍👍

[@IaninLondon]

Cheers!

[@SoybeanFarmer3300]

Thank you very much for putting this together. I'll have to check and see if there are comprable settings or my mavic Air 2. 🙂

[@WinfriedHeyland]

Helpful as always

[@marks7171]

Excellent tip, cheers

[@GeoRick]

Thanks very useful.

[@davehodgkiss]

Great tip thanks Ian regards Dave

[@tobyr8555]

Great point Ian, I will switch this in for my Mini3pro! I ruined quite a bit of footage on my OG MavicPro due to the AF being rather average, so my Mini2 was nice as everything was in focus. However with the larger sensor on the Mini3Pro, AF is definitely needed imo

[@Michelle-jc7dj]

Handy tip, thanks

[@jameslincs]

Love these videos

[@terryrccrazy6993]

Good tip thanks

[@J2onton]

Thanks for this info because I didn't know.

[@lukerowbotham3613]

Great video

[@RobertWildling]

Now I know what this is good for! Thanks a lot for this video! :-)

[@hedleythorne]

Always informative, thanks Ian

[@IaninLondon]

Thanks Hedley.... Thought you'd like the thumbnail ;)

[@hedleythorne]

@@IaninLondon Haha I certainly didn't scroll past this one!!!

[@grumpyclark]

The 3 Bears LOL. Thanks Ian, great video again.

[@glyndewis]

Thanks for this Ian … my sausage fingers haven’t accidentally tapped on the AF … yet … so it’s good to be aware of this. The shots you did share of Stonehenge came out great with the long shadows. Haven’t managed to pop down yet to try the same but I’m intrigued about your parking place which looked ideally placed. Best to you 👍

[@IaninLondon]

Cheers Glyn. I probably should do a short video on where to park and tips for flying considerately and without annoying the masses. Driving along the A303 main road, with Stonehenge coming up on the left, there's suddenly a dirt track full of potholes, where there's always a load of campervans parked. That's my take off point. :)

[@lynsmith1096]

Some more good tips Ian.

[@IaninLondon]

Thanks Lyn

[@timoryan4441]

Useful reminder Ian. Feel better about using AF now…

[@JaroslavBengl]

I've ruined few drone shots with manual focus as well, unfortunately. Peak Focus is a good idea, thanks for sharing, Ian! 👍🏻 I use the peak focus on my mirrorless camera, but never tried it on the drone yet.

[@IaninLondon]

Cheers Jaroslav! It's a useful thing to have on.... :)

[@lindsayheyes925]

Good tip 👍

[@IaninLondon]

Thanks 👍

[@Technician4444]

Many people have issues with focus on the MP3. The real problem is although it has Autofocus it's not 'Continuous' Autofocus as a Digital camera might have, therefore as the subject is moving or rather the Drone camera is it's easy to be OOF. Continuous AF would solve focus problems at a stroke....come on DJI !

[@grahamniven]

Alternatively... it would be nice if there was an option in the Camera section of the menu to lock focus at infinity, disabling the screen AF/MF select button on the touchscreen.

[@Technician4444]

@@grahamniven I suppose aficionados and those who do a lot of camera work with a Drone would remind us that focussing is what the button top right on the controller does. Still it would be nice to be able to set & forget knowing it was always in focus no matter what.

[@grahamniven]

@@Technician4444 if you mean the wheel, it only controls the zoom, depending on what resolution you're filming in this can either be a lossless digital zoom, or a cropped lossy zoom. It doesn't adjust focus.

[@Technician4444]

@@grahamniven No I mean the shutter button itself, press halfway to focus the same as a digital camera. Really it's sort of semi-autofocus as you would have to keep pressing the shutter button if you wanted to be spot on at all times. Now if it had Continuous AF it would stay locked on. Thinking about though as the scene is changing all the time how would the Drone know what to focus on ?

[@grahamniven]

@@Technician4444 ah, yes didn’t realise the camera shutter button would do that while recording video, since I first had out of focus footage I’ve always used manual/infinity.

[@gerrywatkins846]

Made this mistake myself Ian learnt the hard way like yourself mate ,

[@paulmorris4759]

I've had intermittent focus issues with my Mini 3 Pro since I bought it. I'm not convinced that your problem was due to being clumsy. What happens with me on occasion is that the camera will not focus to infinity either manually or with auto focus. It focuses much closer to the drone (say, six to ten feet away) and even toggling between AF and MF while in flight, or sliding the MF settings to the mountain icon, will not fix the issue. The only solution is to return home and turn the drone off and on again to make sure that it is focusing properly and can focus to infinity when desired. Because it only happens intermittently, it's been driving me nuts. I have a couple of theories about what causes the condition. The first is that if the camera is pointing at something close when it's turned on, it might be calibrating that as the infinity point. The second theory is that if I am using manual exposure and the settings are way off when I turn on the drone, it might be unable to calibrate the infinity point because of too much or too little luminance. I have been unable to prove or disprove these theories with experimentation because it requires rigorous testing under controlled conditions. As you discovered, it isn't always obvious to see the problem via the monitor and for that reason, I like your focus peaking tip. It will be helpful to me in diagnosing whether the problem has arisen on a particular flight. In any case, I don't think you should blame yourself for possibly hitting the wrong button. I think that this is a firmware glitch that has been present since DJI launched the Mini 3 Pro. Several other people have brought up the problem on different social media sites and forums and it tends to get dismissed quickly by the rank and file who just say "swith to MF and move the slider to the mountains icon." What they fail to realize is that when the miscalibration occurs, the mountain icon will not result in focusing on infinity; rather, it might result in focusing ten feet away. I've been into photography for almost 50 years and I am a DP on for a nationally televised series. I have experience flying six different modes of DJI drones and this is the only model with which I have experienced this issue.

[@IaninLondon]

Interesting points. I will admit to not checking the AF vs MF or Mountain symbol on these flights as it hadn't been an issue and I was more preoccupied with the subject matter and flying the drone itself.... I'll be keeping an eye on it, and hopefully the High Peaking Level setting will help keep reminding me to check if it does slip into Manual mode again. Cheers

[@railroadandindustrialsky-wv8ns]

This comment matches exactly my own experience. I think there is a much deeper problem with auto focus that can’t be fixed by switching back and forth between auto and manual.

[@paulmorris4759]

@@railroadandindustrialsky-wv8ns Thanks for confirming my suspicion. Have you found a solution other than landing and re-booting the drone? Have you isolated a cause or do you have any other theories about the cause?

[@oohkumar]

Hi Paul. After having numerous videos (and amazingly stills as well) ruined on a recent photo shoot with my Mini 3 Pro I contacted DJI. They said I should be a bit more careful when working between manual and auto. Subsequently I turned on focus peaking (as suggested by Ian) and switched to manual for a quick check to make sure that things were in focus. After I had confirmed that manual focus looked good I switched to auto and from then on things seemed to improve. I did two photo shoots and both came with great looking in-focus video. However, I’m not convinced that solved the problem: it may have just been luck. I recently crashed that drone and DJI sent me a new one which I took out yesterday and lo and behold the focusing issues are back and some of the footage looks blurry again: useable but not super sharp. I have the Air 2S and the picture quality is out-of-this-world. I’m thinking of switching full-time to the Air 2S because I’m tired of dealing with the focus problems.

[@jasonlee4267]

I would love for DJI to add a very simple spirit level style function to the flight screen to the fly app that could be toggled on or off for users that may want to use it, similar to a histogram type setting. What I mean is basically an icon that displays the drones actual angle at any given time relative to the ground, this could help users determine how much movement is actually happening to the drone when it is up in the air, so you could see if the wind is knocking the drone sideways as you are about to capture the shot. Many a time I think I have got the shots nice and lined up and captured a great shot, only to put it on my proper screen and its only recycle bin worthy due to movement. and lets face it drones are small, and even a mild wind at 50ft can still push those little things around even a tiny bit.

[@mjklein]

Man, you are so right! I never think about focus because the M3P does such a great job on Auto. I've never used Manual focus with the M3P because quite frankly, I've never had a reason to use it. Truth be told, if I found my video/photo work out of focus, I would not even think of Auto being turned off. Thank you for the very relevant reminder and also how to verify that things are working well by using Focus Peaking.

[@geezerpleasers_OG]

Excellent explanation. Are you a teacher or professor in your day job? I have had a lot of professors who could take a few lessons from you on how to organize a presentation and how to communicate. Personally, I find myself using manual focus more and more, so this is very helpful.

[@IaninLondon]

I've got a degree in physics but I don't teach and I'm not a prof 🤠

[@MartinFransson]

If my Mini 3 Pro misses autofocus very often - is it probably something wrong with it? I don't even use AF anymore due to missing so many shots. And yes, I tap to focus and it locks.

[@briangalbraith4565]

Another great and useful video pushing me even more to upgrade to M3p. I know you have travelled a lot with your drones and I was going to take my air 2 to Italy but it seems that I now have to register it take an on line test and pay 100euro. Just wondering if you had any experience of this it appears to be a bit of a mine field. But of course if you're under 250 gm you need nothing. I think M3p is the way to go 😊

[@IaninLondon]

Actually that's not true; under EASA rules, (covering all Europe), you need to register the Mini 3 Pro as it's got a camera. My advice is to check out Cyprus Drone Registration for registering it, as it's cheap and lasts 3 years and covers you in all of Europe. :)

[@briangalbraith4565]

@@IaninLondonThank Ian I thought you may have come across this problem 🧐. Thanks for the advice I will certainly check it out👍 B .

[@peterevans6086]

Very useful tip. Thanks. However, I was a bit puzzled about your 'wanting to see if zooming in would bring the sun closer to the stones". That's only going to happen if you increase the focal length which, of course, you can't do. Zooming in is only going to digitally enlarge the centre part of the image and will make no difference whatsoever to the perspective of the shot.

[@IaninLondon]

True; probably more about just getting those close up shots of the stones. :)

[@SimplyScotlandPhotography]

Thanks for the tip Ian 👍. what's your thoughts on the New Air 3 leaks ? Is it something you might spend your cash on soon?

[@IaninLondon]

Defo ;)

[@colinpellowe1542]

Ian. Have you had any issues with the autofocus on the Mini 3 pro? I have one and recently have found the autofocus hunting for focus continuasly. Most of my footage is unusable. Just wondering if you have experienced this problem has it appears to be a common problem on this model.

[@Luggruff]

The last three times I've been out, I've had autofocus, and the landscape and houses are always slightly out of focus. Extremely annoying. So since I will be at least 110 meters up, I will look for a peak that fits in manual mode and keep it there as at that distance, change of distance should not affect it too much at all

[@simons.-xb3tf]

wrong - change of distance will make it out of focus again because focus is bound to the distance between you and the subject

[@IaninLondon]

Only if you're very very close to the subject. Once you're more than 10 metres or so, it's all treated as infinity...

[@RJ-Creations]

I still ruined some shots on my Mini 4 Pro. With manual focus and peaking on. It seemed all in focus on the screen but some how the shots are blurry only on the right side of the shot. I did some testing today and autofocus wins all the time. Manual seems to be good in infinity, 1 to 3 stripes under it and then these blurry problems appear. Anyone else facing these problems? And what do you do then?

[@macbhd1]

Fat thumbs are one thing,im a thumber and pintcher and wondered why i hadn't recorded a certain clip,figured it out,my middle finger was hitting the video record button an cancelling the record mode,DOH,ps good advice from you as we do become lackadaisical at times.

[@hotelphotography]

In MF even though I have the focus peaking to high, the red dots don't appear. In AF, it makes the focus sound but it actually is not focus. Any suggestions?

[@Lithium023]

I'm having issues with my mini 3 with auto focus, it's always blurry recently. Even if I half press the focus button it focuses for a second and than it losses focus again right away. Or if I tap on the screen it makes the little sound and it will hold focus for about 10 seconds or so and than back to blurry. Very annoying but luckily I can manually focus it and it stays just fine, I just like everything to work as is should so the auto focus stuff really bugs me.

[@IaninLondon]

Try focusing on a specific target, like a tree in the middle of a field. If it continues to fail to focus, open a chat with DJI support

[@Bombaybadboy007]

Great video Does this work for still pictures in the same way ? Many thanks

[@IaninLondon]

Yes; exactly the same.

[@Bombaybadboy007]

@@IaninLondon many thanks for your reply, I’ve hunted the net high & low, on how best to focus stills that have the capabilities to do so, I can’t see nothing out there, once again many thanks

[@petrpein]

Would dragging the slider to the 'mountain icon' put it on (I assume) infinity focus and solve your problem ?

[@S-teamwork]

yes

[@jean-chridrone6026]

You are right

[@hachiman]

I always use manual focus mode set to infinity now and no focus issues since.

[@starshipwonaprize-dronevideos]

A while back my M3P (using the mobile phone) plonked on screen that I had a wide angle lens fitted, and the resulting video actually appeared soft. Here is the crux: I have a variable ND filter all the time, and don't even own a wide angle lens filter. It is possible I had knocked it into MF (peeking is set to off) but that doesn't explain why the drone reported the WA lens.... (The only bit of video I used when this message was on, was right at the end of my Summer in Avenham Park video - the people on the bridge).

[@IaninLondon]

I've never actually seen that message onscreen; wasn't aware it could detect and report that

[@ChunterGB]

I find auto focus is woeful, usually set to manual@infinity.

[@joypaddad2386]

The focus over water has been bad for me since the last update no matter what I do

[@sjm.photos]

Ian please could you do a video on how to sort out. I have a message on my RC controller. FLIGHT RECORD STORAGE LIMIT REACHED, i have uploaded my flight data says it will be cleared but seems to not ? regards stu

[@IaninLondon]

Okay; that's a surprising one... Will dive into it and sort it out...

[@sjm.photos]

@@IaninLondon awesome thankyou its doing my head in. also how do i contact you i have something you might be interested in.

[@IaninLondon]

[e-mail]

[@calebukomadu1014]

my 1X camera blurry on my Dji mavic 3 pro

[@shaggysk8r1]

I dislike how many products don’t show peaking during AF. I don’t care which if my device is in MF or AF, I’d use peaking all the time.

[@IaninLondon]

Fully agree 👍🏻

[@simplydroning]

I live near Stonehenge and have been wanting to fly it all year but has had a temporary Flight restriction in place from surface to 2407ft since sometime in May until August the 26th. The area covers a large circular area from north of Netheravon down to Salisbury or am I reading Drone Assist incorrectly?

[@IaninLondon]

That flight restriction is Larkhill and is always in place; you need to fly from the south west, not the north east.

[@simplydroning]

@@IaninLondon Thanks Ian, I know about the Larkhill area and where I could usually fly from for stonehenge, but have been put off buy the very large Temporay Flight Restriction on Drone Assist that covers the area I mentioned above. NOTAM EGGN/U4038/23, Im just trying to understand fo myself if I can ignore it? Regards Simply Droning

[@dji1tommy29]

I just leave mine in Infinity focus

[@grahamniven]

Never once had anything out of focus with the Mini 2 Wonder why that was...? 😁

[@nickcooper7133]

Mini 2 has fixed focal length. You don't have the option of Manual Focus. Hence why there is no "tap to focus" option like the mini 3 has.

[@grahamniven]

Exactly. The Mini 3 Pro is also a fixed focal length camera, there's no need to adjust focus, set to infinity (same as the Mini 2) and forget about it.