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Hello everyone, I am very new to flying drones. I have bought a second hand Mavic Pro 1, and it has this strange issue of focusing at night. Whenever I try to focus to infinity to get a broad DoF, it just doesn't work. I have read every possible guide and have done every kind of calibration, but it still does not work. I have set the focus to be manual and then set it to infinity as well, but still the distant light sources appear as some sort of tiny bokeh. I have never got a sharp image at night.

I have also tried the trick of tapping on a brighter part of the frame to set the focus. Still didn't work.

Any help regarding the solution is appreciated. Attaching an image for better understanding. You can just zoom in to find that the frame is evidently not in focus.

Attaching a picture here for better understanding - https://i.stack.imgur.com/otofV.jpg

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Do you have good focus in normal daylight? \$\endgroup\$
    – Zeus
    Mar 19, 2019 at 6:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ Possible duplicate of How do I diagnose the source of focus problem in a camera? \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael C
    Mar 19, 2019 at 11:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm not familiar with the camera in this drone. How did you set the focus to infinity? \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Mar 19, 2019 at 11:33
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    \$\begingroup\$ It is unclear from the way your question is worded, but it seems possible that you think setting focus to 'infinity' means everything will be in focus. This is not the case. Infinity focus means the lens is focused for collimated light coming from a source far enough away from the camera that it is indistinguishable from a light source infinitely far away. The closer something is to the camera, the more it will be out of focus when the lens is set to infinity. \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael C
    Mar 21, 2019 at 4:25

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(Examining the photo) I'm actually not convinced it's a focus problem. The better exposed, less contrast parts like building lines appear to be reasonably sharp for the conditions. (And the photo would benefit from a bit of sharpening). The overexposed bright lights just 'spill' on the sensor, creating similar effect even on better cameras.

By the way, don't forget to enable RAW (DNG) mode in the photo settings; although, admittedly, highlight recovery is not that great on Mavic.

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