2nd "telephoto" lens sucks??

Cudaboy_71 · Oct 24, 2016

Is it me or is that thing a waste of space and money?

I tried to get some 1080 60fps video yesterday flying an rc helicopter. In 1x (camera 1) it was great. Kept focus, tracked well. As soon as I switched to 2x (camera 2) it kept losing focus, even with the subject centered. It would occasionally find focus. But, largely it is just a blurry mess.

Anyone else, or is this just me?

here's a sample video if you're interested. I took 5 and they're all about like this

first 47 seconds are in 1x (camera 1); the rest is in 2x (camera 2) To see the difference you really need to view as 1080.

curious what everyone else thinks. Is this just the particular subject matter causing the issue?

KevinJS · Oct 24, 2016

Hi and welcome to the forum.

If you haven't done it already, update to iOS 10.1. It addresses issues with the camera, amongst other things.

Cudaboy_71 · Oct 24, 2016

I thought I was upgraded to current, as I only got the phone on Friday and it upgraded out of the box. But, sure enough I'm only at 10.0.3

Upgrading now and will try again this coming weekend, weather permitting.

Thanks for the tip. Hope that fixes the issue.

Romeos Tune · Oct 26, 2016

Well..... Did it help?

DonMecca81 · Apr 19, 2017

Cudaboy_71 said:
Is it me or is that thing a waste of space and money?

I tried to get some 1080 60fps video yesterday flying an rc helicopter. In 1x (camera 1) it was great. Kept focus, tracked well. As soon as I switched to 2x (camera 2) it kept losing focus, even with the subject centered. It would occasionally find focus. But, largely it is just a blurry mess.

Anyone else, or is this just me?

here's a sample video if you're interested. I took 5 and they're all about like this

first 47 seconds are in 1x (camera 1); the rest is in 2x (camera 2) To see the difference you really need to view as 1080.

curious what everyone else thinks. Is this just the particular subject matter causing the issue?

Use a paid app like ProCam 4 which lets you lock which lens u wish to use to shoot from, and u can also lock the focus to keep it from trying to refocus every time the scene changes. This is a known issue with stock camera/app and can be very annoying when trying to capture professional quality video. If u wish to go top of the line use Filmic pro to shoot 4K at 100mbps and lock the focus as in the other app. I haven't tested it with filmic yet tho.

ProCam 4 - Manual Camera + RAW by Samer Azzam
ProCam 4 - Manual Camera + RAW on the App Store

FiLMiC Pro by FiLMiC Inc
FiLMiC Pro on the App Store

Cudaboy_71 · Apr 19, 2017

Well, I need to follow up. After playing with the built in phone app for a while now I learned of the AF lock feature. When filming something at essentially infinity, just press and hold the screen on a spot in the distance until AF lock appears. Then the camera won't continually attempt to refocus.

I'm much happier with the results now. It's just that AF lock is not a well documented or intuitive feature.

LavTalk · Jul 8, 2017

Maybe it has nothing to do with it but I had a similar situation when making photos. It was my phone case, too thick. It wasn't covering the lens but when using the second camera it saw the edge of the case and couldn't focus anymore. Now with a thinner case my problem is solved.

APX7000 · Jul 8, 2017

LavTalk, thanks for your comment. It seems as my old IP6 took better photos than my current 7+. I'll be experimenting with it without the OtterBox defender case.