Permanent loss of focus control

[PatrickLawler]

I ran into some trouble today when I was shooting some footage on an aircraft carrier, and I'm going to call panasonic about it tomorrow or something, but it only happened during the hours when I was on the flight deck while the sun was either setting or rising.

I was shooting about 45° to the right of the sunset/rise when the problem happened with my hvx on 720p24.

I had been filming for about half an hour, getting some awesome shots and then all of a sudden my camera stopped being able to focus and everything got stuck out of focus. Pretty much I would zoom in from 200 yards away and focus on something, and when I would start to zoom out everything would go extremely out of focus, it looked like it somehow switched to macro or something. And by out of focus I mean really out of focus, as blurry as you could get the entire detailed ship would look like a grey blob. It then stayed that way and I wasn't able to change the focus at all the entire rest of the time I was up there, I fiddled with it for about half an hour and couldn't fix it.

So I turned off my camera and turned it back on and it would look fine (at full wide angle) for about a second and then go back to being totally out of focus without me touching a thing! After that I was unable to focus it in any way shape or form no matter what I did until I gave up and went back inside.

I tried everything from switching scene files, pushing the reset button, turning on and off the auto and manual settings, ejecting the p2 card, changing the aperture, and changing recording formats. It was totally bizarre! I have never seen this happen with a video camera and it hasn't happened since, but my HVX is only 2 months old.

But once the sun went up more later that morning, or I was inside it was perfectly fine... strange huh? Do you think it might have been focusing on a lens flare or an ND filter or something? Or do you think it was caused by focusing on something so far away?

I am worried that this will happen again, have any of you ran into this problem before, or know the causes or possible solutions to this problem? It would be a hassle to send it back to Panasonic, so I thought I'd ask you guys first.

Thanks a lot!

p.s. on another note: I also found that my onboard microphone picked up some sort of very loud electronic screeching noise that would modulate every 10 seconds or so, that was not audible when I was recording, later someone told me it was the ship's giant radar interfering with the audio signal, is there any way to combat this?

[berkanoztrak]

ı remember a low angel shot on an aircraft carrier, blured; it was shot with a Betacam and i was told it was because of a strong magnetic field.. I had something similar when i was shooting with a Betacam by a "primer coating" tunnel in a car factory; i was told the process was performed in a strong magnetic field. 10/15 centimeters away was fine, no more problem... Could it be your problem?

[PatrickLawler]

That could be it, because it only happened in specific locations. Thanks a lot!

[Bill Nelson]

Patrick:
I've been shooting video since '78, and I was not near an aircraft carrier, but experienced a similar situation yesterday. Typical 'talking heads' setup... have done these things for decades. I zoomed in, obtained that 'tack-sharp' image the HVX does so well, zoomed out to frame the shot, and the focus was TOTALLY out of whack. I try for those nice narrow depth of field shots. In this case, the far background looked tack sharp instead of my subject! Impossible! I have a Hi-Def Marshall monitor, so I double-checked focus by the whole zoomin/out thing again, and still no joy. As this was going on, I could hear a servo sound in the lens assembly. Something was flaky. I disabled the servo zoom, and was finally able to shoot the scene. Just grateful our producer didn't ask for a slow push or something. This is distressing as I can't just swap out lenses as with any previous camera I've used. What's the deal? This deal-breaker issue drove me out to this site, where I usually drop by just to learn more about my amazing camera. I have no idea what's going on now, and am essentially closed until I do.

Just reviewed the problematic footage, and I see as I step through the footage 1 or 2 frames where the focus drops out, then back as if strobing in a non-rhythmic way. NO, I wasn't in auto focus mode. I ding-dong-dang triple-checked that as I was flummoxed there on-set. The only remedy I could achieve then and there was to take the zoom servo off-line. Here in the studio as I zoom past 8-9-10 feet, I hear servo noise. also zoomed full telephoto. Very odd. It's broken, somehow. Always schlepped around in full Pelican case, stored inside, etc. really babied equipment, really. Dang

[mule ferguson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTpa8CNiGNM

This is some footage I shot aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Notice the jerk to the left. It did this at one spot on the bridge. (The best shot spot) Camera Sony VX1000 DV. I went down to the mess hall and ask the guy for some alum foil. He ask me if i was a cameraman. I say why? He say all cameramen who come aboard ship come here and ask for foil. It did no good.One of the race car drivers had a small JVC DV. His foot was not affected.
The footage down on the flight deck was ok. Also on U-Tube.

Mule Ferguson

[Bill Nelson]

different vibe, I think mule. Your issue I bet is related to the image stabilization efforts the camera is making. Still malfunctioning, nonetheless. I used aluminum foil once to shoot a segment by a radio transmitter to good effect.

I may be in the wrong thread here. This focus/servo zoom issue is serious, and renders this camera unavailable for professional work. The more gizmos we ask for, the more things can go wrong. This is the first camera I've ever purchased for broadcast work with an integral lens design. Might have been a short-sighted gamble. I LOVE this camera, but this development is disappointing. I understand that everything breaks sooner or later. Out of warranty for 2 months.

[Bill Nelson]

AND, those carriers are turning some 25-30 knots to launch aircraft, no? Looking sideways from the bridge, panning slightly, could have triggered your lens to try and keep things stable. Did you shoot with the stabilization off or on?

[PatrickLawler]

I shot with the stabilization off, I always shoot with it off unless I need to go handheld. But the second I moved away from that location the focus started working, I think I was just above a large radar room or something. And to this day (I've shot 4 things since) I have not had a problem with my focus it works perfectly and the focus problem I had on the ship has not returned.

[Bill Nelson]

ended up sending my camera to the Panasonic facility in Burbank. The lens was 're-aligned'... they said I had bumped it or something. $300 later, looks and works like new. whatever.