Focusing

[holleywood]

The same question that a few people have asked in this thread is still yet to be answered...

"Is there a mark equivalent to the "film plane", or does Panasonic consider the measurement from the front of the glass?"

Just wanted to confirm, but I think it's the front of the glass. I guess we are looking for a precise measuring point...

[Barry_Green]

Front of the glass.

[holleywood]

Thanks alot Barry, Now the camera assistants that always bug me about this question can now sleep at night.

Cheers,

Nathan

[mdezz]

Newbie question- BUT its seems when I put the camera into maual focus it still says AF in the viewfinder and acts as if its AF WHY is this ? Camera error? OR operator error??helpp?

[Barry_Green]

Is the auto/manual switch set to auto? If so, it'll override the af/mf switch.

[mdezz]

Yes That was it- Boy I feel silly.
Thanks
Matt

[Daniel Wanderley]

Just one thing, regardless if we are using the front of the lens... the number displayed on the EVF is wrong on HVX200.

I tried and tested with a sharp charter with almost all "lens" and iris stops... and the measure tape and autofocus measures are always complete diferent...

And those increase with the distance (those are not always the same numbers, can be 30cm up to 3m).

Also, I tried to do the inverse strategy I put on manual and did turn the ring with the tape measure values. And the image became complete unfocus.

Have anyone tried this? It´s really a such big problem and the Panasonic don´t give any info about external focus pulling measurement on the manual...

[smelni]

I have said before that the in camera measurement is only approximate and shuold not be used for critical focusing

[Jason Ramsey]

I haven't thoroughly tested for focus mark congruence on my HVX's, but I never noticed them being terribly off. I generally use a tape measure when available and appropriate to get a rough idea, but I rely on the focus assist feaures of the HVX to give me proper focus. When the HVX tells me it is in focus, that is what I go off of. So, I never gave too much attention as to how accurate the distance read outs are, but they seemed accurate to me. Accurate enough to guess a distance, put the HVX focus at that distance, and then use focus assist, and evf detail to fine tune.

Perhaps I will test mine out if I get the time

Later,
Jason

[Kit_L]

Re. focussing for infinity, esp. for landscapes: does anyone here use the hyperfocal concept with these cameras? This is something I use in the stills world almost daily.

Basic concept is that depth of field varies with aperture; when wide open this slice of the image (where the circle of confusion is small enough that the image looks perfectly sharp) is relatively shallow; when the iris is stopped down, the slice becomes thicker.

The hyperfocal distance is when you set the distance on the lens to the *front* edge of this slice; the rear edge by definition will be at infinity. If you use the hyperfocal distance, rather than setting the lens to infinity, then the maximum DOF will be experienced: this will give you the greatest front-to-back sharpness that is possible at any aperture.

With the small sensors of modern video cameras (compared to full frame 35mm equivalent sensors) the DOF is inherently much deeper anyway, but this concept might be handy for the landscape shooter. hth, kl