C100: AF on 70-200 2.8 during slider interview: Would it help?

nedcam

nedcam

Well-known member
Today I did some stylized interviews with no DoF to speak of. I was diagonally sliding perhaps 2', maybe 30", so as I slowly went back and forth I had to rack a micro bit. However, I needed one hand on the pan handle, one to push the rig and for some reason I was short one hand to rack. I was born with only two hands.

I am new to the Canon line of lenses because I just came from a lengthy Panasonic persuasion. I am Old School and to me AF has always been synonymous with amateur, although I see it's purpose in the stills world. I did not have a chance to test AF before we rolled on the interview so didn't want to trust it. ALSO, the subjects talked animatedly with their hands although they were below the frame line.

So my question is: Is the AF on the 70-200 2.8 sophisticated enough to rack my focus without "hunting"? And will it not be effected by the moving hands?

Thanks,
 
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From what I've seen of the 70D's autofocus could do it, so the new C100 autofocus should. The current system (without the $500 upgrading being released in February wouldn't work for this I don't think).
 
My brief experience with the 70D indicates that it does not hunt. It's possible you could fool it, but it's pretty darned smart.

We will see if the C100's implementation (the february firmware upgrade) is as strong. The current AF hunts a lot.
 
nedcam said:
Is the AF on the 70-200 2.8 sophisticated enough to rack my focus without "hunting"? And will it not be effected by the moving hands?
Click to expand...

In a word, no. :grin:

This is why the $500 adaption is of interest, though whilst I will go for it, I am not expecting it to be absolutely brilliant. It will track a face, it will not hunt (much), but the track may take half a second or so to react.

Things are getting better, but it's not quite an FS700 with LA-EA2 adaptor (which can pull focus on a dog running towards camera at 240fps - many videos out there to demonstrate!). Don't get me wrong - very much looking forward to the functionality, and it definitely has its uses in professional video (not all of us have camera assistants, focus pullers, dolly grips, et al - but are requested to get as close as we can to that effect).
 
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