Auto focus problem

E

Excalibur

Active member
I'm reading this forum from the beginning (also the previous thread of this Cam). And I'm now part of the DVX200 users. My DVX200 out of the box show color problems. Red was orange. But my dealer realigned the whole color set up with a standard card. And now we see an accurate red color. Looks now same as my AC130A. I'm doing a lot of dancing videos. And therefore I'm confronted with very quick movements of the dancer. So I can not use manual focus. The DVX is in manual mode (iris, shutter,gain,...) but focus is in auto. I suffer that the focus do not find the right position. That means it focus the background and not the dancer in the foreground. The dancer is in the middle of the frame, but the focus remain on the background. I have tried with area, but same problem. The set up is zoomed in till half total of the dancer, dancer is approx 5m from the DVX.
Any idea how to adjust the focus to follow the dancer and keep it in focus? Same problem is in FHD and UHD. With the AC130 I have no such focus problems.
Thank you for any idea and help!
 
The auto focus sensitivity and speed can be adjusted, as can the area width (the size of the auto focus patch. The "area" setting of the auto focus would also allow you to touch any part of the screen and have it focus on that one spot. Not sure which (or perhaps a combination) of techniques can be of use in your application, but what I have found that seems to be working for me is a fairly tight auto focus width with the "area" assigned to a user button so I can toggle to it and immediately focus on on off-center subject and back again (if need be). It takes a bit of coordination, and coming from a 70D (which has a simply stunning auto focus system in video) I found the DVX's auto focus a bit clumsy - but I'm adapting and it seems to do what I am needing now that I understand it a bit better. All said - my learning to work the auto focus settings and modes is still better than trying to do it manually in all but studio (fixed-position) settings!
 
Excalibur said:
My DVX200 out of the box show color problems. Red was orange. But my dealer realigned the whole color set up with a standard card. And now we see an accurate red color. Looks now same as my AC130A.
Click to expand...

Hi Excalibur, what you are describing above sounds like the issue with the previous generation firmware. It will look exactly as you are describing. If that is the case I highly recommend upgrading to the newest firmware to get the best image quality out of the camera along with some new features.

One thing that will happen if you have not upgraded the firmware and you do upgrade, you'll want to reset the scene files back to the factory settings because the firmware will correct the color issues and then the scene that your dealer manipulated for you will now more than likely put the color out of balance. You'll also be missing out on some of the new features like negative gain that have been added to the camera if you have not upgraded yet.
 
mapper65 said:
Hi Excalibur, what you are describing above sounds like the issue with the previous generation firmware. It will look exactly as you are describing. If that is the case I highly recommend upgrading to the newest firmware to get the best image quality out of the camera along with some new features.

One thing that will happen if you have not upgraded the firmware and you do upgrade, you'll want to reset the scene files back to the factory settings because the firmware will correct the color issues and then the scene that your dealer manipulated for you will now more than likely put the color out of balance. You'll also be missing out on some of the new features like negative gain that have been added to the camera if you have not upgraded yet.
Click to expand...

Slightly unrelated but in regards to negative gain - I was in an interview situation last week. I had a small LED light on one side of my subject and a sunlit window on the other and the side bathed in sun was clipping the highlights on the subject's cheek. Normally, I would move the light closer and close the iris a bit, but I wanted my iris open and we were inside so it wasn't enough for an ND. So I opened the iris all the way to preserve my depth and cranked the gain back to -6. Totally saved my butt. It looks wonderfully balanced. I don't think I could have achieved that before this update. I'm very happy with the way Panny have cared for this cam after release.
 
@MichaelA
thank you for recomendation. I was hoping someone has already tried to alter the focus speed and can give me a hint what speed is best for my application. But I will try...
 @mapper65
The Cam runs on firmware 1.65. We have done the upgrade before adjusting the color balance. Frankly speaking, all people at dealers premises where astonished about the wrong color and told me never seen this before. So I think it was a kind of misalignment at the factory or so. But whatever happen, now it is fine!
By the way, if there is sometime a next upgrade, perhaps it would be a nice feature to rename the scene files like the AG-AC160/130 can do. So you can name your specific setting like WED1 or DANC1 or so. It is a good indication to select the right scene file if you are in a hurry. On my AC130 I can do it so and it is a little but really nice feature (and this is "just" software).
@Jonny Gross
I fully agree that the negative gain feature is a wonderful addition! And yes, I'm happy with this Cam too! I'm sure I can solve the focus problem...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top