Autofocus woes

[VenezuelanD]

Is it just me or is the autofocus on the HVX just plain horrible?

It seems to do a decent job in interlaced mode, but in any progressive mode it tends to be slow, unresponsive, and sometimes it gets "stuck" let me give you an example:

I'm shooting a basketball game in 480 30p (the client originally asked for HD 24p footage, now to be honest it seemed like he had just heard a couple of buzz words and was just repeating them, I talked him into 30p rather than 24p and SD after he balked at the cost of HD) anyhow, the autofocus seemed to do a decent job at keeping up with the action. There are kids at different planes of distance to the camera and all moving, so some autofocus fishing is to be expected, but since i'm shooting SD and fairly wide its not very noticeable.

The problem came when zooming in to grab quick cutaways of coaches or of the score. If i zoomed into the scoreboard the autofocus just wouldnt adjust. It would just stay at whatever setting it was just before the beggining of the zoom.

We're talking 3-5 seconds after locking down on the scoreboard too, I would have to manually jog the focus ring a bit and then it seemed to kick in and focus properly on the scoreboard. Ditto with coaches and close ups of players.

Is this something that happens to all cameras in progressive mode or just to the HVX?

 

[THoff]

AF performance is somewhat slower in any recording mode other than 60i and 60P (not the NTSC camera). Regardless, good AF performance requires contrast, and that requires proper lighting/exposure. If you have sufficient light, use a smaller aperture (great F stop number) to get more DOF and less critical focus.

Instead of jogging the focus ring, use the PUSH AUTO button underneath the focus switch to kick off a re-focus.

 

[Robert Lane]

Another factor for good AF performance is frame rate and shutter speed combination. Frame rates lower than 60 will have lesser AF performance especially at 24p. This is one reason why most pro shooters don't use autofocus and focus manually either using an external monitor or turning on the peaking "EVF Detail" button and using the Focus-assist feature on the camera.

It's really a sad truth about the HVX, but it's AF abilities are not as strong as it's other handheld HD brethren, the Z1 being a very good AF camera by comparison.

AF does have it's place and can be handy in fast-action/quick scene change situations but you'll need to be at 60i/p to really take advantage of good AF response, otherwise learn to shoot in full manual mode. This will also prepare for you for if - or when - you migrate up to a shoulder-mount camera, of which there's no such thing as an auto-focus option. That is with one exception, the Sony F350, the only ENG shoulder-mount body that does have one auto-focus lens option. Why more ENG bodies don't has always been a mystery to me, but it is what it is...

 

[VenezuelanD]

THoff:
all good suggestions. The Auto Focus button did not seem to bring the picture into focus, a pulling the switch down to manual and then back up to infinity worked much better.

Again it was an uncontrolled environment so adding light to stop down wasnt much of an option, though it was fairly well lit as far as uncontrolled lighting goes, I think my aperture was set to 2.8 at the time.

Robert:
Yes the HVX does seem to perform poorly in the AF arena that was my gripe. I have shot with the Z1, XL2, and some others and never noticed the AF as wanting as in this particular shoot. Then again I normally shoot events in 60p or 60i.

As far as ENG type bodies go, well they might not have an auto focus, but that manual focus sure makes it easier. Maybe I am strange, but I am a big fan of big cameras.
On a tripod when I have to do lots of panning and movement, I find it very uncomfortable to use the viewfinder on these smaller cameras (except for the XL2, I love that viewfinder) because its located on the back, forcing you to basically be behind the tripod, rather than on the side, I don't know it just doesnt sit right with me.

And while I'm on my rant/vent, why the hell did panasonic not make the focus assist movable? being able to move that lil window to the sides would be amazing.

Oh well, back to getting the taxes ready so that I can buy me a Marshall with that tax return