Best Focusing Techniques for Filming Action Sports With Sony A7rii?

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kylemaggy

Member
I recently purchased a used a7rii from a friend and I am interested in starting to shoot some video in addition to stills. I'm trying to wrap my head around what would be the best focusing technique to film an athlete in continuous motion such as a surfer or skater, i.e., both a moving subject and a panning camera.


- Is there a "hands off" autofocus mode where the camera will continue to try to focus on a certain area while recording? I've heard that some people use face detection, but what if faces are not visible?
- Or while recording and in AF-C do you/can you hold down the shutter button halfway the entire time while recording in order to track the subject?
- Should I just attempt to pull focus manually?
- With the example of the surfer, what is the best way to keep the surfer in focus since he is both moving towards the side of the frame and closer to the camera?


Any suggestions/setting recommendations would be much appreciated!
 
Manual focus is the way to go.

Practice, practice, practice is the only way to get good at it. For surfing, you can shoot from further away with a longer lens (eg 600mm lens & s35 crop mode), which will keep everything on a more even plane. It'll help that you're generally shooting in bright light at f16. How much you need to pull focus will depend a lot on each location and the angle you shoot from - so you'll need to shoot a lot to get a feel for it and become confident in your focus pulling.
 
I would say you need to spend time exploring the options. And learn to match the option to the shot.

manual will be repeatable and reliable.

there are some situations.. for example a centred subject approaching the camera with a tele that you might find auto works better.

For surfing the 'close in' is minimal and a tickle of manual should work, especially as the subject will move around the frame, in a boat down the barrel then af might be better.

it is all about experimenting and learning.

90% you will land on manual.. a big monitor helps too!

S
 
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