ALL: Does this look like an Autofocus Bug to You?? -- Video Clip

L

LanceOregon

Well-known member
I'm a bit concerned by a few autofocus hunting issues I've recently noticed with my new Panasonic AG-AC130. Here is a clip from an event I shot yesterday. It was a dedication ceremony for renaming a local highway to being a memorial highway for a police officer that was murdered on the highway by an insane maniac back in April of this year.

The officer's widow, along with her older daughter from her first marriage, and her young daughter that she had with the slain officer, all get up to unveil one of the new signs designating the memorial highway. As they get into position, you will notice a few times when the focusing goes out. The first happens just when a female photographer moves into position to take some photos.

However, in reviewing the scene, I cannot figure out why the autofocus was dramatically affected? That photographer was not in the center of the frame, where the autofocus was set to focus on. It was almost like her movement across the frame somehow caused the autofocus to dramatically go out. I am perplexed as to why the camcorder reacted like this.

As I move around and show the two daughters and their mother, you will see the focus go out just slightly. It is not too bad, but even in these situations, I don't see what would be causing the autofocus to shift.

The last example is by far the worse, and happens as the mother and her daughter pull the tarp off and unveil the new sign. Again, it seems like MOVEMENT is throwing the autofocus off very dramatically. Perhaps my lack of experience is showing here. Could this be a normal reaction for an autofocus system?

Does anyone else feel that this looks like a bug in the camcorder's Autofocus system??

I am fearful at this point as to how well autofocus may perform shooting sports. And that is because many sports like volleyball, basketball, etc.. all involve rapid movement.

If anyone can shed some light on my concerns, I would surely appreciate you doing that.

Here is a clip showing the unveiling of this memorial highway sign for our murdered police officer:



 
It looks like the camera is having a hard time focusing on the dark blue tarp, a big blue area with little definition.

when they move it then the camera resets itself (very quickly too)!

We have just finished approx 30 dance concerts with our 130 and 160, with very few problems, but did get into the habit of switching to manual focus once the camera had auto focus when the stage lights first came up at each concert. It stopped any focus hunting and we usually had enough depth of field to cover stage movements.

Cheers,

Vaughan
 
It would be nice to know if Panasonic is looking into the autofocus issue.
I just want to know if this issue is being ignored and this is what it is, take it or leave it, or if Panasonic is concerned and willing to look into a solution.
I hope we will find out soon, because of my buying decision.
Please Panasonic, give us some hope that you will look into the slow autofocus hunting problem.
 
Thanks for posting the video. I have only used my AC130 once on a paid job but I have found similar problems. It least once the auto focus just freaked out for no reason. The rest of the time it worked as expected but it was just a talking head so it should not have been very challenging for the auto-focus. I plan to use it in a wedding this weekend so I will have more real-world idea how the auto focus works. It is a shame, the rest of the cameras seems to be close to ideal for what I need it for.
 
Why was autofocus used for the unveiling there was nothing difficult to contend with. I have always taken it for granted that any autofocus system (whatever the manufacturer) will do what it feels like, usually at the wrong moment. Why risk wrecking a shot?
 
My iphone does a better job in auto focus than my 160. I tested shooting xmas tree with light that usualy throw of 160 but my iphone and hmc 150 had no problem.
 
"Paid job" and "autofocus" in the same sentence is a combination that just doesn't really compute to me.

I have been known to use the push-auto option to set the focus initially before a shot, or at least get it in the ballpark, but basically would never recommend leaving it turned on while the camera is rolling. Even then, I'd be sure to confirm the results as carefully as possible in the viewfinder before trusting it.

- Greg
 
Vaughan Wood said:
It looks like the camera is having a hard time focusing on the dark blue tarp, a big blue area with little definition.

when they move it then the camera resets itself (very quickly too)!
Click to expand...

Well, that is my concern, in that the autofocus totally reset itself. While it did recover and get back into focus rather quickly, that is certainly something one would not want to have happen.

What I will experiment next with is using facial recognition in situation like this. Perhaps if I had it enabled, this would never have happened.
 
When you buy a product you should expect basic features to work properly. It is irrelevant whether "auto focus" is not used by "pros" or if the situation is simplistic enough not to warrant its use. In all but the most challenging situations it simply should work. Although I rarely use auto focus it has never failed to work properly on my Panasonic DVC30 and HPX170.
 
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Greg Smith said:
"Paid job" and "autofocus" in the same sentence is a combination that just doesn't really compute to me.
Click to expand...

I never said that this was a paid job. There was paid news media covering this ceremony, but I simply recorded it to share it with our community.

It was a very cold morning here this past Saturday, and only a few hundred people showed up. But there has been huge interest in this story in our community, due to its extremely tragic nature. Chris Kilcullen was actually one of the most liked officers on our police force. He was a motorcycle traffic enforcement officer, and was simply making what he thought was a routine traffic violation stop when he was gunned down, shot through the head. His very young daughter now faces growing up without a father.

His funeral was such a giant event that it was actually covered live on TV by all 3 of our local network affiliates. The University even donated the use of its 12,000 seat indoor arena to accommodate the huge number of people, as no church was big enough to hold the funeral. But that was way back in April of this year.

So this was something I just did gratis so that there would be a record of the event, and others could experience it. His widow has already thanked me for my effort.

I'm naturally interested in testing and experimenting with the autofocus further, as a number of others have voiced so many complaints about its performance. This is actually the first time I've had it reset so badly. But then I have not used the camcorder that much yet either. I will no doubt avoid using autofocus for any paid jobs. In the meantime, I will continue to test all of the features of the camcorder and familiarize myself with them. This is my first professional Panasonic camcorder, so my learning curve is higher than folks who already have experience with the Panasonic product line.
 
I love when someone chimes in and says, you are using auto focus!!!! I never use Auto focus!! Why would you do that, it is amateurish. I have said over and over that there is a problem with the AC160 auto focus compared to any other video camera I have used. No one has responded by a fix or anything. Again, I have just stated if you chose to use Auto focus it should do a decent job like most cameras on the market. Not be completely useless feature of a high end camera like the AC160. I sure hope Panny is working on a fix??
Again, the question is not that any videographer should never use auto focus. The question is if you chose to use this feature it should work as advertised.....
 
The issue here is that the auto focus on the AC130 is a step back from the HMC150, not that you should or should not use the auto focus as a professional. That is a whole different debate, I do not care to take part in.
 
Very well said. I agree with what you wrote.
And if anyone thinks we are bashing, this is incorrect.
This camera has what we want. We want it to be a success.
But this autofocus issue has to be addressed.
Is Panasonic looking into a fix or not?

All I ask is from Panasonic, is if they can't find a fix, and this is the way the camera is, then tell us. So then we can make a buying decision. You can count me in to buy one or two of these cameras if there can be a fix.
Thank you for listening.

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For those that did not see it, the ac130 compared to HMC150
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvQsC_AAaf8
 
I thought the majority of autofocus problems being reported were with the AC160 and HPX250. I'm sorry to hear about this as I was planning on buying one soon, and a couple more later. Makes sense they'd share the same problems given the similarities. I hope panasonic addresses and fixes this problem. I use autofocus some and want it to work as well as previous cameras.
 
firehawk said:
I thought the majority of autofocus problems being reported were with the AC160 and HPX250.
Click to expand...

I am confident that all three of these new camcorders use the same lens and autofocus system. So I would think that they would all behave the same.

The AC160 and HPX250 have been available longer, which could then account for why they might have more reports. Plus they would be purchased by more expert users with more experience using Panasonic camcorders. So they would be better able to notice a difference compared to other Panasonic camcorders.
 
Dstar said:
I love when someone chimes in and says, you are using auto focus!!!! I never use Auto focus!! Why would you do that, it is amateurish. I have said over and over that there is a problem with the AC160 auto focus compared to any other video camera I have used. No one has responded by a fix or anything. Again, I have just stated if you chose to use Auto focus it should do a decent job like most cameras on the market. Not be completely useless feature of a high end camera like the AC160. I sure hope Panny is working on a fix??
Again, the question is not that any videographer should never use auto focus. The question is if you chose to use this feature it should work as advertised.....
Click to expand...

Mark Williams said:
When you buy a product you should expect basic features to work properly. It is irrelevant whether "auto focus" is not used by "pros" or if the situation is simplistic enough not to warrant its use. In all but the most challenging situations it simply should work. Although I rarely use auto focus it has never failed to work properly on my Panasonic DVC30 and HPX170.
Click to expand...

True & True - its amazing that so many people have so many comments about how people choose to shoot. The issues this thread is about a feature on the camera - not what is or is not the proper way to shoot.
I too found the autofocus on the AC-160 slow and easily fooled. That was a consideration for me and the stuff (both pro & non pro) I shoot.
 
Greg Smith said:
"Paid job" and "autofocus" in the same sentence is a combination that just doesn't really compute to me.

I have been known to use the push-auto option to set the focus initially before a shot, or at least get it in the ballpark, but basically would never recommend leaving it turned on while the camera is rolling. Even then, I'd be sure to confirm the results as carefully as possible in the viewfinder before trusting it.

- Greg
Click to expand...

I REALLY wish people would stop saying crap like this. Who cares if YOU don't use auto focus on a paid gig? Who cares if you prefer manual? The issue here is that the auto focus is clearly BROKEN and the issues present in this camera are NOT present in other cameras.

If you like manual then by all means use it, but many people use auto (especially for run and gun events) and when a $500 consumer-grade camera has superior auto-focus than a $4500 professional camera, there is a problem.
 
Mark Williams said:
When you buy a product you should expect basic features to work properly. It is irrelevant whether "auto focus" is not used by "pros" or if the situation is simplistic enough not to warrant its use. In all but the most challenging situations it simply should work. Although I rarely use auto focus it has never failed to work properly on my Panasonic DVC30 and HPX170.
Click to expand...
So true. side note: my DVC30's auto focus is starting to fail to work properly. (I got a good 6 years out of it)
There are just some projects that would be smarter to shoot in auto focus. This one seems like one of them. live action stretching a distance and where a close up may happen and you don't want to miss anything. An auto focus system should be able to maintain focus 100% of the time (with good lighting) and in manual you will only adjust your focus once you get your framing. Hence you're not in focus 100% of the time.

my 2 cents
 
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