Focus Pulling

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Dan_The_Man

Active member
Hi there,

I have just finished on a 4 day shoot with a Canon 5D MkII and it has made me question the purchase of my XH A1. One problem that I discovered was that of focus pulling. There were quite a few shots that we did that required up to 5 seperate focus points. I used the dial on the lense that indicates how far away the focus point is as reference for my focus.

If I tried to do the same focus on the Canon XH A1 I don't think I would be able to do it. The focus ring is continuous and there is nothing to indicate how far the focus is so you can get back to the same point every time.

What is your experience on focus pulling with the XH A1? Surely this is a huge disadvantage! I am considering selling my XH A1 now.

Dan
 
What I'll do a lot of the time is set the focus ring to the position that it needs to be in at the end of the shot, and then put my finger on it right next to the instant AF sensor. Then, keeping my finger in the same spot on the ring, set it to the position to where it needs to be at the beginning of the shot. This way, when you go to rack, the instant AF sensor stops your finger from pushing it further past where it needs to be.
 
You can input focus points and zoom settings on the XH-A1 using a switch near the front of the camera. Switch the focus preset to on, focus your subject, and dial in the preset. Then, whenever you need to return to that preset, you can just hit the preset button and it'll return immediately. Similarly, the XH-A1 has a relatively deep depth of field because its a digital camera and you aren't using 35mm lenses unless you've got a 35mm adapter, pulling focus on the XH-A1 is not hard at all. I wouldn't sell an XH-A1 to use a Mark II exclusively for that reason alone. The XH-A1's ability to do 24p is reason enough to keep it (Mark II can't do 24p).
 
Moseph said:
What I'll do a lot of the time is set the focus ring to the position that it needs to be in at the end of the shot, and then put my finger on it right next to the instant AF sensor. Then, keeping my finger in the same spot on the ring, set it to the position to where it needs to be at the beginning of the shot. This way, when you go to rack, the instant AF sensor stops your finger from pushing it further past where it needs to be.
Click to expand...

Doesn't the variable focus speed mess with that?
 
If you try to zoom in or out, you need to reposition your finger, but I still think it looks better than using the focus position preset. That looks almost like a jump cut to me since it does it so fast.
 
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