GH4 GH5 Autofocus Test

c3hammer said:
I'm having pretty good luck with the auto focus and the 15mm f/1.7 on my stabilizer. The Auto ISO looks like it could be super useful. Here's a sample from this morning.

https://vimeo.com/212295198
password is test123

Cheers, Pete
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I would call that really darn good and likely better than a lot of people could do with manual focus. I don't care what people say. Panasonic claimed improved autofocus and this is clearly improved.

People obsessing over wanting better auto focus need to chill out a bit and try it for themselves before crying the sky is falling from one rushed out video test from one person who has had questionable video tests in the past. I for one wouldn't dream of putting out a definitive video review of a camera after using it for only a day or two. This first to the plate kind of journalism is what gets people in trouble.
 
Barry_Green said:
Not gonna happen. Don't have a GH5, don't intend on getting one any time soon, and I believe it is completely dependent on the lens itself. All I was reporting was that lenses operate at different speed and different efficiency, and I can say that the two menu items have an ENORMOUS impact on the focus efficiency of a DVX200/UX180/UX90, so I suspect that they will have substantial impact on the GH5 also.

I don't have a GH5, so the subject doesn't affect me so I'm stepping out of the discussion, y'all test or vilify or celebrate it however you want.
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Posted and requested there where your quote was included:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOHFQgHE2X8&lc=z12fipthizbtwzzfs23jjznhrmu2zfggb04

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX6wQTf1oQA&lc=z12kvrfwrlftx3r4i04chxzyhqyfcfxhlkw0k


"1) Tap-to-focus

A) (from minute 0:37 on) https://youtu.be/tjSviTxLLqY?t=37
B) (from minute 7:39 on) https://youtu.be/AEsSsdTKJs4?t=459

Touch to focus is part of AF system and maybe a good solution to overcome eventual limitations. Fastest settings tested ain't anything helping to prevent the hunting hence pulsing. Please test all slower ones avaiIable.

2)
http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic...ll-is-revealed/?do=findComment&comment=189260
http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic...ll-is-revealed/?do=findComment&comment=189282

3)
(from minute 13:23 on) https://youtu.be/BAuEmp3fKQI?t=803
(from minute 41:23 on) https://youtu.be/WSAc3hU1v3k?t=2483

But not prone to introduce hunting !

4)
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...s-Test&p=1986693286&viewfull=1#post1986693286


Please read carefully that and try different settings and setups in order to get rid of the issue. If 4K/60p or/and external recording helps, so why not too if we're looking for the best automatic or semi-automatic focus setup to work out?"



Cheers to you Barry
(people here and out there miss your input),

E :-)
 
Ron Evans said:
I have not seen any tests of the normal continuous auto focus. All the tests have been of the AF custom settings. These I feel are intended to be set for custom use so would be different for different scenarios. For the Photo menu there are several presets for example. Has anyone seen the GH5 performance with just the normal auto focus ?
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Yes, everyday since I got it.
 
With Custom AF OFF and Continuous ON the camera behaves much like my Sony camcorders. Comparing with my FDR-AX1 both in UHD60P focusing from 18" to 15 feet takes about 5 secs for both confirmed when the peaking indication locks on. I may say the GH5 may be a little slower to lock but not significant as both do this in about 5 secs. GH5 has the advantage in that I can direct it to what it focuses on where the FDR-AX1 is its own master !!!
 
Hi

Ron Evans said:
With Custom AF OFF and Continuous ON the camera behaves much like my Sony camcorders. Comparing with my FDR-AX1 both in UHD60P focusing from 18" to 15 feet takes about 5 secs for both confirmed when the peaking indication locks on. I may say the GH5 may be a little slower to lock but not significant as both do this in about 5 secs. GH5 has the advantage in that I can direct it to what it focuses on where the FDR-AX1 is its own master !!!
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Also the Sony A6500 has phase detection focus, this can be much more precise and quicker because it can tell if in focus or not, and if not, it knows which direction to focus and how much to get there. The GH5 is contrast based detection which basically works on a trial and error basis. Pros and cons for each type. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autofocus

Phase detection is much more complex to add into a camera, it affects all sorts of things such as image stabilization (contrast detection allows for much better image stabilization generally with everything else like for like), and also has times when it doesn't work too well with certain scenes.

Cameras are all about the pros and cons and learning how to get the best out of them, that's been no different since someone smeared silver halide onto a glass plate and made a pin hole in box.

Regards

Phil
 
Batutta said:
Has anyone extensively tested out different lenses? On the GH4, my old 14-42 has pretty snappy and responsive autofocus, but the 20mm f1.7 is very slow, and sometimes just gives up altogether.
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I tested with my Leica 42.5 1.2 and the Leica 25 1.4. I tried all kinds of sensitivity settings as well as area/face detection settings. NO JOY on either. These lenses just don't seem to be compatible with any type of AF on the GH5. They never even try to lock on, even when you can clearly see the software detecting either the eyes or an area - which made me think I'm doing something wrong - which I might be??? I need to play a little more...but I've watched almost every GH5 AF video our there and I don't think i'm doing anything incorrect. Admittedly, I'm not a AF buff...I've never hand a need for it, but I've been excited by the potential of doing different shots without touching the focus.

I DID test the tap to focus/focus position settings and this feature works perfectly. The ONLY thing I wish they would have incorporated was some sort of non-liner response to the focus point...meaning...from one focus point to another there in no smoothing into or out of the focus transition (Like a human would use a follow focus). You can set the 5 different focus speeds, but it's instantaneous start and stop of those speeds. Also, it would have been nice when you set the countdown to focus feature (5 or 10 seconds), they would show you the countdown on the LCD screen.
 
Thomas Smet said:
I would call that really darn good and likely better than a lot of people could do with manual focus. I don't care what people say. Panasonic claimed improved autofocus and this is clearly improved.

People obsessing over wanting better auto focus need to chill out a bit and try it for themselves before crying the sky is falling from one rushed out video test from one person who has had questionable video tests in the past. I for one wouldn't dream of putting out a definitive video review of a camera after using it for only a day or two. This first to the plate kind of journalism is what gets people in trouble.
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I have to agree completely!...I do not use AF but if I was chasing my 5 year old around and got results c3hammer's I'd be thrilled!
 
Ken7 said:
I tried to mirror some of Max's test, but got very different results. All were done with the 14-140 lens, using 1-area, central AF. No adjustments were made to speed or sensitivity...in fact I never even turned that on:
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Well, while you're at it, why not giving the speed and sensitivity a change? If you max out the speed and the sensitivity you should see basically instantaneous changes, especially on that first test you did where you held the lens up. Then, try with both settings minimized, you should see a huge difference in autofocus performance.
 
Barry, this is why I didn't bother with speed & sensitivity. Although somewhat faster, the focusing clearly overshoots the mark each time with these maxed out settings for speed & sensitivity. I much prefer the slightly slower, more 'on-target' landing each time:

https://youtu.be/RbD9-0aT9aM
 
Yes, maximum speed can cause that to happen... still, it's good to see it in context so people can see how it affects the focus capability. But the sensitivity seems slow; maybe it's the lens? On a DVX200/UX180/UX90, it's hard to have anything not in focus when you're running +5/+5, it's extremely responsive. I wouldn't expect sensitivity to be affected by the lens, as that seems like it's probably just a delay. Did you try it on -5 sensitivity, and also on +5? There should be a huge difference between those as to when it starts to refocus. Thanks for running the tests that you have!
 
You're welcome, Barry. Yes, I did run the sensitivity tests from -5 to +5, with -5 having less 'bounce' than +5. However the most consistent results seemed to be achieved by turning off the custom AF settings and simply relying on 1-zone, central area AF. That setting provided both consistency and a more visually appealing transition with little or no overshoot. Go figure.

Now why & how Max got the incredibly poor results he did, I have no idea. As hard as I tried (thankfully) I could not duplicate his poor results.
 
Ken7 said:
I tried to mirror some of Max's test, but got very different results. All were done with the 14-140 lens, using 1-area, central AF. No adjustments were made to speed or sensitivity...in fact I never even turned that on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tXygqG1LeQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXsPFxB6kHU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOI6NkPWRcc
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Try at 24p. Autofocus, like the HDMI lag, supposedly gets worse at the 24hz frequency setting. Makes me wonder what kind of extra processing is going on at 24hz that slows the camera down.
 
I don't think it's 'extra processing' but rather less AF sampling at 24p. But I could be wrong.

I'll try to run the 24p test in the next couple of days.
 
Picked my GH5 up last Friday and like Ken7 find the best response is with Custom Off. It then responds very much like all my Sony camcorders auto focus. I also tried all the custom settings and couldn't really get a very bad response like Max. It sort of performed as expected with Locked on actually hanging on to the initial focus subject as expected etc. With Custom Off the response takes about 5 secs just like my Sony camcorders to change focus from close up to mid distance and seems to get there without much hunting, at least no worse than my camcorders. I will only use touch focus in manual ( not continuous focus ) anyway for my application so not a problem. More interesting is the fact that audio starts about 7 frames behind the video. It is in sync just doesn't start at the same time.
 
Barry_Green said:
Yes, maximum speed can cause that to happen... still, it's good to see it in context so people can see how it affects the focus capability. But the sensitivity seems slow; maybe it's the lens? On a DVX200/UX180/UX90, it's hard to have anything not in focus when you're running +5/+5, it's extremely responsive. I wouldn't expect sensitivity to be affected by the lens, as that seems like it's probably just a delay. Did you try it on -5 sensitivity, and also on +5? There should be a huge difference between those as to when it starts to refocus. Thanks for running the tests that you have!
Click to expand...

Ken7 said:
You're welcome, Barry. Yes, I did run the sensitivity tests from -5 to +5, with -5 having less 'bounce' than +5. However the most consistent results seemed to be achieved by turning off the custom AF settings and simply relying on 1-zone, central area AF. That setting provided both consistency and a more visually appealing transition with little or no overshoot. Go figure.

Now why & how Max got the incredibly poor results he did, I have no idea. As hard as I tried (thankfully) I could not duplicate his poor results.
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Hunting is what much concerns me... So, I guess sensitivity must be minimized. And as already said so many times, I think tap-to-focus is the safest AF mode on GH5. But, I'd like to see it without hunting at all, differently from MY test only based (what for?) on the fastest settings.
 
All contrast AF systems will hunt to some extent. That's how they work. Totally depends on the subject composition too. Something like the talking head on most of the tests, will present any AF system with a challenge of being stable on the head without the background having pulsing focus effect. If the focus systems stay focused on the head that is moving around then the background will move its focus too whatever the AF technology. Speed of focus is one thing, staying there without moving is another. That is why I think that touch focus is the better choice too. As I think I and others have said for me shutting OFF the custom AF gives better results just like my normal camcorders. Most of the time my GH5 will be on tripod and I will be in manual with touch focus setting just like I do now with my camcorders.
 
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