HPX-170: Focusing with ring not true: really?

evolvnyc

evolvnyc

Well-known member
So I was just shooting my first job with my new HPX-170 and was of course having to do everything myself... no assistant, no sound people. I was having trouble tilting, panning and pulling focus to follow our subject from a building to his car all at the same time so I told the director he'd have to pull focus for me. No problem, right? I focused on the start and end points and marked them on the ring with tape and said, "Okay just go from here to here on a four count" We did a few rehearsals and he was hitting the marks perfectly but every time we went back and forth the focus number on the lcd was different and the focus was way off on both ends. I know the focus ring isn't a "real" ring, but how am I supposed to pull focus if it isn't even consistent??? Is this the way this camera is or is mine defective? If this is correct, how can this be so on a $5,000 camera, I mean REALLY?
 
It is consistent, it's completely consistent, as long as you don't exceed infinity or minimum distance.

In fact, it's the only camera (family) that has a consistent ring -- none of the other ones even try.

Set three marks: first, set "infinity" by using the "push to infinity" button. Then set mark 1 and mark 2. Before you start, be sure to recalibrate the ring by putting the lens focus ring back at the infinity mark and then do the "push to infinity". You should find it absolutely perfectly repeatable.
 
Hm, I wasn't using infinity in the pull, it was like from 71 to 76. I just tried switching the ring to iris to see if it did the same thing and it did, the marks did not remain consistent. Should this be the case? Do you think I have a defective camera? Thanks so much, Barry.
 
The marks should be absolutely consistent.

BUT -- wait, I just thought of something -- do you have it in manual focus assist mode? That would throw the marks off! When you're in manual focus mode does the readout say "MF" or "MA"? If it's MA, turn off the manual focus assist, and you should be back to 100% precision.
 
what happens is that every time you turn the ring too far, up to the infinity or to minimum, you loose your marks.

To pull a good focus :
1- hit the infinity swich, put a mark on the ring and name it infinity.
2- mark your focus points on the ring
3- after every take, pput your ring back to your infinity position and hit the infinity switch again, this will reset your focus ring according to your marks.

There is another solution which is to use a remote thet you plug in the back of your camera (the jack plugs in the back) this remote will be 100% consistent !

and as barry said : remove the focus assist !
 
It's MF Barry. Thanks so much for weighing in but it is definitely not consistent. Should I send it back? Crazy...
 
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