HPX250: HPX250 focusing issue??

J

JamesVibe

Member
Hi all. Ive been searching numerous threads online about the HPX250 and this focusing issue many are complaining about. Seems bad. Has there been any official word from Panasonic??? Can it be resolved with a firmware update? Got to know soon!

One question i would love to have a straight answer on is the peaking function. From what I understand you only have peaking in the EVF not the LCD? and its only white??? Is this right, why would they do that?

Everything else about this camera seems awesome, BUT I'd rather buy an EX1r that has rock solid focusing and fantastic peaking functions. I lose the 22x, but gain the confidence I need when shooting for a living.

I bought a Canon 7D that has a autofocus issue, (i use it for photography mostly) and nothing is more depressing when your camera has a focus issue. Makes you not want to shoot. :cry: So I REALLY HOPE, this focus issue can be solved...... FAST! Does anyone know more info? Thanks for taking the time to read
 
+1

I need to buy a camera in the next couple weeks and I really want the HPX250, but I've heard enough murmuring about focus issues that I'm worried.

Yes, it's a 1/3 inch chip which makes focusing easier, but if the camera's focusing mechanisms and focusing aids (peaking, expended focus, auto focus and push auto) aren't working as expected or at least not working as well as previous cameras like the 170 and 150, then I'm hesitant to make the investment.

All this may boil down to the fact that this is a new camera that operates differently than some operators are used to. I hope this is the case.

Jeff Regan assuaged some of my concerns in this thread, but I'd still like to hear more. I'd be especially interested to hear Barry or Jan (or another Panasonic rep) address these focusing complaints. It would certainly put my mind at ease!
 
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Ok mine just arrived ...I tested for about 2 hrs. now and just did the focus vs zoom test: THERE IS A SHOWSTOPPER IMO:
I have the monitor readout so zoom and focus are shown in m/mm.
Zoom full in (86) allows you to focus 76cm, now slowly zoom backwards, @ zoom 70 = 88 cm @ zoom 65=93cm !!!
Zoom back til 37 and you get you old 76 cm closest focus again!
 
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timbook2 said:
Ok mine just arrived ...I tested for about 2 hrs. now and just did the focus vs zoom test: THERE IS A SHOWSTOPPER IMO:
I have the monitor readout so zoom and focus are shown in m/mm.
Zoom full in (86) allows you to focus 76cm, now slowly zoom backwards, @ zoom 70 = 88 cm @ zoom 65=93cm !!!
Zoom back til 37 and you get you old 76 cm closest focus again!
Now there are two chances:
1.Either its something one can turn off
2. this camera has a major design flaw in the lense and goes back to the factory!

I hope its 1 :-)
Click to expand...
As said in the other thread, it's not a showstopper, it's not a design flaw, it's not a problem at all. And if you want to send it back to the factory because of this, well, I guess you can, or you can look at it a bit more reasonably and see that the only issue here is that it can't hold macro focus throughout an entire 22x zoom range. That's just the way it is. As Panasonic said, if you focused out to about 6 feet, it would easily hold focus throughout the zoom range. But when you're focusing closer than one meter, it can't hold it throughout the entire zoom range. It tries, but there's a bit of range in there where it can't hold it that tightly.

Far from being a showstopper, you should just realize that you're asking an awful lot for any lens to do -- I can't think of any other 22x lens that can focus down as close as 76cm in the first place, much less hold that close distance throughout the entire zoom range.
 
JamesVibe said:
One question i would love to have a straight answer on is the peaking function. From what I understand you only have peaking in the EVF not the LCD?
Click to expand...
Not true. As Kevin said, peaking works equally on the EVF and also on the LCD. Perhaps the confusion came about because the function is named EVF DTL, so someone thought it only applied to the EVF? But whatever the reason, rest assured it's not a problem. It works on both, and works very well on both, far better than peaking has worked on any prior Panasonic.

and its only white??? Is this right, why would they do that?
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It's only white because that's how Panasonic's always done it. The DVX, HVX, HPX170, HMC150, HMC40, HMC80, HPX500, HPX300, HPX370... they're all peaking-in-white only. In the very latest cameras they've started adding a new peaking-in-red capability in addition to white, but the HPX250 is running the same basic firmware/software/hardware of the HPX370, so it has mainly the same features as the HPX370, and that includes peaking in white. Unlike all the prior Panasonic handhelds though, in the 250 you can adjust the intensity of the peaking, and you can adjust the frequencies that it works at (i.e., you can make it more stingy or more generous). Overall, I'd say the peaking in the HPX250 is far above what's been offered in any of their prior models. Would be nice if they'd also allow the option of red (or another color) but they don't.

As for any focus "issues", I plan on putting an HPX250 and an AC160 and an HMC150 all into a focus-off crucible of death and see which ones emerge unscathed. In other words, I'm gonna try to get to the bottom of this by trying these units out against an older tried-and-true model and see if there's a difference in autofocus performance between them.
 
MPGordon; said:
but if the camera's focusing mechanisms and focusing aids (peaking, expended focus, auto focus and push auto) aren't working as expected or at least not working as well as previous cameras like the 170 and 150, then I'm hesitant to make the investment.
Click to expand...
As far as I'm concerned, the peaking and magnified focus assist on the HPX250 are far beyond what's been offered on any prior Panasonic. The peaking is adjustable from minimal to holy-cow, and you can adjust the frequencies from super-stingy to overly-generous. And when you combine those capabilities with the new incredibly-much-sharper LCD panel, I dare say that manual focusing of the HPX250 is easier, more precise, and inspires more confidence than any Panasonic I've used, and I've used all the low-cost units since the original DVX100. And that doesn't even bring into play the magnified focus assist, which shows an even higher degree of magnification than the HPX170/HVX200 did.

And the focus ring is nearly perfect, it has the excellent 300 degree rotation that gives you extremely precise control and it's 100% repeatable -- set a focus mark on the lens, and then spin the ring away from and then back to the mark, and it'll be 100% accurate every time. No matter how fast or slow you move the ring.

Takes a while for ENG stuff though, so the MA mode helps with that; the Manual Assist changes the ring ratio so it's only 150 degrees from turn to turn, and adds a touch of autofocus at the end to sharpen up a tad if you missed the exact focus point when manually spinning the ring. Nice, but I prefer to roll my own whenever possible so I don't rely on MA too much, but for those who need a really quick response to the focus ring it's the way to go.

Focus bar, meh. Take it or leave it, I pretty much leave it. But sharp LCD plus awesome peaking (even if in white-only) combined with the ability to punch in for magnified focus, makes getting precision manual focus trivially easy.

Autofocus, well, I don't know what to tell you on that yet. I haven't spent any substantial time with autofocus; I mean, I tried it, it did its job, I moved on... I haven't spent any time comparing it in depth to other autofocus systems, although I do intend to do that now seeing as questions seem to be arising.

The only gripe I have at all with the HPX250's focus assist aids at all is that you can't use magnified focus assist while recording. Wish you could. But you couldn't on the HPX300 or HPX370 either, so it's not that big of a problem, it just would be nice.

I'll try some focus testing in low light tonight, and daylight tomorrow, and see what information can be gleaned from comparing these two new cameras against the veteran.
 
Barry_Green said:
As for any focus "issues", I plan on putting an HPX250 and an AC160 and an HMC150 all into a focus-off crucible of death and see which ones emerge unscathed. In other words, I'm gonna try to get to the bottom of this by trying these units out against an older tried-and-true model and see if there's a difference in autofocus performance between them.
Click to expand...

I did this with our 250 and our 170, and the results were dramatic. PM me if interested.
 
Barry_Green said:
As said in the other thread, it's not a showstopper, it's not a design flaw, it's not a problem at all. And if you want to send it back to the factory because of this, well, I guess you can, or you can look at it a bit more reasonably and see that the only issue here is that it can't hold macro focus throughout an entire 22x zoom range. That's just the way it is. As Panasonic said, if you focused out to about 6 feet, it would easily hold focus throughout the zoom range. But when you're focusing closer than one meter, it can't hold it throughout the entire zoom range. It tries, but there's a bit of range in there where it can't hold it that tightly.

Far from being a showstopper, you should just realize that you're asking an awful lot for any lens to do -- I can't think of any other 22x lens that can focus down as close as 76cm in the first place, much less hold that close distance throughout the entire zoom range.
Click to expand...

Yes Barry I realized I was having "after buy shock" and was a bit over reacting. But you must also admit, that apart from the great macro and zoom offerings, an explanation about the limits of the new lens would have avoided such outbreak? I also do not zoom a lot anyway even though I am asked to zoom in quite often recently but the HVX 201 behaved much "safer" and its important to learn about the limits when zooming.
Its all ok so far ...I am NOT giving it back and trying to adopt and most likely wont run into problems although my bread and butter is R&G!
 
ggrantly said:
David, we are all interested!

Grant
Click to expand...

I'm not attempting to hide anything, but am awaiting some feedback from a couple of sources.

When I (and others) know more, it will be shared, but I don't want to populate the threads with any misinformation.

best
 
Interesting thread... I am considering selling one of my HPX500 and replacing it with one of these. So, I am very interested in your findings.

-Brad
 
I am keeping mine :-) Once these Macro Focus issues are known they can be avoided. I tested parfocal behaviour in non macro ranges and found no issues.
 
With Letus 35

With Letus 35

plan on using my Letus on the 250. Focus is tough enough on the 170. Wonder how the 22x will do with the Letus?
Thanks
 
castlegate said:
plan on using my Letus on the 250. Focus is tough enough on the 170. Wonder how the 22x will do with the Letus?
Thanks
Click to expand...

I tested one of our Letus Ultimates on our 250 and found that I couldn't zoom in all the way, but it worked at S35 or Full Frame 35 field of view. Saw no obvious CA issues, looked as good as an Ultimate on our EX1, which is to say sharp compared to 170 or even 2700. So, you would just lose the flexibility to zoom all the way in when you wanted more reach without changing primes.
 
Barry_Green said:
As for any focus "issues", I plan on putting an HPX250 and an AC160 and an HMC150 all into a focus-off crucible of death and see which ones emerge unscathed. In other words, I'm gonna try to get to the bottom of this by trying these units out against an older tried-and-true model and see if there's a difference in autofocus performance between them.
Click to expand...

Barry, I'm sure you have many other important things to do, but if you ever do get a chance to put the HPX250, AC160 and HMC150 into the "focus-off crucible of death", I'd still be interested in seeing the results. I'm probably going to get the 250 either way, but it would be nice to know it's limitations (if there are any) compared to the 160/170.

I'm also looking forward to reading Adam Wilt's review of the 250 when it comes out.
 
Dino said:
I tested one of our Letus Ultimates on our 250 and found that I couldn't zoom in all the way, but it worked at S35 or Full Frame 35 field of view. Saw no obvious CA issues, looked as good as an Ultimate on our EX1, which is to say sharp compared to 170 or even 2700. So, you would just lose the flexibility to zoom all the way in when you wanted more reach without changing primes.
Click to expand...

Dino, you are talking about zooming all the way in to the ground glass? I normally try to avoid that as to not see the GG. Do you notice any speed difference from the 170 as to f-stop?
Thanks
 
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