HVX AutoFocus on crane?

Dillon Novak

Dillon Novak

Well-known member
The shots as you can see below, are completely parallel to the subject on the ground. The most movement there will be is the camera slowly pushing in/out while slowly rotating.

We do not have access or the budget to pull focus, will the auto focus be fine for this?



Story-2.jpg
 
Maybe.

There are some things you can do to help your situation. Faster frame rates will improve the AF response, so if possible avoid 24fps. Use 60 if possible. When you set your exposure, work at closing the aperture to say f8-f11 which will increase your depth of field. Moving your camera farther away from the subject will l increase the relative DOF. Keep the distance to your subject the same from beginning to end of scene; think horizontal shot. Experiment and you might not need AF at all.

Grant
 
Yeah, those are great recommendations, ggrantly. I would have said the same. AF on the HVX is TERRIBLE, but luckily there are lots of conditions which the HVX exhibits an enormous DOF. I have to believe you have ways to try out this shot before production -- even a rough handheld would give you an idea of the focus.
 
ggrantly said:
Maybe.

There are some things you can do to help your situation. Faster frame rates will improve the AF response, so if possible avoid 24fps. Use 60 if possible.

Grant
Click to expand...


I can not to higher frame rates because he is singing in this shot...But i will try widening the DOF. I was planning on bringing the zoom on the stock lens as wide as possible. And I will try stopping down a kit. But the shot has to push in/out towards/away the ground. So I will just play it back on the monitor and see the results. :)


tbob said:
Yeah, those are great recommendations, ggrantly. I would have said the same. AF on the HVX is TERRIBLE, but luckily there are lots of conditions which the HVX exhibits an enormous DOF. I have to believe you have ways to try out this shot before production -- even a rough handheld would give you an idea of the focus.
Click to expand...

I can not try this out before production...but I will simply have to stick with the instructions above. Thanks to both of you!
 
I'm not sure why singing would prevent you from changing frame rates? Though I suspect AF for this is not going to work regardless. But another issue if you are shooting 24 and you pan quickly to cover the movement is jitter.

A Manfrotto 521 focus controller has limiters so you can do a sort of remote rack focus with a PA.

Honestly, without practicing this move ahead of time, this shot will be difficult and probably waste some takes to get it right.

Good Luck
Grant
 
I would avoid using AF as much as you can, I think it would be better to have it go a little soft then to see the focus changing poorly in the shot.

I would agree with the others and try to keep the camera the same distance from your subject as possible.
 
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