Pulling focus around

J Davis

J Davis

Veteran
Pulling focus around on the GH1 kinda sucked because the tiny LCD will not stay 'zoomed' in while recording plus there was no HDMI out. The good thing about that cam is the LCD is articulated so my neck didn't get strained.

The 7D on the other hand has HDMI but I've read posts that it is only 480p

480p is 853x480 = 409440 pixels

Specs on dpreview.com list the 7D LCD monitor as having 460,000

can someone tell me what is the point of using the HDMI out ?

7D EVF on the other hand is listed as having 1,440,000 'dots' which I assume to mean pixels (dpreview)
 
The point is the HDMI at 480p is the best quality 'out' you're going to get out of the camera. Don't want to strain your neck? - get an external marshall with false color and peaking to help with neck strain and focusing.
 
7D has no EVF. It's a standard DSLR viewfinder AKA a mirrored view of what the lens is seeing.

And according to the Canon 7D manual, page 255: LCD monitor size is 3" with approximately 910,000 dots (VGA).

The point of using the HDMI out, even if it's only 480p, is that you get to use a monitor much bigger than 3" and you can put it anywhere you want.
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I sensed a little defensive tone going on. Hey I've got a 7D on pre-order too !

Just disappointed thats all.
 
Yeah, no tone intended, but it is disappointing the HDMI output is not full res. Better than nothing, though.
 
I see this being a major problem. When reviewing footage, if it's just slightly out of focus it will look in focus in a 480p monitor. Then you think you got the take and once you get back and watch it in all it's 1080p glory you find out your focus was soft. But then it's too late.
 
The camera plays back clips in Full HD through HDMI. It's only when recording that it drops the 480p, presumably because the CPU lacks enough power to drive the monitor and record at the same time. So you can check your clips for focus after the fact.

You can also use the live view zoom feature (x5 and x10) to check focus marks before takes.

Philip Bloom swears by the Zacuto Z-Finder to assess focus while shooting.

http://philipbloom.co.uk/2009/08/21/review-of-new-zacuto-z-finder-v2/
 
xbourque said:
The camera plays back clips in Full HD through HDMI. It's only when recording that it drops the 480p, presumably because the CPU lacks enough power to drive the monitor and record at the same time. So you can check your clips for focus after the fact.

You can also use the live view zoom feature (x5 and x10) to check focus marks before takes.

Philip Bloom swears by the Zacuto Z-Finder to assess focus while shooting.

http://philipbloom.co.uk/2009/08/21/review-of-new-zacuto-z-finder-v2/
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Well, that's better already.

But another bummer is the LCD is disabled when the video out is used. So basically ither the director has no monitor during the take and he has to watch every take in playback to see if he got the take he needs, which doubles the time, or the camera operator has to operate from the optical viewfinder, which for most shots like moving ones is impossible or very difficult.
 
Sttratos said:
the camera operator has to operate from the optical viewfinder, which for most shots like moving ones is impossible or very difficult.
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Bad news: The optical viewfinder doesn't work when live view (and thus video mode) is enabled.

I don't see why the director couldn't also just monitor from an external monitor and check the footage for focus after each take.
 
ydgmdlu said:
Bad news: The optical viewfinder doesn't work when live view (and thus video mode) is enabled.

I don't see why the director couldn't also just monitor from an external monitor and check the footage for focus after each take.
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if the director monitors from an external monitor, what does the camera operator sees then? If you send a video signal out the on board LCD is disabled right?
 
The problem is that no matter how big the external monitor is, you are still only looking at 480p. There is a error when trying to pull focus around on a moving actor when you are capturing 1080p and monitoring on 480p.

The LCD gives better res than the HDMI out so even tho its smaller, if you are prepared to squint, strain your neck (and get mad at canon) then you have a better chance.
 
Come on Canon just figure out a way to give us full res HDMI out for monitoring, or at least 720p, I'm sure you can do it if you put your best tech's on it, lol. 480p on a 9" external monitor, what a shame!
 
One more thing to consider as well, it's going to be difficult too to shoot on a tripod from a lot of angles without an external monitor without killing your neck or looking at it from odd angles. Maybe you get used to it, but coming from the full sized camera world it may take a lot of getting used to.
 
The 5d has the best onboard LCD I've ever used and apparently the 7ds is better. I it much easier to pull focus on my 5d vs my gh1. The gh1 onboard is wayyyyyyyy worse than the 5ds.
 
ryansheffer said:
The 5d has the best onboard LCD I've ever used and apparently the 7ds is better. I it much easier to pull focus on my 5d vs my gh1. The gh1 onboard is wayyyyyyyy worse than the 5ds.
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Nonsense. Having used both extensively, focus pulling is much easier on the GH1.

The GH1 has more depth of field (Cinema) at the equivalent HAOV of the 5D. The GH1 has two live monitoring options- the LCD and unlike any mirrored SLR, the viewfinder. The GH1 also still has the best focus assist of any DSLR I've ever used.

It is currently possible to pull focus as a professional would with the GH1- on lenses that were designed for the task which actually have real and accurate focus marks on the barrel.

The 5D and 7D have their pluses, but to declare that the non-orientable LCD of the 5D is vastly superior to the GH1 is at best opinion, and at worst a distortion of the truth.

On REJOUER there was a shot at 180mm at T2 with an actor running towards camera at full speed, and the 1st AC was able to pull focus tack sharp from begining to end. Speaking as a focus puller for a moment, the same shot with the same end to end sharpness is currently impossible on a 5D.
 
Illya Friedman said:
On REJOUER there was a shot at 180mm at T2 with an actor running towards camera at full speed, and the 1st AC was able to pull focus tack sharp from begining to end. Speaking as a focus puller for a moment, the same shot with the same end to end sharpness is currently impossible on a 5D.
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Why?
 
I just wonder why Zacuto or somebody else can't come up with a viewfinder attachment that swivels up and down and rotates like a shoulder camera viewfinder. That would already help. This is basically what the EX3 viewfinder is, a LCD with an attachment. Normal optical viewfinders on still cameras have had 90 degrees viewfinder attachments for decades now. Not exactly the same but shows it's needed.

Just something like this, but that would fold out to become straight for shoulder shooting and would attached over the LCD: http://cgi.ebay.com/Angle-Viewfinde...in_0?hash=item518c04c55a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
 
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