AC90: Pulling Focus

J

ja_swaer

Member
I need to hear from other AC90 users how you do focus.

I have had my AC90 for 8 months now. Love it for many reasons but this is the second time I got bitten really bad with focus.

Shot an event recently. I pulled focus meticulously prior to the start but it can be hard with the small LCD but I managed to get it spot on. Had 10 minutes to get it right. Then during the event the speaker moved back from the focal point and I quickly tried to refocus. (Shoot on manual for all settings). I thought I nailed it and shot the 4 to 5 minutes before he moved back to the original position. I refocused again and it looked like I got it right.

Now in post, both the backward and return are soft as can be. I missed the focus by about 3-4 feet. The backdrop is in perfect focus but the speaker is soft. On the return the podium is in great focus but speaker soft again.

How do you guys stay in focus in these kinds of situations? Shortly after receiving the camera I tried auto focus but it would hunt back and forth a lot. Never used it again. Is a 10 or 12 inch monitor a must ?

Thanks
 
Have you tried Focus Assist?
It places a RED highlight over focused objects.
This works with the LCD or Viewfinder.
You can also change the Viewfinder to black & white if you like.

Al
 
Right . . . and the focus assist at the viewfinder when set to black & white, seems to give better results on some of these cameras (I have an AG-AC160A).

A 7 inch plus good quality monitor will give much better results.

Going to auto-focus is not going to give consistent good results.
 
Alchroma said:
Have you tried Focus Assist?
It places a RED highlight over focused objects.
This works with the LCD or Viewfinder.
You can also change the Viewfinder to black & white if you like.

Al
Click to expand...

Yes, probably should have mentioned that. I leave focus assist on all the time and use it a lot.

Really wish there was a zoom as part of the on the focus assist.
 
Hi, I now use a 7" Marshall monitor for my AF102 and my AC160A. The beauty of this monitor is that not only does it have focus assist (along with loads of other stuff including a waveform monitor,) but you can adjust the apparent sensitivity of the FA,(ie the tolerence of reported info) in effect closing down or opening up the reported true focus point. This is a great focussing aid for my tired old eyes and means that you can really nail it!
Rod
 
If you just want a monitor to pull focus and framing, I use the 7" lcds from coollcd.com monitors which are very affordable.

But if I need color and all the pro features of a production monitor, I would go with a nice marshall.
 
For critical or hard-to-nail shots, I use the 5" marshall, set one-to-one pixel, and I'll switch peaking on and off - and focus-in-red on the cam. Day-to-day use, I tend to use the VF with focus-in-red. It's pretty handy.

I really love the idea of tuneable peaking - sometimes monitor peaking shows things as "in" that are way out. Low contrast shots, sometimes you get no peaking at all.

I also use the manfrotto remote - you can set focus direction... AND in & out points. If you're on sticks and something like a speaker at a podium, you can fill in the range of focus you'll need.

For handheld, I mount it to my shoulder rig where my fingertip can touch it. It's beyond awesome.

manfrotto.jpg
 
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