Disclaimer: First-timer here and a *newbie* to most of this. Recently made a huge upgrade from $200 home video camera to FS7, after a brief moment of DSLR video. I'm making fun and/or instructional horse videos. I am clearly way out of my depth but I'm willing to study and practice my ass off....
So I got this lens because of the potential for AF given my "models" are erratically moving animals that don't appreciate being asked to hit their marks. given I am not a pro, will never be paid to do this, etc. I am sure my standards are lower than most, but I am pretty impressed with the AF on this lens if I use it in a way it seems to "like". Given that I found very little info, reviews, samples,etc on using this lens for continuous AF, I decided I'd post. But I don't want my lack of skill to give the lens an undeserved poor rep, so I'll just say that if I can make it do this, I assume a skillful user could do something much better.
https://vimeo.com/133111590
Continuous AF seems pretty slow at *finding* the focus if it's not a really contrasts thing, BUT once it has it, it holds on like a bull dog and seemed to resist catching ahold of other things passing in the foreground. The very last shot in my video is a good example of it resisting the temptation of something briefly passing in front despite taking the entire focus area. I didn't test this for how long a delay before the camera would start assuming the new thing was the new subject for focus, but I was impressed with how robust focus often was once the focus was settled. Not much additional hunting etc.
I need to get more practice at instantly switching between AF snd MF, but I was sort of doing it. I found that for MF the "throw" (hope I'm not horribly abusing these terms) was much much longer than what I have known from working purely with canon still lenses. So my little $50 follow focus with a handle couldn't get me what I needed without bumping into the lens or rails. I need a different ff solution.
I'm forcing myself to learn a little color grading *and* exposure by working exclusively in cine eI and slog-3. I am not using a monitor LUT (because I figured I could force myself to learn to map between what I see in the VF and what I actually get). The exposure for slog 3 is tricky for me but you are rewarded if you get it right. I am using the Zebra-2 setting and also keeping the waveform up and this has been working well for me. I don't have trouble seeing in the VF without a LUT as long as I turn contrast of the VF up and I use focus peaking (a totally new experience for me).
Continuous AF does not work in the super slow-mo, as others have reported. I doubt I'll use super high frame rates much other than for fun/novelty or for biomechanics studies ( a big part of why I did get this camera).
I was so excited to have nd filters! Yay! Only to find that to shoot at f4 in even darkish fog I nearly maxed out the nd filters (assume this is because of the high native ISO?)
I did not try to grade this, but did apply the slog3 LUT using the built in FCPX setting. There are a couple of very poor color balanced shots here which my next exercise is to figure out how to start fixing that. Obviously without applying the LUT in final cut the video looked very very flat and washed out.
I am am so ludicrously self-taught I have never been in the presence of anyone who knew what they were doing but I hope to start attending some workshops. I can see how one could get hooked on this.
If if there is a more appropriate newbie forum I will be happy to go there. I don't intend to add much noise to what is clearly a forum for professionals. I just wanted to post given the lack of info on the fs7/kit lens.
Also as I do not take it personally that I suck at this (just a fact), there is no feedback that I would be offended by. (Unless you hate horses... Then I might have a problem
just want to add that I have been lurking here for many months and only went forward with making such a big jump because of what I learned here, so thank you all. My "day job" is computer programmer and programming instructor/author, but my passion for horses has started to get the better of my rational thinking ( and bank balance). Still, the fs7 lets me practice at a level way past what I would have ever dreamed I'd have access to, and for the cost of two saddles. Painful, but possible. And outrageously fun even without actually knowing what I'm doing. Yet.
So I got this lens because of the potential for AF given my "models" are erratically moving animals that don't appreciate being asked to hit their marks. given I am not a pro, will never be paid to do this, etc. I am sure my standards are lower than most, but I am pretty impressed with the AF on this lens if I use it in a way it seems to "like". Given that I found very little info, reviews, samples,etc on using this lens for continuous AF, I decided I'd post. But I don't want my lack of skill to give the lens an undeserved poor rep, so I'll just say that if I can make it do this, I assume a skillful user could do something much better.
https://vimeo.com/133111590
Continuous AF seems pretty slow at *finding* the focus if it's not a really contrasts thing, BUT once it has it, it holds on like a bull dog and seemed to resist catching ahold of other things passing in the foreground. The very last shot in my video is a good example of it resisting the temptation of something briefly passing in front despite taking the entire focus area. I didn't test this for how long a delay before the camera would start assuming the new thing was the new subject for focus, but I was impressed with how robust focus often was once the focus was settled. Not much additional hunting etc.
I need to get more practice at instantly switching between AF snd MF, but I was sort of doing it. I found that for MF the "throw" (hope I'm not horribly abusing these terms) was much much longer than what I have known from working purely with canon still lenses. So my little $50 follow focus with a handle couldn't get me what I needed without bumping into the lens or rails. I need a different ff solution.
I'm forcing myself to learn a little color grading *and* exposure by working exclusively in cine eI and slog-3. I am not using a monitor LUT (because I figured I could force myself to learn to map between what I see in the VF and what I actually get). The exposure for slog 3 is tricky for me but you are rewarded if you get it right. I am using the Zebra-2 setting and also keeping the waveform up and this has been working well for me. I don't have trouble seeing in the VF without a LUT as long as I turn contrast of the VF up and I use focus peaking (a totally new experience for me).
Continuous AF does not work in the super slow-mo, as others have reported. I doubt I'll use super high frame rates much other than for fun/novelty or for biomechanics studies ( a big part of why I did get this camera).
I was so excited to have nd filters! Yay! Only to find that to shoot at f4 in even darkish fog I nearly maxed out the nd filters (assume this is because of the high native ISO?)
I did not try to grade this, but did apply the slog3 LUT using the built in FCPX setting. There are a couple of very poor color balanced shots here which my next exercise is to figure out how to start fixing that. Obviously without applying the LUT in final cut the video looked very very flat and washed out.
I am am so ludicrously self-taught I have never been in the presence of anyone who knew what they were doing but I hope to start attending some workshops. I can see how one could get hooked on this.
If if there is a more appropriate newbie forum I will be happy to go there. I don't intend to add much noise to what is clearly a forum for professionals. I just wanted to post given the lack of info on the fs7/kit lens.
Also as I do not take it personally that I suck at this (just a fact), there is no feedback that I would be offended by. (Unless you hate horses... Then I might have a problem
just want to add that I have been lurking here for many months and only went forward with making such a big jump because of what I learned here, so thank you all. My "day job" is computer programmer and programming instructor/author, but my passion for horses has started to get the better of my rational thinking ( and bank balance). Still, the fs7 lets me practice at a level way past what I would have ever dreamed I'd have access to, and for the cost of two saddles. Painful, but possible. And outrageously fun even without actually knowing what I'm doing. Yet.