What should my 1st step be in investigating soft focus?

O

oxband

Well-known member
So, I think my HMC-150 has a problem with a soft focus. At first I thought I just wasn't being careful, but I just did two interviews where I was very careful, using the focus assist to help me, and the focus is soft.

It's entirely possible the problem is still a combination of me and the viewfinder. I'd spend the money for a better viewfinder, but I'm not sure that's the problem.

If I suspected it might be mechanical, what are the steps, in order, I should take to investigate the problem?
 
Well, first, make sure you've focused the viewfinder to your eyesight using the diopter ring. Focus it until the text is hyper-crisply sharp. Then, use the magnified focus assist to set critical focus on your subject's eyes. Then, evaluate on a big monitor, it should look sharp and clear.
 
I was using the focus assist but not looking at her eyes, looking instead at her skin which, admittantly, is a bit hard to focus on. It's happened a bunch of times so I'm inclined to say it's the camera, but I'll try this approach a few times and see if the problem was in fact me!
 
With the 150, I find it hard to get focus at more than 5 or 6 feet wide open; f4 or 5.6 seems to help massively, especially with people, who tend to weave back & forth a bit as they speak.

But as Barry says, use the focus assist tools, and you can also zoom in to check critical focus; just make sure when you zoom back to your desired frame it still looks tight.

My eyes are not aging gracefully; I've got a 22" HDTV I use for editing, on an articulated wall mount ($16 bucks at amazon). I've found I can slide the TV mount from the wall mount (it uses a steel pin) and stick it on a c-stand. It's not a broadcast monitor (I have a little Marshall for color) but for focus, it's pretty dang cool. The TV was under $300; on a wheeled stand with a sandbag, it's gotten to be pretty handy for indoor work.
 
Eyes are the best, you get to focus in on eyelashes or even eyebrows. Plus eyes are the most important thing to have in focus - its what viewers are going to naturally look at. External monitor is the way to go to make sure though....
 
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