Zoom Focus simultaneously
- Thread starter djkarn105
- Start date
Steve Laramie
Veteran
As long as there is no forward or backward motion in the picture just zoom all the way in, focus, then zoom out and do your zoom shot and it will stay in focus. I'm going to tell all your film teachers you are about to zoom. tisk tisk
Jason R. Johnston
Well-known member
Depends on the shot.
If your subject is moving, that's a different story. You just have to work both the zoom and the focus at the same time......manually. Try doing it with a camera move, too. These are all things I have to do by myself ALL THE TIME. It sucks, but I've found that a slower aperture works best as it gives you a deeper depth of field and therefore a wider latitude of what is and what is not in focus.
From there (as pointed out by LairHair), the general rule of thumb is to zoom in on your subject and focus, then as you zoom in and out they should stay generally in focus relative to their distance to the camera from the spot they were in when you initially focused.
The wider the shot, the even more deep the focus, the less you have to worry about pulling focus while zooming.
If your subject is moving, that's a different story. You just have to work both the zoom and the focus at the same time......manually. Try doing it with a camera move, too. These are all things I have to do by myself ALL THE TIME. It sucks, but I've found that a slower aperture works best as it gives you a deeper depth of field and therefore a wider latitude of what is and what is not in focus.
From there (as pointed out by LairHair), the general rule of thumb is to zoom in on your subject and focus, then as you zoom in and out they should stay generally in focus relative to their distance to the camera from the spot they were in when you initially focused.
The wider the shot, the even more deep the focus, the less you have to worry about pulling focus while zooming.
Again, it depends on whether your lens track focus. If it doesn't, you're in for a hell of a time because as the focal length changes the focus doesn't correspond linearly, meaning you have to turn the focus ring much faster than you change focal length to keep the subject in focus, which is VERY difficult for any operator.
Steve Laramie
Veteran
Almost all DSLR lenses track
Some do, some don't. The focus track (back focus) function is unnecessary in a DSLR so often companies chose to focus on performance and price point instead. I know that the Nikon f2.8 zooms will track, but some of the older and less expensive zooms don't. And I'm pretty sure the Canon FD zoom lenses don't track either.