Tip of the Day

[David Jones]

My response was not meant to be pissy.
When I said “we” I was referring to myself, and the other videographers/cinematographers that work for me.
We shoot with manual lenses in 90% of the shoots we do.
And when we have to use a lens that is an auto-focus unit, I have the shooter switch it into manual mode.
I would rather have a cinematographer use his or her experience in choosing the focal point instead of an inanimate object making that call.

[Jeff Carpenter]

After that, the left hand is the focus hand, the right hand is on the zoom…
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Sorry, I’m using a VX-2000. If I do that then no one is holding the camera.

Hey, I’d be perfectly happy to borrow the DSR-390 from work and use that at weddings. I’d have no AF and I wouldn’t need it. I would take that option in a second, no question! I like my regular job better than my weekend work when it comes to cameras.

But the fact of the matter is, at weddings I’m holding a much smaller camera out in front of me and that’s going to require some compromises.

[Jeff Carpenter]

I would rather have a cinematographer use his or her experience in choosing the focal point instead of an inanimate object making that call.
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I just wanted to point out what Doug had said earlier, the “push auto” button is very useful. If I zoom in on something, hit the auto on for a second and then zoom out, I’m still “choosing the focal point.” I agree that leaving AF on while panning around is a bad idea. But when I zoom in on a woman’s necklace and hit AF for a second and then zoom back out on manual focus, well I’ve never had that cause a problem.

[Karl Arndt]

Thanks David, Karl here. I did not realize that most of you are shooting with bigger professional cameras. Most of the people I know, shooting weddings, are using the PD-150/170 quality cameras. My question is, using this level of gear, how does one see well enough using the view finder or worse the LCD to manual focus? Outside is almost always very bright. Inside, dark, under lit. I can’t see well enough to manual focus. Especially when things are happening so fast.

[Brad Bromelmeier]

I was shooting a dance show in a very large auditorium (lighting was very dark too most of the time) from the back row. I didn’t fare well when attempting to shoot with manual focus. First of all you had to be zoomed almost all the way out to get a medium shot (all the way for close-ups that weren’t that close-up) Alot of time lasped before getting perfect focus (read alot of unusable footage) couple that with the wide stage and the fast paced action and I gave up and went back to auto focus. But the push auto sounds like it might be a happy medium.

[Story Catcher]

Thanks for the tip Karl.
I’ve been filming for over 10 years now professionally. I’ve used auto focus when needed.

Clearly, your intention was to share some information – thanks. It’s a shame that this forum often has snarky remarks to a well-intentioned post.

H

[Karl Arndt]

Story Catcher H, Thank you. Actually the thread turned into a good flow of valuable information. Thanks to everyone.