Manfrotto LANC Controller - PUSH Focus?
 

Okay gang, and other reprobates . . Now HERE'S one for you!

Just got me a DV RigPro - excellent! AND to assist with the control of my XM2, a Manfrotto 521 Pro. Nice tidy "Thumb 'n Gun" controller. It fits onto one of the DV RigPro's handles, and off I go.

The LANC Controller has the usual suspects: Zoom - IN/OUT; REC/PAUSE; Focus IN/OUT - and, of course, standby. PLUS, there is this new one to me - not for Frotti users I understand - and that is this wonderful Push Focus control! Excellent! This allows for Auto Focus to be momentarily invoked. However, with my XM2, once Sharp Auto Focus is applied I can now NOT get back to Manual Focus. I understand from a Sony chappie that his could. What's the point in having a feature that won't get me BACK to where I was? If I want to get back to MF I need to PUSH the MF button on my XM2! Great - NOT! - I may of course be doing something wrong. Has been known. LOL!

Any thoughts on this good people?

Standing by . ..


Grazie

Graham,
It could be that the "push auto focus" setting is only working with Sony cameras. I know that I have this control on my FX1.
I don't think that you have the option on the XM2, so the external LANC control wouldn't apply to it.
Just a thought...

Robin

First it was the Matt box thing! . . . Now it is the FX thing! Is there no end to the torment you put me too? LOL

The 521 Pro is for the XM2 and Sonys. One of the "features" is this push for auto. Now if this is NOT for the XM2 then it should say this blatantly. I DO have the good people in Soho unearthing the "truth" as we speak. Heads will roll! Actually, I didn't even realise that this was a function of the 521 Pro until I got home and read the online PDF!

Seriously Robin, thank you! - You going to the Broadcast Show next week? Ho . .you can then have the pleasure of buying ME a beer!

Grazie

Grazie,

I was hoping to go to the show - I've even got my ticket - but I'm working for the Beeb for a few months and I don't think I'll have a day free next week.
If I can make it, I might see you there -
..now, how will I find you??? (pm me if you want.)

Robin

You boys hoist a cold one for me if you hook up please.

And yes it's true that the Push-AF feature on this controller works on Sony camcorders but not Canon.

Pooh! And double pooh!


Chris? Yeah, I'll attempt to get him cornered to have some beer!

So Robin? Making money at the BEEB or having a fun time with me at the exhib. - Hard call eh?

(pm me if you want.) - er . . wotz that?


Grazie

...pm: private message (but I'm not sure if this Bulletin Board supports that.)

Anyway, you have my e-mail address I think.

Robin

Chris, that's incorrect. It's the other way around. I'm sitting here with my GL2 and my 523 pro using Push-AF to my heart's content. And I'm quite sure I read in a review of one of the other remote contollers, the Zoe or the Varizoom, that Sony does not support the push focus function.

You coulda knocked me over with a feather, Fred. Maybe it's a manufacturer-specific deal on the controller side. I've seen VariZooms that support Push-AF on Sonys but not Canons. Thanks for the report,

Autofocus ON/OFF isn't a Canon or Sony thing. According to Ken Tanaka's review of both the Zoe and Varizoom Rock, the Auto Focus features of those remotes work on the GL2 but not the XL1 or XL1s. The issue is that the Autofocus on the XL1 lenses is a mechanical one versus the GL2's is not and is presumably why they can be controled via LANC.

Soooooo.... Can/does the 521PRO support PUSH focus? Does it OR should it return me Manual Focus aftrer getting an Auto "fix"? For the XM2?

Grazie

Grazie, my model is a 523 Pro. But the Bogen/Manfrotto press release for the 521 Pro specifcally says it has push focus similar to the 523 Pro.

So if you put the XM2 in manual focus mode you should be able to aciviate autofocus temporarily without leaving manual focus mode. I can with mine.

AHAH! . . Ahah! . .Now we are getting somewhere folks!

THIS is exactly what I've been doing for the past 3 days. I put XM2 into MF; check all is well with ZOOM, MF, Zoom, MF . . all this works. Now, Fred, what do you do to put it momentarily into Auto and switch back to MF? For me once I poress MF for long enough it switches to AF but then I can't get back/re-invoke or LOCK for MF? The switch I push IS the MF/Zoom switcher - yes?

Now, Fred, if you are saying I should be getting what you are getting - because of the literature, and yes this is where I totally agree with you - how are YOU doing this memomentary AF Push?

. . .So, I could be going to the Ball after all . . . and me just a simple scullery . .er .. person of low breeding . . and with such ugly sisters too!

Fred, throw me another lifeline , please?

Here's hoping . . . . .

Grazie

Grazie, the push-autofocus button on the 523 Pro is the one with a graphic of a dot between two brackets. With the GL2 in manual focus, I can unfocus the image using either the lens ring or the regular focus buttons on the controller, then press and hold the push-autofocus button until the image automatically comes back into focus (a second or two). My cam remains in MF mode.

AHAH! Read and be Happy for me!
 

Fred, with your patience AND finding this - for the Forum hereabouts:

http://portal.bogenimaging.us/jahia/...fonce/pid/2247

"Like the 523PRO, the 521PRO features manual focus buttons and an auto focus button, allowing the shooter to achieve in-focus images easily when working in manual focus mode."

AND I have DONE it! Yes yes yes yes . . !

What I needed to do was hold the [.] graphic - THANKS FRED - in long enogh not only for the camera to find Auto focus adjusment but to see the MF icon come back WHEN I released it.

I can now throw a focus; Zoom and frame and AF and then Set MF; switch arbitrarily back and forth . . and so on.

The article is ONLY a month old, and it would seem this 521Pro is veeeerry new . . this was more luck than judgement on my part - I hasten to add!

So Chris, Robin et al .. don't feel too bad!

This is one natty and clever LANC controller.

Once more, thanks Fred,

Grazie