Is it possible to pull focus on a lens while crash zooming?

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, but so far when I have been using my fly-by-wire lenses, I was putting the markings on the lens myself with a grease pencil. So even though there are no markings on their originally, can't you still focus with a fly-by-wire as long as you make the markings yourself, and make sure to hit them, rather than overturn the ring at any point?

[Brian Drysdale]

I can't comment on the lenses you've using, but that tends not to be consistent on the lens I've used.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, how is it not consistent?

[Brian Drysdale]

The care required meant it wasn't practical on the rough and tumble of a professional shoot, when changes can quickly happen. Even short throw manual focus rings can cause problems when the markings are close together.

The distances are usually measured with a tape by the camera assistant.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I see, it's just I thought we could measure with tape an assistant with a fly-by-wire, the same way as mechanical focus. I thought that maybe by not having to turn the ring as far, with the markings closer together, was a good thing, cause then I can pull focus faster I thought.

Is a short throw ring and a fly-by-wire ring, the same thing when say 'short throw'?

[Brian Drysdale]

A short throw focus ring is one that is commonly found on stills lens and video zoom lenses. With these lenses the scale is often a 1/3 rotation, intended to be used by the camera operator, cine scales are much longer, perhaps 300 degrees.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, so on still lenses, is the short throw pretty much the same distance on a mechanical ring, as oppose to fly-by-wire?

If so though, how does that make mechanical rings better on still lenses, if the distance on fly-by-wires are the same?

[Brian Drysdale]

This explains:

Focus By Wire: Why It Sucks (Featuring Possible Solutions!) - YouTube

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks, I watched that video before :).

The one thing they mention is that sometimes when you try to make marks on the lens and focus that it goes from macro to infinity. I haven't experienced that so far, but maybe.

So the reason fly-by-wire sucks is because there is no markings on the lenses. But when I checked out mechanical focus ring lenses at the camera store, there were no marking on those either, and you still have to make them with a grease pencil.

If they are not cine lenes, but still DSLR lenses, where you have to make the markings yourself, are they still worth buying over fly-by-wire still?

[Josh Bass]

I think some important things got missed.

The two types of lenses "feel" different, literally the way it feels as you turn the ring on one vs the other. Some people can feel the focus pull, probably easier to do that on a mechanical.

More importantly, what we mean when we talk about consistency is the the lens returning to the same focus point every time you return to a given mark. Cine lenses are the best at this, mechanical still lenses a little crappier perhaps, and fly by wire the crappiest.

So you make your mark on the lens for an talent end mark that's at 8 feet from the lens, or whatever. On a mechanical focus lens you SHOULD be sharp every time you hit that mark (if your actor hits their mark), on a fly by wire...who knows? That's the big difference. If you're willing to live with that, cool. Perhaps you stay with fly-by-wire and just check playback after each take unless you have a sharp/large enough monitor that you can tell if/when you nail it.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks, I thought maybe on the fly-by-wire lenses that I needed more practice and I was the problem to get it extremely accurate, but perhaps it's the lenses then.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

If you want to make a career out of this get the right equipment and learn the right methods. That's why I suggested Rokinon. It's not that I think they're great lenses but they're the right tool for the job and something you can afford. All you need to make a movie is a wide, medium, and telephoto prime. Heck some movies have been made with just one prime! You've spent an entire month talking about crash zooms maybe it is time to buy a telephoto lens, an 85mm or maybe 135mm for those closeups and borrow the other focal lengths from your friends.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks but I need at least a 300mm lens for the next project cause I want to some shots that require a longer length than 135mm. Basically I want to move the camera while following the actors as they are running during chase scenes, and I cannot follow them for as long amount of time with a 135mm before they start to get further away. With the 300mm, I can track them and move the camera with them longer.

I also want a 300 for other shots, such as a close up of an actor's face, and he is pointing his gun towards the camera, and the gun looks really close to the face. I can't get that shot with a 135mm on my zoom lens.

Or another shot I want are over the shoulder shots, where you can make the person look really close to the other person, even though they are sitting an entire table length apart.

So for those shots I would like a 300mm cause 135mm will not quite be enough. So is there any company that makes a 300mm lens, like a Rokinon one, where it's easier to pull focus and operate for a good price, like Rokinon?

[Brian Drysdale]

I worked on some commercials that used a 25mm to 250mm zoom at the long end and you needed a very large room in order to get far enough back.

I'd check out some older lens, many film makers use them and if you get a top end brand the quality will be good. These will have a manual focus and build quality of the higher end lenses is usually extremely good.

A less well known one https://www.scottscheetzphotography....mron-300mm-f28

Although, I suspect the f4 lenses will be more in your price range.

[Paul R Johnson]

With a properly design lens that is designed to remain in focus throughout the zoom range the design allows for any focus point to be the same at all focal lengths so markings are repeatable. On a stills style lens the markings will always be +\- an amount depending on where you set the zoom. You could mark the zoom position in say five different colours then mark the focus in the same colour any build up a pattern that you could present on a chart but I’ve never tried this to see what the results looked like.