Does peaking performance drop off?

[Dave Gosley]

Hi Folks,

Just done a two cam shoot with matching set EX3's.
1 was under 100 hrs use (borrowed) and mine has 650 hrs use.

Picture profiles were copied from one to the other, and everything matched up before the shoot.

New camera was placed static and I was roaming.

The newer cam - I played around with for a little while and focussing was a doddle with it - especially using peaking. It was easy to recognise the ideal focus point.

With my older cam the focus peaking was hard to see - no matter how much I tweaked shots and bearing in mind this was not a brilliantly lit shoot - much of it is not as I'd have wanted it.

Does the peaking performance drop off with camera age / use? Is this something that may indicate the need for a service? I don't believe the camera has ever had a service.

Both cameras were set to white peaking.

Thanks....
Dave

[Alastair Traill]

I do not know the answer but as a matter of interest do both cameras have the same firmware and were they used under similar conditions?

[Dave Morrison]

Also, were the Peaking settings identical in both cameras?

[Harry Christensen]

also the evf brightness settings can affect it too. Speaking from experience here. :-)

[Warren Kawamoto]

I know this may sound like a long shot, but check your front lens element. There is a notched ring that holds the front element in place. Check to see that it's tight.

I've been having issues with focus, I sent in my camera to Sony, but they claimed that nothing was wrong. Recently, I accidentally touched the front element and heard it move. To my surprise, it moved only a fraction of a millimeter, but it was enough to throw my focus off every time I tilted the camera up or down. After fiddling around, I realized that the mounting ring was loose! I tightened it, and all of my problems disappeared.

[Leonard Levy]

I doubt the peaking circuitry drops off with age, but as someone who has used both Ex-1 and EX-3's a great deal I have always found the EX-3's version much wankier. With the EX-1 it is controlled simply with a setting - low, med or high. On the Ex-3 however its a pot and I have always found that the pot can't be dialed down low enough to be nearly as reliable as the medium setting on the EX-1 (which is terrific).
So first I assume you know that there is a dial on the viewfinder that sets the level of the peaking. If you missed that , then that is your problem.
However, Since I have always needed to pot the setting almost to off on all the Ex-3's I've used, I would guess that there is simply slop in that potentiometer design, so perhaps all viewfinders are not the same.
Unfortunately Sony ruined a great tool with that design.
I guess there is a long shot that your viewfinder itself is getting old however, I know that used to happen with older videocameras so that they lost sharpness and tended to bloom with highlights as they aged.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Dave Gosley

Does the peaking performance drop off with camera age / use? Is this something that may indicate the need for a service? I don't believe the camera has ever had a service.

Was it the peaking...... or were the results from the newer camera actually sharper themselves?

I'd tend to suspect the latter. As for cause, well maybe wear and tear has taken it's toll on the lens optics - not such that you'd normally worry, but may show up slightly in an A-B comparison. Even a slightly dirty front end element may have an effect, let alone something like Warren describes.

[Alister Chapman]

Might want to check the back focus on the older camera. If the back focus is a little off the focus will also be slightly out across the zoom range.