Jody Arnott
March 19th, 2013, 03:13 AM
Just wondering what other peoples thoughts are on the HM600/HM650s auto focus?
I just finished a 5 day shoot with my HM600, and I've come to the conclusion that the auto focus is terrible. I was shooting a pretty fast paced sports event, and auto focus would have been handy.
My main issue is that the focus hunts back and forth constantly. Even once the camera finds focus, after a few seconds it will start rapidly "pulsing" between different focus points, making the footage unusable. I've also noticed the focus drifting when set manually. I.e. I framed up and focused on something during the event, and a few minutes later the focus had shifted. This is while using a fixed aperture. Is this even possible?
I used to use the auto focus on my Canon XA10 a lot, and I trusted it completely. 99% of the time it worked perfectly.
I don't trust the HM600s auto focus at all, to the extent that I won't ever use it. This is a pretty big deal for me due to the kinds of sports events that I shoot. I did notice that JVC listed "auto focus improvements" in the latest firmware update. Hopefully they will continue improving it.
However I will say that this is my only complaint about the camera. In ever other aspect it's absolutely fantastic.
I just finished a 5 day shoot with my HM600, and I've come to the conclusion that the auto focus is terrible. I was shooting a pretty fast paced sports event, and auto focus would have been handy.
My main issue is that the focus hunts back and forth constantly. Even once the camera finds focus, after a few seconds it will start rapidly "pulsing" between different focus points, making the footage unusable. I've also noticed the focus drifting when set manually. I.e. I framed up and focused on something during the event, and a few minutes later the focus had shifted. This is while using a fixed aperture. Is this even possible?
I used to use the auto focus on my Canon XA10 a lot, and I trusted it completely. 99% of the time it worked perfectly.
I don't trust the HM600s auto focus at all, to the extent that I won't ever use it. This is a pretty big deal for me due to the kinds of sports events that I shoot. I did notice that JVC listed "auto focus improvements" in the latest firmware update. Hopefully they will continue improving it.
However I will say that this is my only complaint about the camera. In ever other aspect it's absolutely fantastic.