C100 zoom focus assist wish list function

[Jim Snow]

The zoom focus assist function on the C100 is great. The fact that peaking still works when zoomed in as well as the option to display black and white while preserving peaking color are very helpful. There is one additional function that would be very useful. Currently when zoomed in for focus assist the magnified area is the center portion of the frame. Very often the subject that you wish to confirm focus on is not visible because it isn't in the center of the frame. Depending on your shooting situation, it may not be appropriate to temporarily move the camara to be able to see the subject. If the zoomed in area could be moved with the joy stick. it would add a deal to the utility of zoom focus assist. I hope you are reading this Canon. The C100 is a great camera. User input can help you make it even better.

[Marty Hudzik]

I'm not 100% sure but I thought I read this was being added in a new firmware update that will be available in Ocotber? Or ...I could have completely misunderstood. If I can find a link I will post it shortly. In the meantime, if anyone else can verify or deny this....please chime in. Actually....just found this:

http://www.photographybay.com/2013/0...c300-and-c100/

[Jim Snow]

Thanks for the link. That's terrific. I only wish it was going to be released before October.

[Jim Snow]

I hope the move function when using the zoom focus assist is a joy stick function and not a touch screen function. I use the Zacuto Z-Finder so the LCD display would not be accessible.

[Ben Giles]

Yes - part of the promised new firmware. But I understand the focus punch-in doesn't work on HDMI.

So your Z-Finder won't benefit from the C100 Focus punch-in - you'd have to use the Zacuto's own.

Ben.

[Jim Snow]

Originally Posted by Ben Giles

Yes - part of the promised new firmware. But I understand the focus punch-in doesn't work on HDMI.

So your Z-Finder won't benefit from the C100 Focus punch-in - you'd have to use the Zacuto's own.

Ben.

I am using the Z-finder for the C100 that clips onto the LCD. You are referring to the Z-Finder EVF which plugs into the HDMI port.

[Marty Hudzik]

Originally Posted by Jim Snow

I hope the move function when using the zoom focus assist is a joy stick function and not a touch screen function. I use the Zacuto Z-Finder so the LCD display would not be accessible.

OK. Maybe I am misunderstanding your statement, but.......the C100 has no touch screen capabilities at all so how could that possibly be an option for the Zfinder to be able to block it? The only practical way to integrate this feature would have to be the joystick.....right?

Again, if the LCD on the C100 is touch capable....I had no idea!!!!! :)

[Matt Davis]

I think we're departing from the game plan of Canon's marketing department.

For example, the Sony F3 has got both HDMI and SDI - you can have punch-in on one output and record a clean feed on the other. Not so on the FS700 that also has both SDI and HDMI. Both would benefit from the feature to have full viewfinder features on one output and a clean feed on the other. F3 has it. FS700 hasn't. FWIW, it seems you can buy an F3 for less than an FS700 at the moment.

This sort of flexibility has a certain value to professional users who will save time and money and enable revenue streams through it, thus offsetting the extra cost (that's many extra thousands of dollars).

The Canon Marketing Department knows their markets and needs to provide a compelling reason to buy a C100, and still leave enough in the pot to provide a compelling reason to go for the C300. These are not kind and benevolent people, they are marketeers. You're asking them to halve the cost of the C300 - which is, after all, the camera we actually want. LOL.

[Jim Snow]

Neither are we "kind and benevolent people"; we are customers. Our advocate in this 'feature rationing' is competition. I fully understand that some features have associated costs, both developmental costs and direct cost of goods. These costs obviously must be reflected in a product's price. The thing I have a problem with is withholding product features that have little or no associated cost simply to justify the price difference for different product models.

That is where our advocate and close friend competition comes into the picture. Since, as you said, these aren't kind and benevolent people, we depend on the forces of competion to protect us from these non kind and benevolent people. If a manufacturer gets too caught up in this feature rationing, they expose their company to competitors who want to 'adjust' their market share. This awareness helps balence their thinking as they seek to please their board of directors so they can keep their jobs The thought of losing market share needs to disturb their sleep at night just as much as the profit they deliver to the company alter. Of course this works only as long as free market competition exists. It is important to be on guard for trusts and sushi bar alliances that impede this. I always welcome newcomers to markets. It tends to shake things up and keep things honest.