I check by locations...Once I didn't tighten the nob enough, but I noticed it before shooting.

Patricia,

I have to agree, you will come to love the fact that this camera does not autofocus.

In many situations a camera that has auto focus (and suddenly tries to focus on something other than the primary subject) screams to the audience that this is not a pro operator.

This camera is awesome, you will love it.

Tom

I am waiting to get mine too and I am a little worried about the lack of noob features. Not really AF since I never use it but I am a little worried about the lack of optical stabilization.

It will be interesting to see what my footage will look like.

Jonathan,

In my experience you will want to do as much as you can on sticks.

The only thing that I ever wish for with this camera is a wider lens.

Tom

Yes, I will miss a wider lens. The JVC wide-angle adapter is coming in the box with my camera tomorrow but it looks like it's only a marginal improvement. Every little bit helps though.

Is that the fujinon one? I am going to have to wait till next month to pick up a couple of those since I already spent my load on Marshall monitors and senn mics. This cam is a bottomless pit.

I'm trying to find a wider lens to rent for a shoot, but having no luck - yet.

Tom

Jonathan, I meant the following:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont....x=0&image.y=0

BTW, Patricia, I was talking with Jonathan Ames and he mentioned that we will be addressing this issue, together with others, in a future episode of "2nd unit". It's all about the story that you want to tell. Sometimes it's better to let go the safety net and experiment, even when it means that you can ruin your footage. You'll soon find that a little of risk goes a long way to improve your art.

Using AF incorrectly screams "not a pro" just as much as seeing out of fous shots or watching an operator touch-up focus during a shot.

No one who knows how to use AF, leaves AF ON DURING a shot. You use it momemtarily to get focus at the same time you frame so the subject is in the center.

Exactly the same way one zooms in fully onto the subject to get exact focus and then zooms back out and reframes.

The difference is AF can do this far more accurately than a human can and far faster.

Moreover, AF offers the OPTION of leaving it ON if you want. I'd bet on it over any human operator trying to SEE focus on a low-rez LCD in the bright sun. Or, looking into the low-rez VH with Varifocal glasses in the bright sun. Not everybody is 18. :)

AF is perfect for HD because it can use the huge number of pixels in the three CCDs -- while your eye depends on the relatively small number of pixels in the LCD and VF. It wins, you lose.

Likewise, AF doesn't get distracted by sweat pouring into your eyes. Or bugs crawling down your neck. It works in milliseconds while you work in seconds.

And, if you want to focus manually you can do so because the lens, except for the moment of using AF, is always in Manual.

I will admit it doesn't have the same feel. But, speed and accuracy seems more important to me.

Thanks for your comments, Steve. I'm glad to know that it's not just noobs that feel that AF is a desirable button on the camera, even if only used sparingly. So what do you do with the HD100 under the conditions you mention when you don't have AF?

So are you saying that the HD100 SHOULD have an autofocus button, like the FX1 and I assume the Z1?

though steve can obviously speak for himself, i don't think he is saying that, just that AF can be a useful tool.

there are so many levels to being a "professional" that i think this conventional wisdom that AF is somehow unprofessional is more snobbery than actual...i use AF all the time, because i do a lot of outdoors, wildlife, and adventure sports footage. i have some lenses which have no AF feature (35mm lenses mounted to an XL2 do not permit AF) and some which do. do i feel less professional when i use AF? no. it's just another tool, useful in some situations, especially run-and-gun, where speed is essential and tracking an unpredictable motion path may be exceptionally challenging for manual focusing (as in, "hey, where'd that kayaker go???"). my "unprofessional" AF-tracked footage works just fine at the level of producing corporate video. if they pay you for it, it's professional. unless there is a servo issue with how the lighting shifts in the footage, no one can tell the difference.

it's not how it gets in the camera that even matters, it is how it is used in the editor, then output to a product that they either pay you for, or not. the only "professional" technique is the one that someone is willing to pay you to use.....

I'm praying for an HD10 replacement with 24p and 60p and AF.

Yes, that would be a 720p Z1, but much smaller. Like the HVX.

For the HD100 a good tripod will take a lot of the strain out of shooting. When one's back is hurting it's hard to take the time to focus and expose. But, as I said I'm not 18. :)

Preach on Brother - the cool thing/bad thing about Hi-Def is that it 'sees' everything - including all the little shakes and bumps. And because the camera w/battery is so heavy, you won't want to lug it around for very long.

john
evilgeniusentertainment.com