Thanks. I am going to attempt manual with push button AF from the Manfrotto. I think this may be the best option for right now.

Yes. The shot transition mode stores focus settings as well. So you can pre-focus at two different distances and switch between them.

Agree absolutely with everything Robert said here. It is very hard to manual focus with a zoom ring when it's just activating a servo motor. It doesn't have that same 'linear' feel that manual focusing on an SLR has. So i agree it's difficult to find a perfect solution for all focus situations with this cam.

Well I got the Manfrotto 521Pro controller in today. Have not had the chance to play with, but the one push AF does work with the A1.

I agree with both of you. After messing around tonight I realized the limited capabilities of the lcd and viewfinder for really being able to pinpoint focus. I am going to rely a lot on the 521Pro that arrived today. Played with it for the last hour and have to say I am impressed. The one shot AF will come in handy IMHO and the ability to set zoom speed is another great feature.

Michael

When you get a chance, if you could find out how long in seconds in takes to go from max.wideangle to max.telephoto on the A1 using the 521Pro controller at the slowest possible continuous speed please. Also does the 521Pro have a menu or something or a way of selecting different zoom-speed rates ? Or is there just one rate? Grateful for any info on this pls!

thanks in advance

Will do Stu, but for your second question...you can set your speed. You basically start zooming at the speed you want with the rocker. When you get the desired speed you hold down the focus button for a second and it will keep that speed for when you choose fixed mode zooming. Nice feature indeed. I will do some speed test tonight (will be late) unless someone beats me to it.

Thanks

Stu...I just did a quick one time test with my shakey hands. I got 32 seconds from tele to wide. Someone may get slower, but that is what I got.

Thanks

Thats great - 32secs is a good result and i think better (i.e slower) than other reports i've read of other LANC products.
Many thanks Michael for that info.

I will do it again when I get home later tonight to make sure. I basically set my zoom speed like mentioned in previous post and timed it. 32 seconds give or take 1/2 second...

Ok...I did it 3 times and was only able to get 27 seconds. Not sure how I got the 32, but I am starting to think I figured wrong since it is 5 seconds diff.

Manual! (my 2 cents)

heath

Bti late to the pardayy hey Heath?! I reckon, with interest, thats about 2.1cents... ;-)

Yeah, Stu, a bit late, but I couldn't help but jump in. As a film instructor, it kills me when students demand the camera be set to auto, and the DP does so. Then the student gets to editing, he/she blames the DP for it going in and out of focus. (We always try to warn them...)

hwm

auto-something-else
 

He he... I used to be an auto-user but I am going to learn to work with manual. Oddly I am reviewing a couple of tapes to extract the "best of" and make a HDV-demo reel that I can view on my friends HD-screen. I just noticed a clip that when two people leaves the image the sky becomes slightly darker than it was when they were on the screen. So that is auto-something-else I reckon. Is it the exposure?

EDIT: I ment work with "manual" and not auto as I wrote...

Probably auto-iris and maybe even auto-shutter.

If you aren't controlling the shutter, the image looks a lot different. Auto-shutter in the noon light can make it go to 1/250 and produce an effect you may not want, similar to the opening of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. In low light, the shutter will go to 1/30 or lower, giving a slow motion look.

You should control the camera and image--never let it control you.

heath

I've been trying to determine a list of what to have manual/auto in order of visual importance for folks who've asked me how to get better pictures on cameras that don't allow manual control over everything...some do focus or exposure, not both at the same time. Someone care to chime in with their importance list of auto features that should be manual for best pic. Here's what I've come up with.

1.exposure
2.shutter
3.focus

focus fishing seems much less noticable to me, but I could be wrong.

1.exposure - this is your iris, and it's very important to have total control over. People walk in front of something bright, the image will brighten, then darken. Looks amateurish.

2.shutter - If you don't have total control of it, you're video will look slow-mo (low shutter) or jittery and almost like there's no motion blur (high shutter). Looks amateurish.

3.focus - If you're on auto focus, esp. in low light, the camera will have issues finding focus. I've seen it happen. Or when people walk in front of the camera, the focus will shift once, then again when they walk away. When things are out of focus, or the main object isn't in focus, it screams, you guessed it, amateur.

I highly recommend reading up on some books or training DVDs to learn how to get the most out of your camera. Try these:

1. http://vasst.com/product.aspx?id=aa9...c-274132e686c5 (and any www.vasst.com training products, books, DVDs, etc.)

2. http://www.videomaker.com/scripts/in...e=c10&Ftype=F5 (and anything here: http://www.videomaker.com/scripts/menu_clubvid.cfm)

Remember, manual is the key to great video.

Now, of course, if you can't control it, then control the shot. More indoors than outdoors, where light can be controlled (iris, shutter and focus). And take care in how subjects come into the scene, to keep things from going in and out of focus.

heath

I'm personally shooting with an XL1s and run everything manual, I was wondering how you would prioritize them if you had to.

i.e. I'd pick auto-focus/manual exposure if the camera only gave the option of one at a time...or is the focus more important than constant exposure for getting a good picture.

I keep my shutter set at 1/60 all of the time unless I need a different effect. I agree that exposure is a major key as well since you will get that bright/dark/bright amateur effect as mentioned. Focus is a little tricky depending on the cirumstance. I do like the LANC controller I have since I can keep it in manual and use one push auto focus to get a quick result. I started this thread a little while back and have found that manual, on most settings, is needed. I do like to use the one push focus as I mentioned and also like spot metering for exposure. Another key point, for me at least, is proper white balance which I use an 18% gray card and then adjust accordingly.

Cole..you bring up a good point. Exposure will be obvious on any format (i.e. hd, sd etc..) since it will go light/dark/light/dark as the camera predicts. Focus, on the other hand, is much more noticable on HD than other formats. This being said...everything is important, but I think that focus is the number one item to have correct for HD footage. Just my 1 cent (not good enough for 2 cents)...yet :-)

Cole,

it's hard to understand your question since the XL1 is fully manual. I used to let it sit on auto white balance, until I was in a church and there were a million different colors in there. So long auto white balance, hello, oranges, blues and everything in between!

That's why I can't answer it. There's NEVER a good excuse to shoot in auto mode if the camera allows you to shoot in manual.

heath

I absolutely agree Heath. I don't shoot auto anything ever on my XL1...but I do have to help teach folks who have cheaper cameras that won't allow you to run fully manual, you have to make choices.

In an effort to get them the happiest with their footge I've been recommending they use manual exposure (eyeballing it by the LCD - cheaper camera, no zebras) and let the camera focus. We also discus basic photography, framing, motion, lines, lighting. This is just something I've had to advise people on in the past, so I was looking for opposing arguments to my priority list.

Granted it also depends on shooting conditions...lower light, you'd want to let the camera expose and run manual focus due to the camera's inability to focus in lower light levels.

Thanks also for bringing up white balance, I always recommend manual-white balance.

Yes for sure, that's because the camera was on auto-exposure.
The people were 'darker' than the background that they were covering up when they were in-shot, and when they walk out of the shot, obviously the camera is now seeing the brighter background and so it re-evaluates the exposure and reduces it slightly as the scene as a whole is now slightly brighter and that's why the sky goes a little bit darker when the people have walked out of the scene.
If the people had been wearing, say, bright white clothing, then when they exit the scene, the sky may have become a little bit brighter as the camera might increase exposure a little in that situ.

Just like Stu said...The camera takes the entire picture and exposes to it. Camcorders are dumb in the sense they do not know what you are trying to expose for. The more bright objects in the overall picture, the darker the camera will make it and vice versa. This is why manual exposure is so important so that you can get your main subject properly exposed.

Yeah, what I have learned to do is press the auto-exposure then press it again so it goes manual and then I typically adjust it one step down and looks pretty good. But it all depends though.

Personally, I find auto-focus works great. For getting the initial focus that is. Then I switch it to manual and leave it there until I have to shoot something at a different distance or width. To be honest, I don't know if I *could* get as good an initial focus manually. At least not quickly.
I have not had the same luck with the auto-exposure (maybe my tastes are weird), so I always have to set those manually.
I do use the Portrait setting now for some shots to get a shallow DOF, since it seems to add to the A1s ability to make shadows look less, I don't know how to say it, overblack and overdone.
I always lock down my shutter, so that's a given.
But dang! To prioritize them would be tough though. I might agree with you that focus fishing is tolerable, that is until I had that one perfect shot ruined by it. That sort of thing.
There are so many variables. Somehow, I'm not sure there is any escaping learning at least a few base settings for different scenarios. As much as some of us want to create great output without becoming a complete gearhead. No offense intended towards anybody. Hell, the rest of us feed off the gearheads like crazy.

Yes I'm pretty certain that sony have played with the gamma curve in this PORTRAIT mode. I have a Standard-Def Sony DV cam and for sure when going into Portrait mode (from straight Auto, on tripod etc.) then the shadow detail increased. Exposure didn't change.
- Am sure this is a gamma curve change.

Why Sony have done this is portrait mode I'm not totally sure.
I think it's to lighten shadows on a subjects face, for example nose shadow. but that's just a guess.

I never really minded a little focus search until I went HD. Man...it is so noticable when a subject is just a hair out of focus.

Michael,

That's exactly right. Hence, there are so many different focusing assists on the HDV cameras.

heath

Well my Step son's graduation threw many surprises at me. Lights dimming, then going bright, an unexpected slide show with many different songs and no lights, to the entire graduating class (all 18 of them LOL) standing up in front of the stage to get their dimplomas. Usually only the person receiving the diploma will stand, walk up and get the diplomas but now I had several tall people in and around the stage when I was about 35 feet back.

All in all it worked out well and was a definate learning experience since everything was thrown at me with nearly 0 time to react. Because there was no time to react I did rely on auto focus quite a bit, but also used manual for probably 1/3. I did fix the exposure which helped a bit. One thing that threw me off was white balance. So many immediate changes in lighting caused some issues. I should have gone auto, but chose to use the whitecard at the start. I captured the slide show ok, but I will need to warm it up a bit in post processing and also need to brighten one section.

I will say this...the autofocus worked much better then I had expected. It manged to hold on to my main subject even though many tall heads were around. On one occasion I was in manual, but there was a change to the positioning of the people right away. I had never tried it, but I held in the one push AF button on my controller for a long time and it worked like a charm. I think that it basically kept it in auto until I was ready to go back to manual when I released the button. Hats off the the Bogen 521Pro.

Oh yeah...not a well lit room, but the A1 held it's own...