Focus Problem Video. Is It Me? You Judge.

[John Mulvihill]

YouTube - NX5U_Focus_Demo

Your thought's please.

John

[Allan Phan]

I have exact same problem not one but two NX5Us. I purposely set the camera out of focus while on auto focus and the auto focus never recover until I zoom all the way out. I was hoping to reset the camera back to the manufacture setting to see if that might resolve the issue but I can't find reset any where. Does any one else have this issue?

[John Mulvihill]

Alan, is your "Focus Assist" turned on? Default is off.

John

[John Mulvihill]

Originally Posted In The Buffer Overload Thread:
Talked to Sony today. I was told they have found the problem with the buffer overload and a fix would be in the pipelinein in a few weeks. What I find unacceptable Sony wants me to send my camera in for evaluation for my focus issues for a unknown amount of time on a camera they never worled on or even have parts. Is there someti\hing wrong with this picture? I work 7 days a week and need my equipment. Thanks Sony.

John

[Ron Evans]

As I mentioned in the other focusing post, the NX5U is the poorest auto focusing camera of all the Sony's I have and that goes back to some early DV or even Hi8 cameras( 8 cameras at the present going back to my VX3). The auto focus is slow and the range that it thinks is in focus is very large and unacceptable. I use this camera all the time in manual focus so it isn't a real issue for me as its easy to get a close focus with the focus assist. But the auto is just unreliable. It doesn't have a backfocus issue that I can tell but it would be very easy to emulate a backfocus issue if one end of the zoom was set by the auto focus. I expect the auto focus always gets inside the depth of field in any situation but that means that the image is not quite as sharp as it could be and why my initial comparisons to my XR500 were not that impressive.

Ron Evans

[Luke Ho]

It's also documented by VonWeddingFilms at the link below.

YouTube - Sony NX5U Back Focus Issue

It's not a good news for event videographers in the run and gun situation.

[Ron Evans]

As I mentioned in my previous post I can reproduce a backfocus issue. If I use auto focus on a wide angle in manual focus, then zoom in it will be out of focus, reverse the process will not have the same effect since the depth of field will increase. Use manual focus using expanded focus button and this effect is not evident. There isn't a backfocus issue there is an issue with auto focus used in this way. Auto focus at the wide angle will set the maximum depth of field for the scene to get as much as possible in focus. This is not the same as getting a manual focus on the thing in the scene to which one is then going to zoom in on. I expect the NX5U either has too wide an area for auto focus calculation( not just center weighted) and is slow.

Hopefully a firmware fix will cure both the buffer overload and the auto focus!!!! The Bionz chip in my XR500 give pin sharp focus and can also do spot focus which I wish the NX5U had too.

Ron Evans

[Luke Ho]

Thanks Ron. As for the firmware upgrade, do the users have the ability to do this themselves or they'll have to bring the camcorder to a Sony authorized shop?

[Ron Evans]

Hopefully they will find a way of doing it either with the a memory card or more likely through the PC software management utility. I hope we don't all have to send them in to Sony !!!

Ron Evans

[Cristian Adrian Olariu]

Luke, that is a good question.