So Bill are you saying that the review might be completely correct and that Eric is right about 2 back focus settings ?

Paul.

Sony has acknowledged that there is a backfocus problem with earlier versions of the firmware pre 1.05. I don't know how common it is but it seems to be very common. Seems to me if its a firmware issue than it would be a universal problem.
You do need to look at it on a largermonitor. The problem is that it is different with and without ND rolled in. I just had mine repaired by Sony ( new firmware) and will get it Monday. If you have that problem it has to go in to Sony.

See this thread

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=117307

This is issue is major and should probably be a recall. It should at least be a sticky on this forum. Who's in charge of that.
Lenny Levy

Paul...

I cannot, ever, say with absolute certainty. Sony doesn't communicate with me. But, it would make sense to my way of understanding, that there would be two settings stored in memory.

Read this:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5600372.html

Bill,you say you 've done your back focus 3 times.
Did you do it with or without ND ?
2nd time failed because your target was to small,what size did you use and how far away ?
I've only got an A4 size chart because that's all my printer will go up to,is A4 big enough ? How far away should i place a chart this size ?
I printed it on glossy photo paper,highest quality.

Paul.

see answers above


By the way...IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT

Adam Wilt has a take on the ND back focus issue over on the Pro Video Coalition site.

Sorry for stating the obvious - I missed the previous page.

Clip with back focus adjusted. Vimeo not best quality.
 

Ok i uploaded footage with detail on,onto Vimeo.
After watching the footage myself i have to say that Vimeo isn't giving that high a quality as far as trying to see the back focus issues.
I'm watching the same clip side by side on my pc,one clip on Vimeo,the other clip on VLC,raw MXF files, which look great so obviously don't depend on vimeo to scrutinise back focus issues.

However i have adjusted my backfocus today and i have seen an improvement on the cam and pc via VLC player,i'm uploading that footage soon so i'll post that link on here.

I'n the meantime i've posted another clip,i filmed the back focus procedure with my small cam,i was a bit nervous because i didn't know what to expect when doing the adjustment so if anyone else out there is thinking of doing theirs,they can see what happens first.

http://www.vimeo.com/819802


Paul.

I don't know if anyone has asked this question or if it makes sense but has anyone tried "peaking" when zooming out during ND 1 and ND 2?

Would it still show peaking even if it was out of focus or would it go off?

Thought this question might make more sense in this post.

it still has some peaking - even when its soft...

That is interesting because I def. see peaking when I zoom out.

And what got me interested in Paul's clip is the "BLK balance" entry in the Maintenance menu. It is grayed-out; I wonder if anyone with a higher FW number has got it active?

Had some try this afternoonwith a back focus chart.
Zoom in, focus, zoom out seems to be fine without ND filter.
With ND filter, I have a small shift. The best way to track it is zooming out to 25mm. Zooming out wide you get too much depth of field to be able to see the shift, even with a true HD 24" monitor.

The shift in back focus is not a real problem, but is present.
I may wait for some months and send the camera back to sony when the new firmware is out...
Once you know you have the problem, it's not a problem anymore. I do fictions and not documentary so I never have a zoom out during a shot. The solution is to use expand focus instead of zoom in for focus pulling.