Hello there. I bought myself 2 new XF100 camera's a month ago (coming from XHA1's) but I have troubles getting a nice dof with it. When I want to film a person in front of a mirror for example and I want to change focus from real person to mirror image. I am say 6 feet behind the person what are the needed settings? Is it mainly a matter of zooming in as far as possible or can I do it without zooming in? I want to shoot in 50i/50Mbps so my shutter is set to 1/50.

Yes Kees, the small sensor means you will need to be back aways,zooming in. I would also try using neutral density filters to force a wide open aperture. For wide angle close ups with DOF you might need to change cameras. I occassionally switch to a HDSLR briefly for these shots.

Is it mainly a matter of zooming in as far as possible or can I do it without zooming in? I want to shoot in 50i/50Mbps so my shutter is set to 1/50.

You can't do it without zooming in. To get a DOF of a few inches you will have to be zoomed all the way in and as close to the minimum focus distance you can get.

The sensor in your XF100 is the same size as the XHA1, so you should be able to achieve similar results. There are 3 things that affect depth of field - lens focal length, aperture and distance to subject. The first and the last can sometimes be controlled, but the aperture is always adjustable. Try to shoot as wide-open as possible, and adjust exposure by changing shutter speed and/or gain, as you like.

In the example you gave, you should be able to achieve a DOF effect - remember the focusing difference looking into a mirror is twice the distance from the mirror to the subject. The problem might be seeing it in the LCD.

The xf100's sensor is too small to achieve a nice shallow dof unless you apply some of the tricks mentioned here but even then it will be limited, if you want nice shallow dof then add a 550d with a 35 f1.4 lens to your toolkit which will cost you less then 1000 euro, there's nothing cheaper then that for very shallow dof beauty shots.

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I have to practice more. And maybe use my external 7" monitor.

You need to zoom way in to get dof for back focus.
Set the peaking to purple to help with the focussing.

The sensor in your XF100 is the same size as the XHA1...
True, but the zoom range is less, IIRC, which might explain why this type of shot doesn't work so well with the new camera. Full zoom on the XH-A1 is x20, equivalent to roughly 750mm in 35mm terms. What is the 35mm equivalent on the XF100? 300mm? Less than 400mm, I'll bet.

If you still have the old XH-A1, it might be worth using it for the shift-focus shot. I know the old HDV codec is only 1440x1080 at 25Mbps and 4:2:0 colour, but it's all MPEG2 so should drop into most NLEs time-line without messing things up too badly, and it saves shelling out for another camera just for a couple of special shots.