The curse of auto-focus

[Andrew Smith]

When auto-focus locks on to the rain on perspex/glass/whatever rather than the speaker. As far as I can tell they never fixed it during the broadcast.

SALUTE TO AMERICA: President Trump HISTORIC Lincoln Memorial speech - YouTube

Andrew

[Ryan Elder]

Auto-focus sucks. I've had camera operators tell me that their auto-focus is good and to just have them use that, but then they do, and it screws up at some point, during every take. So there is no such thing as good auto-focus at least yet that I have seen.

[Steve Game]

I thought that it improved the image. :)

[Brian Drysdale]

Traditionally 2/3" broadcast zooms don't have auto focus, however, some of the newer ones do.

Apparently, there are two settings, full time and part time. The former is for following fast moving objects, while the later is for quickly setting the focus in studio settings. However, good operators can do the latter pretty fast manually, plus all the focus pulls with these cameras, since there are remotes for both the zoom and focus.

I would assume it would the part time auto focus settings that would be employed in this case, since you would usually have one of the most experienced operators using the longest zoom lens, there no reason they couldn't override it.

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[Seth Bloombaum]

To me this does not look like auto focus. At 1:40, there appears to be a manual focus check.

On a broadcast multi-camera switched shoot like this the TD should be looking at all cameras on a big monitor to catch any focus problems the camera operators miss.

[Josh Bass]

Not quite what you guys are talking about but the touch screen/face or object tracking af on some newer super35 sensor cams has been a godsend to folks who do work with those cameras, for broll, slider shots on interviews, etc.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I wanted to get the touch screen one and asked about it before, but I was told that it's worth than pulling focus, cause if an actor is walking towards the camera for example, you have to keep tapping constantly for it to keep changing focus as the actor gets closer. Is it true that you have to tap constantly during movement as an actor goes from mark A to B?

[Paul R Johnson]

Today's college trained video people (can't quite call some of them cameramen/women) have been selectively trained with many critical factors just ignored. it is like musicians who learn to read guitar tab - it's a fudged, works80% of the time procedure that is contemporary, rather than historic.

ANYONE who has ever worked a broadcast camera on an OB knows how absolutely vital focus skills are. Following a cricket ball/golfball/baseball in the air, for instance. Tracking focus as the thing goes away or towards you on a very long lens while zooming, panning and tilting. it needs a good everything. If autofocus worked, then it would be on broadcast box lenses - after all when they cost the same as a decent house, one would think that autofocus is an obvious feature - but it isn't. Autofocus is NOT the spawn of the devil, it has it's place when the camera people understand it. The trouble is, most don't. There are so many events that it works fine on they assume it covers them all. prodding buttons and tapping screens is a ridiculous way of doing a smooth, small adjustment. The image of Donald Trump is a good example of an idiot setting and operating a camera. No thought to the components in the viewfinder. Crowd, the subject and a sheet of glass. How is a camera expected to decide which of the three is the important one? Forgive me but the person who set up the shot is 100% to blame, not the camera, which made a guess and got it wrong.

moving objects in a static image are also very hard for electronics to guess. Basic camerawork 101 - switch off autofocus and try actually learning how to focus manually, because even if you are rubbish, you will still be better. Learn how to use the viewfinder. If the background is sharp and the subject soft, then you focus forwards, if the objects closer to you are sharper than the distant ones, focus back. Autofocus system have to go OUT of focus to go INTO focus, and 50% of the time they will go the wrong way. If your camera is hopeless on manual, then for some shots it is the WRONG tool for the job.

my DSLR is never used for video because focussing is terrible, and the viewfinder poor for sharpness choices. my little handicam has been on autofocus since new, because manual focus is horrible button stabbing, and my work cameras - none of them, ever - have autofocus and I would not want it, and have never needed it.

having one camera, with autofocus is like owning a car with no reverse gear. useful for most of the time, then useless!

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Josh Bass

Not quite what you guys are talking about but the touch screen/face or object tracking af on some newer super35 sensor cams has been a godsend to folks who do work with those cameras, for broll, slider shots on interviews, etc.

The standard cameras used at these major events are 2/3" cameras, they tend not to be Super 35 sensor cameras.

[Donald McPherson]

So no one behind the camera.

[Vince Pachiano]

Being that this was a holiday event,maybe it was a junior, junior, junior camera operator and crew...

[Paul R Johnson]

No - just a camera poorly matched to the job.

[Rob Neidig]

It's actually a problem that seems to be growing worse every day. Much of the footage I see from CNN and MS-NBC seems to be shot using (poorly implemented) auto focus, for example the "chopper talk" segments when Trump talks to reporters before getting on the helicopter. The background is in focus and Trump is not in focus (extreme urge to insert political comment here ignored! ). Same thing for some of the speeches at lecterns. I don't understand how the camera op doesn't see it, and why editors and producers apparently aren't getting the operators to correct it for the next time. It drives me crazy to see that sharp background and a fuzzy main subject.

[Paul R Johnson]

We could use proper cameras with proper viewfinders and proper lenses, but we give the job to juniors and hand them an auto everything camera. Even the BBC this morning had trouble getting sharp images of the presenter with the camera trying to focus on rain drops on the lens.

Doing a job at a big studio a couple of days ago in UHD, I posted a picture on facebook and somebody asked why they were 'still' using those old fashioned huge cameras? I had to just smile. Sorry - we use a 90 grand lens, 45 grand pedestal, 25 grand pan/tilt head oh - and a UHD camera for fun! (SEVEN of them)
http://www.limelight.org.uk/studio1.jpeg

[Brian Drysdale]

Also. the studio zoom lenses are bigger than the camera, plus you have an auto cue stuck on the front. Physics does tend to get in the way of compactness.