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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Autofocus

Brian Iannone

Brian Iannone

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I have a few questions about the Canon Ti Mount regarding autofocus.

1. At the time the mount ships with SCARLET on December 1st, will autofocus be enabled?
2. Will autofocus work with all Canon lenses, or only a list of certain ones?
3. Will SCARLET support continuous autofocus? If so, when?
4. If one is using a RED Touch 5.0" LCD, will tap-to-focus be supported?

I remember reading a thread somewhere about autofocus on the Canon mount, but I wanted to get an update.
 
1. I believe autofocus should be enabled by the time Scarlet ships, I think I read that post from Jim somewhere.
2. Autofocus will work with "smart" (electronic) lenses.
3. I don't remember but I feel like I read something about that.
4. Yes, you will be able to tap to focus on the 5" Touch LCD.

I hope that helps at least a bit!
 
My understanding is IO is built into the LENS not the camera body, so....

Stu Aull
Alaska
 
Brian Iannone said:
One more question I forgot to ask. Will support for Image Stabilization be functional by the time the mount ships?
Click to expand...

As long as the lens has power, IS is available (assuming you flip it on). Just keep in mind that IS eats battery (as would continuous autofocus).
 
Also, unless something radically changes (and with Red we know anything might), I'd stay away from continuous auto-focus with Scarlet.
I briefly tested the auto-focus modes on a Scarlet at the announcement event, and while it worked great to find accurate focus fast, and would be fantastic for still photography, or to determine focus for a motion shot prior to actually rolling, I thought the short moment of "finding" the focus point automatically might call too much attention to itself (the camera "searches" for focus for a fraction of a second, going back and forth), and I wouldn't personally want that aesthetic in my footage, so I would probably avoid the continuous auto-focus while rolling. I must say though, that I'm unsure if Scarlet is to blame, or the lens itself (I do not remember which lens was mounted).
Having said that, you can and most likely want to use the automatic rack focus function while rolling, which will get you accurately and beautifully from point A to point B, and you can certainly use Scarlet's auto-focus functions to determine point A and point B for that matter, but if you have a follow-focus situation, I would personally recommend doing that manually, or using an external auto-focus system for that. It would be nice to have a great to have a beautifully responsive continuous auto-focus function in Scarlet, and I hope this will eventually happen, whether in the immediate or not so immediate future. We know that with Red everything always changes. What I say here only applies to what I saw at the event. This might change by the time the camera is actually released. I hope this helps though.

All the best,

Yuval
 
Yuval Shrem said:
Also, unless something radically changes (and with Red we know anything might), I'd stay away from continuous auto-focus with Scarlet.
I briefly tested the auto-focus modes on a Scarlet at the announcement event, and while it worked great to find accurate focus fast, and would be fantastic for still photography, or to determine focus for a motion shot prior to actually rolling, I thought the short moment of "finding" the focus point automatically might call too much attention to itself (the camera "searches" for focus for a fraction of a second, going back and forth), and I wouldn't personally want that aesthetic in my footage, so I would probably avoid the continuous auto-focus while rolling. I must say though, that I'm unsure if Scarlet is to blame, or the lens itself (I do not remember which lens was mounted).
Having said that, you can and most likely want to use the automatic rack focus function while rolling, which will get you accurately and beautifully from point A to point B, and you can certainly use Scarlet's auto-focus functions to determine point A and point B for that matter, but if you have a follow-focus situation, I would personally recommend doing that manually, or using an external auto-focus system for that. It would be nice to have a great to have a beautifully responsive continuous auto-focus function in Scarlet, and I hope this will eventually happen, whether in the immediate or not so immediate future. We know that with Red everything always changes. What I say here only applies to what I saw at the event. This might change by the time the camera is actually released. I hope this helps though.

All the best,

Yuval
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the insight!
 
I actually called Red and asked about that. That is currently not the case (you can activate the auto-focus remotely, bot can't control the lens electronically for remote manual follow focus purposes. Not yet anyway). They say it might become possible in the future. I truly hope it dose, and sooner rather than later, but in the meantime, Redrock Micro has an excellent external solution for that. A Redmote solution would be great, if and when it becomes available, especially for stereo work. Let's hope it happens.
 
Been using the touch focus build on our canon mount for a while now.

Its great for finding focus or setting up a rack (which works surprisingly well) but during a shot, you cant beat manual operating.....
 
Those lenses are photo lenses not video lenses. For ie, Panasonic video lenses are silent and you can't see the lenses searching for focus during continuous AF. I guess the future EOS Cinema lenses are a good (and expensive: 45 000 $ each) option.
 
So long Yuval, how are you doing? :) Nice to read you over here in the same page ;-)

Yuval Shrem said:
(...)

Having said that, you can and most likely want to use the automatic rack focus function while rolling, which will get you accurately and beautifully from point A to point B, and you can certainly use Scarlet's auto-focus functions to determine point A and point B for that matter, but if you have a follow-focus situation, I would personally recommend doing that manually, or using an external auto-focus system for that. It would be nice to have a great to have a beautifully responsive continuous auto-focus function in Scarlet, and I hope this will eventually happen, whether in the immediate or not so immediate future. We know that with Red everything always changes. What I say here only applies to what I saw at the event. This might change by the time the camera is actually released. I hope this helps though.

All the best,

Yuval
Click to expand...
Anyways, in the system you saw (I didn't, when Ted was in Rome last year, nothing able to work yet), is that automatic rack focus function from point A to point B, so 'accurate' and 'beautiful'?

Is it able to set other successive ones such as point C, D and so on?

Greetings from old continent between Rome and London,

Emanuel :-)
 
Benoît-Joan Clariana-Roig said:
Those lenses are photo lenses not video lenses. For ie, Panasonic video lenses are silent and you can't see the lenses searching for focus during continuous AF. I guess the future EOS Cinema lenses are a good (and expensive: 45 000 $ each) option.
Click to expand...
No worries, your fixed option will come, but now it's time for RED 35mm smaller factor affordable option.

This was a terrific announcement indeed!

(For example, I need to buy more than a couple of new RED EPIC but only RED Scarlet will help me to get it into budget for more orders :-)

Without mention, the thousands of new 35mm (Scarlet-X) shooters to come, bringing a new wave in the indie offer -- this will ONLY have an impact in the offer, aesthetically... and even in hollywood terms (I am too tired of empty VFX BS BTW! :-)
 
Emanuel A. said:
No worries, your fixed option will come, but now it's time for RED 35mm smaller factor affordable option.
Click to expand...

I think the only serious option today is interchangeable lenses of course, not a fixed one.

But you should understand that photo lenses are not designed for continuous video AF.

On the GH2, the kit lense is specifically designed for that. Continuous AF is not really possibe/usable on the other lenses. That's why Canon created specific lenses for their new EOS Cinema system, but they're will be way too much expensive.

Unless you use specific video lenses on DSLR or REDCAMs, follow focus/manual focus is the only viable solution. You can tap on RED LCD to reach focus to a specific area, but during shooting you'll have to do manual focus.
 
Benoît-Joan Clariana-Roig said:
I think the only serious option today is interchangeable lenses of course, not a fixed one.

But you should understand that photo lenses are not designed for continuous video AF.

On the GH2, the kit lense is specifically designed for that. Continuous is not really possibe/usable on the other lenses. That's why Canon created specific lenses for their new EOS Cinema system, but they're will be way too much expensive.
Click to expand...
Right. Reason enough for mentioning a fixed option. Otherwise, it won't be any other than expensive. Economies of scale or high-priced, pick one.
 
That conflcts with my experience of high end canon SLRs which have an AI focus mode. The sports L lenses in particular are designed to work well - quickly and silently - with focusing on a continually moving subject. All the intelligence is in the camera.
 
Bear in mind that focussing on Scarlet and Epic is by contrast, and hence it has no data for whether the subject in front or back of focus. Hence it has to hunt speculatively to track focus.
 
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