Best Autofocus Settings for EF mount / Canon L glass

[Nick Pujic]

How are you guys rocking the autofocus options on an Epic / Dragon with an EF mount and Canon L lenses?
Any hints or tips? Special key assignments you've found handy?

I've always run manual focus or cine glass.
Looking to use the auto focus feature for UW work.

Thanks in advance,

Nick

 

[Carl Epstein]

what is UW work?

 

[Nick Pujic]

Under water

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

I don't think AF lends itself for UW much. Too many optical "distractions" UW. You'd probably find it hunting all the time. Also Red being a cinema camera company does not put priority on AF hence the AF in it is pretty basic. Canon and Sony on the other hand.... there is a newsshooter interview in the fanboyism thread with Geoff that has him prize Canon
AF for accuracy. If you want to try AF work UW Canon would be a good place to start.....
and for Red there are of course options for DBW (drive by wire) manual focus for Canon lenses. I'll stop here so the usual suspects don't jump on me for shilling...;-)

 

[Nick Pujic]

I remember Mark Toia raving about the auto focus on the Epic / Dragon. Again, I've never ever tried it, always going with manual focus.

And sorry, I meant auto focus on command, not all the time.... so point, focus (auto focus) then roll.... not continuous auto focus like a Canon or Sony. Fully understand that isn't possible / nor wanted in my case.

 

[Carl Epstein]

I have been a underwater photo and video instructor for PADI for quite a few years and we don't use auto focus under water. When you get in the water while descending focus on your fin tip with auto focus and when it gets in focus lock to manual focus and shoot the whole dive at that setting. There are some (very few) cases where I will go to auto focus on an extremely close subject like less than a foot. The focus will hunt some due to particles in the water but you will usually get enough good footage to use. Then after that subject go right for your fin tip with auto and then lock to manual again when your fin is back in focus. On long shots in auto focus you will also get a lot of focus hunting due to lack of contrast and particles in the water. Also as a side note remember your lights will only get about 3 feet of useful distance and make sure your video lights converge just in front or your subject and dont light up all the water between you and the subject so you get as little back scatter as possible.

 

[Nick Pujic]

Thank Carl! That's very helpful!

 

[Carl Epstein]

No problem. Glad I could help.

 

[Maik Müller]

A few thoughts in general about AF.
Enhanced AF should be on, obviously. Obvious too: focus on wide-angle lenses with closed aperture works better than on a 85/1.2. What also helps on red is higher fps and higher shutterspeed = more and sharper images to work with. Of course holding and standing still, or in other words, eliminating all things that make you lose sharpness.

RED's AF is picky, in terms of lenses and subjects you want to focus on. Give it a contrasty something that doesn't shake and move and has good light around it, then you can get good results.

I have doubts this is something reliable for underwater-filming. But there is a nice little tool for AF-lenses that you might find interesting. The Rack-Focus feature. With that you can set up to 4 specific focus points and trigger them via button. So jumping from closest focus to hyperfocal is getting easy.