Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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 :)

Canon Autofocus - is my Scarlet working correctly?

S

stu aull

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 24, 2010
Messages
862
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Have opened a Support Q with RED but would love some feed back from my peeps.

Newest build (tho this has been a prob since delivery, several builds back) 3.0

Canon AL mount
-tokina 11-16
-canon 28-135

When I 1-touch autofocus (eg 1/2 depress REC button)
-iris opens right up (so overexposing in bright sun for eg) to grab focus, then iris's back to preset
-focus rolls thru (it seems) the full range, near-to-far before locking into focus.
-it does this even if the shot already IS in focus (ie if I was just confirming focus)

Needless to say, any sort of correction I would like to make to a rolling shot is ruined.
I guess I just expected the same performance as my cheapie Canon Rebel: a subtle roll to sharpness. period. no drama. And certainly no iris pump (even in low light).

So is this how we roll with Scarlet? or do I have a problem?

my Thanks!

Stu Aull
S-X #00199
Alaska
 
ah bugger.
OK. good to know. Guess I'll have to sharpen my focus-pull skills then...

Might be a sweet refinement down the line tho....RED?
:)

Thanks guys-

Stu Aull
Alaska
 
Does your Rebel actually do that during motion capture? I certainly never got that out of my 60D. :-(
 
It's important to understand that although the Epic and Scarlet are increasingly used in documentary and doc-like shoots, the initial development was geared around more traditional narrative filmmaking, in which manually pulling focus is the norm (and a highly valued skill). The autofocus was added as a bonus, but is never going to compete with more reportage style cameras from Sony Panasonic etc, which use a completely different autofocus system, or for that matter a skilled 1st AC. :) Different tools for different jobs. However, I do feel your pain - I was playing with the AF on our new Scarlet today, and was disappointed by the hunting behaviour. But I think this is probably way down the wish list for most people.
 
Sam Gordon said:
... but is never going to compete with more reportage style cameras from Sony Panasonic etc, which use a completely different autofocus system, or for that matter a skilled 1st AC. :) ...
Click to expand...
I agree with the general point of your post but, "never say never." I seem to recall that Jarred has implied in some of his posts that the development of AF is pretty impressive. We can only wait... and hope! :emote_popcorn:
 
I suggest everyone watch Mark's video before forming strong opinions. As with most things it requires testing and perseverance to get the best results out of anything.

From what I can tell, and from my own testing, it's possible to get really good and responsive results, you just need to work at it to develop the chops.

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthr...DEO&highlight=
 
Guys, did you try different mode of operations you can set in the focus menu?
You have 12 different combinations of focus modes there.
 
It seems impossible to get Mark's results! Everytime I half press the record in 'single' focus mode the focus goes through the entire range of the lens before finding focus, making it unuseable during a recorded shot. I'm giving it good contrasted targets in the centre focus square. Doesn't matter. I don't understand how Mark got his results. I tested this with a Canon 24-70L.
 
Michael Gyori said:
It seems impossible to get Mark's results! Everytime I half press the record in 'single' focus mode the focus goes through the entire range of the lens before finding focus, making it unuseable during a recorded shot. I'm giving it good contrasted targets in the centre focus square. Doesn't matter. I don't understand how Mark got his results. I tested this with a Canon 24-70L.
Click to expand...
I get the same results like Mark Toia with my Scarlet. I shoot with 16-35 IS and 70-200 2,8 IS (both version 2). Focus mode set to Single shot, smallest focus area. Sometimes it is pumping a little bit.
 
Welcome to My World Mike!
;)
I confess to just dinking around with mine, tho it looks like Mark -

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?74361-EPIC-AUTO-FOCUS-LENS-TEST-POSTED-VIDEO&highlight=

is doing the same in HIS amazing vid. And what really puzzles me was his shots have NONE of the wild iris-pumping mine goes thru to snap in the focus. I mean, with Mark's, you can actual record and USE the shot at the focus-pull point! Is this an Epic Thing? Can't imagine Scarlet's being Dumbed Down on a feature like this?!
So I thought maybe his was a MANUAL iris lens?? That would at least account for the clean exposures during focus. But Googled specs show the (current) 85f1.2 is NOT manual iris....

so that buggers that part of the theory (?).

So is there some special set of focus parameters one needs to set to achieve Mark's performance?
My programming via Side handle menu:
-one shot: Single/Autofocus
-tightest center point selected: Spot

don't see anything else to tweak....

I am completely ready to engage in what ever practice and/or perseverance to get me to Mark's level, but, damn, he is making it look so...easy! I mean, this IS _auto_ focus, right?
aak!

Will be curious to see what RED sez. Will certainly be asking their reaction to Mark's video if they say mine is performing "like its supposed to".

Thanks for comments and discussion folks-
Stu Aull
S-X #00199
Alaska
 
That test is very impressive. I'll have to play around with the settings and see if I can achieve something similar. Usable, fast autofocus would be a real bonus. But I imagine there are some hard limitations to the edge detection system used in the Scarlet.
 
The Word From Red:

"Hello Stu,
Thank you for contacting RED SUPPORT.
Your description on the Lens iris behavior when using one-touch autofocus is standard operation, but this will only happen when the camera is NOT in recording. When it is in recording, neither the iris or any other user setting are changed. The apparent change in exposure, iris, etc. is sometime visible when the camera is looking for optimal focus spots, especially when the focus window is much darker than the ambient (e.g. black tire in daytime bright sunshine).
Autofocus in general is something that is still being fine tuned, rest assured it is being constantly improved on each firmware release.
Hope this helps.
Felipe Mozqueda
RED Digital Cinema"

So. Did I mention _I_ was NOT recording while diddling/whining? And Obv Mark WAS.
Now for some more testing...

Stu Aull
S-X #00199
Alaska
 
Is the key setting a smaller focus area? Mark very clearly said this is what he did to get his results. Maybe it defaults to the whole lens and if you make it tiny it works better.
 
Havn't been able to reproduce Mark's results, not coming even near to that performance. It looks like a different camera. I've played around with a few lenses and made some deeper tests with a 24-105L and a 35L, but i always get pumping, even when recording. The only thing that comes in mind is the back-focus, could it be that this has to be adjusted/calibrated correctly to make AF work better? I don't want to mess it up, thats why i'm asking before i do some experiments here. Other than that i'm out of ideas.

It could be interesting to hear what lenses you guys use, especially those who are saying that AF works fine. ;)

The good thing about this is, my manual focus-skills got a bit better (thanks to the nice focus-tools) and i'm finally considering to buy some AF-less Zeiss-lenses. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top