digital focus pulling -touchscreen-

[Manolo S. Navazo]

hi,

with the birger mount you can put digital Canon EOS EF lenses on the red one.

does it would be possible in some days/future(when the SDK comes) to implement the function of the birger mount with an touchscreen?
so you would to connect the touchscreen in one way with the birger mount and in the other way with the red one.
like i was reading the red one got two programms to recognize the focus/sharpness.

my thought is that via touchscreen you would tell the camera where you need it sharp and it would be got an conversation back to the birger mount to adjust it with the integrated auto focus lens motor.


just an idea, i don't got many knowledge about programming.

greetz, manolo

 

[Jason Sinclair]

Yes, but you need to tell the Birger what the distance is between that object and the camera plane but if you could implement something like canons multifocus in camera program and then add that data and have a measurement device then its very possible... Add a wireless touchscreen and things would get very nice indeed. I was thinking about this a few months ago. There's actually a touchscreen laptop that could be modified with a neck sling possibly, forgot the brand but one of the major pc's. Not expensive at all. 15-17 inches hanging off your neck and focus pulling via touchscreen. Bring it on...

 

[Manolo S. Navazo]

Yes, but you need to tell the Birger what the distance is between that object and the camera plane

hi,
thanks for your answer. i don't understand for what i need to tell the birger mount what is the distance.
i was just thinking more about that perhaps a programm in red one would recognize, aha it is out of focus, than beginns the communication with birger and the birger would rotate the lens till he gets the touched object in focus.
perhaps it would be usefull to tell that in some situations he only should try to rotate the lens for front or rear for sharpness, so he would get less try and error.

... so with the wireless connection is a brilliant idea, don't know all data about birger but he also got a w-lan connection right?
i think a laptop on your neck is still heavy ;-) but there are now a lot of mobile phones out with touchscreen, like perhaps a iphone.

greetz manolo

 

[Charles Angus]

You're talking about autofocus, like on a consumer cam or an SLR... Not practical for taking, but for setting marks could be good - those stills lenses have really crummy distance markings.

If you could use AF to make marks that something would remember and then push buttons to hit 1's, 2's, etc. that might be useful to some folks.

c.

 

[Manolo S. Navazo]

You're talking about autofocus, like on a SLR.

why you think it wouldn't be usefull? i don't have so many practice with autofocus lenses on slr, like perhaps those canons eos lenses. but you think the motor is to slow to keep a coming/moving actor sharp?

 

[Jason Sinclair]

I’m not sure on the strengths of software driven focusing, certainly good for docos. Some testing needs to be done here. I read some stuff on it recently and it looks promising. I think it measures pixel blur and readjusts. From memory the real problem is it needs to readjust between the focus range to find the sweet spot and while that’s ok on dslr's its not good on video cameras if you know what I mean?

It's not auto focusing though. There’s a big difference. It uses the same technology but with a touch screen it really becomes a manual focusing mechanism.

-I have thought about this extensively and the way I see it for doco and verite cinema (which is where my interests lay) is to have the focus puller using a sensor device that measures distance accurately. Like a laser distance device but laser is obviously not good as you want measurements on human faces and then with this data you need also a distance sensor to measure the distance between camera plane and the hand held unit the focus puller has and then using logarithms to calculate the distance from camera plane to subject. It is quite complicated but would be accurate and I think only a matter of time before someone goes down this track. If I had the resources and time I would be doing so. The benefit would be the focus puller could be away from operator and therefore the op on steadicam or other hand held would be less restricted in movement both in terms of not worrying about where the focus puller is and more importantly, being able to move around freely on the fly because there would be no need for marks. That is liberation. I’m sure ken Loach would have loved such freedom. I have never seen anyone get the performances he gets.