Same here, and I my camera, which I love otherwise, has a problem with a soft focus. It really makes me nervous when I shoot, though so far I haven't had anything that went really bad, because I commonly hook up a portable DVD player and look at the image. But is that really helping?
"We all have the potential to be great. It is our inability to do so that makes us miserable." C.S.Lewis
"We all have the potential to be great. It is our inability to do so that makes us miserable." C.S.Lewis
quote:
Originally posted by danstin studios
Same here, and I my camera, which I love otherwise, has a problem with a soft focus. It really makes me nervous when I shoot, though so far I haven't had anything that went really bad, because I commonly hook up a portable DVD player and look at the image. But is that really helping?"We all have the potential to be great. It is our inability to do so that makes us miserable." C.S.Lewis
My Canon XH-A1 has a button I need to learn to use-- to temporarily autofocus when the focus button is set to manual; that would allow me to stay on manual to prevent focus drift from movements, etc., but to a temp autofocus to get the lens focused to where the actor is at the start of a scene. I think I might go that route; but total manual focus without a quality monitor kind of scares me off now--especially when shooting at wide aperature (low f-stop) where the depth of focus is low and there is not much room for error in the focal plane.
That's the way I commonly shoot, and it makes me very nervous.
"We all have the potential to be great. It is our inability to do so that makes us miserable." C.S.Lewis
"We all have the potential to be great. It is our inability to do so that makes us miserable." C.S.Lewis
quote:
Originally posted by danstin studios
Same here, and I my camera, which I love otherwise, has a problem with a soft focus. It really makes me nervous when I shoot, though so far I haven't had anything that went really bad, because I commonly hook up a portable DVD player and look at the image. But is that really helping?"We all have the potential to be great. It is our inability to do so that makes us miserable." C.S.Lewis
Yes. Tt's easier to spot an out of focus picture if it's BIG. Get a photograph. Open photoshop. Blur it with a filter. Then select it, and crop it so it's smaller- looks less blurred than it actually is right?
Beowulf- you have an xha1 right? Use the 'peaking' button (found on the left hand side just infront of the selector wheel). It highlights all the edges and allows you to focus them sharply, even on the shitty size screen. Also have a look at buying a screen magnifier. A lot of shoot n scoot nature and documentary crews use them when a monitor really isn't practical.
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There's daggers in mens' smiles
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There's daggers in men's smiles
quote:
Originally posted by rizzo
Beowulf- you have an xha1 right? Use the 'peaking' button (found on the left hand side just infront of the selector wheel). It highlights all the edges and allows you to focus them sharply, even on the shitty size screen. Also have a look at buying a screen magnifier. A lot of shoot n scoot nature and documentary crews use them when a monitor really isn't practical.
I'll have a look at that peaking button, thanks for the tip. Yesterday I figured out the film 'speed' of the xha1 on all three gain settings and all three ND filter settings; that should help a lot, as now I can use my hand held lighting meter to get an almost perfect and quick exposure setting when filming.
Nooo wouldn't use gain unless it's absolutely necessary. Gain = Grain.
A brilliant research for the inquisitive xha1 owner is the forum on dvinfo.net. Check it out. Loads of tips and resources.
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There's daggers in mens' smiles
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There's daggers in men's smiles
quote:
Originally posted by rizzo
Nooo wouldn't use gain unless it's absolutely necessary. Gain = Grain.
Ditto. I just wanted to be complete, and was curious about the ISO/ASA film 'speed' on the different possible combination of gain and ND.
quote:
Originally posted by rizzo
...A brilliant research for the inquisitive xha1 owner is the forum on dvinfo.net. Check it out. Loads of tips and resources.
I especially like the articles on the xha1 listed on their xha1 watchdog site:
http://dvinfo.net/canonxh/watchdog.php (click Articles Menu there)
:-/
I just found a vidcast on Videomaker, vidcast #31 Tips and Techniques.
It covers information that would be useful to anyone reading this thread.
"We all have the potential to be great. It is our inability to do so that makes us miserable." C.S.Lewis
"We all have the potential to be great. It is our inability to do so that makes us miserable." C.S.Lewis
