Popular Post fuzzynormal Posted July 20, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted July 20, 2019 I'm a manual lenses guy. I despise auto focus for my filming. Even when it works I find it more of a curse than a blessing. Weirdly, I like it when subjects move out of focus and someone on the other side of the lens makes an organic correction to maintain it. And I love a slightly sloppy but creative rack focus. It's a neat trick of the craft. I'd rather have imperfections created by humans than perfection created by programming. Am I simply justifying my anachronistic (read: old fart) attitudes or do I really have a legitimate point? Am I alone? Is anyone else attracted to this? Katrikura, zerocool22, ade towell and 9 others 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webrunner5 Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Well with the trend now in video for really wide angle lenses, unless you are Really trying to isolate something AF for the most part is not needed. And I , like you, don't mind some stuff out of focus unless it pulses, and then that is a real fingers on the chalk board thing for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfoundmass Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 It's all about preference really. I appreciate auto focus but a lot of the time I prefer manual focus. Depends on the situation. I think for a long time it was a pride thing, to be able to say I prefer manual focus. As time has passed though I realize that I genuinely prefer how it looks and the control it gives me. I get the appeal of accurate, whippy auto focus and for sports and documentary work where you get one chance to nail focus it's great. But when I see it used in controlled conditions and control environments, I just don't like the look of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff CB Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Narrative definitely manual. For everything else AF is very helpful. sanveer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noone Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Depends. IF it works seamlessly and with a particular lens for a particular purpose, AF, otherwise I am fine with MF. EG of my favourite lenses, AF almost exclusively with the Sony Zeiss 55 1.8 but with my MF tilt shift 17mm, well I do not get a choice but it would not be needed anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Members Mattias Burling Posted July 20, 2019 Super Members Share Posted July 20, 2019 I only ever use AF for macro. If I was interested in a camera that turned out to be MF only in video I wouldn't care even a little. In my mind, "automatic focus" is still no yet invented. JordanWright and zerocool22 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thephoenix Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 i am a manual focus guy, and sometimes i relax and use af, just depends on the lens i use and subject i film Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanveer Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 I have had some terrible experiences with autofocus on Panasonics. Plus, I also realised that I am terrible with pulling manual focus too (on moving subjects). I have to therefore, do very precise blocking for scenes, and ask actors to be more concerned with how and where they move, rather than their expressions or other things. Maybe I should try the focus transition with touch focus, and do it like a little choreographed thing with step by step movements. Maybe we could have a separate thread, where people discuss their focussing tricks, and now they nail focus on cameras that don't have PDAF. Especially for moving subjects. hansel 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oliver Daniel Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 3 hours ago, fuzzynormal said: I'm a manual lenses guy. I despise auto focus for my filming. Even when it works I find it more of a curse than a blessing. Weirdly, I like it when subjects move out of focus and someone on the other side of the lens makes an organic correction to maintain it. And I love a slightly sloppy but creative rack focus. It's a neat trick of the craft. I'd rather have imperfections created by humans than perfection created by programming. Am I simply justifying my anachronistic (read: old fart) attitudes or do I really have a legitimate point? Am I alone? Is anyone else attracted to this? I agree. The only way I’d challenge that is for gimbal use. When I used Sony AF for gimbals, my shots were 99% pin sharp, even at very shallow DOF on telephoto. Now I use Panasonic in MF, and my shots are at around 85% reliability. I could always do with that extra 14%. Also, I think the creative possibilities on a gimbal are far greater with reliable AF compared to MF. As for AF handheld or tripod? Never use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tweak Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 I agree with you. I only see video AF being relevant for me shooting fast paced doco style work. I also enjoy creative off focus shots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inazuma Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 6 hours ago, fuzzynormal said: Am I simply justifying my anachronistic (read: old fart) attitudes or do I really have a legitimate point? Am I alone? Is anyone else attracted to this? Neither. Like most things, it's just a matter of taste. Most film and television we see have perfect focus control, which most filmmakers want to imitate and so they resort to AF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 8 hours ago, fuzzynormal said: I'm a manual lenses guy. I despise auto focus for my filming. Even when it works I find it more of a curse than a blessing. Weirdly, I like it when subjects move out of focus and someone on the other side of the lens makes an organic correction to maintain it. And I love a slightly sloppy but creative rack focus. It's a neat trick of the craft. I'd rather have imperfections created by humans than perfection created by programming. Am I simply justifying my anachronistic (read: old fart) attitudes or do I really have a legitimate point? Am I alone? Is anyone else attracted to this? I used to be a champion for AF and was looking at buying an A7III because of its AF until I discovered that I actually like the aesthetic of MF. This lead me down the path of GH5 with manual lenses and I've never looked back. I particularly like the very human and analog feel of MF, and its imperfections (which are especially prevalent when I do it!). I am completely in love with the aesthetic I get from the GH5 and I think the imperfect MF is a real contributor to that, as I think it suits the emotional/nostalgic feeling I want for the home videos that I make. The fact that I stopped being frustrated by poor AF is also a bonus, the number of times I was just standing there holding the camera watching the moment go by while silently screaming "focus you @#$@#$" probably had a measurable impact on my average blood pressure... currensheldon, webrunner5 and Rinad Amir 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako Sports Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 @kye as you know I shoot sports, we've had a bunch of conversations about this. From 2016 till about a few months ago I was like exclusively autofocus only cause the a6300 did it so well. Since I bought the FS5 about a month or so ago ive been for the most manual focus only and i'm starting to like it even more than AF. I think what really makes a difference is the lenses your using, my Sony 70 300 FE aka my daily driver is focus by wire and absolute ass for manual focus (I found this out the hard when I tried to shoot a game with it), but all my vintage lenses (both primes and zooms) make manual focus a breeze. So far ive found with a manual lens that has a decent focus throw, as long as you can see the screen clearly - all it takes is some focus peaking a little confidence. kye and webrunner5 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 12 hours ago, Inazuma said: Neither. Like most things, it's just a matter of taste. Most film and television we see have perfect focus control, which most filmmakers want to imitate and so they resort to AF. The more I pay attention to TV and films, the more that I see that things don't have perfect focal control. In shots where the subject-to-camera distance decreases, I see many more shots that go out of focus and then regain focus again for the closeup than shots that keep focus on the character the whole time. 6 hours ago, Mako Sports said: @kye as you know I shoot sports, we've had a bunch of conversations about this. From 2016 till about a few months ago I was like exclusively autofocus only cause the a6300 did it so well. Since I bought the FS5 about a month or so ago ive been for the most manual focus only and i'm starting to like it even more than AF. I think what really makes a difference is the lenses your using, my Sony 70 300 FE aka my daily driver is focus by wire and absolute ass for manual focus (I found this out the hard when I tried to shoot a game with it), but all my vintage lenses (both primes and zooms) make manual focus a breeze. So far ive found with a manual lens that has a decent focus throw, as long as you can see the screen clearly - all it takes is some focus peaking a little confidence. I agree. With properly designed lenses it's a completely different experience than with focus-by-wire or with short-throw lenses designed for AF use that still have a physical MF ring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zerocool22 Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 19 hours ago, fuzzynormal said: I'm a manual lenses guy. I despise auto focus for my filming. Even when it works I find it more of a curse than a blessing. Weirdly, I like it when subjects move out of focus and someone on the other side of the lens makes an organic correction to maintain it. And I love a slightly sloppy but creative rack focus. It's a neat trick of the craft. I'd rather have imperfections created by humans than perfection created by programming. Am I simply justifying my anachronistic (read: old fart) attitudes or do I really have a legitimate point? Am I alone? Is anyone else attracted to this? I agree as well, same thing for IBIS. It looks weird, sure it helps a lot when doing some event work where you dont have time to shoot everything perfectly. But I often tell myself: the arri alexa, or any film camera has ibis or autofocus, and my goal is to shoot with those camera's. If im spoiled with ibis and autofocus, im gonna have a really bad time shooting with a camera that does not have it. So I tell myself " practice and step up your game" Mako Sports, kye and webrunner5 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kisaha Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 Manual focus all the way. I want to have total control of what I do professionaly. I am using the C200 a lot, and certainly AF is not there yet. Even in home videos I regret using AF almost all the time! Maybe with the quality increase in Artificial Intelligence and the various - unlimited - scene recognition algorithms we will have in the future, AF would be just perfect, but I do not believe that will happen any time soon. ade towell and webrunner5 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mokara Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 AF, then use DMF, then flick to manual. If you are shooting macro, that is the way to go. Very often you have very little time to get your shot, farting around with a straight manual lens will cost you shots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yehouda Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 AF for gimbal and fast moving subjects is great! For other things manual focus is the best option mostly if you have a very good focus assist like the Canon one. It is one of the strengths of Canon: great AF and great manual focus assist. For me a descent AF is a must have even if I don't use it everytime. Poor AF is the only reason I'm not buying the Lumix S1 right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebrothersthre3 Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 Sometimes I like it sometimes I don't. Getting a bride walking down an aisle at f2 on a long lens is hard without it though. Geoff CB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 8 hours ago, Mokara said: AF, then use DMF, then flick to manual. If you are shooting macro, that is the way to go. Very often you have very little time to get your shot, farting around with a straight manual lens will cost you shots. It depends on how good the AF is to begin with. I've lost more shots waiting for CDAF to work out that a portrait shot isn't a macro shot, or that the focus point wasn't on the train window but on the scenery outside it, that I could MF for the rest of my life and still come out ahead. MF doesn't always nail focus but it always knows what to focus on. It also depends on how out of focus you're comfortable with. Movies and TV spend more time out of focus than you'd think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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