News Shows Bad Focus

[Tom Dickerson]

I work from home and help with my two grandsons. I often feed one of them while watching the morning news.

I am surprised how bad the cameramen are when riding manual focus. If they are shooting a spot where the camera moves around they spend a great deal of time hunting for their focus. I see it in-studio as well as on remotes.

This morning it looked like a cameraman used his auto focus on a remote shoot and it nailed the focus perfectly!

Sometimes it seems like they need to recognize when run-and-gunning to use the auto focus.

[Chris Harding]

Hey Tom
That's why we are different..normal folk will not really see that as they are listening/watch the news, the events unfolding and NOT the camera work. We, of course, watch what the cameraman is doing!!  Gosh I have seen really bad stuff...serious frame wobbles where the head is cut off, pull focus situations where the person doing the dialogue is out of focus whilst the other is in focus.  Even the top "soapies" have their share of bad framing and focus.
Sadly camera people seem to think it's quite OK to have a fuzzy image and then get focus a second later (in fact watch Shaun's video in Events again and you will see the technique being used a lot when he uses the DSLR)  For the normal person that is classified simply as "fuzzy" so the story had better be really good to cover poor ENG shoots.  Luckily the camera ops get away with a lot cos the news is almost always breaking stuff of a dramatic nature and you are more intent on seeing if the firemen can actually get the lady out of the car that's 40' in the air, than worrying whether focus is spot on!!
My HMC82 allow me to auto focus all the time but still correct or tweak focus with the front ring...that's how I use it..does your HMC40  have the same lens control rings
Chris
 

[Tom Dickerson]

Hi Chris

Yes, I have the focus ring but I've never tried setting it at auto focus and then turning the focus ring to tweak it. I'll have to give that a try.

[Shaun Stoddart]

Hi Chris

Yes, I have the focus ring but I've never tried setting it at auto focus and then turning the focus ring to tweak it. I'll have to give that a try.

Hi Tom, I use the focus ring while in Auto focus sometimes, the auto focus is pretty quick on the HMC152 so giving the ring a tweak in auto can greatfully assist in focus pulls, the camera will pull back into focus itself.

[ToddBoyle]

Yeah I never thought I would have a problem with focus! but it's easy to blow it.  What I have been doing, lately is always store the camera in automatic everything.  Then start the shoot in autofocus/gain so that I can pay most attention to the framing.  Then I will check the light level, and then once things are settled down, drop into manual focus mainly to reduce the likelihood of the focus drifting or hunting.  It has just been a bad idea, anytime there's time pressure (things are happening before the camera is ready) to start in manual- ANYthing.  I'm just not that swift.   I have to ensure the framing and zoom are right, and you cannot do that if you're busy with the gain and the focus ring etc.

[Tom Dickerson]

ToddBoyle - I have had autofocus go hunting on a fixed camera at a wedding - and stay out of focus. It's very frustrating, but I didn't know it (as it was unmanned) until editing.  I like your method!

[ToddBoyle]

This time of year, at least in Seattle, events that start at 7pm start in bright light, if there are windows or skylights, and end in darkness after 8pm.   The bright beginning requires me to run in manual gain, to reduce the gain.  The continuous drop in light requires me to open the F stops 2 or 3 times to maximum sensitivity, and/or have somebody turn on some lights... it's maddening.   At least Sony Vegas lets me drop in the gain adjustments I need... It's pretty cool using those little event markers on the timeline....

[Chris Harding]

I was watching our local show "Biggest Loser" (like the USA one) and you can see the camera shift focus a lot..dunno if he has used auto and had to adjust but you can often see the adjustment..remember that the average viewer will never even see it!! Only tech heads like us see it!!
The new AC-130 and 160 also has the focus ring active even in full auto (iris too which is neat so if the lighting conditions are severe you can over-ride auto iris and tell the cam to under or over expose even if the scene shifts!!)  In full AF if the auto doesn't get focus prefectly we can simply tweak it on the ring ..if you are going to different focal lengths it's really useful too!!
Chris
 

[Guy Bruner]

Hah!  Chris, that is reality technique.  Make it look like an amateur shot it.

[Chris Harding]

Actually Guy it's quite expertly done... the camera will frame the person being interviewed and you can see the slight softness ..almost looks like a focus pull ..then it snaps into focus...maybe a technique to draw the viewers attention to the interviewee??  Then again on this program they are often indoors and outdoors and the cameraman often doesn't worry about white balance if it's just a short clip... Their exposure was often off too with often under-exposed scenes where it really should have been brightly lit...(contestants working out in the gym).
If I REALLY want to get inspired with superb camera movement then I just watch a Midsomer Murders episode...their camera people are so professional ... it's VERY hard to fault their work!!
Chris
 

[Guy Bruner]

Hmmm.  Sounds like they are shooting in auto focus but not auto white balance.

Don't know about Midsomer.  Must be an Aussie program we don't get here.

[Digidave]

Nope, Midsomer Murders is one of ours. It's a drama series but no-one takes it seriously, especially not the lead actors. How can they, the plots are all barking mad! It's typically British and we love it.

Dave

[Chris Harding]

Hi David
I love them..at least the plots are feasible..there are seldom any weapons of mass destruction like in the cop shows where they seem to continuously discharge cases of ammo at each other..I think the plots are clever and they always seem to discover cunning ways to murder the victims ...from archery to poison to even rolling an old cannon ball  off the porch roof onto some poor old geezer!!!
I do agree that it's highly unlikely that a quiet English country village would have so many murders but it's really entertaining and as I said before you can learn so much from their camera movements..each and every one is virtually text book perfect!!!!
I grew rather fond of John Nettles and was quite upset when the new series had a new Chief Inspector in the guise of Inspector Barnaby's brother!!!
In the light of England's prolific rainfall and poot weather, I'm always amazed how they seem to be able to churn out all these episodes with very few bad weather scenes..maybe it's doesn't rain that much in Midsomer village??
Chris

[Digidave]

Hello Christopher, since we are being semi-formal,

Since law-abiding citizens here are not allowed to carry handguns (it's OK if you are a criminal!) and the majority of our police are armed with no more than a stick and pepper spray, murder has to be a bit more creative than shooting. Except for the gentry, farmers and gamekeepers who, nasty people that they are, own shotguns and shoot each other on a whim . Better stop there, or I'll go off on one about the anti-gun lobby.

Yes, the plots are clever, but the reasons the writers come up with for the murders are barking mad as I said. e.g. Brown killed Jones because 100 years ago Jones' grandfather drank out of Brown's grandfathers pint mug down the pub. Brown got rabies and died, the Joneses blamed Brown and the families have feuded ever since.

It's a bit of a coincidence that two cousins called Barnaby should be Detective Chief Inspectors at the same time! We thought that losing John Nettles would be the beginning of the end for MM, but Neil Dudgeon (and Sykes the dog) has refreshed the series and, dare I say it? I think I prefer him now.

The only time I would notice the camera work is if there was something wrong with it. I have tried to study it while watching MM, but the entertainment gets in the way.

Dave