question about auto focus when shooting video

[Josh VandenTop]

I have a Sony HDR-XR500V HD camcorder with a wide angle lens that I just bought this year, lately when I'm trying to shoot video of a storm I have problems getting the auto focus to pick up on what I want it to causing there to be alot of useless, blurry video. I guess my first question is has anyone else had this problem? And if so any suggestions to fix it or atleast make it work better?

 

[Jason Boggs]

Do not use autofocus...period! Only use manual focus for storm footage. I learned this lesson a long time ago.

Zoom in to something at a long distance, manually focus the camera...then zoom back out. After doing that, you'll be good to go.

 

[Graham Butler]

Look up in the manual if this model came with infinity mode. Also, it appears Tony Laubach has the same video camera, so you could always prod him for help

Tony.....Tony......http://www.epinions.com/review/Sony_HDR_XR500V_Camcorder/content_501799947908


Graham

 

[Bryan Stokes]

Do not use autofocus...period! Only use manual focus for storm footage. I learned this lesson a long time ago.

Zoom in to something at a long distance, manually focus the camera...then zoom back out. After doing that, you'll be good to go.

This is great advice. The only thing I would add is to get a piece of gaffer's tape and tape down the focus ring after you've set the focus. This will prevent the ring from getting accidentally bumped when you're moving the camera around.

Bryan

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I bought a similiar Sony HD camera this year and I have the exact same problem. Whenever you are driving and a tree or something passes in front of you it will throw the focus off for about 5 seconds. The auto focus is very very slow to adjust with my camera and it will not focus clearly on clouds unless you get some portion of the ground in the picture. It is pissing me off to no end. My storm video sucks from this year because of that. Luckily I've bombed on most of the better setups this year, so I haven't had any good quality video ruined because of this focusing issue lol. I don't know if thats a good thing or a bad thing.
With my old VX2100 I never had this kind of a problem even when I'd leave it in auto focus instead of infinity. I have been extremely disappointed with the performance of this new HD camera. I'd go back to using my VX2100, but something is wrong with it.
Unfortunately my new HD camera doesn't have infinity focus so I will try the idea of focusing in manual on a distant object and see what kind of quality I get after doing that. I pray to god that works because I've already came to the conslusion that I'm going to have to get a different camera for next year to replace the one I just bought.

 

[Bryan Stokes]

Mikey,

Just follow Jason's advice and you'll be totally good to go. It's guaranteed to work and will definitely solve your problem.

Bryan

 

[Jason Foster]

The sad thing is...I can't use manual focus to save my life. The problem...wearing glasses. If I have contacts on...not so much a problem...but otherwise...I'm always out-of-focus when I go manual, unless I just set it to infinity. I will let the auto focus focus in...then lock it...so as not to let the camera do the rocking thing (mostly an issue with consumer side of cameras). Now the Z1U I rented, that was different. Once you go pro equipment...it's much much easier.

 

[Josh VandenTop]

Do not use autofocus...period! Only use manual focus for storm footage. I learned this lesson a long time ago.

Zoom in to something at a long distance, manually focus the camera...then zoom back out. After doing that, you'll be good to go.

thanks for the help, that works great. I though that if it was manual focus that you would have to adjust it all of the time, but I was wrong. Now I just need some storms to shoot.

 

[J Tyler]

You always have to get bit once to learn.....

This last Sunday, after driving 1,384 miles, I find myself 2 football fields behind a large cone tornado, driving down a mud road in the Oklahoma panhandle following it for 10 miles with my camcorder rolling. Afterwards, I find that the tornado looks INCREDIBLE for the first 30 seconds....Then my camcorder focused on the RAIN ON MY WINDSHIELD for the remaining 36 minutes of the video!!!! Why do I always have to learn lessons SO painfully? So, tonight I sat on my couch and learned how to set the camcorder for manual focus......